Fynsk Foraar (Springtime on Funen), for soloists, chorus and orchestra, Opus 42, is Carl Nielsen's last major choral work.
Written to accompany a prizewinning text by Aage Berntsen, it was first performed in Odense's Kvæghal (Cattle Hall) on 8 July 1922 where it was conducted by Georg Høeberg.
Indeed, on 19 August 1921, he wrote: "For some time I have not felt very comfortable because I could not get started on the choral work which I must have done by 1 September, and every day I considered throwing it away and informing the board of all these combined societies that I had to beg off...
The poet has called it Springtime on Funen but I also give it a subtitle, Lyrical Humoresque, which suggests that the style is light and lively... Now I will continue with my interrupted symphony.
Raasted, writing for a local newspaper Fyns Tidende was frank: "So light and graceful, so witty and veiled is the language spoken here that several of the work's beautiful passages could only be lost in a performance under such circumstances!
In a letter dated 29 June 1922 to the composer Rudolf Simonsen, he describes how he would like it performed under his own baton: "III myself: Springtime on Funen small orchestra: light and gay and graceful as my humble talents can manage."
This work is often cited as the most Danish of all Nielsen's compositions; this seems borne out as the chorus and soloists extol a countryside replete with grass, water lilies, and gnarled apple trees blooming.