Born into a wealthy family she studied under notable composers such as Johan Svendsen and Carl Nielsen, the later becoming a good friend and a significant figure in her life.
In addition to the orchestral works mentioned, she wrote around fifty songs, including three for voice and orchestra.
[1] Nancy Dalberg was born at the estate Mullerup [da] on the danish island of Funen (Fyn), where she was raised in a manor house.
[citation needed] From a young age she was steered toward a musical career, partly due to her acquaintance with the composer Hilda Sehested, who was twenty years her senior and from the nearby Broholm estate.
From 1909 to 1911, she studied music theory and composition under Johan Svendsen, shortly with Fini Henriques and from 1913 onwards with Carl Nielsen, who became a significant figure in her life.
Nielsen played in the ensemble at the first private performance of Dalberg's debut string quartet in 1914 at her home.
Nielsen trusted her technical skills and allowed her to orchestrate parts of his operas Aladdin and Sprintime (Fynsk Foraar) in Funen.
Among these was Marianne Sinclair's song, intended for an opera based on Selma Lagerlöf's Gösta Berling's Saga.
[2] Additionally, caring for her mentally ill husband increasingly drained her energy in the last two decades of her life.
[citation needed] Nancy Dalberg's debut quartet premiered privately at her home with Carl Nielsen playing one of the parts.
The development section is lengthy, primarily exploring the first theme through intricate polyphonic variations, and fades out before the recapitulation.
Such meters are rare in Western art music and often used to evoke folk influences, but here Dalberg likely uses 5/4 to showcase her compositional prowess.
A coda based on the principal theme concludes this remarkable movement, blending rapid rhythm with a touch of slow poetry.
The opening Moderato transitions into an Allegro vivace through an accelerando and crescendo, presenting a theme considered the principal one.
Triplet figures reappear, though each part diverges, with the viola now playing a line from the previous dolce espressivo theme.
The subsidiary section, marked Tranquillo, introduces its theme in the first violin, accompanied by significant viola commentary.
In the middle section, the cello plays the dolce espressivo theme at a slower tempo (poco meno).
The coda revolves around the eighth-note figures from the introduction, recreating the movement's initial mysticism and showcasing impressive polyphonic instrumentation.
A short segment with an augmented variant of the fugato theme transitions back to the A section, designated Pesante and in 4/4 time, bringing the movement to a close.
It resembles a rondo with a recurring ritornello and independent episodes, but also contains sonata form elements, as E1 changes key and E2 has a developmental character.
Omitting the second theme in a recapitulation is unusual, but Dalberg draws from Carl Nielsen’s precedent in his first quartet in G minor Op.
[2] Wilhelm Altmann wrote of Dalberg's String Quartet No.2 (in Walter Willson Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music): "Nancy Dalberg published this work without giving her forename, and, had I not learned by chance that it was composed by a woman, considering also the austerity and native strength of her music, it would never have occurred to me that it was a woman speaking to us.
Dalberg, influenced by Bartók, anticipated the symmetrical designs seen in his fourth and fifth quartets, composed in 1928 and 1934, respectively.
These quarter notes hint at the lyrical theme in the second group, introduced by the first violin and later repeated in the high register of the cello.
The movement concludes with a coda in alla breve (2/2), rich in chromaticism, and ends on an F major chord without a clear tonal center.
The texture thickens with counter-melodies in the middle parts, and the canon concludes with a one-bar displacement, marked pianissimo espressivo and misterioso.
The second violin, initially resting, joins in at bar 12 with a counterpoint to the main theme in the viola and pizzicato in the cello.
In the B section, both time and key change, with triplet figures in the violins dominating the theme while the lower strings progress more slowly.