Nordisches Lied (Album für die Jugend, op. 68)

Schumann wrote the first pieces of Album für die Jugend, op. 68, in September 1848 for the seventh birthday of his eldest daughter Marie, then went on until he had forty-three. The set falls into two halves, the first for children to play and the second for older players, and it was published with a page of rules of musical conduct appended. Schumann had spent that year on larger projects that went nowhere; this one sold at once and kept selling. Nordisches Lied carries the note Gruss an G. — a greeting to Gade, whose name supplies the four notes it is built on.