Hymnus amoris (; ), for soloists, choir and orchestra, Opus 12, is Carl Nielsen's earliest choral work. It was first performed at the Music Society (Musikforeningen) in Copenhagen on 27 April 1897 under the baton of the composer. Background Carl Nielsen was inspired to write Hymnus amoris in 1891 while on his honeymoon in Italy. He and his wife Anne Marie were both impressed by Titian's painting The Miracle of a Jealous Husband in Padua. After he had completed the score, his wife provided a drawing for the title page. On one of the copies, Nielsen wrote: "To my own Marie! These tones in praise of love are nothing compared to the real thing; but if you continue to show your affection for me, I will strive to achieve a higher expression of the world's strongest force, and then the two of us together will rise higher and higher towards the goal, as we constantly aspire for love in life and in art." In February 1897, in a letter to the Swedish composer Bror Beckman, Nielsen explained: "I really worked with this idea for a year or two, but it was only in the summer that I managed to begin writing the music. On 27 December the piece was finished and on 23 and 25 March it will be performed at the Music Society (Musikforeningen), probably conducted by myself." The text for Hymnus amoris, initially wrriten in Danish by literary historian Axel Olrik on the basis of Carl Nielsen’s own draft, was later translated into Latin by Johan Ludvig Heiberg. Nielsen justified his choice of Latin in a note on the score itself: "I think I can defend my choice of Latin by saying that this language is monumental and elevates one above over-lyrical or personal feelings which would be out of place where the object is to use a large polyphonic choir to describe such a universally human feeling as love. In addition, this language is more singable than Danish or German, and finally — as the most important reason — the textual repetitions are more tolerable in Latin." Reception At the first performance of Hymnus amoris at the Music Society in Copenhagen on 27 April 1897 under the baton of the composer, the soloists were Tia Krëtma, Katie Adler and Viggo Bielefeldt. The programme presents the work with its Danish title Hymne til Kjærligheden (Hymn to Love), the