Composer Svend Nielsen was born in 1937 and studied musicology at the University of Copenhagen, while concurrently studying music theory and composition at the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen with Vagn Holmboe, Finn Høffding and Per Nørgård. In the following three decades, until 1998, he was employed as assistant professor of music theory at the Royal Academy of Music in Aarhus.

Few people like to be categorised, least of all artists, who often hate any notion that anything but free imagination might condition their creativity. But at his advanced age, Svend Nielsen still might have to accept being called the "lyricist" of contemporary Danish music, even though his musical life's work is considerably more varied than any such description might imply. On the other hand, he hardly found it inappropriate to be called a "songwriter" long before the term came into vogue. Nowadays it is most often used in the context of singer-song-writer, where one and the same artist is responsible for lyrics, music and singing, but Svend Nielsen has never himself written the poems he has set to music, let alone sung his songs before an audience. Had he been born a few generations later, this might not have been inconceivable...