Doll's dream, op. 202 no. 4

The Doll's Dream, among the most widely sold parlour pieces of the nineteenth century and the work by which Theodore Oesten is remembered, if he is remembered at all. It belongs to a genre now almost extinct: short, sentimental, pictorially titled pieces produced in enormous quantity for the domestic market, sold cheaply with decorated covers, and played by the millions of amateurs who owned a piano before recorded music existed.