Paul J. Christiansen
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United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
choral conductor and composer. As the youngest son of F. Melius Christiansen
F. Melius Christiansen
F. Melius Christiansen was a Norwegian-born violinist and choral conductor in the Lutheran choral tradition.-Background:...
, he was brought up into the Lutheran Choral Tradition and quickly developed his own style of conducting and composing that furthered the tradition started by his father. He spent the bulk of his career developing The Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir is a critically acclaimed 75-voice ensemble known for its distinctive sound and regarded as one the finest a cappella choirs in the world. The ensemble is a highly selective mixed-voice choral ensemble composed entirely of students at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.The...
into one of the world's finest Undergraduate Acappella Choirs, conducting the choir from 1937-1986. He is also attributed with establishing the world renowned Concordia Christmas Concert which is seen yearly by more than 30,000 people. "Thousands of enriched lives, national recognition for the college, stirring music, and hundreds of conductors and musicians across the land are his legacy."
Paul J. Christiansen died December 5, 1997, at his Moorhead, Minnesota home, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (AML Lou Gehrig's disease). He was 83 years old at the time of his death.
50 Years With Paul J. Christiansen
The following are excerpts from the inside cover of "50 Years With Paul J. Christiansen" published by Concordia Recordings, permission for use granted by Concordia College Office of Communications, Sheldon Green.The Paul J. Christiansen Era Begins
It was against this background of local acclaim that Paul J. Christiansen began his career. Coming from one of America's most prominent musical families, Christiansen knew what it would take to transform the choir into an internationally known group. He developed a special sound, a distinctive sound, that would mark his choirs for a half century.
With the support of the college for the adequate amounts of time and resources that were necessary to create the atmosphere he desired, Christiansen took control of an already good choir and began making it a great one. Christiansen made his students, who were used to hard work, work even harder. Said one choir member, "He seems to have every chord fixed in his mind beforehand and when we match this, he feels it can be improved upon and we go striving again for new perfection."
Christiansen's daily two-hour rehearsals were legendary for their rigor. His well of energy and intense drive extracted precision from his students and instilled in them the will to succeed however high the price. His lean and athletic frame, quiet and brisk demeanor and demanding style terrified most students. Still, upwards of 400 students would annually audition for the 60 to 65 places in his choir, knowing full well they would give their hearts and souls to this man in exchange for the opportunity to experience the exhilaration of singing a perfectly executed phrase. Christiansen's choirs were composed of individuals who were often talented, always competitive, and willing to work. "Art needs conditions." Christiansen affirmed. "and one of these is the time you have with the students. All negotiations as to their involvement in other campus activities stop when it comes to the hours which must be devoted to rehearsal."
Christiansen finished high school early and graduated from St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College is a coeducational, residential, four-year, private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after Olaf II of Norway,...
at 19. Believing a career as a concert pianist awaited him, he studied at Oberlin (Ohio) and the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester, New York. But he quickly gave up the piano and turned to his greater love of conducting and composition as his life's work. "I didn't have all the attributes necessary, the physical, mental and musical talents, as a pianist for the concert stage," he said in later years.
Despite his youthful lack of experience, Christiansen was ready to test his own ideas in choral conducting and arranging when a letter from the president of Concordia College arrived, offering him the chance to chair the four-member music department, direct the orchestra, conduct the choir, teach courses in harmony and conducting, give lessons and "keep the pianos tuned."
While Christiansen never set out to emulate his famous father, he was always compared to F. Melius Christiansen throughout his own lengthy and equally brilliant career. "Dad's St. Olaf choirs were so great because of his training and his background studying all of the great composers in piano and orchestra literature," Paul J. once explained. "He had put symphony standards to his choir and as a result performances were as dignified as a symphony's."
Continuing the Family Tradition
F. Melius Christiansen
F. Melius Christiansen
F. Melius Christiansen was a Norwegian-born violinist and choral conductor in the Lutheran choral tradition.-Background:...
, founder of the St. Olaf Choir
St. Olaf Choir
The St. Olaf Choir, a 75 voice mixed ensemble, is the touring a cappella choir of St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minnesota. Officially founded in 1912 by music faculty member F. Melius Christiansen as the St. Olaf Lutheran Choir, it began as an outgrowth of the local St. John's Lutheran Church,...
at Northfield, Minn., was a classically educated musician who came to the United States when it became clear he would be passed over as organist at his home church in Larvik, Norway. Recognized for his indelible influence on modern choral music, F. Melius was influential in creating the a capella choral style in the first half of the 20th century that is widely practiced throughout the world today. It is his arrangement of "Beautiful Savior" which stands as the signature piece for both the St. Olaf and Concordia choirs. Paul J. closed each of his concerts with "Beautiful Savior" because "Dad did it so many times I just figured it was the thing to do." It is interesting to note that while F. Melius' name is typically pronounced with a slight Norwegian accent, students and former co-workers, such as Kenneth Hodgson, currently of the University of Minnesota-Morris, recall that Paul J. used the "Americanized" pronunciation of "Christiansen" when referring to himself.
F. Melius trained his son musically starting at age five after Paul J. showed promise by pounding out some chords on the family piano. Christiansen said his father's influence was more in the ideals of sound than style. Radio broadcasts of symphony concerts were common entertainment in his boyhood home and furthered Paul J.'s interest in intonation and tone color. "That is what I measure by. I'm so anxious for a beautiful tone. That has been my ideal for the choir - to maintain that level of just sound that a major symphony gets," said Christiansen. The ideal has been admiringly called the "Concordia Sound."
Christiansen would regularly spend what appeared to be excessive lengths of time working on a phrase or a pronunciation. It wasn't a sense of the perfectionist that made him dwell on small sections of a piece. "It is so far from that. You try to get it reasonably in tune, a reasonably satisfying tone color and phrasing, and all those things that go into music. I tell students always to ask 'Can this be better?' I've never found a time when it couldn't."
No, it wasn't perfection that Paul J. Christiansen was striving for all those years. Music, he felt, made the world a happier place.
Touring Brought An International Reputation
After Christiansen took control of the choir in 1937, he lengthened the annual tour to 24 days, visiting all regions of the country. World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
halted touring for a time and filling out the choir often became a challenge with so many young men in the service. He frequently shared students with his brother, Jake, the Concordia football and basketball coach at the time. "We had 15 men in the choir out of 60 on campus. Jake and I had to divvy up the men. He had his regular basketball five and then his choir five. We had to juggle things to do what was best for the college."
By 1948 The Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir is a critically acclaimed 75-voice ensemble known for its distinctive sound and regarded as one the finest a cappella choirs in the world. The ensemble is a highly selective mixed-voice choral ensemble composed entirely of students at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.The...
was in the upper echelon of American choirs. Students anxiously auditioned for the choir and talented vocalists eagerly enrolled at Concordia, often as a result of hearing the choir on tour. This brought students from many states to the campus and expanded Christiansen's talent base. As touring resumed following the war, the length increased to nearly four weeks. The first time the choir sang in New York, a critic wrote, "Seldom do choral groups attain the ideal of perfect execution. One did in Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
last night." During the 1957 tour it became the first choir to sing in the rotunda of the nation's capital. In 1959 the choir sang at the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
headquarters and received a standing ovation in New York City's Town Hall. In 1965 the choir sang in Philharmonic Hall
Philharmonic Hall
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall is a concert hall in Hope Street, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. It is the home of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Society and has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II* listed building...
at Lincoln Center and in Los Angeles it recorded at 20th Century Fox studios.
Winter, Spring, or Summer, The Concordia Choir proclaimed God's praises to thousands of people every year. On their risers in their deep blue robes, or on the streets of the big cities, they thrilled themselves and others with the joy of singing, giving serious performances in great concert halls or swinging into impromptu concerts on street corners, in state capitols, or to fellow travelers stranded on the road. Perhaps the choir's greatest acclaim came in Europe, just as the prairie newspaper editor predicted it would several years earlier. The 1949 European tour laid the groundwork for firmly establishing the choir and its intense conductor with an international reputation. Newspaper critics in Norway were "enthralled" with the choir and the royal family invited the group to the palace for a private audience.
The 1959 tour was an even greater success and the choir received high praise wherever it performed. Full houses greeted the choir at 32 concerts in Norway. The choir had received so much attention that when it arrived for a performance in Holland the fire brigade and police had to handle the crowd trying to gain admittance to the concert hall. The acclaim continued on to Amsterdam and to the World's Fair in Belgium and into Germany, home to some of the world's greatest choral composers. Finally the choir reached the world-famous Vienna Music Festival in Austria where 116 choirs from eight countries were participating. Here, where the world's music elite had gathered, The Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir is a critically acclaimed 75-voice ensemble known for its distinctive sound and regarded as one the finest a cappella choirs in the world. The ensemble is a highly selective mixed-voice choral ensemble composed entirely of students at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.The...
sang on opening day of the festival and was surprised to receive a foot-stomping ovation. The normally polite, rhythmic applause had been replaced with wild enthusiasm for the music. Indeed, this was the year in which the promise predicted for the choir in 1937 was finally fulfilled. The students from small towns and the farms of the Midwest had been recognized in the classical music capital of Europe and had received the highest praise. The Concordia Choir and Paul J. Christiansen now had achieved international acclaim and appreciation.
The Concordia Christmas Concerts
Beginning a creative collaboration with art professor Cyrus Running in 1940, Christiansen used a new theme each year to present a seamless, worshipful story to audiences on the campus in Moorhead and in Orchestra Hall
Orchestra Hall
Orchestra Hall may refer to:*Symphony Center, home of Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Illinois*Orchestra Hall *Orchestra Hall...
in Minneapolis. Visuals in the form of huge murals - often spectacular - were used from the very beginning and were both practical and artistic. "It started because we needed a sounding board in a big building. Why not make it decorative? Why not make it contribute to the text? So we used whatever could impress the idea best, to make it convey the message," said Christiansen. "Each one is different. Each one is special and related to the text. You have to be willing to take chances." The magnificent murals - newly designed and painted each year by a crew of dedicated volunteers - are now begin created by Concordia alumnus David Hetland, one of Running's last students who has gained a wide reputation for liturgical design. Each Christmas, more than 15,000 people attend the Moorhead performances and 5,000 more attend in Minneapolis.
A Fierce Determination to Succeed
Throughout his career Christiansen also operated the Paul J. Christiansen Choral Schools, a summer session held on various college campuses that attracted choral directors from coast to coast. Before he retired in 1987, Christiansen received honorary degrees from Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pa.; Capital University at Columbus, Ohio; Adams State College, Alamosa, Colo.; and St. Olaf College, Northfield, Minn. He received awards from the University of St. Thomas, St. Paul, minn.; the Red River Valley Historical Society, Moorhead, Minn,; and the St. Olaf Medal from the government of Norway.
Christiansen arranged hundreds of pieces and wrote uncounted compositions throughout his career. A largely private person, he carries a sense of Nordic modesty and a shyness about him which friends and colleagues attest to, but also a fierce determination to succeed. With his shock of crisp, white hair, his square jaw and rough-hewn face, his robust and solid appearance, Christiansen in retirement still exudes the austerity of a determined taskmaster who demanded absolute obedience and attention when work was to be done and to whom incompetence was not tolerated.
Strong self-discipline is a Christiansen family trait. "Paul J. will spend any amount of time on even the smallest detail until he has it the way he wants it," a colleague commented in describing Christiansen's dedication to work. Another said, "Paul J. directs with his whole being. Body movements, facial expressions, his eyes, his mouth and his delicate hands are all used, separately or in combination, to convey his desires to the choir." One moment he is seated at the piano, directing with one hand while playing accompaniment with the other. Then he is in front of the choir, crouching low to the floor to emphasize a quality. "Don't fight it so much," he commands. "You're singing about God, and he doesn't have to fight anything."
In his remarkable career that spanned 50 years, Paul J. Christiansen insisted music come first and art be served for art's sake. He preached musical integrity to the nth degree. His a capella choirs won acclaim both here and abroad. He is recognized as a foremost authority on the application of artistic discipline to choral work. Indeed, Christiansen's choirs always strived for perfect phrasing and execution, thus elimination distractions from the music and text and making the religious message the central purpose of the concert. His choirs arguably didn't always have great solo voices. Instead, Christiansen's greatest concern was in the character of the singer, the secret worth of every individual. The voices he selected fit together into a magnificent whole that has made The Concordia Choir sound so great and its performances become so memorable.
This is the legacy of Paul J. Christiansen.
Selected Compositions and Arrangements
- Gracious Spirit
- This Little Light
- Pilgrim's Chorus
- Wondrous Love
- Lift Up Your Heads
- Brothers
- My Song in the Night
- The King of Love
- Prayers of Steel
- Christmas Procession
- Vidi Aquam
- And God Shall
- Create in Me a Clean Heart O God
- Jesus, Jesus Rest Your Head
- Now All Poor
- Tree of Glory
- While Angels Sing
- Kyrie Eleison
- This is My Father's World
- Easter Carol
- Winds Through The Olive Trees
- Cindy
- Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
- The Last Spring
- Mary Sat Spinning
Related Quotations
"You have heard the saying, “Experience is the best teacher.” But I don’t mean...you have to have done it a long time. I mean rather—you enlarge your concept of life and music.It isn’t the technique. The technique only helps us to provide those experiences. It’s these experiences that we hope to hand on to our singers. It takes technique to do it, but it’s the experience of Bach—as a man, as a thinker, as a man who feels about life—to pass on some of these big people’s thoughts and feelings about life, and to give them to your singers so they will profit by what men before have done, what men who are doing something now are thinking.
I think it’s the experiences of life that are the greatest part of life. It isn’t the superficial things that make us happy. It’s the things that move us inside that make us happy."
--Paul J. Christiansen
"You don't begin to understand good choral music until it has gone beyond the technical phase and into the emotions. Then you begin to understand what Bach was saying to us, what he was feeling when he wrote those notes. To make a thing sound well in tune, you can't just settle for an average sound. If you want something special, you have to work for it. You just aren't satisfied when you know things aren't quite what they could be."
--Paul J. Christiansen
"It (music) gives people something that isn't the run-of-the-mill, take-out-the-garbage-everday routine. I'm proud of the effort, of trying to make it better. And I'm proud of the students. People think I forced my discipline on them. It isn't true. The same discipline was on me as it was on them. What it's really all about is the exploring and finding beauty in music in the rehearsals. That's where it all happens."
--Paul J. Christiansen
"A man of deep conviction, he used the compositional tools of music to enhance and magnify the message of the text he is setting, and in so doing elevates the spirit of both those who sing and listen to his music."
Rene Clausen
René Clausen
René Clausen is an American composer, conductor of The Concordia Choir, and associate professor of music at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota...
Current conductor of The Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir is a critically acclaimed 75-voice ensemble known for its distinctive sound and regarded as one the finest a cappella choirs in the world. The ensemble is a highly selective mixed-voice choral ensemble composed entirely of students at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.The...
"The man possesses the soul of a poet, the vision of a prophet, and the heart of a disciple. Those we can only explain as gifts of the spirit—divine and ineffable."
Dr. Paul J. Dovre, Concordia College president.
Legacy
Paul J. Christiansen's development of The Concordia ChoirThe Concordia Choir
The Concordia Choir is a critically acclaimed 75-voice ensemble known for its distinctive sound and regarded as one the finest a cappella choirs in the world. The ensemble is a highly selective mixed-voice choral ensemble composed entirely of students at Concordia College, Moorhead, Minnesota.The...
has left a lasting impact, not only on Concordia College, Moorhead
Concordia College, Moorhead
Concordia College is a private liberal arts school located in Moorhead, Minnesota, United States. It is affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and offers bachelors' degrees in the arts and music, as well as a master's degree in education. The college was founded by Norwegian...
, but on modern American choral music, some of his most distinguished students have been his son Erik Christiansen (Choral conductor at Stillwater Area High School), Gregory Aune (conductor of The Gustavus Choir), Maurice Skones (Director of The Choir of the West), Larry L. Fleming (founder of the National Lutheran Choir) and Bruce Houglum (Conductor of the Concordia Orchestra).