Karl Clausen

Clausen grew up in a teacher's family in Aabenraa in North Schleswig, an area which Denmark had ceded to Prussia, following the defeat in the Second Schleswig War in 1864. Although forming a majority of the population, the Danes here faced critical times, being under strong influence of German administration, culture and language. Danish culture and language were, however, kept alive, not least through the growth of a quite strong folk singing culture. Clausen went to German secondary school, but in 1923 when he graduated from high school, the 1920 referendum following the German defeat in World War I had given North Schleswig back to Denmark. The mixed Danish-German culture of his childhood would be an inspiration for Clausen's work for much of his life, starting with a small autobiographical pamphlet with descriptions of his school days.[3]

As a young, talented pianist, he studied piano with Roger Henrichsen. In 1928, he took an MA degree from the University of Copenhagen, with German as major and Music and later Danish as minors. He worked as a high school teacher, first at Rungsted Statsskole 1928-35 and then at Østre Borgerdyd Gymnasium 1935–63, but also for some years at Metropolitanskolen, from 1946 as senior master. Along with teaching, he studied music theory with Hakon Andersen, and was music teacher and choir conductor at Danmarks Lærerhøjskole 1941–63.

In 1936 he was appointed technical inspector at the musical night school of the City of Copenhagen, and during the following years under his leadership choir singing experienced a significant lift in both quality and diversity. He conducted the male choir Bel Canto and Københavns Lærerkor and was head conductor of Danske Læreres Sangkor. His teaching was an inspiration for many and contributed a lot to the music subject,[1] which until around 1940 was only available as a minor degree in Denmark.[4] His choir performances began to be radio broadcast, and he also began a long series of radio programmes about songs and folk singing, which gradually led him to take up musicological research in folk singing on a larger scale. In 1948 he wrote an article about Danish folk singing for the musicological magnum opus Om Musik II,[5] and in 1958 came his comprehensive textbook on the subject, which was reprinted 1975.[2] The book contained a wealth of new information and new perspectives on the interplay between historical events, social conditions and folk singing. Clausen's great idea, of the folk song performed by the everyday person, who likes and needs the song as a means of expression, became with him a study subject of deeper culture-historical perspectives than seen before.[6]

In 1963, he gave up high school teaching and accepted a position as lecturer with the Musicological Department at Aarhus University, where he led the archive Sanghistorisk Arkiv.[6] During his first years in Aarhus, he carried out song collections in South and West Jylland, but his last years were more and more focused on Faroese folk singing. He went on several collection trips to the islands, where he primarily focused on the hitherto rather obscure religious kingo-singing and spiritual singing, of which he collected several hundred recordings.[7]

As a composer, Clausen was inspired by the New Objectivity of the 1920s, as reflected in his school opera Klokken (The Bell) from 1934, based on the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale, as well as Tema med Variationer for orchestra from 1936. In 1938, he received a scholarship, Det anckerske Legat, and spent the following year in Paris, where he studied composition with Darius Milhaud, which resulted in a wind quintet 1939 and a flute concert 1940.

Karl Clausen's main achievement was his musicological work with song history. He established a large collection of song books, Karl Clausens sanghistoriske Samling, consisting of close to 10,000 volumes and today located at the University of Southern Denmark in Odense. In the 1950s and 60s, he made extensive collections on tape recorder of folk singing in south and west Jutland. Many of these recordings are available online. Based on the recordings, he made a series of radio broadcasts, and published several articles about folk singing, as well as his principal work Dansk folkesang gennem 150 år,[2] from 1958.

During his years at Rungsted Statsskole, Karl Clausen had Faroese students, who introduced him to their folk singing, which was still thriving, because the modernist outlook and technology of post World War II Europe was only slowly being introduced in these remote islands. During the 1950s he took several choirs on tours to the Faroe Islands, where he quickly became a very popular choir conductor and got to know several of the islands' important folk singers. He was fascinated by the vigorous folk singing tradition of the Faroese, and 1967-72 went on several collection trips to the islands, where he collected several hundred examples of religious spiritual singing and Kingo-singing. With his openminded and unselfish character he got many Faroese friends during these trips, and also came to appreciate the somewhat impulsive and improvised outlook of the Faroese in those days, a behavior also brought about by the violent and awesome nature of the islands.[8]

After his death, his daughter Marianne Clausen (1947-2014) continued his work: in 1975 she published the volume Åndelig visesang på Færøerne,[9] and in 2006, as part of her five-volume magnum opus on Faroese folk singing, the volume Andlig Vísuløg í Føroyum / Spiritual Songs in the Faroes,[7] with music transcriptions of more than 200 of her father's recordings.

• This article was initially translated from the Danish Wikipedia.

• Sønderjyder synger – Clausen's Jutland folk song recordings