Karl Clausen

Karl Søren Clausen (15 August 1904 – 5 December 1972) was a Danish pianist, conductor, composer and musicologist. In addition to his work as a high school teacher in German and Music, he composed several instrumental and choral works, as well as songs. He became increasingly involved in work with amateur choirs and school singing, and he became a very popular choir conductor, who led several choirs to many musical successes, often with his own choir arrangements, based on folk melodies.

The strong folk singing tradition that he experienced in his childhood Sønderjylland under German rule became decisively influential during his later career. In the late 1940s he began collecting sound recordings of folk singing in marginal, rural areas of Jylland, and in the 1960s he continued this work in the isolated Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic. Alongside teaching and collection work, Clausen also began studying the history of Danish and North German folk singing, and put folk singing into a new context, incorporating historical, religious and sociological aspects, as reflected in various articles, as well as a textbook.

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.

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.

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