The Lord’s Prayer – Clausen

Rene Clausen (b. 1963), the American composer with a French name, burst onto the choral music scene in the 1990s with A New Creation, with perfectly stunning settings of familiar verses including Psalm 150, Luke 2:29-32, Romans 8:26-27, 1 Peter 1:24-25, along with 2 Corinthians 5:17. The a cappella setting of Song of Solomon 8:6-7 (Set Me as a Seal Upon Your Heart) shortly became a part of the popular choral cannon. Claussen has been a prolific composer of choral works as well as instrumental and solo voice compositions. He is an active conductor and clinician.

Claussen’s compositions frequently make use of close dissonant yet agreeable harmonies, as well as moving stepwise parallel intervals, typically upward. Both features are evident in The Lord’s Prayer (1994) [listen], along with a flexible approach to beats per measure. The climactic “forever” employs the same intervals, albeit in a different chord structure, as the well-known Malotte version of the The Lord’s Prayer (1936) heard at countless weddings. A nod to the earlier work?

Like many of Clausen’s other adagios, the music and text together in The Lord’s Prayer evoke a thoughtful tranquility.