Charles Crozat Converse (October 7, 1832 – October 18, 1918) was an American attorney who also worked as a

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

of church songs. He is notable for setting to music the words of

Joseph Scriven Joseph Medlicott Scriven, (10 September 1819 – 10 August 1886) was an Irish-born Canadian poet, best known as the writer of the poem which became the hymn "What a Friend We Have in Jesus". Life Joseph Scriven was born in 1819 of prosperous pa ...

to become the

hymn A hymn is a type of song, and partially synonymous with devotional song, specifically written for the purpose of adoration or prayer, and typically addressed to a deity or deities, or to a prominent figure or personification. The word ''hymn'' d ...

What a Friend We Have in Jesus "What a Friend We Have in Jesus" is a Christian hymn originally written by preacher Joseph M. Scriven as a poem in 1855 to comfort his mother, who was living in Ireland while he was in Canada. Scriven originally published the poem anonymously, a ...

". Converse published an arrangement of " The Death of Minnehaha", with words by

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (February 27, 1807 – March 24, 1882) was an American poet and educator. His original works include the poems " Paul Revere's Ride", '' The Song of Hiawatha'', and '' Evangeline''. He was the first American to comp ...

Life

Charles Crozat Converse was born in

Warren, Massachusetts Warren is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,975 at the 2020 census. The town contains the villages of Warren and West Warren. History Warren was first settled in 1664 and was officially incorp ...

on October 7, 1832. He studied law and music in

Leipzig Leipzig (, ; ; Upper Saxon: ; ) is the most populous city in the States of Germany, German state of Saxony. The city has a population of 628,718 inhabitants as of 2023. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, eighth-largest city in Ge ...

, Germany, returned home in 1857, and was graduated at the

Albany Law School Albany Law School is a private law school in Albany, New York. It was founded in 1851 and is the oldest independent law school in the nation. It is accredited by the American Bar Association The American Bar Association (ABA) is a voluntary ...

in 1861. Many of his musical compositions appeared under the anagrammatic pen-names "C. O. Nevers", "Karl Reden", "E. C. Revons", and "Lesta Vesé". He published a cantata (1855), ''New Method for the Guitar'' (1855), ''Musical Bouquet'' (1859), ''The One Hundred and Twenty-sixth Psalm'' (1860), ''Sweet Singer'' (1863), ''Church Singer'' (1863) and ''Sayings of Sages'' (1863). Converse proposed the use of the

gender-neutral pronoun A third-person pronoun is a pronoun that refers to an entity other than the speaker or listener. Some languages, such as Slavic, with gender-specific pronouns have them as part of a grammatical gender system, a system of agreement where most o ...

"thon". He died at his home in

Englewood, New Jersey Englewood is a city in Bergen County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. Englewood was incorporated as a city by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on March 17, 1899, from portions of Ridgefield Township and the remaining portions of Engle ...

on October 18, 1918.

References

Sources

External links

Sheet music for "The Rock Beside the Sea"
by Charles C. Converse, Lee & Walker, 1857. *http://www.hymntime.com/tch/bio/c/o/n/converse_cc.htm *http://imslp.org/wiki/Converse,_Charles_Crozat 1832 births 1918 deaths American male composers 19th-century American composers People from Warren, Massachusetts Albany Law School alumni Musicians from Massachusetts 19th-century American male musicians {{US-composer-19thC-stub