Charles Crozat Converse

Charles Crozat Converse was an American lawyer and composer born in Warren, Massachusetts. Published reference works differ over whether his birth year was 1832 or 1834; many modern hymnals and Hymnary records use 1832. He studied music in Leipzig, where his training included theory and composition, and later graduated from Albany Law School in 1861. Converse combined legal practice with substantial musical activity and eventually worked in Erie, Pennsylvania.

He published music under several pseudonyms, including Karl Reden, C. O. Nevers, and E. C. Revons. His best-known hymn tune is CONVERSE, also called ERIE or FRIENDSHIP, associated with Joseph Scriven’s “What a Friend We Have in Jesus.” The melody is often dated to 1868, but its earliest securely documented publication is in “Silver Wings,” issued by Oliver Ditson & Company in Boston in 1870. In that book the composer was identified as Karl Reden.

Converse wrote beyond congregational hymnody, producing songs, instrumental publications, sacred works, and larger compositions while maintaining his legal career. His enduring place in hymnody rests chiefly on a melody whose broad circulation eventually made it inseparable from Scriven’s prayer hymn in many traditions.