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Fall 1997, Vol. 60, No. 1

The Augsburg Echo
Friday, March 15, 1935

Director is portrayed as modest, dynamic musician

By Leland Sateren

Editor's note: The following article appeared in the Augsburg Echo on March 15, 1935, right around the time that the "Hour Melodious" ended its stint on WCCO radio and right before the choir headed off on its Midwest tour. Dr. Leland Sateren, who was part of the "Hour Melodious," wrote the following article and after graduating eventually came back to Augsburg to serve in the same capacity as Prof. Opseth.

Some call him "Professor Henry P. Opseth," some "Head of the Music Department," others address him as "Oppie," and one chances "Henry."

To Augsburgians he is known as "Oppie"; not a large, ostentatious man, but a rather small, congenial, kindly gentleman; not as one seeking the plaudits of his audiences, but a shy, unobtrusive artist; not as a pretentious, eccentric director of choirs, but a modest, yet dynamic musician playing the organ of human voices.

In a decade and a half of years this man has wielded his baton before hundreds, even thousands of Augsburg singers. From a meager handful of youths he established his first Glee Club. With the passing of years this organization grew and waxed in musical ability, until he had one of the finest male choruses in the country. In a like manner he established the ladies' Choral Society, which evoked the praise of innumerable critics.

Now with that military poise and peculiar tilt to his head, he takes his place before the Augsburg College Choir. In the brief period of two years he has molded a group of singers into a concert choir that need not be ashamed to take its place with the finest. As he touches the manual of the treble voice, the sweet and soothing strains of Tschesnokoff's "No Other Guide Have We" floats to the ear of the listener. Gracefully he strikes the stops introducing the lower harmonies, and shortly the full organ is sending forth its message with all its depth of feeling. "Oppie" knows no music without feeling. He is insistent upon bringing to light the soul of the music.

He is one who prefers to sit in ease and await results. Rehearsals are strenuous, and almost without ending. He drives -- a striking parallelism to his talks on the Argonne Front during the Great War. Yet the singers, through his personality, are always ready to do his bidding. His evenings last until the smaller hours of the morning, and they are filled with writing of musical scores, transposing, arranging, practicing, planning, advising, selecting, and giving aid to his pupils. In some way, however, he always finds time to spend with his many friends.

And withal he is always "Oppie,"' a fine Christian man, a musician of the highest caliber, and one who never ceases to delight with freshening sense of humor and unusual ability to entertain in the narration of incidents in which he was "the Goat."

This year, again, "Oppie" is taking "his" choir on tour. Can't you hear him saying to the choir before they go onto the platform, "Choir, I want you to thrill me tonight - so much that these bristles on the top of my head will stand straight up! We have a message to bring, and beautiful vessel in which to present it. We do not want to mar either!"

A friend.