Philip Brunelle reflects on the legacy of Stephen Paulus

Twin Cities classical composer Stephen Paulus died Sunday from complications of a stroke he suffered last year.

Paulus wrote hundreds of works including orchestral scores, operas and choral pieces. He was 65. Choral group VocalEssence performed many of his works. Artistic director Philip Brunelle spoke with Morning Edition's Cathy Wurzer on Monday about Paulus' legacy. An edited transcript of that conversation is below.

Cathy Wurzer: What were his most significant accomplishments as a composer?

Philip Brunelle: He really understood the voice. Some composers really get it — he was one. When you sang his music it felt natural to you, it didn't feel like you had to struggle in order to make the notes work. It didn't mean that the music was necessarily easy. The fact is it just had a sort of vocalism about it that made you feel that this was somebody who loved singing, and he really reflected that in what he wrote.

Wurzer: What was your working relationship like with him?

Brunelle: He was easy in the sense that he knew your group. He knew VocalEssence, for instance, so he knew how to write for that. He also knew individual voices. It was a delight. He wrote a piece for us called "The Day is Done" We've since made it almost a signature tune. He had a wonderful, beautiful sense of the style. He also would say, "I'm going to get this to you, it may be at the last minute, but you're going to have it."

Wurzer: Was he always working, massaging a piece until the very end?

Brunelle: Yes. He made his living as a composer. He wasn't a teacher. In addition, he would go and do workshops and things like that, but he really kept up his composition style. He would hear a piece and go, "Well, maybe we could make a few changes." He was never against making changes if he felt it would improve the piece.

Wurzer: Any particular favorite pieces beyond the one you mentioned?

Brunelle: His early opera, called "The Village Singer," is the one he wrote back in 1979 for the St. Louis Opera, that sort of put him on the opera map. Then when he wrote a few years ago a piece about the Holocaust that was called "To Be Certain of the Dawn," which he did with the Minnesota Orchestra over at the Basilica.

There are also hundreds of wonderful choral pieces — one of them was done at President Reagan's funeral — and of course his Christmas music. The great thing is that even though he is no longer with us, this music will continue to be.

Wurzer: Was he a fun person to work with?

Brunelle: Yes. He had a great sense of humor. You'd do a passage and he might say, though he knew better, "Oh, is that what it sounds like." Even though he knew what it sounded like. He would just have little humorous things.

He always kept people very much at ease because he knew that with singers the important thing is to keep your voice relaxed. You'll sound best that way rather than full of tense. He had an innate way of making singers feel very much at home, so they therefore loved the chance to sing his music, particularly to sing it if he was present.

Wurzer: Did he have anything left undone? Did he have anything in the works at the time of his stroke?

Brunelle: He had some pieces that he was working on. One of the things that I'm working to help his wife, Patty, and the family with is that there are a number of wonderful arias that singers would love to have that are inside of the operas he wrote. I'm putting a collection together so that these can be made available to singers, as well as looking to see if there aren't some other pieces, a larger work where you might excerpt a shorter work that people could use in high school or college or church.

Interview edited and transcribed by MPR reporter Jon Collins