Lloyd Pfautsch died on October 3, 2003. See “Nunc Dimittis,” The Diapason, March 2003, p. 8.
I first met Lloyd Pfautsch when I came to Southern Methodist University to audition for my current position. He quickly invited me to attend his University Chorale rehearsal and then to chat afterwards. When I entered rehearsal he had just finished warm-ups and stopped to introduce me to the choir. They proceeded on cue to give a single handclap, which he called “an applau,” the imagined singular form of the word applause. This must have been a frequent trick, but the choir still enjoyed doing it and I was highly amused. Here was a conductor who practiced what he preached in his books. He valued human relations, his choral gestures were expressive, but disciplined and clear, and he most certainly made regular use of humor in rehearsals.
Pfautsch was born September 21, 1921 in Washington, Missouri (near St. Louis). He received a bachelor’s degree from Elmhurst College in 1943. Planning to follow his parents’ hopes, he anticipated becoming a minister in the Evangelical and Reform tradition when he entered New York City’s Union Theological Seminary that fall. His musical career flourished. He was soloist at Brick Presbyterian Church under Clarence and Helen Dickinson and sang in Toscanini’s NBC Symphony Chorus. He made several recordings and also met his future wife, Edith Herseth, who also sang under Toscanini at that time. The year 1946 was significant for Pfautsch. He graduated from Union with a Bachelor of Divinity, he decided he wanted a musical career instead of a ministerial one and entered the Master of Sacred Music program at Union, and he also married Edith Herseth! All of the above changed his life for the better. He remained grateful for all of these important events until his death on October 3, 2003.
No matter how you look at it, the word “prolific” describes Lloyd Pfautsch. He published nearly 300 compositions (72 of which were commissions) with 34 different publishers; he was guest lecturer at more than 50 colleges and universities in the U.S. and abroad; he graduated 154 students with the MM in Choral Conducting, 35 of whom also received doctorates; and he conducted countless All-State Honor Choruses and multi-church festival choirs throughout the country. His impact on choral music in the U.S. and beyond was pervasive for the second half of the 20th century. It persists today as dozens of his graduates hold important academic and church choral positions around the world. That influence also continues in the performance of his music throughout much of the Western world. When the repertoire for the All-State Choruses in the U.S. appear each spring in The Choral Journal, there are always Pfautsch pieces on the lists.
No one in recent memory has been more dedicated to the choral art that Lloyd Pfautsch. He began singing in public at age 3 and joined ensembles as early as anyone would let him. He was fortunate to make the acquaintance of Robert Shaw as Shaw was rising to the position of the foremost choral conductor in America. He sang on most of the early Shaw recordings, including the best-selling first Christmas album and achieved the status of colleague and friend with the maestro. Shaw remained fiercely loyal to Pfautsch until his own death and continued to help him professionally. It was Shaw who recommended Lloyd as the choral conductor for the 1965 twentieth anniversary celebration of the United Nations in San Francisco. The Convocation of Religion for World Peace was held at the San Francisco Cow Palace on the last night of the anniversary proceedings. The group brought together leaders of seven of the world’s largest religions (Catholic, Protestant, Jew, Hindu, Buddhist, Moslem and Eastern Orthodox) to worship with a common cause: world peace. Secretary-General U Thant spoke at the culminating worship service and so most of the distinguished delegates to the U.N. attended. Pfautsch conducted a large brass ensemble and a choir of 2000, mostly from the Bay area. They rehearsed for three days prior to their public appearance. The event earned Pfautsch much praise and many accolades that continued for months afterwards. It was, to him, a seminal event in his career and one of his fondest memories.
Two universities were fortunate to benefit from many years of Pfautsch’s work and creativity: Illinois Wesleyan (1948-58) and Southern Methodist University (1958-92). At both schools he produced nationally prominent choirs and established published series of commissioned choral works while leaving an indelible impression on the music faculties and the institutions as well. Because his career at SMU was considerably longer he was able to exercise creativity in significantly more ways. He was brought to SMU to establish the Master of Sacred Music program, which he did most successfully. He taught at both the School of Theology and the School of Music, maintaining a faculty load that would overtax any two “normal” faculty members trying to equal it. All the while he also founded the Dallas Civic Chorus and conducted them for 25 years without stipend, found time to compose anthems on a regular basis and made time for his growing family.
After a few years he decided to work full-time in the School of Music and was chosen as the first Associate Dean for Music in the Meadows School of the Arts. While he really did not like administrative work very much he attacked it tenaciously. He was able to establish a new piano pedagogy department, and managed to hire his former student, Robert Anderson, to build a distinguished organ department. As the number of organ students grew he successfully made the case for building several additional organs in the School of the Arts. The organ and choral departments eventually vied for national attention and supported the Sacred Music program very effectively. Pfautsch and Anderson collaborated on many projects through the years, including the well-known annual Christmas Worship Service at Perkins Chapel. The service was created by Pfautsch and continues to be popular with the SMU and Dallas communities today.
One of his greatest innovations was development of one of the first Master of Choral Conducting programs in higher education. He pioneered in videotaping student conductors as a pedagogic device. By the same token he also produced videotapes on conducting. Eventually he wrote three books as well as an important chapter in a fourth one discussing conducting and the development of choirs. Perhaps the most widely used today is his English Diction for the Singer (1971).
Pfautsch received many honors during his distinguished career. He was awarded honorary doctorates from Elmhurst College (Doctor of Music, 1959), Illinois Wesleyan University (Doctor of Humane Letters, 1978) and West Virginia Wesleyan University (Doctor of Humane Letters, 1985). The Board of Higher Education and Ministries of the United Methodist Church designated him their University Scholar/Teacher for 1982. At SMU he received the “M” Award (the highest award given by the university for sustained inspiration to and efforts on its behalf) and was selected the Meadows Distinguished Professor in 1984. He was granted emeritus status in 1992. The Texas Choral Directors Association awarded him the Distinguished Choirmaster accolade in 1991.
Lloyd Pfautsch was an uncommon person. He was kind, modest and pastoral in his dealings with students and colleagues. He was an uncommon parent, as his children and grandchildren testified at his memorial service on October 7, 2003. He was certainly an uncommon musician. He was both a pioneer and a national leader in the teaching of choral conducting. He was also an outstanding singer in his early years and a remarkable conductor for the past half century. Those of us fortunate to have known and worked with Lloyd have been changed for the better by his warmth, his humor, his concern for humanity and his prodigious musical talent. As his daughter, Debbie, put it at the memorial service, “The heavenly choir has a new conductor now, and it’s time to get the diction right!”
--Kenneth Hart, Director
Graduate Program in Sacred Music
Southern Methodist University
