Choral master Richard Proulx remembered for more than five decades of musical 'genius' … and in performances to come
Episcopal News Service. March 8, 2010 [030810-02]
Pat McCaughan
Prolific composer and choral master Richard Proulx, who wrote his first composition at age 8 and whose musical career spanned more than five decades among Episcopal, Roman Catholic and Jewish congregations from Chicago to Washington, died last month, but colleagues and friends said March 8 that he will live on through his music.
"The Sunday after he passed away we played some of his music at the Methodist Church," said Michael Collier, music minister for the United Methodist Church in Tacoma, Washington.
He began singing in the St. Charles Roman Catholic Church boy's choir at age 11 under Proulx's direction, recalled Collier, 52, during a March 8 telephone interview.
"His professionalism was incredible, his sense of performance," Collier recalled. "He was a phenomenal instrumentalist. It was amazing how he could bring out the voice quality of kids there. Had it not been for him, I would not be doing what I'm doing now."
Proulx also taught "this sense of liturgy," Collier said. "He would take the kyrie and explain why it's in the mass, what it means. He made sure we knew what all the colors of the altar meant, so that when we got in there to sing, we knew exactly why we were singing it."
Congregations from Seattle to Chicago were planning musical tributes to honor Proulx, 72, who died Feb. 18 at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center in Chicago.
Proulx was born April 3, 1937 in St. Paul, Minnesota and began piano studies at age six. By eight he was composing music "and by sixth or seventh grade I was playing for some school services," he once told a "Music in Worship" interviewer.
From 1953 to 1968 he served at Church of the Holy Childhood in St. Paul. He studied organ performance at MacPhail College and the University of Minnesota with further studies undertaken at the American Boychoir School at Princeton University, St. John's Abbey-Collegeville, and the Royal School of Church Music in England. He received an honorary doctorate from the General Theological Seminary in New York in 1994.
Throughout his career, he composed more than 300 pieces of music, many of the works sacred and choral, including anthems, service music, hymn concertatos, organ music and music for handbell choirs. He also crafted two operas and the theme song used in Union Pacific Railroad television advertising.
He served as a consultant on the Hymnal 1982, New Yale Hymnal, the Methodist Hymnal, Worship II & III, and contributed to the Mennonite Hymnal and the Presbyterian Hymnal.
A member of the Standing Commission on Church Music of the Episcopal Church, he was also a founding member of The Conference of Roman Catholic Cathedral Musicians. He conducted choral festivals and workshops in the United States, Canada, The Netherlands, Switzerland, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand.
From 1994 to 1995 he was composer-in-residence at the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City and was a visiting fellow at the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, Texas.
From 1970 to 1980, he served as music director at St. Thomas Church in Medina, in the Seattle-based Diocese of Olympia, where he directed three choirs and a chamber orchestra, established a tradition of handbell ringing and was also organist at Temple de Hirsch Sinai.
In addition to St. Charles Roman Catholic Church in Tacoma, his prior positions included a stint as music director at St. Stephen's Church in Seattle.
He told an interviewer once that he listened to jazz when taking a break from sacred music "and fortunately in Chicago, there's ample opportunity to experience that."
From 1980 to 1994 he served as music director at the Cathedral of the Holy Name in Chicago. During his tenure there, he made several recordings with the Cathedral Singers, a professional chorus he founded in 1991. His setting of Agnus Dei, Requiem Mass, was part of the music at the 1996 funeral of Cardinal Joseph Bernadin of Chicago.
He was the recipient of numerous awards, including Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists in 2006, who also commissioned a new anthem, Works of the Great Spirit, for the 2008 AGO national convention in Chicago. Proulx's Concerto for Organ and Strings was programmed at that same convention. In October 2008, the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC) bestowed its McManus Award upon him in recognition of his significant contributions to liturgy in the United States; Proulx was the first musician to receive the award.
A May 26 2007 tribute to Proulx may be viewed here.
After stepping down from his post at Holy Name in 1994, Proulx remained in Chicago and maintained a busy schedule of composing, arranging and recording.
"I've known his work and compositions for decades and he gave me a wonderfully warm welcome when I came to Chicago six years ago," said Bruce Barber, music director at St. James' Episcopal Cathedral.
"He is probably among the most published composers in the English-speaking church," Barber added. "He was a genius … for both the use of resources that are available, such as small parish choirs, professional choirs, small organs, large organs, and how he deployed them for various compositions. And then there were larger works that are pretty spectacular, for organ, for brass, for choirs, multiple choirs. His laboratory was both the Episcopal Church and the Roman Catholic church," Barber said.
He said a musical tribute to Proulx will be held later in the year. "He will live on in hymnals every single Sunday across the country, in many denominations, and not just Episcopal or Roman Catholic denominations. His inspiration will live on for a very, very long time."
Similarly, planning is underway for a Palm Sunday Evensong tribute, said Laura Gregg parish administrator at St. Thomas Episcopal Church in Medina, Washington, where Proulx served for ten years as choir director. He will be interred in a private service there following a 10:30 a.m. April 10 memorial service at St. Paul and the Redeemer Episcopal Church in Chicago.
He is survived by his mother, Helen; two brothers, Gerald and James; and two sisters, Jeanette Payette and Barbara Callahan.