Mark Fax | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1911-06-15)June 15, 1911 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Died | (1974-01-02)January 2, 1974 Washington, DC |
| Genres | Classical Music, Gospel Music |
| Occupation(s) | Composer, Educator |
| Instrument | Organ |
Mark Oakland Fax (15 June 1911 – 2 January 1974) was an Americancomposer and aprofessor of music.
Born on June 15, 1911, inBaltimore, Maryland, Fax was achild prodigy. By age fourteen, Fax was employed as atheaterorganist playingscores tosilent films in Baltimore's Regent Theater on Saturdays,[1] andgospel music at anAfrican American church on Sundays.[1] Fax enrolled atSyracuse University on the advice of his brother,Elton Fax, an artist, who believed Syracuse faculty would take his aspirations as aclassical composer seriously.
Mark studied at Syracuse University where he earned a B.Mus. in 1933,[2] then at Eastman earning a Master's degree in composition. While at Eastman he studied withHoward Hanson.[3] He completed his bachelor's of music degree with honours; won the prestigiousJulius Rosenwald Fellowship in a national competition; and was elected to the All-University Honour Society.Depression-era conditions compelled him to turn down graduate fellowship offers, and he accepted a position atPaine College inGeorgia,[2] where he founded and chaired the music department. In 1942 Mark studied piano atBennington College in Vermont. It was here that he wrote music for theMartha Graham Dance Troupe.[2]
Feeling that he was stagnating artistically, he returned toCentral New York in 1942 to study advanced composition at theEastman School of Music. To support his family, he served as both choirmaster and janitor at a Rochester church until he won a rare secondRosenwald Fellowship. He taught atBlack Mountain College in 1946. Fax also taught music atPaine College a (1934-1942),.[2][3] From 1947 to 1972, Fax taughtmusic theory atHoward University and served as director of the School of Music. Later, Fax became Acting Dean of Howard's College ofFine Arts. Concurrently, he served as music director at Washington's famedAsbury Methodist Church, where he acted as the music director, organist, and composer.[2] Fax composed works forchorus,symphony,chamber ensemble,voice,piano andorgan, in addition to two full-lengthoperas,A Christmas Miracle (1958) and 'Til Victory Is Won (1967). Though many of Fax's compositions are unpublished many had been preserved by his wife and reproduced in dissertation on his work by Velma Jones, titled "The Life and Works of Mark Oakland Fax."[4][5]
In theWashington limelight, he finally received public attention.Washington Post criticPaul Hume praised Fax'sSonata forClarinet and Piano as "striking…difficult…a work of surprising contrapuntal texture" and declared the composer's oeuvre "music of rare power." 'Til Victory is Won (1967), Fax's epic operatic history of the African American experience, was mounted at theKennedy Center. Hume says of Fax's opera ""A strong and valid artistic pronouncement" upon the trials of the time it was written.[6] Mark Fax died January 2, 1974, in Washington, DC.
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