|
Virgil Keel Fox (May 3, 1912–October 25, 1980) was a renowned organist, known especially for his flamboyant "Heavy Organ" concerts of the music of Johann Sebastian Bach for audiences more familiar with rock 'n' roll music, staged complete with light shows. Image File history File linksMetadata Fox_virgil. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Fox_virgil. ...
May 3 is the 123rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (124th in leap years). ...
1912 (MCMXII) was a leap year starting on Monday in the Gregorian calendar (or a leap year starting on Tuesday in the 13-day-slower Julian calendar). ...
October 25 is the 298th day of the year (299th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ...
1980 (MCMLXXX) was a leap year starting on Tuesday. ...
Organ in Katharinenkirche, Frankfurt am Main, Germany Modern style pipe organ at the concert hall of Aletheia University in Matou, Taiwan The organ is a keyboard instrument with one or more manuals, and usually a pedalboard. ...
Bach redirects here. ...
Rock and roll - Wikipedia /**/ @import /skins/monobook/IE50Fixes. ...
Fox was born in Princeton, Illinois to Miles and Birdie Fox, and it was soon clear that he was a prodigy. Fox began playing the organ for church services at the age of ten, and made a concert debut in 1926 before 2500 at Withrow High School, Cincinnati. Princeton is a city located in Bureau County, Illinois. ...
1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will take you to calendar). ...
Cincinnati, Ohio viewed from the SW, across the Ohio River from Kentucky. ...
From 1926 to 1930 he studied in Chicago under the German organist-composer Wilhelm Middelschulte. Fox's other principal teachers were Hugh Price, Louis Robert, and Marcel Dupré. He was an alumnus of the Peabody Institute of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, where he became the first student to complete the course for the coveted Artist's Diploma within a year. 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ...
Nickname: The Windy City, The Second City, Chi Town, The City of Big Shoulders Motto: Urbs In Horto (Latin: City in a Garden), I Will Location in Chicagoland and Illinois Coordinates: Country United States State Illinois County Cook Incorporated March 4, 1837 Mayor Richard M. Daley (D) Area - City 606. ...
Wilhelm Middelschulte ( Born April 3, 1863 in Werve (Kamen-Heeren/Westfalen), Died May 4, 1943) was a German musician. ...
Marcel Dupré Marcel Dupré (May 3, 1886–May 30, 1971), was a French organist, pianist, composer, and pedagogue. ...
Peabody Institute, c. ...
Flag Seal Nickname: Monument City, Charm City, Mob Town, B-more Motto: Get In On It (formerly The City That Reads and The Greatest City in America; BELIEVE is not the official motto but rather a specific campaign) Location Location of Baltimore in Maryland Coordinates , Government Country State County United...
During August and September 1938 he played in Great Britain and Germany; Fox was the first non-German organist to perform publicly in the Thomaskirche in Leipzig — a special occasion, since J.S. Bach served as cantor of the Thomaskirche until his death, in 1750, and is buried within the church. 1938 (MCMXXXVIII) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar). ...
The Thomaskirche in Leipzig The Thomaskirche (St. ...
[] (Sorbian/Lusatian: Lipsk) is the largest city in the Federal State (Bundesland) of Saxony in Germany. ...
A cantor is a musician working in a church with responsibilities for the singing in the church. ...
During the Second World War Fox enlisted in the Army Air Forces and took a leave of absence from Brown Memorial Church and the Peabody. He was promoted to staff sergeant, and played various recitals and services. After having played more than 600 concerts while on duty, he was discharged from the Army Air Force in 1946. Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ...
The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) was a part of the U.S. Army during World War II. The direct precursor to the U.S. Air Force, the USAAF formally existed between 1941 and 1947. ...
United States Military Staff Sergeant insignia (U.S. Air Force) Staff Sergeant is the fifth enlisted rank in the U.S. Air Force, just above Senior Airman and below Technical Sergeant. ...
1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ...
He also served as organist at the Riverside Church in New York City, and began to make recordings there and elsewhere. This article needs to be cleaned up to conform to a higher standard of quality. ...
Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps Location in the state of New York Coordinates: Country United States State New York Boroughs Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Area - City 1,214. ...
From 1971 until 1975 he performed his famous "Heavy Organ" concerts, touring around the country with an electronic Rodgers Touring Organ, built by Rodgers Instruments that sounded credibly similar to a cathedral pipe organ. 1971 (MCMLXXI) was a common year starting on Friday (the link is to a full 1971 calendar). ...
1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ...
Rodgers Instruments designs and manufacturers classical organs, using digital technology and sometimes incorporating traditional wind blown pipes. ...
He underwent prostate surgery in 1976. His last commercially released recording was made at a Riverside Church concert on May 6, 1979. Fox's 50th year of concertizing began when he appeared with the Dallas Symphony in September 1980, in what was to be his final public performance. One month later he died of cancer, in Palm Beach, Florida. 1976 (MCMLXXVI) was a leap year starting on Thursday. ...
May 6 is the 126th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (127th in leap years). ...
This page refers to the year 1979. ...
Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these cells to invade other tissues, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis. ...
Palm Beachs skyline, as seen from Flagler Drive in West Palm Beach. ...
Music
Fox stressed pushing the limits of the instruments available to him rather than requiring that they, or his playing, be authentic to the era of the music.
His style, particularly his taste for fast tempos and flashy registrations, is in counterpoint to that of many organists, notably E. Power Biggs, who took a more traditional approach to Bach and others. Fox maintained more than 250 concert works in memory, and could call them up, playing at double speed or faster in rehearsals, which went late into the night. Edward George Power Biggs (March 29, 1906 - March 10, 1977), but always known as E. Power Biggs, was one of the most influential classical organists of the twentieth century. ...
During the 1970s, Fox performed a huge series of traveling concerts, utilizing very large electronic classical organs, accompanied by a sizable light show. These shows were called "Heavy Organ/Revelation Lights", and were produced by David Snyder. The concerts were sellouts wherever they went, playing to crowds who enjoyed not only classical music but Fox's almost Liberace-like theatrical touch. As with any controversial artist, his style of playing sometimes worked for him, and sometimes worked against him. Certain recordings that he made of famous organ works are still definitive today as "the interpretation to beat"; others of his recordings are quickly forgettable in the bizzare approach he took to the work in question. Liberace shows off his rings (circa 1980). ...
There was some jealousy expressed by organists and factions within the American Guild of Organists who claimed that Fox was bastardizing the music. But on the album "Heavy Organ", in the introduction to the famous Toccata and Fugue in D minor attributed to Johann Sebastian Bach, Fox summed up his approach to Bach and to music in general: The American Guild of Organists, or AGO, is a national organization of church and concert organists in the USA. It is divided into regions and chapters and publishes a monthly magazine, The American Organist. ...
The Toccata and Fugue in D minor, BWV 565 is a popular piece of music for the organ. ...
Bach redirects here. ...
- "There is current in our land (and several European countries) at this moment a kind of nitpicking worship of historic impotence. They say, they say, that Bach must not be interpreted and that he must have no emotion, his notes speak for themselves. You want know what that is? Pure unadulterated rot! Bach has the red blood. He has the communion with the people. He has all of this amazing spirit and imagine that you could put all the music on one side of the agenda with his great interpretation and great feeling and put the greatest man of all right up on top of a dusty shelf underneath some glass case in a museum and say that he must not be interpreted! They're full of you know what and they are so untalented that they had to hide behind this thing 'cause they couldn't get in the House of Music any other way!
While his argument here rests on an overstated and mostly false dichotomy, it is undeniable that Virgil Fox was a musical celebrity, not unlike Leonard Bernstein, Glenn Gould and others of his time. They put their entire experience into their music. Fox's audiences told the story, as any concert by him was an event. If his performing and interpretive tastes were sometimes questionable, the unwavering courage of his convictions was admirable. He was, above all, true to himself. Leonard Bernstein in 1971 Leonard Bernstein (August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American composer, pianist and conductor. ...
Glenn Gould, Toronto, 1974 Glenn Herbert Gould (September 25, 1932 – October 4, 1982) was a celebrated Canadian pianist, noted especially for his recordings of Johann Sebastian Bachs keyboard music. ...
References - Richard Torrence, Marshall Yaeger (Hrsg.): Virgil Fox (the Dish). An Irreverent Biography of the Great American Organist. (Special Edition: Book, CD, DVD). Circles International, New York 2001, ISBN 0-9712970-0-2
External links |
Feeds |
Contact