Frederick A. Fox

Frederick Alfred Fox, Jr. (January 17, 1931 – August 24, 2011) was an American composer and music educator specializing in contemporary classical music.^[1]

Formative years

Frederick A. Fox was born in Detroit, Michigan. His early musical training in his native city encompassed the saxophone (with Laurence "Larry" Teal) and music theory and arranging (with Ray McConnell). He subsequently studied composition with Ruth Shaw Wiley and received the B.Mus. degree from Wayne State University in 1953. He worked for a year with Ross Lee Finney at the University of Michigan, but took a leave from his studies to tour as a jazz saxophonist (tenor and baritone), a career he gave up in 1956–57 to return to serious composing. Fox then came to Bloomington, Indiana and the Indiana University School of Music (now the Jacobs School of Music), where he studied composition with Bernhard Heiden, and from which he was graduated with the M.Mus. (1957) and D.Mus. (1959).^[2]

Composer, teacher

After serving in various faculty and foundation posts in the United States, Fox returned to the Indiana University School of Music in 1974 as professor of composition. One of his first undertakings was the founding of the Indiana University New Music Ensemble^[3] in 1975–76, with himself as its first director. During his leadership tenure, the New Music Ensemble began to take its place as one of the foremost university ensembles of its kind in the country; it has since toured to cities such as Chicago, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, New York, among others.^[2] Fox was appointed chair of the I.U. School of Music composition department in 1981, and led that department for 13 years, a period during which it gained increasing recognition and become one of the highest-ranked programs in the United States.^[2]

Notable students of Fox include: James Aikman, Margaret Brouwer, David Dzubay, Keith Fitch, Robert Paterson, Jeffrey Hass, Jeeyoung Kim, Mark Phillips, and Stephen Suber. See: List of music students by teacher: C to F#Frederick A. Fox.

Music

With more than 55 published compositions in various media, Fox's catalog ranges from solo instrumental and choral pieces to large-scale works for orchestra; a good number of them are commercially recorded.^[2]

Like many young American composers in the 1950s and 1960s, Fox had some experience as a jazz performer and arranger before he took up composing. His music grows principally out of this background, experience, and interest in jazz, in addition to serial techniques, and some informal systematic formations which tend to possess qualities of improvisation. Though he found serialism to be essentially at odds with his creative outlook, his jazz background was to find its echo in several of his characteristic works.^[4]

Selected works

Orchestral

Impressions (1995) Echo Blues (1992) Now and Then (1988) for chamber orchestra Januaries (1984) Night Ceremonies (1979)

For string orchestra

Nightscenes (1988) for string orchestra, harp, piano/celeste, percussion (five)

For symphonic band

Four Times Round (1996) Polarities (1987)

For ensemble/chamber

Blind Time (1996) - orchestra brass, percussion (two) Dreamcatcher (1994) - flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, double bass, piano, percussion (two) Time Weaving (1993) - clarinet trio (Eb, Bb, Bass Cl) Devil's Tramping Ground (1991) - flute, oboe, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion (one) The Avenging Spirit (1989) - saxophone quartet Auras (1988) - flute, clarinet, cello, piano, percussion (one) Time Messages (1988) - brass quintet Shaking the Pumpkin (1986) - saxophone, piano, percussion (two) 3 Diversions (1987) - saxophone quartet Vis-A-Vis (1985) - horn and string quartet Dawnen Grey (1984) - string quartet Sonaspheres 5 (1983) - flute/alto flute,fl./picc, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion (two) Bren (1982) - brass ensemble Sonaspheres 1 (1980) - flute/alto, flute/picc, clarinet, trumpet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion (two) S.A.X. (1979) - solo alto saxophone, saxophone quartet Ambient Shadows (1978) - flute/alto, clarinet, trombone, violin, viola, cello, piano, percussion (one)

Choral/vocal

Time Excursions (1976) - soprano, speaker, flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, percussion (two) The Descent (1969) - SATB, piano, percussion (two)

Solo

When the Thunder Speaks (1998) - alto saxophone and piano Five Mementos for Trumpet & Piano (1995) - trumpet and piano Kokopelli (1994) - flute and piano Fantasy (1993) - viola and piano Echos and Shadows (1993) - violin and piano Hear Again in Memory (1991) - saxophone Annexus (1980) - alto saxophone and piano