Virgil Fox
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Virgil Fox (1912–1980) 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 and Roll music, staged complete with light shows.
Born on May 3, 1912 in Princeton, Illinois, the son of Miles and Birdie Fox, it was soon clear that he was a child prodigy. Fox began playing the organ for church services at the age of ten, and made a concert debut in 1926 before 2,500 at Withrow High School, Cincinnati.
From 1926 to 1930 he studied in Chicago under German organist-composer Wilhelm Middelschulte. His 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.
During August and September 1938 he plays 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 was also buried within the church.
During the Second World War, he enlisted in the Army Air Force in 1946 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 is discharged from the Army Air Force in 1946.
He also served as the organist at the Riverside Church in New York City.
From 1971 until 1975 he performed his famous "Heavy Organ" concerts, touring around the country.
A lump was detected on his prostate gland in September 1976, after which the gland was surgically removed. His last concert was recorded on May 6, 1979, and he died of cancer on October 25, 1980 in Palm Beach, Florida.
Music
Fox stressed pushing the limits of the instruments available to him, rather than requiring that they be authentic to the era of the music he was playing.
His style is a counterpoint to that of E. Power Biggs, who had a more traditional approach to the music of Bach. On the album "Heavy Organ", in the introduction to Bach's Toccata and Fugue in Dm, Fox sums up his approach to Bach and music in general:
- "There is current in our land (and several European countries) at this moment a kind of nit-picking worship of historic im-po-tence. 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!
External links
- The Virgil Fox Society (http://www.virgilfox.com)
- The Virgil Fox Legacy (http://www.virgilfoxlegacy.com)
- OrganArts (http://www.organarts.com)