# Mark Fax > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Mark_Fax > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Mark_Fax.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fax > Source revision: 1342015863 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) {{short description|American composer and professor of music}} {{Infobox musical artist | birth_date = {{Birth date|1911|06|15}} | death_date = {{Death date|1974|01|02}} | occupation = Composer, Educator | birth_place = Baltimore, Maryland | death_place = Washington, DC | genre = [Classical Music, Gospel Music](/source/Classical_Music%2C_Gospel_Music) | instrument = Organ }} '''Mark Oakland Fax''' (15 June 1911 – 2 January 1974) was an American [composer](/source/composer) and a [professor](/source/professor) of music. ==Child prodigy== Born on June 15, 1911, in [Baltimore, Maryland](/source/Baltimore%2C_Maryland), Fax was a [child prodigy](/source/child_prodigy). By age fourteen, Fax was employed as a [theater](/source/theater) [organist](/source/organist) playing [scores](/source/film_score) to [silent films](/source/silent_films) in Baltimore's Regent Theater on Saturdays,{{cite news |id={{ProQuest|532593308}} |title=Mark O. Fax-organist 1911-1974 distinguished Howard U. professor: On black classical music Dominique de Lerma |work=Afro-American |location=Baltimore |date=29 July 1978 |page=11 }} and [gospel music](/source/gospel_music) at an [African American](/source/African_American) church on Sundays. Fax enrolled at [Syracuse University](/source/Syracuse_University) on the advice of his brother, [Elton Fax](/source/Elton_Fax), an artist, who believed Syracuse faculty would take his aspirations as a [classical](/source/classical_music) composer seriously. ==Education== Mark studied at Syracuse University where he earned a B.Mus. in 1933,{{cite thesis |id={{ProQuest|1039551333}} |last1=Poole |first1=Eric Orlando |title=The sacred choral works of Mark Oakland Fax |year=2012 }} then at Eastman earning a Master's degree in composition. While at Eastman he studied with [Howard Hanson](/source/Howard_Hanson).{{cite journal |title=Mark Fax |journal=The Black Perspective in Music |date=1974 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=225 |jstor=1214259 }} He completed his bachelor's of music degree with honours; won the prestigious [Julius Rosenwald Fellowship](/source/Julius_Rosenwald_Fellowship) in a national competition; and was elected to the All-University Honour Society. [Depression-era conditions](/source/Great_Depression) compelled him to turn down graduate fellowship offers, and he accepted a position at [Paine College](/source/Paine_College) in [Georgia](/source/Georgia_(U.S._state)), where he founded and chaired the music department. In 1942 Mark studied piano at [Bennington College](/source/Bennington_College) in Vermont. It was here that he wrote music for the [Martha Graham](/source/Martha_Graham_Dance_Company) Dance Troupe. ==Career== Feeling that he was stagnating artistically, he returned to [Central New York](/source/Central_New_York) in 1942 to study advanced composition at the [Eastman School of Music](/source/Eastman_School_of_Music). To support his family, he served as both choirmaster and janitor at a Rochester church until he won a rare second [Rosenwald Fellowship](/source/Rosenwald_fellowship). He taught at [Black Mountain College](/source/Black_Mountain_College) in 1946. Fax also taught music at [Paine College a (1934-1942)](/source/Paine_College),. From 1947 to 1972, Fax taught [music theory](/source/music_theory) at [Howard University](/source/Howard_University) and served as director of the School of Music. Later, Fax became Acting Dean of Howard's College of [Fine Arts](/source/Fine_Arts). Concurrently, he served as music director at Washington's famed [Asbury Methodist Church](/source/Asbury_United_Methodist_Church_(Washington%2C_D.C.)), where he acted as the music director, organist, and composer. Fax composed works for [chorus](/source/choir), [symphony](/source/symphony), [chamber ensemble](/source/chamber_ensemble), [voice](/source/vocal_(music)), [piano](/source/piano) and [organ](/source/organ_(music)), in addition to two full-length [opera](/source/opera)s, ''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."{{cite thesis |last1=Jones |first1=Velma |title=The Life and Works of Mark Oakland Fax |year=1978 }}{{cite news |last1=Lerma |first1=Dominique de |title=Mark O. Fax-organist 1911-1974 distinguished Howard U. professor: On black classical music |work=Afro-American |location=Baltimore |date=29 July 1978 |page=11 }} ==Public attention== In the [Washington](/source/Washington%2C_D.C.) limelight, he finally received public attention. ''[Washington Post](/source/Washington_Post)'' critic [Paul Hume](/source/Paul_Hume_(music_critic)) praised Fax's [Sonata](/source/Sonata) for [Clarinet](/source/Clarinet) 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 the [Kennedy Center](/source/Kennedy_Center). Hume says of Fax's opera ""A strong and valid artistic pronouncement" upon the trials of the time it was written.{{cite news |last1=Hume |first1=Paul |title=New Opera, 'A Christmas Miracle,' Has Premiere |work=The Washington Post and Times-Herald |location=Washington, D.C. |date=7 Mar 1958 |page=A16 }} Mark Fax died January 2, 1974, in Washington, DC. == Works list == === Voice === * Deep river * Dreams * Five Black Songs (Advice to a child; Love; Only Dreams; Selfishness; The Refused) * From an unknown soldier * Go tell it on the mountain * Great day! * If he only walked in gardens * Impulse * Inspiration * Longing * Love * May Day song * Night truths * Rain song * Rondel * Sunset * Three Tenor Songs for the Worship Service (All people of the Earth; Dear Master in Whose Life; Wedding Song, Entreat me not to leave thee) * Whatsoever a man soweth * Who can find a virtuous woman? === Instrumental === * Three piano pieces * Toccatina * Three organ pieces * The lost zoo. Symphonic suite === Opera === * ''A Christmas Miracle'' * ''Till Victory is Won'' == Reference List == {{Reflist}} == External links == * {{cite web |url=https://bmrcsurvey.uchicago.edu/collections/2571-1 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150617081531/https://bmrcsurvey.uchicago.edu/collections/2571-1 |archive-date=17 June 2015 |title=Mark Fax Scores |work=Black Metropolis Research Consortium Survey |publisher=[University of Chicago](/source/University_of_Chicago) |access-date=6 August 2021}} [Center for Black Music Research](/source/Center_for_Black_Music_Research) ([Columbia College Chicago](/source/Columbia_College_Chicago)). *North Carolina Digital Online Collection of Knowledge and Scholarship (NCDOCKS). https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/listing.aspx?id=8884 *{{discogs master|4851264-Mark-Fax}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Fax, Mark Oakland}} Category:1911 births Category:1974 deaths Category:20th-century American classical composers Category:American male classical composers Category:Black Mountain College faculty Category:Eastman School of Music alumni Category:Howard University faculty Category:Musicians from Baltimore Category:Syracuse University alumni Category:Paine College faculty Category:20th-century American male composers --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Mark Fax](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fax) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Fax?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.