Vocal Music
- O Christ, the Healer – Richard Gieseke (b. 1952)
Instrumental Music
- Pavane - Alec Rowley (1892 –1958)
- The Quiet Church – Mark Fax (1911-1974)
- Processional on “Praise to the Lord” – Martin Shaw (1875-1958)
Congregational Music (all hymns from the Hymnal 1982 with the exception of those marked “R” which are from Renew.)
- Hymn 423 - Immortal, invisible, God only wise (ST. DENIO)
- Hymn 529 - In Christ there is no East or West (MCKEE)
- Hymn 135 - Songs of thankfulness and praise (SALZBURG)
- Hymn R 223 - Soften my heart (Graham Kendrick)
- Hymn R 224 - Healer of my soul (John Michael Talbot)
- Hymn R 227 - Jesus, remember me (Taizé)
- Hymn 390 - Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN)
- Psalm 147:1-12 - Laudate Dominum – Tone Ih
February is Black History Month, celebrating the accomplishments of African-Americans and their contributions to American society and culture. We're pretty familiar with the Spirituals and Gospel songs that Black Americans have contributed to our sacred music repertoire, but not so much with music in the more classical vein, and especially organ music.
Mark Oakland Fax was an African American educator and composer from Baltimore, Maryland. He showed early promise as a musician, and by the time he was a teenager, he was accompanying silent movies on the organ at Baltimore's Regent Theatre and playing for church on Sundays.
He enrolled as a student at Syracuse University and graduated with honors in 1933. As a student, Fax won the prestigious Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in a national competition and was elected to the All-University Honor Society. Depression-era conditions forced him to forgo graduate school, and he accepted a position at Paine College in Georgia, where he founded and chaired the music department.
In 1942, he the entered the Eastman School of Music, where he also studied piano at Bennington College in Vermont. During this time he composed music for the Martha Graham Dance Troupe. After receiving his Masters of Music in 1945, he taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina for one year before moving to Washington, D.C. for a faculty position at Howard University, teaching theory and serving as director of the music school.
In addition, he held numerous posts at churches, most notably Asbury United Methodist Church, Washington, DC where he was the music director, organist, and composer.
In Washington, he received favorable attention. Washington Post critic Paul Hume praised Fax’s Sonata for 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. Today, except for a small group of organists and conductors, few musicians know his music.
A review of Fax’s works reveals that his compositions range in genres including vocal solo, choral, operatic, symphonic, chamber and solo instrumental works. Very little has been published, though several organ works have been included in a relatively new series of books highlighting the organ music of African American composers.
Mark Oakland Fax was an African American educator and composer from Baltimore, Maryland. He showed early promise as a musician, and by the time he was a teenager, he was accompanying silent movies on the organ at Baltimore's Regent Theatre and playing for church on Sundays.
He enrolled as a student at Syracuse University and graduated with honors in 1933. As a student, Fax won the prestigious Julius Rosenwald Fellowship in a national competition and was elected to the All-University Honor Society. Depression-era conditions forced him to forgo graduate school, and he accepted a position at Paine College in Georgia, where he founded and chaired the music department.
In 1942, he the entered the Eastman School of Music, where he also studied piano at Bennington College in Vermont. During this time he composed music for the Martha Graham Dance Troupe. After receiving his Masters of Music in 1945, he taught at Black Mountain College in North Carolina for one year before moving to Washington, D.C. for a faculty position at Howard University, teaching theory and serving as director of the music school.
In addition, he held numerous posts at churches, most notably Asbury United Methodist Church, Washington, DC where he was the music director, organist, and composer.
In Washington, he received favorable attention. Washington Post critic Paul Hume praised Fax’s Sonata for 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. Today, except for a small group of organists and conductors, few musicians know his music.
A review of Fax’s works reveals that his compositions range in genres including vocal solo, choral, operatic, symphonic, chamber and solo instrumental works. Very little has been published, though several organ works have been included in a relatively new series of books highlighting the organ music of African American composers.
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