Perspectives on the Music of Christopher Fox: Straight Lines in Broken Times

Christopher Fox (1955) has emerged as one of the most fascinating composers of the post-war generation. His spirit of experimentalism pervades an oeuvre in which he has blithely created his own version of a range of contemporary musical practices. In his work many of the major expressions of European cultural activity - Darmstadt, Fluxus, spectralism, postminimalism and more - are assimilated to produce a voice which is uniquely resonant and multifaceted. In this, the first major study of his work, musicologists, composers, thinkers and practitioners scrutinize aspects of Christopher Fox's music, each exploring elements that relate to their own distinct areas of practice, tracing Fox's compositional trajectory and situating it within post-war contemporary European music practice. Above all this book addresses the question: How can one person dip his fingers into so many paint pots and yet retain a coherent compositional vision? The range of Fox's musical concerns make his work of interest to anyone who wants to study the development of so-called new music spanning the latter twentieth century into the twenty first century.

Rose Dodd (1967) is a composer of instrumental and electronic music. From 1990-94 she lived in the Netherlands studying briefly with Diderik Wagenaar at the Royal Dutch Conservatoire in The Hague. Coming from an acousmatic background with a strong interest in Scandinavian soundworlds, whether electronic or instrumental, the Swedish text sound-art tradition in particular has led to a number of electronic works with text. Dodd has been awarded a number of prizes, including Honourable Mention at Prix Ars Electronica’96, 19th International Luigi Russolo Concorso and Prix de Residence at Bourges Synthese’97. Engaged in a significant research residency period at NOTAM Oslo, which began in 2011, she is working on a series of works for instruments and electronics. The results so far have been mobius ii for Hardanger fiddle (Britt Pernille FrÃ, holm) and electronics premiered HCMF 2011; Aandacht for 2 pianos and electronics, performed by Philip Thomas/Lisa Ullen premiered HCMF 2013, and Waternish Ballad for Scottish fiddle (Sarah-Jane Summers) and electronics premiered at Scotland’s Sound Festival, Banchory in October 2014. She has also written pieces for Ere Lievonen, for the 31-tone Huygens-Fokker Organ, situated in Amsterdam’s Muziekgebouw, Kleurenspelletjes (2015). She was awarded a PhD in Composition in 2006 at the University of Huddersfield, UK, where she studied with Christopher Fox.