Franklin Cox

This article is about the musician. For the architect, see Frank Cox (architect).

Franklin Cox (born Charleston, Illinois, 1961) is an American composer, scholar, and cellist.

Life

Cox studied with Brian Ferneyhough at the University of California, San Diego, and at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse.^[1] He is currently (2020) associate professor of theory, composition, and cello at Wright State University.^[2] His ongoing concert series, The New Cello, features his work in addition to other composers that explore new possibilities on the instrument through extended techniques and microtonality.^[3][4]) Cox has also been co-editor of Search: Journal for New Music and Culture since its founding in 2007.^[5] 3

Music

Franklin Cox's work advances a range of features and concepts associated with "New Complexity;^[6] his performances range widely between new music to classical and common-practice chamber works. Works with considerable recognition include Chronopolis, for solo flute (1988–89),^[7] Di-remption, for solo percussionist (1993),^[8] If on a Winter's Night ..., for solo clarinet (1988)^[9] and a landmark series of solo string compositions: the Clairvoyance set for violin solo, with a version for cello (1989), and Recoil, for cello solo (1994), along with a range of cello etudes.^{[10][11][12][13]} Cox's cycle Spiegelgeschichte, for 24 Voices, was a commission from Südwestrunfunk (SWR), Germany (2009–2011). Its first performance was by SWR Chorus in Eclat 2011 festival, Stuttgart, Germany.^[14]

Scholarship

Cox has an international reputation as a scholar and as an editor of scholarship, with particular attention to the European tradition of new music and associated practices in the Americas. In that vein his foci have tended toward conceptual approaches to musical form,^[15][16][17] history,^[18][19][20] aesthetics^{[21][22][23][24]} (and its cultural/ideological implications^[25][26]); his is prolific reviewer of others' music and scholarship,^[27] particularly on Elliott Carter.^[28][29] His analyses of, and scholarship about, Klaus Hübler, with James Avery, is the definitive lens on that subject.^[30] His analyses of his own music have also achieved significant circulation and academic attention, though they are published exclusively in the context of his role as Search editor. There exists also a considerable body of scholarship on Cox's own work.^[31][32] His scholarship has been translated into German^[33] and Italian.^[34]

Recordings of Cox's music

• "This Isle is Full of Noises" Lisa Cella, flute, Centaur Records 3091 (2010). Includes "Chronopolis", for solo Flute
• The New Cello, Vol 1 – American Composers. Centaur Records 2994 (2010), Franklin Cox, cello. Includes "Clairvoyance" and "Recoil" for solo cello
• New Music Series Volume 4. Neuma Records 450-102 (2002). Includes Shift, for five cellos, performed by Frank Cox.
• Surplus Live auf Solitude. Stuttgart: Edition Solitude, ACD 6024-3. Includes R, performed by singers from the Stuttgarter Musikhochschule, dir. James Avery.
• Pierre-Yves Artaud, flauto. Milan: Rusty Classica, RUS 555019.2. Includes Chronopolis, performed by Pierre-Yves Artaud.

Selected cello recordings by Cox

• The New Cello, Vol 2 – European Composers. Centaur Records 3390 (2014). Works by Klaus K. Hübler, Mahnkopf, Redgate, Barrett, Erber, Nunes, and Finnissy.
• La vision d'ange nouveau for solo cello from Angelus Novus Cycle by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf (NEOS 1121112, 2013).
• "The Courier's Tragedy" from "Pynchon Cycle" by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf (Neos 269220, 2011). Cello part written for Dr. Cox
• The New Cello, Vol 1 – American Composers. Centaur Records 2994 (2010), Franklin Cox, cello. Works by Carter, Ben Johnston, and Stuart Saunders Smith
• "See Under Love" (Mode Records 169, 2006). Recording of opera by Chaya Czernowin premiered at Munich Biennale, 2000. Solo cello part written for Franklin Cox.

Reviews of Work by Franklin Cox

• Covell, Grant Chu. 2018. La Folia review of Franklin Cox, The New Cello, Vol. 1: American Composers, http://www.lafolia.com/string-theory-26-some-duos-duets/
• Rutherford-Johnson, Tim. 2017. Music after the Fall: Modern Composition and Culture since 1989 (University of California Press).
• Covell, Grant Chu. 2016. La Folia 2016 review of Franklin Cox, The New Cello, Vol. 2: European Composers, https://www.lafolia.com/string-theory-19-mostly-cello/
• Orning, Tanya. 2015. "The ethics of performance practice in complex music after 1945," in Erling E. Guldbransen and Julian Johnson, Transformations of Musical Modernism, 299-318 (Cambridge University Press, 2015).
• Cook, Nicholas. 2013. 'Beyond the Score (Oxford University Press): article by Cox is central focus of Chapter 8 and cited elsewhere throughout book.
• Clarke, Colin. 2012. Review of Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf CD including Dr. Cox's recording of his The Courier's Tragedy, Tempo, Vol. 66, No. 261 (July 2012), pp. 77.
• Asmus, Bernd. 2011. Review of Franklin Cox, The New Cello, vol. 1: American Composers, Musik & Ästhetik (Winter, 2011).
• Hadjileontiadis, Leontios J. 2010. "Aesthetic Shifts from the Avant-garde towards the ‘Second Modernity’: The Swaddling of a New Compositional Thinking," Proceedings of the International Conference Beyond the Centres: Musical Avant-Gardes Since 1950, Thessaloniki, Greece, July 1–3, 2010.
• Antoniadis, Pavlos. 2010. "Learning complex piano music: Environmentalist applications," Proceedings of the International Conference Beyond the Centres: Musical Avant-Gardes Since 1950 Thessaloniki, Greece, July 1–3, 2010.
• Gann, Kyle. 2010. "The Mount Everest of String Quartets," PostClassic: Kyle Gann on Music after the Fact (Short review of 2010 American Innovators festival organized by Dr. Cox.)(http://www.artsjournal.com/postclassic/2010/03/the_mount_everest_of_string_qu.html), March 2010.
• Stefanou, Danae and Antoniadis, Pavlos. 2009. "Inter-Structures: Rethinking Continuity in Post-1945 Piano Repertoire," Journal of Interdisciplinary Music Studies, Spring/Fall 2009, Volume 3, Issue 1&2, pp. 77–93.
• Mahkopf, Claus-Steffen. 2000. "Das Generationsproblem der Neuen Musik," in Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 7 April 2001.
• Haltern, Ulrich R. 2000. "Musik (und Recht) heute." in Festschrift für Knut Ipsen (München, C. H. Beck, 2000).

References

1. Pace 1995, 37.
2. "Franklin Cox, Jr | people.wright.edu | Wright State University". people.wright.edu. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
3. Leonard 2011, 441–42.
4. Barbiero 2015.
5. "Search Journal for New Music and Culture". www.searchnewmusic.org. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
6. Duncan 2010, 139.
7. "2004 SCI Region II Conference – Society of Composers". wp.societyofcomposers.org. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
8. "Di-Redemption (Percussion Solo Unaccompanied | J.W. Pepper Sheet Music". www.jwpepper.com. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
9. "Theodore Front Musical Literature - Costanzi, Giovanni Battista". www.tfront.com. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
10. "String Theory 26: Some Duos, Duets". La Folia. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
11. "Something in the way they Move - Notating Physical Gesture". KLANG. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
12. Fox, Christopher (1993). "British Music at Darmstadt 1982–92". Tempo (186): 21–25. doi:10.1017/S0040298200003065. S2CID 144087915.
13. Edgerton, Michael Edward; Hashim, Nasir; Auhagen, Wolfgang (2014). "A case study of scaling multiple parameters by the violin". Musicae Scientiae. 18 (4): 473. doi:10.1177/1029864914550666. ISSN 1029-8649. S2CID 145332530.
14. "ECLAT 2011 - 3 - SWR ATTACCA in ECLAT: Cox, Chavez, Menezes - Theaterhaus Stuttgart". www.theaterhaus.com. Retrieved 2022-12-31.
15. "Toward a Projective Art", in The Second Century of New Music: Search Yearbook Volume 1, 169–181. Edited by Franklin Cox, Daniel Peter Biro, Alexander Sigman, Steven Kazuo Takasugi. Edwin Mellen Press, 2011
16. "Annäherungen an eine Projektive Kunst", Musik & Ästhetik (Jan. 2000), 79–85. Edited by Ludwig Holtmeier, Richard Klein, And Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Verlag.
17. "La vision d’ange nouveau, by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf," Ferdinand Zehentreiter, ed., Die Musik von Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf (Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2012), pp. 116–150.
18. "Elliott Carter zim 90. Geburtstag", in Musik & Ästhetik (Jan. 1999), 5–25. Edited by Ludwig Holtmeier, Richard Klein, And Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Verlag.
19. "Taruskins The Oxford History of Western Music", in Musik & Asthetik (Jan. 2012), 95–106. Edited by Ludwig Holtmeier, Richard Klein, And Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Verlag.
20. "Richard Taruskin's The Oxford History of Western Music Part 2", Search: Journal of New Music and Culture, Issue 10, Fall 2013: http://www.searchnewmusic.org/cox_taruskin_part2.pdf: 79 pages.
21. "Stanley Cavell on Modern Music: 'Music Discomposed' and 'A Matter of Meaning It' after Forty Years", in Journal of Music Theory 54:1, Spring 2010, 37–60. Edited by Brian Kane and Stephen Decatur Smith. Duke University Press.
22. "Über John Cage", in "Mythos Cage", 35-58. Edited by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 1999
23. "Aura and Electronic Music", in Electronics in New Music, New Music and Aesthetics in the 21st Century vol. 4. Edited by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Frank Cox, and Wolfram Schurig. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2006.
24. "Toward an Intelligent Corporality: The Virtual Body", in "Ars (in)humana?", 85–112. Edited by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf and Younghi Pagh-Paa. Bremen: Einwurf, 2003.
25. "Musical Progress? New Music and the Perils of Progressivist Historicism", in The Foundations of Contemporary Composing, New Music and Aesthetics in the 21st Century vol. 3. Edited by Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, Frank Cox, and Wolfram Schurig. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2004.
26. "Politics and Compositional Aesthetics", in Music and Politics, Contemporary Music Review Volume 34, Part 2–3, 2015, 197–209. Edited by Peter Nelson and Alistair Zaldua. Taylor and Francis, 2015.
27. Review of Perspectives for Contemporary Music in the 21st Century, Dàniel Péter Biró, Kai Johannes Polzhofer, ed., Musik & Ästhetik Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Verlag, 2016.
28. "Elliott Carters Harmony Book". In Musik & Asthetik (January 2007), 111–115. Edited by Ludwig Holtmeier, Richard Klein, And Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Verlag.
29. "Arditti String Quartet spielt Elliott Carter", Musik & Ästhetik (January 2001), 25–35 Edited by Ludwig Holtmeier, Richard Klein, And Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Verlag.
30. Avery, James and Cox, Franklin. 2010. "Hübler, Klaus K." in Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell, eds., The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 2nd ed. Version at Grove Music Online.
31. Paetzold, Cordula. 2013. "Ferneyhough––Cox––Thomalla: An Analysis, Two Outlooks, and the Question of a "New Complexity" School" Search –– Journal for New Music and Culture.(http://www.searchnewmusic.org), Fall 2013.
32. Cox, Franklin, Takasugi, Steven, and Ulman, Erik. 2003. "Zum Andenken Mark Osborns", Musik & Ästhetik (January 2003). Edited by Ludwig Holtmeier, Richard Klein, and Claus-Steffen Mahnkopf, 111-115. Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta Verlag.
33. "Helmut Lachenmann als romantischer Hochmodernist". In auf (-) und zuhören, 67–86. Edited by Hans-Peter Jahn. Hofheim: Wolke Verlag, 2005.
34. "Musical Progress? New Music and the Perils of Progressivist Historicism", trans. into Italian, "Il progresso musicale? La musica nova e i pericoli dello storicismo progressivista," Musica/realtà, July 2003, 139–164.

Sources

• Barbiero, Daniel Paul. 2015. "AMN Reviews: Franklin Cox – The New Cello Volume 2 [Centaur Records CRC3390". Avant Music News, November 2).
• Duncan, Stuart Paul. 2010. "Re-Complexifying the Function(s) of Notation in the Music of Brian Ferneyhough and the 'New Complexity'".Perspectives of New Music 48, no. 1 (Winter): 136–72. Cox's 2002 article, "Notes Toward a Performance Practice for Complex Music," (see above), plays a central role in Duncan's extended article.
• Leonard, Brenda. 2011. "Franklin Cox, The New Cello, Vol. 1: American Composers. Centaur Records CRC 2994.". Journal of the Society for American Music, 5 (3): 441–442. doi:10.1017/S1752196311000241
• Pace, Ian. 1995. "Frank Cox and Brian Ferneyhough". Tempo, new series, no. 194 (Italian issue) (October): 37–38.

External links

• Franklin Cox page on Wright State University website
• http://www.searchnewmusic.org/