Virgil Fox (The Dish)

Virgil Fox (The Dish), Richard Torrence and Marshall Yeager, Circles International, 2003

Based on a memoir by Ted Alan Worth, this is a look at easily the most famous organist since Johann Sebastian Bach.

Worth first met Fox when he played an organ concert at a church in California. Worth was totally blown away by the things Fox did that day; he didn't just play the organ (from memory, which was unheard of in the organ world), he mastered the organ. Is there a word beyond "virtuoso"? That is how good Fox was on the organ. After years of practice, Worth became one of the Fox "group" and became an organist on his own.

During the 1950s and 1960s, Fox was the organist at the Riverside Church in New York City. His gay lover, Richard Weagly, was the Choir Director. The unpleasant end to their relationship was played out in front of everyone. Fox spent a lot of time on tour, playing in churches and concert halls all over America. After each concert, Fox loved spending hours greeting everyone who stood in line to chat or get an autograph. He was a natural showman who wanted people to know who he was, and demanded to be able to be seen by the audience.

It was also the era of pipe organs (before electronics) where each pipe had to be tuned individually. Fox was extremely picky about the sound of whatever organ he was playing, frequently driving organ tuners nuts. In the late 1960s, Fox was asked to resign from the Riverside Church; he had gotten "too big" for the Church.

This book chronicles many ups and downs in Fox's life, both personal and professional. To replace Richard, his lover, Fox brought home a much younger man named David. He was not well liked by the people around Fox, including his manager, and David did little to endear himself to the group. In the late 1970s, Fox entered the hospital for a prostate operation. He was told that the whole tumor was removed, and everything was fine. Fox did nothing about it for a year, only to be told that just half the tumor was removed, and the cancer had spread. He died in October 1980.

This is an excellent, but specialized, book. Anyone who is interested in organ music, or the life of Virgil Fox, should read this book. For everyone else, Fox was a person who enjoyed life to the fullest, and it shows here. It is very much recommended.