The Master’s Touch – SATB

This is an easily accessible piece for just about any choir. It is a beautiful setting of the poem by Horatius Bonar. Gorgeous harmonies and a moving accompaniment permeate the piece.
About Dr. Michael Cox

Dr. Michael Cox understands music from nearly every side of the page. He has spent his career composing it, teaching its structure, conducting it in rehearsal and performance, playing it at the piano, and preparing it for publication as a copyist and engraver. That unusually broad experience has made him a versatile and practical musician whose work serves performers in churches, schools, universities, and community ensembles.

An ASCAP award-winning composer, Dr. Cox has more than 160 published works. His catalog ranges from sacred anthems and extended choral compositions to music for piano, orchestra, brass, strings, and other instrumental combinations. Published titles include works for mixed, treble, and men’s voices, as well as instrumental compositions such as *Nowell for Two Violins and Piano*. His music has appeared through more than 16 publishers, reflecting both the variety of his writing and its usefulness to many kinds of musicians.

Dr. Cox’s long association with church music continues through his service as Composer-in-Residence at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. His experience as a conductor and church musician gives him an intimate understanding of how music must function in worship—not only as notes on a page, but as something shaped by text, acoustics, rehearsal time, congregational life, and the abilities of real singers and instrumentalists.

Education has been equally important to his career. From 1972 to 1990, Dr. Cox served on the music faculty of Oklahoma Baptist University, where he taught composition, conducting, music theory, and church music. He also directed the Bison Glee Club for 13 years, guiding students in the discipline and fellowship of men’s choral singing. His work at OBU later came full circle when the university presented his eight-movement *Symphonic Psalms* as its 2004 Oratorio Project. The work had been commissioned by Scott Oyer, one of Dr. Cox’s former students and a former member of the Bison Glee Club.

In 1990, Dr. Cox joined Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth as Professor of Music Theory and Composition. During his 19 years at Southwestern, he also directed the Men’s Chorus and, later, the Southwestern Singers. He retired from the seminary in 2009 after decades of helping students understand not only how music is constructed, but how it communicates.

Dr. Cox has also maintained an active life on the podium. He conducted Oklahoma Baptist University’s annual Concerto-Aria Competition, which paired student soloists with musicians from the Oklahoma City Philharmonic Orchestra, and he has traveled throughout the country leading choral clinics. His guest-conducting appearances have included the Fort Worth Civic Orchestra and the New Philharmonic Orchestra of Irving.

His professional recognition includes receiving the ASCAP Standard Award annually beginning in 1987. In 1995, he was selected as the commissioned composer of the Texas Music Teachers Association, an annual program devoted to encouraging the creation and premiere of new music by American composers.

Dr. Cox earned his Bachelor of Music with honors in piano performance from Oklahoma Baptist University, his Master of Music in orchestral conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, and his Doctor of Music in composition from Florida State University. Those three areas of study—performance, conducting, and composition—continue to define a career devoted to bringing music from its first creative idea to its final sounding performance.