Today In Bethlehem Hear I – SATB

This light and lilting a capella piece is a little gem in our library, suitable for a high school or adult choir
About Dr. Michael Cox

The music of Dr. Michael Cox reflects the many roles he has held throughout his career: composer, conductor, pianist, professor, church musician, copyist, and engraver. His catalog moves comfortably between intimate choral pieces and expansive works for chorus and orchestra, revealing a musician equally attentive to expressive detail and practical performance needs.

Choral music occupies a particularly important place in Dr. Cox’s work. His online catalog contains more than 150 choral entries, including sacred anthems, concert selections, psalm settings, and music for mixed, treble, and men’s voices. Among these is Lift Us Up, a work for choir, piano, and high-voice soloist originally written for the Oklahoma Baptist University Bison Glee Club and soloist Allen Richard.

His larger works demonstrate an equally ambitious side of his writing. Deo Gratias, for example, is scored for eight-part choir, SATB soloists, and full orchestra, drawing upon the Gloria, Psalm 93, and texts by Wesley Forbis. Another major composition, Symphonic Psalms, uses texts from eight psalms in a multi-movement work for chorus and orchestra. Oklahoma Baptist University presented Symphonic Psalms as its 2004 Oratorio Project, returning Dr. Cox’s music to a university that had been central to his own development.

Dr. Cox graduated from Oklahoma Baptist University in 1970 with honors in piano performance and returned in 1972 to join its music faculty. During the next eighteen years, he taught composition, conducting, music theory, and church music. He also became the second conductor in the history of the Bison Glee Club, directing the men’s ensemble for thirteen years and helping shape a tradition remembered with affection by many of its former singers.

His work at OBU extended beyond the choral rehearsal room. Dr. Cox conducted the university’s Concerto-Aria Competition, giving student soloists experience performing with orchestral musicians. His years there brought together the principal strands of his professional life: rigorous musical study, mentorship, ensemble performance, and the creation of new music.

In 1990, Dr. Cox moved to Fort Worth to become Professor of Music Theory and Composition at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. During his nineteen years at the seminary, he also directed the Men’s Chorus from 1993 to 2003 and the Southwestern Singers from 2006 until his retirement in 2009. His teaching encouraged students to see theory and composition not simply as academic disciplines, but as practical tools for understanding and communicating music.

Fort Worth also provided Dr. Cox with opportunities to contribute to the musical life of the wider community. He appeared as a guest conductor with the Fort Worth Civic Orchestra, an ensemble founded in 1977 to give volunteer musicians from across North Central Texas a place to rehearse and perform symphonic music. The orchestra’s combination of community participation and serious music-making closely reflects the kind of accessible musical service found throughout Dr. Cox’s career.

Dr. Cox was selected as the Texas Music Teachers Association’s commissioned composer in 1995. The association’s commissioning program supports the creation and premiere of new American music, placing him in a succession of composers that has included Donald Grantham, Fisher Tull, Simon Sargon, and Mary Jeanne van Appledorn.

His formal studies prepared him to approach music from several complementary perspectives. In addition to his undergraduate training as a pianist, Dr. Cox earned a Master of Music in orchestral conducting from the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and a Doctor of Music in composition from Florida State University. He continues his connection to sacred music as Composer-in-Residence at Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth.

Whether writing for a church choir, shaping the sound of a men’s ensemble, preparing a complex orchestral score, or teaching students how music is constructed, Dr. Cox has pursued a remarkably complete musical life. His career reflects the belief that composition is not an isolated activity, but part of a larger relationship among creators, performers, teachers, congregations, and audiences.