Kalitha Dorothy Fox

{{Short description|English composer and author}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}

Kalitha Dorothy Fox (1894 – 11 August 1934) was an English composer.{{Cite web|url=http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no98075875/|title=Fox, K. Dorothy 1894-1934 (Kalitha Dorothy) [WorldCat Identities]}}{{cite book |title=International Encyclopedia of Women Composers: Volume 1|author=Cohen, Aaron I.|year=1987}} She was born in London to wealthy parents. Her mother died in 1905, and a year later, aged 11, she composed the solo piano piece Affliction – on the death of my mother, which was published by Augener. The arrangement - credited to 'L.L' - may have been by Liza Lehmann.Emma A. G. Cifrino. Beyond Rebecca Clarke: Viola Music by Ruth Gipps and Kalitha Fox, thesis (2020), pp. 10-19

A set of her mature compositions were published by Maurice Senart in the 1920s and 1930s, and there were occasional performances - her Suite for String Orchestra was heard in London in 1925, her substantial Piano Trio (lasting 40 minutes) was performed at a Society of Women Musicians concert at 74 Grosvenor Street, London on 10 July 1926,'Local composers in London concert', Buckinghamshire Examiner, 16 July 1926, p. 4 and her Viola Sonata was broadcast from Bournemouth on 21 November 1927.[https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/page/070eab4cbb9f4f9ab6c08042cf08cb86 Radio Times, Issue 216, 20 November 1927, p.11] Another trio, for flute, viola and piano, was performed at Grosvenor Street on 9 July, 1932.'London Concerts', The Musical Times, Vol. 73, No. 1074 (August 1932), p. 747 There are modern recordings of her Chant Élégiaque, op. 6 and her Viola Sonata, op, 7.[https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/09/brief-encounters-music-for-viola-piano-meridian/ Brief Encounters, Meridian CDE 84677/8-2 (2024)][https://musicwebinternational.com/2024/11/clarke-fox-soulage-fleury-roy-encircling-acis/ Encircling, Acis APL53974 (2024)]

Fox suffered from ill-health and a nervous disposition throughout her life. She had a London address in Hyde Park Square, spent some time in France, and from the mid-1920s until her death lived at Windsor House, Amersham with her friend, the novelist Christabel Lowndes-Yates (1880-1966). A concert of her music was given in London about a month before her death.

She committed suicide at the age of 40 at the White Hart Hotel in Windsor, having left the house at Amersham apparently upset by the noise of road drilling outside.'A Composer's Death: Too Noisy at Amersham', Buck's Herald, 17 August, 1934. p. 12 A number of half-finished manuscripts were found in her luggage. The death and inquest received considerable attention in the newspapers.[https://ia801705.us.archive.org/34/items/swm-box-1-ms-10705/SWM%20Box%201%20MS10705.jpg 'Inquest On Woman Composer', in The Times, 14 August 1934, p. 9]'Half-Finished Music in Room of Dead Woman', Daily Herald, 13 August 1934 Her estate was valued at £13,635.Sunday Times, 30 December 1934, p. 15 A Phantasy Quartet was performed as a tribute a year after her death.Society of Women Musicians Concert Programme, July 13, 1935[https://www.jstor.org/stable/917641 'London Concerts'], The Musical Times, Vol. 73, No. 1074 (August 1932), p. 747