Introduction

Biography

Marks’ fa­ther (who had the same name) was or­gan­ist and choir mas­ter at the Cork Ca­thed­ral for 43 years.

James stu­died mu­sic un­der his father; his un­cle, T. Os­borne Marks, or­gan­ist of Ar­magh Ca­thed­ral; and with Pro­fess­or R. P. Stew­art of Tri­ni­ty Col­lege, Dub­lin. He re­ceived vo­cal train­ing from Sims Reeves, whose spe­cial ac­com­pa­nist he was dur­ing Reeves’ fi­nal fare­well tour in Ire­land.

Marks was or­gan­ist and choir mas­ter at St. Luke’s Epis­co­pal Church in Cork (1881–1902).

In 1902, he emi­grat­ed to Am­eri­ca and be­came the or­gan­ist at St. An­drew’s Church in Pitts­burgh, Penn­syl­van­ia. In 1904, he be­came or­gan­ist and choir di­rect­or at the Church of the Hea­ven­ly Rest in New York, he serv­ing un­til 1929.

Marks re­ceived a Doc­tor of Mu­sic de­gree from New York Uni­ver­si­ty in 1908, served as pre­si­dent of the Na­tion­al As­so­cia­tion of Or­gan­ists in 1912 and 1913, and was an As­so­ci­ate of the Am­eri­can Guild of Or­gan­ists.

Works

He wrote the can­ta­ta Vic­to­ry Divine, the an­them The Day Is Past and Ov­er (1888), and ma­ny oth­er piec­es.