Harry Farjeon
Encyclopedia
Harry Farjeon was a British composer
.
He was born in Hohokus, New Jersey
, USA, the eldest son of Jewish author Benjamin Farjeon
, and Margaret, the daughter of American actor Joseph Jefferson
. His parents returned to Britain when he was a baby and he lived in Hampstead
in London
for the rest of his life. His sister, Eleanor Farjeon
, with whom he shared a rich imaginary life, wrote children's books and poetry, including the well-loved hymn Morning Has Broken
. His brothers were J. Jefferson Farjeon, novelist, and Herbert Farjeon
, writer of theatrical revues.
He studied music privately with Landon Ronald
and John Storer, then in 1895 he entered the Royal Academy of Music
in London
, where he studied composition with Battison Haynes and Frederick Corder
, and piano with Septimus Webbe. There he was a contemporary of Arnold Bax
, York Bowen
, Adam Carse
, Eric Coates
and Benjamin Dale
.
An opera, Floretta, to a libretto by his sister, Eleanor, was produced at the Academy in 1899, and two operettas were performed at St George's Hall in 1901 and 1902. He left the RAM in 1900, but returned to teach composition in 1901. Two years later, at the age of 25, he became their youngest ever professor, having become the family wage-earner after the death of his father. He also taught at the Blackheath Conservatoire.
In 1903 his Piano Concerto in D minor was performed at a Promenade concert
. His Hans Andersen
suite for small orchestra was played with great success at a Patron's Fund concert of the Royal College of Music
in 1905, and also played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
and elsewhere. His Phantasy Piano Concerto and the St. Dominic Mass both won awards from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust
. In 1942 his symphonic poem Pannychis, with words by his sister Eleanor, was played at a Promenade Concert, conducted by Basil Cameron
. Farjeon regarded the symphonic poem Summer Vision as his best work, but the score was sent to Germany
shortly before World War I
and was lost.
Harry Farjeon composed music throughout most of his life. His compositions are mostly for piano, but he also wrote songs, sonatas, concertos and a mass setting. He also wrote about music for the Musical Times, the Daily Telegraph and other periodicals. Among his pupils were George Lloyd
, Christian Darnton, Phyllis Tate
, Daniel Jones
and Steve Race
.
His eyesight had been bad since childhood, and it grew worse as he became older. His students wrote their compositions on specially printed brown paper. Steve Race has said that writing on this paper cured him of writing long rambling compositions. Farjeon taught at the Academy for forty-seven years, despite developing Parkinson's disease
in later life. He was still teaching thirty students a week when, at the end of the July 1948 term, he fell and broke his hip. He died in Hampstead
on 29 December 1948.
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
.
He was born in Hohokus, New Jersey
Hohokus Township, Bergen County, New Jersey (Historical)
Hohokus Township was a township that existed in Bergen County, New Jersey and was established in 1849 from the northern part of Franklin Township and extended from the Saddle River on the east to the western boundary of Bergen County with Passaic County and north to the New York border.Hohokus...
, USA, the eldest son of Jewish author Benjamin Farjeon
Benjamin Farjeon
Benjamin Leopold Farjeon was a British novelist, playwright, printer and journalist. As an author, he was known for his huge output....
, and Margaret, the daughter of American actor Joseph Jefferson
Joseph Jefferson
Joseph Jefferson, commonly known as Joe Jefferson , was an American actor. He was the third actor of this name in a family of actors and managers, and one of the most famous of all American comedians....
. His parents returned to Britain when he was a baby and he lived in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
for the rest of his life. His sister, Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon
Eleanor Farjeon was an English author of children's stories and plays, poetry, biography, history and satire. Many of her works had charming illustrations by Edward Ardizzone. Some of her correspondence has also been published...
, with whom he shared a rich imaginary life, wrote children's books and poetry, including the well-loved hymn Morning Has Broken
Morning Has Broken
"Morning Has Broken" is a popular and well-known Christian hymn first published in 1931. It has words by English author Eleanor Farjeon and is set to a traditional Gaelic tune known as "Bunessan" . It is often sung in children's services...
. His brothers were J. Jefferson Farjeon, novelist, and Herbert Farjeon
Herbert Farjeon
Herbert Farjeon was a major figure in the British theatre from 1910 until his death. He was a presenter of revues in London's West End, a theatre critic, lyricist, librettist, playwright, theatre manager and researcher....
, writer of theatrical revues.
He studied music privately with Landon Ronald
Landon Ronald
Sir Landon Ronald was an English conductor, composer, pianist, singing teacher and administrator...
and John Storer, then in 1895 he entered the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, where he studied composition with Battison Haynes and Frederick Corder
Frederick Corder
Frederick Corder was an English composer and music teacher.-Biography:Corder was born in Hackney, the son of Micah Corder and his wife Charlotte Hill. He was educated at Blackheath Proprietary School and started music lessons, particularly piano, early. Later he studied with Henry Gadsby...
, and piano with Septimus Webbe. There he was a contemporary of Arnold Bax
Arnold Bax
Sir Arnold Edward Trevor Bax, KCVO was an English composer and poet. His musical style blended elements of romanticism and impressionism, often with influences from Irish literature and landscape. His orchestral scores are noted for their complexity and colourful instrumentation...
, York Bowen
York Bowen
Edwin York Bowen was an English composer and pianist. Bowen’s musical career spanned more than fifty years during which time he wrote over 160 works. As well as being a pianist and composer, Bowen was a talented conductor, organist, violist and horn player...
, Adam Carse
Adam Carse
Adam Carse was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. He was educated in Hanover and was a Macfarren scholar at the Royal Academy of Music, London where he studied composition with Frederick Corder....
, Eric Coates
Eric Coates
Eric Coates was an English composer of light music and a viola player.-Life:Eric was born in Hucknall in Nottinghamshire to William Harrison Coates , a surgeon, and his wife, Mary Jane Gwynne, hailing from Usk in Monmouthshire...
and Benjamin Dale
Benjamin Dale
Benjamin James Dale was an English composer and academic who had a long association with the Royal Academy of Music. Dale showed compositional talent from an early age and went on to write a small but notable corpus of works...
.
An opera, Floretta, to a libretto by his sister, Eleanor, was produced at the Academy in 1899, and two operettas were performed at St George's Hall in 1901 and 1902. He left the RAM in 1900, but returned to teach composition in 1901. Two years later, at the age of 25, he became their youngest ever professor, having become the family wage-earner after the death of his father. He also taught at the Blackheath Conservatoire.
In 1903 his Piano Concerto in D minor was performed at a Promenade concert
Promenade concert
See The PromsAlthough the term Promenade Concert is normally associated today with the series of concerts founded in 1895 by Robert Newman and the conductor Henry Wood – a festival known today as the BBC Proms – the term originally referred to concerts in the pleasure gardens of London where the...
. His Hans Andersen
Hans Andersen
Hans Andersen may refer to:*Hans Christian Andersen , Danish fairy tale writer*Hans Henrik Andersen , Danish physicist*Hans N. Andersen , Danish speedway rider...
suite for small orchestra was played with great success at a Patron's Fund concert of the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
in 1905, and also played by the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra is an English orchestra. Originally based in Bournemouth, the BSO moved its offices to the adjacent town of Poole in 1979....
and elsewhere. His Phantasy Piano Concerto and the St. Dominic Mass both won awards from the Carnegie United Kingdom Trust
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust
Carnegie United Kingdom Trust is a charitable foundation based in the United Kingdom, established by Scottish-born American steel magnate and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie on the model of his U.S. foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York....
. In 1942 his symphonic poem Pannychis, with words by his sister Eleanor, was played at a Promenade Concert, conducted by Basil Cameron
Basil Cameron
Basil Cameron, CBE was an English conductor. He was born in Reading, Berkshire, England, the son of a German immigrant family. His birth name was Basil George Cameron Hindenberg. -Career:...
. Farjeon regarded the symphonic poem Summer Vision as his best work, but the score was sent to Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
shortly before World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
and was lost.
Harry Farjeon composed music throughout most of his life. His compositions are mostly for piano, but he also wrote songs, sonatas, concertos and a mass setting. He also wrote about music for the Musical Times, the Daily Telegraph and other periodicals. Among his pupils were George Lloyd
George Lloyd (composer)
George Walter Selwyn Lloyd was a British composer.-Early life:Of Cornish ancestry, Lloyd grew up in a family with great enthusiasm for music. He was mainly home-schooled because of rheumatic fever. He later studied violin with Albert Sammons and composition with Harry Farjeon. He was a student at...
, Christian Darnton, Phyllis Tate
Phyllis Tate
Phyllis Tate was an English composer known for forming unusual instrumentations in her compositions. Her musical style has been called avant-garde and she is recognized for appealing to amateur performers and children....
, Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones
Daniel Jones is the name of:* Daniel Jones , phonetician, author of The Pronunciation of English* Daniel Jones , chancellor of the University of Mississippi* Daniel Jones , Welsh composer...
and Steve Race
Steve Race
Stephen Russell Race OBE was a British composer, pianist and radio and television presenter.-Biography:Born in Lincoln, the son of a lawyer, Race learned the piano from the age of five...
.
His eyesight had been bad since childhood, and it grew worse as he became older. His students wrote their compositions on specially printed brown paper. Steve Race has said that writing on this paper cured him of writing long rambling compositions. Farjeon taught at the Academy for forty-seven years, despite developing Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease
Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...
in later life. He was still teaching thirty students a week when, at the end of the July 1948 term, he fell and broke his hip. He died in Hampstead
Hampstead
Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...
on 29 December 1948.
Selected works
- Piano concerto in D (1903)
- Phantasy Piano Concerto
- Miniature Piano Sonata, Op. 12 (1906)
- Piano Sonata, Op. 43 (1920)
- Piano Trio
- Rhapsody for 2 pianos, Op. 70 (1931)
- The Art of Piano Pedalling (1923); 2 volumes
- The Art of Piano Phrasing, Op. 66 (1931)
- The Ballet of the Trees
- From the Three-Cornered Kingdom
- The Four Winds
- Moorish Idylls
- Night Music
- Peter Pan Sketches
- Pictures from Greece, for piano, Op. 13
- Tone-Pictures
- Twilight Pieces
- Venetian Idylls
- Vagrant Songs for baritone and piano, Op. 26 (1909)
- The Lute of Jade (1924)
- St Dominic Mass, Op. 51 (1923)
- 3 violin sonatas
- 4 string quartets
- 2 Morceaux for viola and piano (1911)
- Floretta, Opera
- The Registry Office, Operetta
- A Gentleman of the Road, Operetta in 1 act, Op. 6
- Hans Andersen Suite for small orchestra (1905)
- Idyll for oboe and orchestra
- Pannychis, Symphonic Poem
External links
- Harry Farjeon website
- Herbert Farjeon archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection, University of BristolUniversity of BristolThe University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...