- Harry Farjeon
Harry Farjeon (
May 6 ,1878 –December 29 ,1948 ) was an Englishcomposer .He was born in Hohokus, New Jersey, the eldest son of author
Benjamin Farjeon , and Margaret, the daughter of actorJoseph Jefferson . They returned to England when he was a baby and he lived inHampstead 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 hymnMorning Has Broken . His brothers wereJ. Jefferson Farjeon , novelist, andHerbert Farjeon , writer of theatricalrevues .He studied music privately with
Landon Ronald andJohn Storer , then in 1895 he entered theRoyal Academy of Music inLondon , where he studied composition withBattison Haynes andFrederick Corder , and piano withSeptimus Webbe . There he was a contemporary ofArnold Bax ,York Bowen ,Adam Carse ,Eric Coates andBenjamin 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 theBlackheath Conservatoire .In 1903 his Piano Concerto in D minor was performed at a
Promenade concert . HisHans Andersen suite for small orchestra was played with great success at a Patron's Fund concert of theRoyal College of Music in 1905, and also played atBournemouth and elsewhere. His Phantasy piano concerto won aCarnegie Award . In 1942 his symphonic poemPannychis , with words by his sister Eleanor, was played at a Promenade Concert, conducted byBasil Cameron . Farjeon regarded the symphonic poem Summer Vision as his best work, but the score was sent toGermany shortly beforeWorld 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 , theDaily Telegraph and other periodicals. Among his pupils were George Lloyd,Christian Darnton ,Phyllis Tate andSteve 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.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 two pianos" Op.70 (1931)
* "The Art of Piano Pedalling" (2 vols) (1923)
* "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, Tone-Pictures, Twilight Pieces, Venetian Idylls"
* "Vagrant Songs" Op.26 (1909)
* "The Lute of Jade" (1924)
* "St Dominic Mass" Op.51 (1923)
* "Three violin sonatas, four string quartets"
* "2 Morceaux" for Viola and Piano (1911)
* "Floretta, an opera"
* "The Registry Office, an operetta"
* "A Gentleman of the Road, an operetta"
* "Hans Andersen suite for small orchestra" (1905)
* "Idyll for oboe and orchestra"
* "Pannychis, symphonic poem"References
* "Eleanor Farjeon: A Nursery in the Nineties" (Gollancz, 1935)
* "Annabel Farjeon: Morning has broken: a biography of Eleanor Farjeon" (Julia MacRae, 1986)External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/claire_salmon/harryfarjeon.html Harry Farjeon]
* [http://www.bris.ac.uk/theatrecollection/farjeon.html Herbert Farjeon archive at the University of Bristol Theatre Collection] ,University of Bristol
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