Robert Farnon | |
|---|---|
| Born | Robert Joseph Farnon 24 July 1917 Toronto, Ontario, Canada |
| Died | 23 April 2005 (aged 87) Guernsey, Channel Islands |
| Occupation | Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. |
Robert Joseph Farnon CM [1] (24 July 1917 –23 April 2005) was a Canadian-born composer, conductor, musical arranger and trumpet player. As well as being a composer of original works (often in the light music genre), he was commissioned by film and television producers for theme and incidental music. In later life he composed a number of more serious orchestral works, including three symphonies, and was recognised with four Ivor Novello awards and the Order of Canada.
Robert Farnon was born in Toronto to Robert and Elsie Farnon (née Menzies). He was commissioned as a captain in the Canadian Army and became the conductor/arranger of the Canadian Band of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force sent overseas during World War II. This was the Canadian equivalent of the American Band of the SHAEF led by Major Glenn Miller. He was noted as a jazz trumpeter – his longtime friend Dizzy Gillespie once stated that he was pleased that Farnon took up composing, arranging and conducting, because Robert was the better jazz trumpeter. [2]
He married Joanne Dallas, a singer from the SHAEF band, whom he later divorced. At the end of the war Farnon decided to make England his home, and he later moved to Guernsey in the Channel Islands with his new wife Patricia Smith and his five children. His friend and fellow composer Wally Stott composed "A Canadian in Mayfair" as a tribute. [2]
He was considered by his peers to be the finest arranger in the world, and his talents influenced many composer-arrangers, including Quincy Jones, all of whom acknowledged his contributions to their work. Conductor André Previn called him "the greatest writer for strings in the world." [2] He was the musical director and conductor for Tony Bennett's 1972 series for Thames Television, Tony Bennett at the Talk of the Town .
He won four Ivor Novello Awards, including one for "Outstanding Services to British Music" in 1991, and in 1996 he won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement for "Lament" performed by J. J. Johnson & his Robert Farnon Orchestra. [2] He was also awarded the Order of Canada early in 1998. [2]
Robert Farnon died at the age of 87, at a hospice near his home of 40 years in Guernsey. He was survived by his wife Patricia and their five children, as well as two children from his previous marriage and his many grandchildren. [2] Farnon's older brother Brian and his younger brother Dennis were also orchestral composers, arrangers and conductors.
Farnon is probably best known for two famous pieces of light music, "Jumping Bean" and "Portrait of a Flirt", which were originally released in 1955 as the A and B sides on the same 78, and for "Westminster Waltz", and "A Star is Born". [2]
Farnon also wrote the music for more than forty motion pictures, including Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The Road to Hong Kong (1962), The Prisoner (1967–68), Shalako (1968) and Bear Island (1979). He wrote the theme tune and other music for many, mostly British, television series including Colditz (1972–74), Secret Army (1977–79), Kessler (1981), and A Man Called Intrepid (1979). [2] His score for the first episode of the spy-fi series The Champions (1968) was released on CD by Network DVD in 2009. He recorded production music for Chappell under the name Ole Jensen and the Melody Orchestra, and conducted the Queen's Hall Light Orchestra for Chappell under the name David King. [3]
From the early 1960s, Farnon was a prominent orchestral arranger for vocalists. He arranged and conducted Frank Sinatra's only album recorded outside of the United States, Sinatra Sings Great Songs from Great Britain (1962), in London. [4] Farnon also arranged and conducted Lena Horne's album Lena: A New Album (1976), [5] Tony Bennett's Christmas album Snowfall (1968), [6] and one of Sarah Vaughan's albums recorded in Denmark, Vaughan with Voices (1964). [7]
He also completed three full-length classical symphonies, a concerto for piano and orchestra called Cascades to the Sea, a rhapsody for violin and orchestra and a concerto for bassoon; [2] he was commissioned to compose the test piece for the 1975 Brass Band Championships of Great Britain finals held at the Albert Hall and constructed Un Vie de Matelot (A Sailor's Life), a set of variations based on an original theme.
The last piece he composed was entitled The Gaels: An American Wind Symphony, as a commission for the Roxbury High School band in honour of the school's mascot, the gael. The piece had its world premiere in May 2006. It was performed by the Roxbury High School Honors Wind Symphony under the direction of Dr. Stanley Saunders, a close friend of Farnon.
His 1954 piece, "Derby Day", was used for Rádio e Televisão de Portugal television services when they commenced on 7 March 1957. It became one of the station's anthems. [8]
The 2nd Annual Grammy Awards were held on November 29, 1959, at Los Angeles and New York. They recognized musical accomplishments by performers for the year 1959. Hosted by Meredith Willson, this marked the first televised Grammy Award ceremony, and it was aired in episodes as special Sunday Showcase. It was held in the same year as the first Grammy Awards in 1959, and no award ceremony was held in 1960. These awards recognized musical accomplishments by performers for that particular year. Frank Sinatra and Duke Ellington each won three awards.
The 5th Annual Grammy Awards were held on May 15, 1963, at Chicago, Los Angeles and New York City. They recognized accomplishments by musicians for the year 1962. Tony Bennett and Igor Stravinsky each won 3 awards.
The 8th Annual Grammy Awards were held March 15, 1966, at Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and New York. They recognized accomplishments of musicians for the year 1965. Roger Miller topped off the Grammys by winning 5 awards, whereas Herb Alpert and Frank Sinatra each won 4 awards.
The 9th Annual Grammy Awards were held on March 2, 1967, at Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville and New York. They recognized accomplishments of musicians for the year 1966. The 9th Grammy Awards is notable for not presenting the Grammy Award for Best New Artist. Frank Sinatra won 5 awards.
Edward William May Jr. was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for The Green Hornet (1966), The Mod Squad (1968), Batman, and Naked City (1960). He collaborated on films such as Pennies from Heaven (1981), and orchestrated Cocoon, and Cocoon: The Return, among others.
Robert Russell Bennett was an American composer and arranger, best known for his orchestration of many well-known Broadway and Hollywood musicals by other composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Jerome Kern, Cole Porter, and Richard Rodgers.
John Alfred Mandel was an American composer and arranger of popular songs, film music and jazz. The musicians he worked with include Count Basie, Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Anita O'Day, Barbra Streisand, Tony Bennett, Diane Schuur and Shirley Horn. He won five Grammy Awards, from 17 nominations; his first nomination was for his debut film score for the multi-nominated 1958 film I Want to Live!
Morton Gould was an American composer, conductor, arranger, and pianist.
Robert Leo Hackett was a versatile American jazz musician who played Swing music, Dixieland jazz and Mood music, now called Easy Listening, on trumpet, cornet, and guitar. He played Swing with the bands of Glenn Miller and Benny Goodman in the late 1930s and early 1940s, he played Dixieland music from the 1930s into the 1970s in a variety of groups with many of the major figures in the field, and he was a featured soloist on the first ten of the numerous Jackie Gleason mood music albums during the 1950s.
The Edmonton Symphony Orchestra (ESO) is a Canadian orchestra based in Edmonton, Alberta. As the professional orchestra of Alberta's creative capital city it presents over 85 concerts a year of symphonic music in all genres, from classical to country. Currently in its 72nd season, the orchestra is composed of 56 core professional musicians who perform 42 weeks per season and who play an active role in the musical life of Edmonton and elsewhere as performers, teachers and recording artists. The ESO also performs as the orchestra for Edmonton Opera and Alberta Ballet productions, and its recordings are regularly heard across Canada on CBC Radio 2.
The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16- to 18-piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 1950s, the band survived long past the big band era itself and the death of Basie in 1984. It continues under the direction of trumpeter Scotty Barnhart.
Claus Ogerman was a German arranger, conductor, and composer best known for his work with Billie Holiday, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Frank Sinatra, Michael Brecker, and Diana Krall.
Bernie Glow was an American trumpet player who specialized in jazz and commercial lead trumpet from the 1940s to 1970s.
Donald John Sebesky was an American composer, arranger, conductor, and jazz trombonist. He was a multi-instrumentalist and could play a number of other instruments: keyboards, electric piano, organ, accordion, and clavinet.
Frederick Eugene John Lees was a Canadian music critic, biographer, lyricist, and journalist. Lees worked as a newspaper journalist in his native Canada before moving to the United States, where he was a music critic and lyricist. His lyrics for Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Corcovado", have been recorded by such singers as Frank Sinatra, Peggy Lee, Queen Latifah, and Diana Krall.
Snowfall: The Tony Bennett Christmas Album is a 1968 studio album by Tony Bennett, his first Christmas album. It was arranged and conducted by Robert Farnon.
Morris Cecil Davis was a Canadian composer, arranger, and conductor. He was sometimes referred to as "Rusty Davis". A largely self-taught composer and orchestrater, he wrote more than 200 jingles for Canadian radio and television. He also contributed incidental music to more than 100 radio and TV programs and composed more than 30 scores for feature films; including the scores to Whispering City (1947), La Forteresse (1947), Le Curé de village (1949), and Tambour battant (1952). He also composed a number of orchestral works, songs, and jazz pieces. His jazz concerto Blues and Finales in G (1942) is written in the style of Rhapsody in Blue, and his Serenade for Trumpet in Jazz was played often in concerts by Maynard Ferguson.
George Siravo was an American composer, arranger, conductor, saxophonist, and clarinetist.
Tony Bennett at the Talk of the Town was a British television series hosted by American pop standards and jazz singer Tony Bennett that aired during 1972. It was staged in London from the Talk of the Town nightclub in conjunction with Thames Television. In the United States and Canada, the programme was known as This Is Music, and was aired in 1974 and 1976, respectively.
Dennis Farnon was a Canadian musical arranger, composer and orchestra conductor.
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