Harry Farjeon

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Harry Farjeon (May 6, 1878 – December 29, 1948) was an English composer.

He was born in Hohokus, New Jersey, the eldest son of author Benjamin Farjeon, and Margaret, the daughter of actor Joseph Jefferson. They returned to England when he was a baby and he lived in Hampstead 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 at Bournemouth and elsewhere. His Phantasy piano concerto won a Carnegie Award. 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 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.

[edit] 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
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

[edit] References

Eleanor Farjeon: A Nursery in the Nineties (Gollancz, 1935)
Annabel Farjeon: Morning has broken: a biography of Eleanor Farjeon (Julia MacRae, 1986)