Arthur Farwell

Synopsis

During his stay in America, the Czech composer Antonin Dvorak became convinced that distinctive American music could be based on two sources: the work songs and spirituals of African-Americans and the chants and dances of indigenous Native American tribes. By the early 20th century, a number of American composers had taken his suggestions to heart.

One of them, Arthur Farwell, was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on today’s date in 1872. Farwell went to MIT intending to become an electrical engineer, and did, in fact, get his engineering degree in 1893, the same year Dvorak’s views began appearing in the press. Farwell decided that a musical career might be more interesting than engineering. Frustrated at his inability to find a publisher for his set of solo piano transcriptions entitled American Indian Melodies, he formed his own publishing house.

Farwell also set Emily Dickinson poems to music, experimented with polytonality, and, in 1916, arranged for the first “light show” in New York’s Central Park, decades before the psychedelic 1960s. Farwell taught at Cornell, UC Berkley and Michigan State, but never felt at home in academia, preferring to organize community-based musical pageants with audience participation. He died at the age of 79 in New York in 1953.

Music Played in Today's Program

Arthur Farwell (1872 – 1952) Navajo War Dance and Song of Peace Dario Muller, piano Marco Polo 223715

On This Day

Births

• 1464 - English composer Robert Fayrfax, in Deeping Gate, Lincolnshire;

• 1857 - Italian opera composer Ruggiero Leoncavallo, in Naples;

• 1869 - German composer and conductor Hans Pfitzner (see May 5);

• 1872 - American composer and music educator Arthur Farwell, in St. Paul, Minn.;

• 1891 - Russian composer Sergei Prokofiev, in Sontsovka (Bakhmutsk region, Yekaterinoslav district), Ukraine (Julian date: April 11);

Deaths

• 1691 - French composer, harpsichordist and organist Jean Henri d'Angelbert, age 62, in Paris;

Premieres

• 1627 - Heinrich Schütz: opera "Dafne" (now lost), at Hartenfels Castle for the wedding of Princess Sophia of Saxony; This work is supposedly the first German opera;

• 1776 - Gluck: Alceste (2nd version), in Paris at the Académie Royale;

• 1881 - Gilbert Sullivan: operetta "Patience," at the Opera-Comique Theatre oinLondon;

• 1904 - Chadwick: "Euterpe" Overture, by the Boston Symphony;

• 1911 - Berg: String Quartet, Op.3, in Vienna, by the ad hoc quartet Brunner-Holzer-Buchbinder-Hasa Quartet; A later performance in Salzburg on August 2, 1923, by the Havemann Quartet at the First International Festival for Chamber Music , however, attracted wider attention and established Berg's worldwide reputation in musical circles;

• 1920 - Janácek: opera "The Excursions of Mr. Broucek," in Prague at the National Theater;

• 1922 - Varèse: "Offrandes" for voice and small orchestra, in New York City, with Carlos Salzedo conducting;

• 1948 - Jolivet: Concerto for Ondes Martenot and Orchestra, in Vienna;

• 1958 - Robert Kurka: opera "The Good Soldier Schweik" (posthumously) at the New York City Opera;

• 1979 - Rochberg: "The Slow Fires of Autumn," for flute and harp, at Tully Hall in New York, with flutist Carol Wincenc;

• 1981 - Ezra Laderman: String Quartet No. 6 ("The Audubon"), in New York City, by the Audubon Quartet;

• 1993 - Morten Lauridsen: "Les Chanson des Roses"(five French poems by Rilke) for mixed chorus and piano, by the Choral Cross-Ties ensemble of Portland, Ore., Bruce Brown conducting;

• 1994 - Broadway premiere of Sondheim: musical "Passion";

• 1998 - James MacMillan: "Why is this night different?" for string quartet, at London's Wigmore Hall by the Maggini Quartet;

Others

• 1738 - Handel is a founding subscriber to the "Fund for the Support of Decayed Musicians" (now the Royal Society of Musicians) at its first meeting at the Crown and Anchor Tavern in London; The fund was started after the widow and children of Handel's oboe soloist, John Kitch, were found impoverished on the streets of London; Other subscribers to the fund included the British composers Boyce, Arne, Green, and Pepusch (Gregorian date: May 4).