Can it really be that no-one has mentioned the death on 23 April 2005 of the renowned Canadian composer and conductor Robert Farnon.
Captain Bob Farnon came to England with the Canadian Band of the AEF, along with his American counterpart, Glenn Miller. After the war he stayed in the UK and embarked on what would be a most distinguished career in music, composing, arranging and conducting his own orchestra on countless albums. Early assignments were writing the scores for films, such as the Herbert Wilcox productions starring Anna Neagle & Michael Wilding (Spring In Park Lane etc), 'Just William' films - and in later years 'Shalako', 'Road To Hong Kong' and 'Captain Horatio Hornblower'. In the 1940s and 1950s he arranged and conducted for the Decca label, accompanying artistes such as Gracie Fields, Anne Shelton, Denny Denis and Vera Lynn, and in the album era his orchestrations would be in demand by a number of great American vocalists, including Frank Sinatra, Lena Horne, Tony Bennett & Sarah Vaughan - and he also arranged and conducted albums by 'Singers Unlimited', George Shearing, Rawicz & Landauer and Jose Carreras. Farnon composed many light music cameos for Chappell Music Publishers, primarily for use as background music in newsreels etc, but many of these pieces were recorded by Bob's and other orchestras, and often became familiar through their use as radio and TV signature tunes. Among his compositions that will be well known to many of us on Whirligig are 'Portrait Of A Flirt', 'Jumping Bean', 'Journey Into Melody', 'Melody Fair', 'Westminster Waltz' and 'Manhattan Playboy'. He won a Grammy Award in 1996 for an arrangement recorded by jazz trombonist J.J.Johnson, and was also the recipient of several Ivor Novello Awards - including the theme for the TV series, 'Colditz'. Many of Robert Farnon's Decca albums are currently available on CD from Vocalion Records.
A sad loss to the world of music.
Brian
