Ernest Farrar

Ernest Bristow Farrar (born July 7, 1885 in Lewisham , † September 18, 1918 at Épehy ) was an English composer and organist .

Life

Ernest Farrar was born in Lewisham (now part of Greater London ) and grew up in Yorkshire , where his father was vicar in Micklefield . He attended grammar school in Leeds and received organ lessons while still at school; from 1903 to 1905 he was the organist in Micklefield.

In May 1905 Farrar received a scholarship to the Royal College of Music . There he studied with Charles Villiers Stanford (composition) and Walter Parratt (organ). Stanford and his colleague Hubert Parry sponsored Farrar, who in 1909 got a position as organist in Dresden (at the English church "All Saints") for 6 months . After returning to England, Farrar worked first in South Shields , and from 1912 in Harrogate as organist and orchestral conductor. In 1913 he married Olive Mason. In 1914 he accepted the young Gerald Finzi as a composition student.

Farrar, who had volunteered as a war volunteer, fell as an officer during the Battle of Épehy just under two months before the end of the First World War in France. His grave is also located there. His friend Frank Bridge dedicated his piano sonata (1921–24) to Farrar's memory; also in 1924 his student Gerald Finzi wrote the Requiem da camera "in memory of EBF"

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Farrar was considered one of the most promising English composers of his generation. By his untimely death he wrote almost 40 compositions with opus numbers, especially works for orchestra, vocal music and organ music. These include the cantata The Blessed Damozel (premiered in 1908 under Stanford) and the song cycle Vagabond Songs . His last orchestral work, the Heroic Elegy , dates from May 1918 and bears the note "For Soldiers" on the title page. A Sea Symphony , like a string quartet , remained unfinished.

Farrar's music shows influences from Edward Elgar and his friend Ralph Vaughan Williams , but also from Richard Wagner , Frederick Delius and Russian late romanticism.

Apart from a few songs and the orchestral work English Pastoral Impressions (premiered in 1915), Farrar's works are hardly noticed today. In 1997 a CD was released on the Chandos Records label with premier recordings of several orchestral works by Farrar.

source

• Notes from Bernard Benoliel in the supplement to the CD "Ernest Farrar - Orchestral Works" (CHAN 9586).

Web links

• Biography of Ernest Farrar (Engl.) ( Memento of 28 September 2007 at the Internet Archive )
• Reminder of Farrar on the homepage of Christ Church, Harrogate ( Memento from September 28, 2007 in the Internet Archive )