Born on 24 July 1917 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and passing away on 23 April 2005 in Guernsey, Channel Islands, British Isles, Farnon displayed prodigious musical ability from an early age. Several instruments came easily to him, and by eleven he had already joined the Toronto Junior Symphony Orchestra. Joining the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation Orchestra in 1932 placed him under musical director Percy Faith, who assigned him numerous choral arrangements. His First Symphony reached the concert stage in 1941 when the Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra performed it under Eugene Ormandy.
World War II prompted Farnon to enlist in the Canadian army; he was posted to Europe as conductor of the Canadian Band of the American Expeditionary Force. After hostilities ended he settled in the UK, supplying arrangements to ensembles led by Ted Heath and Geraldo. He also founded and directed a studio orchestra for a long-running BBC radio series. Several of his light-orchestral works gained wide popularity, among them “Jumping Bean,” “Portrait Of A Flirt,” “The Westminster Waltz,” and “The Colditz March.” Additional notable pieces include “Melody Fair,” “Peanut Polka,” “A La Claire Fontaine,” “Gateway To The West,” “Pictures In The Fire,” “A Star Is Born,” “Manhattan Playboy,” “Journey Into Melody,” “Lake Of The Woods,” “Derby Day,” and “State Occasion.”
From the late 1940s into the early 1950s he supplied scores for motion pictures such as I Live In Grosvenor Square (1945), Spring In Park Lane (1948), Maytime In Mayfair (1949), Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N. (1951), His Majesty O’Keefe (1954), Gentlemen Marry Brunettes (1955), The Little Hut (1957), The Sheriff Of Fractured Jaw (1958), The Road To Hong Kong (1962), The Truth About Spring (1964), Shalako (1968), and Bear Island (1979). In 1962 he arranged and conducted Frank Sinatra’s Great Songs From Great Britain, marking the singer’s first UK-recorded broadcast. Television work followed, yielding signature themes for Panorama, Armchair Theatre, Colditz, The Secret Army, and Kessler, while occasional radio appearances and specially assembled orchestras for concerts and sessions continued.
The year 1996 brought a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Arrangement for the track “Lament” on his Tangence album with trombonist J.J. Johnson. The following year, worldwide admirers—including members of an active British-based appreciation society—marked his eightieth birthday. In 1998 he received the Order Of Canada and completed a new piano concerto scheduled for recording by the Czechoslovakia Symphony Orchestra in Bratislava.
