Presents

Arthur Farwell

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Piano Quintet in e minor, Op.103

Arthur Farwell (1872-1952) was born in St Paul, Minnesota. He trained as an engineer at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, graduating in 1893, but was turned towards a musical career by contact with the eccentric Boston-based composer Rudolf Gott. After studying in Boston with George Chadwick, he became a pupil of Engelbert Humperdinck and Hans Pfitzner in Berlin and later with Alexandre Guilmant in Paris. Returning to the U.S., he lectured in music at Cornell University and founded the Wa-Wan Press, dedicated to publishing the works of the American Indianist composers, among whom Farwell himself was a leading figure. He worked as a conductor and director of Music School Settlement. In 1918 he became Head of the music department at the University of California, Berkeley. After teaching at Michigan State College he eventually returned to New York.

His Piano Quintet in e minor, Op.103 was composed in  1937. In it, Farwell’s tonal vocabulary includes polytonality, chromaticism and an urgent sense of motion tempered by moments of tenderness. In four movements. it opens with a quotation from the Scherzo of Dvorak’s “American” Quartet, Opus 96. A somber main theme in the lower strings dominates the movement but at the end Farwell reminds the listener that Dvorak was his inspiration for promoting indigenous music. Although Dvorak is quoted,  the writing calls to mind Cesar Franck and Florent Schmitt more than anything else. The slow movement is harmonically the most dense. It is meant to carry the play of overtones suggested by the effect of a large Chinese gong sounding repeatedly, building with an almost hypnotic effect. A scherzo, Moderately fast, has lively thematic exchanges recalling Mendelssohn, but with surprises that bring the listener and player back to the 20^th Century. The work ends with a grandiose and hard-driving finale. Quite memorable are episodes of ghostly tones, sinister scurrying and ecstatic arrivals leading to a wholly effective conclusion.

This is certainly a work which deserves to be heard in concert where it will make an indelible impression.

Parts: $44.95