Henry George Farmer

Henry George Farmer ( born January 17, 1882 in Birr, Ireland, † December 30, 1965 in Law, South Lanarkshire, Scotland ) was a British historian of music, composer, conductor and musician. He dealt with the history of Arab music, their influence on the medieval European music theory, he pointed out, with the history of European military music and the Scottish brass band. Farmer was regarded as authority for the theory of Arabic music and the history of the Arab musical instruments.

Career

Henry George Farmer was born in 1882 as son of Henry George Farmer († 1900) and Mary Ann Harling in Birr Barracks in the village of Crinkle, which at that time belonged to the King's County (now County Offaly ). His interest in oriental music probably goes back to his father, who served as an interpreter in the Leinster regiment of the British Army in British India and the Middle East and spoke fluent Arabic and Hindustani. The boy received instruction in violin and clarinet at the Regimental School in Birr. Local newspapers reported that he was ten years old, together with his older sister on the violin concerts. Farmers teachers for piano and harmony was the organist at the Catholic St. Brendan 's Church, where he was a chorister.

At age 13, he was with his father on a holiday trip to London, where she the Royal Artillery Orchestra heard on a Sunday afternoon concert, which was directed by Ladislao Zavertal. The boy was excited and immediately wanted to be an orchestral musician. A year later, in 1896, he was accepted as a young musician in this orchestra and participated in the last row with. In order to improve his position, he took private lessons with several teachers on the violin and clarinet, so in 1902 rose for the first horn player and starred in this position until 1910. Alongside he also joined with other orchestras as a musician and sometimes as a conductor.

As a farmer because of a break condition that he had possibly contracted band at the long marches of the Royal Artillery, had to end his musical activities, his conducting career began at the Broadway Theatre in New Cross, London. During 1910-1913 he held the musical director there, he was also active in many other musical areas, with which he earned his livelihood. He taught music at several county schools, founded the Irish Orchestra in London and conducted 1911-12 concerts, organized by the National Sunday League.

1914 Farmer received the offer, musical director of the Coliseum Theatre in Glasgow to become. In the first half, he held this position, he then joined the local Empire Theatre, where he remained connected as conductor until 1947. His conducting activities decreased in the evening, so he - apart from theater rehearsals Monday morning - found during the day time for his studies.

Prior to his relocation to Glasgow he joined the Amalgamated Musicians' Union ( AMU). This union would enforce minimum wages and better working conditions for orchestral musicians. As president of the local chapter in Glasgow in 1918, he founded the Scottish Musicians Benevolent Fund, a charity for musicians, should be helped financially in times of sickness and other problems. One such organization was needed at a time when the talkies used in theaters and silent movies accompanying musicians were unemployed. Under the name of Musicians' Benevolent Fund, the organization now operates throughout the UK. In 1919 he founded the Glasgow Symphony Orchestra to life, its Sunday concerts he conducted until the 1940s. The Dr Farmer's Sax band appeared around 1918 for the first time at the Winter Garden, a glass building in the Park Glasgow Green. Another club was founded the Scottish Music Society in 1936.

1927 Farmer was elected to the board of the Executive Committee of the Musicians ' Union, which was a merger of the AMU and the National Union of Professional Orchestral Musicians, another musicians' union. Farmer took over from 1929 to 1933, the editorship of the association's journal and wrote even the majority of posts in which the social problems of the musicians were widely discussed. In order not to place undue appear as a one-man magazine, he hid his contributions behind a half-dozen pseudonyms.

After 1922, the BBC was founded, it was the task of farmers trade union official to negotiate at the invitation of John Reith, the treaties to which the musicians should be employed. Farmer was from 1928 to 1939 a member of the Scottish Advisory Committee on Music and the BBC from 1929 to 1933 editor of the Musicians ' Journal. From 1951 to 1965 he worked as a librarian at Glasgow University Library and supervised their music collection. Henry George Farmer died shortly before his 84th birthday.

Achievements in the field of Arabic music

The publisher William Reeves, who in 1912 published a book Farmers of the Royal Artillery band (The Rise and Development of Military Music), contracted farmers into English to translate the work of the French musicologist Francesco Salvador -Daniel, La musique arabe of 1863. Salvador -Daniel was director of the Paris Conservatory and participated in the Socialist uprising of the Paris Commune, had the farmers in 1911 published a series of articles. Farmer was therefore up to the author and to whose topic interests. Later Farmer expressed not very convinced of his translation, and looked at this topic too many unanswered questions that have been answered contradictory in the existing English-language literature. In order to investigate the Arab music in the Arabic original texts, he began in 1918 as an external student at the University of Glasgow to study Arabic at Thomas Hunter Weir. There he learned Orientalists James Robson, with whom he formed a lifelong friendship and occasional collaboration.

In 1924 the Farmer MA degree in 1926 and his doctoral degree ( Ph.D.) with the work of A Musical History of the Arabs, which appeared in 1929 under the title A History of Arabian Music to the XIIIth Century. This was followed by the scholarships Carnegie Research Fellowship for the years 1930-1931 and 1931-1932 and the Leverhulme Research Fellowship for 1933-1935. Their money allowed him to travel to libraries across the European continent in order to look for Arabic manuscripts.

At the Cairo Conference on Arabic Music in 1932 traveled Farmer as the sole representative of Britain. There he was elected head of the Commission for manuscripts and music history. In 1934 he gave at the University of Glasgow the Cranb Music Lectures. In the same year he Glasgow University conferred the D.Litt ( Doctor of Letters ), 1949 he received from the University of Edinburgh, honorary doctorate D.Mus ( Doctor of Music). The offer of a professorship of music at the University of Cairo leaned Farmer in 1946 and remained instead in Glasgow.

From 1947 to 1965, Farmer Vice President of the Glasgow University Oriental Society. In the Royal Scottish Academy of Music he belonged from 1950 to 1962 to the Board of Directors.

Effect

Farmer studied the Arabic music by the Arabic manuscripts which he found in the archives. He translated, annotated and interpreted the works of prominent Arab music theorists and historians. His sources included the writings of the philosopher al -Kindi (c. 800-873 ), the Kitāb al - Musiqa al -Kabeer ( " The Big Book of Music " ) and the Kitāb fi 'l- ʿ IQA AT ( " book on rhythms " ) of al -Farabi ( 872/3-950 ), al - ʿ Iqd al - Farid ( " The only collar " ) of Ibn ʿ Abd Rabbihi ( 860-940 ), the Kitāb al - Pagani ( " the Book of Songs " ) Abū l - Faraǧ ( 897-967 ), the works of Saadia Gaon Jewish philosopher ( 882-942 ) and Maimonides ( 1135-1204 ) to the Ottoman writer Evliya Çelebi ( 1611-1683 ). From the ten-volume travel diary ( Seyahatname ) Çelebis sized farmers out the sections in which musical instruments are mentioned and put them together to a classification of musical instruments used in the Ottoman music, which was published in 1937.

Fieldwork operation Farmer not, he dealt hardly with Arabic folk music or contemporary classical music. Although he pointed out commended, when the authors of his sources were Evliya Çelebi such as musicians themselves and therefore were able to describe the musical instruments in detail, but he neglected the performance practice and focused entirely on the historical music theory. After he had in 1947 adopted by the Empire Theatre in retirement, he worked in the following years, mainly with the study of the Arabic texts. His goal was a complete documentation of the Arab musical instruments. It appeared many individual publications with translations and descriptions of these; its overall project to classify the hundreds of instruments of all Arab countries, however, he no longer reached.

Farmer described since 1925 Arabic music as Traditionsbewahrerin and as a further development of the traditional from the ancient Greek music theory, emphasizing its influence on medieval European music theory. This " impact theory " disagreed Kathleen Schlesinger 1925 ( Is European Musical Theory Indebted to the Arabs? A Reply to " The Arabian Influence on Musical Theory " by Henry George Farmer ) and Otto origin in 1934 ( To the question of the Arab and Moorish influence on Western music of the Middle Ages ). In later publications Farmer defended his theory. The Arabian Influence on European Musical Theory ( 1925), The Arabic Musical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library ( 1925) and Historical Facts for the Arabian Musical Influence ( 1930) established his international reputation.

Farmer, who spent most of his life in Glasgow collected, carefully manuscripts, letters and work materials. They are now kept in the Special Collections Department of Glasgow University Library.

Publications (selection)

Monographs

  • Memoirs of the Royal Artillery Band: Its Origin, History and Progress. An Account of the Rise of Military Music in England. Boosey & Co., London, 1904 ( online at Internet Archive )
  • The Rise and Development of Military Music. William Reeves, London 1912 (New York 1970)
  • Edited and translated: The Music and Musical Instruments of the Arab with Introduction on How to Appreciate Arab Music by Francesco Salvador Daniel. 1915 (Boston 1973, Portland 1976)
  • The Arabic Musical Manuscripts in the Bodleian Library: A Descriptive Catalogue With Illustrations of Musical Instruments. William Reeves, London 1925
  • The Arabian Influence on Musical Theory. William Reeves, London 1925
  • Byzantine Musical Instruments in the Ninth Century. William Reeves, London 1925
  • A History of Arabian Music to the XIIIth Century. (Dissertation) London 1929 ( Luzac & Company, London 1967, 1973; Online at Internet Archive )
  • Historical Facts for the Arabian Musical Influence. Ayer Publishing, London 1930 ( London 1964, New York 1971, 1974; Online at Internet Archive )
  • The Organ of the Ancients, From Eastern Sources (Hebrew, Syriac and Arabic). William Reeves, London 1931
  • Edited and translated: Al Farabi 's Arabic - Latin Writings on Music. Glasgow 1934 (New York / London / Frankfurt 1965)
  • Translated and commented: Turkish Instruments of Music in the Seventeenth Century. As described in the Siyāḥat nāma of Ewliyā Chelebi. Civic Press, Glasgow 1937 ( Longwood Press, Portland, Maine 1976)
  • Studies in Oriental Musical Instruments. The Civic Press, Glasgow 1939
  • The Sources of Arabian Music: An Annotated Bibliography of Arabic Manuscripts Which Deal With the Theory, Practice, and History of Arabian Music. Self-published, 1940 Bearsden
  • Maimonides on Listening to Music. Self-published, 1941 Bearsden
  • Sa ʿ adiyah Gaon on the Influence of Music. London 1943
  • Concerts in 18th Century Scotland. Proceedings of the Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow for the 143rd session 1944-1945, Glasgow 1945
  • The Glen Collection of Musical Instruments. Glasgow 1945
  • The Minstrelsy of The Arabian Nights: A Study of Music and Musicians in the Arabic Alf laila wa laila. Self-published, 1945 Bearsden (Online For Internet Archive )
  • A History of Music in Scotland. Hinrichsen Edition, London, 1947 ( London 1969, New York 1970)
  • Music Making in the Olden Days: The Story of the Aberdeen Concerts, 1748-1801. Hinrichsen Edition, New York 1950
  • Cavaliere Zavertal and the Royal Artillery band. Hinrichsen Edition, Museum House, London 1951
  • Oriental Studies, Mainly musical. Hinrichsen Edition, London / New York 1953
  • History of the Royal Artillery band, from 1762 to 1953. Royal Artillery Institution, London, 1954
  • The Song captions in the Kitab al - Aghani al - kabir. H. Baron, London 1955
  • Bernard Shaw 's Sister and Her Friends: A New Angle on GBS E. J. Brill, Leiden 1959
  • The Science of Music in the Mafatih Al- Ulum. Reprinted from: Transactions of the Glasgow University Oriental Society, Vol 17, Glasgow 1959
  • Trade 's Kettle Drums, and Other Papers on Military Music. Hinrichsen Edition, London 1965
  • Al -Farabi 's Arabic - Latin Writings on Music in the IHSA al-' ulum. Hinrichsen Edition, London 1965
  • British Bands in Battle. Hinrichsen Edition, London 1965
  • In German: Islam. ( Heinrich Besseler, Max Schneider (ed.): History of Music in Pictures Volume III Music of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance delivery 2. .. ) German VEB Verlag für Musik, Leipzig 1966

Article

  • The Arab Influence on Music in the Western Soudan. In: Musical Standard XXIV, 448, November 1924, pp. 158f
  • The Influence of Music: From Arabic Sources. In: Proceedings of the Musical Association, 52nd Session, 1925, pp. 89-124
  • The Old Persian Musical Modes. In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no 1, January 1926, pp. 93-95
  • A North African folk instrument. In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, no 1, January 1928, pp. 24-34
  • Music in Mediaeval Scotland. In: Proceedings of the Musical Association, 56th Session, 1929, pp. 69-90
  • Greek Theorists of Music in Arabic translation. In: Isis, vol. 13, no 2, February 1930, pp. 325-333
  • British Musicians a Century Ago. In: Music & Letters, vol. 12, no 4, October 1931, pp. 384-392.
  • A Forgotten Composer of Anthems: William Savage ( 1720-1789 ). In: Music & Letters, vol. 17, no 3, July 1936, pp. 188-199
  • The Structure of the Arabian and Persian Lute in the Middle Ages. In: Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, vol. 71, no 1, January 1939, pp. 41-51
  • Unknown Birthdays of Handsome Georgian Musicians. In: Music & Letters, vol. 20, no 3, July 1939, pp. 299-303
  • Some Notes on the Irish Harp. In: Music & Letters, vol. 24, no 2, April 1943, pp. 100-107
  • An Historic March. In: Music & Letters, vol. 26, no 3, July 1945, pp. 172-177
  • Ghosts: An Excursus on Arabic musical Bibliographies. In: Isis, vol. 36, no 2, January 1946, pp. 123-130
  • Crusading Martial Music. In: Music & Letters, vol. 30, no July 3, 1949, pp. 243-249
  • Music Down Below. In: The Musical Times, vol. 90, no 1279, September 1949, pp. 307-309
  • Monster Kettle Drums. In: Music & Letters, vol. 43, no 2, April 1962, pp. 129-130
  • ʿ ibn Abdalqadir Ġaibī on Instruments of Music. In: Oriens, vol. 15, December 1962, pp. 242-248

In addition, Farmer wrote several articles for the 1949-1968 published first edition of music in past and present, the first edition of the Encyclopaedia of Islam and the fifth edition of A Dictionary of Music and Musicians, edited by George Grove in 1954.

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