Dennis Farnon (13 August 1923 – 21 May 2019) was a Canadian musical arranger, composer and orchestra conductor. Dennis Farnon was born in 1923 in Toronto, Canada as John Denis Farnon to Robert and Elsie Farnon (née Menzies). He grew up in a musical family, and learned to play the trumpet at age 12. Through his older brother

Robert The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...

, he enlisted into the Canadian Army Band, also travelling to Europe to entertain the Allied troops during the last years of the

war War is an armed conflict between the armed forces of states, or between governmental forces and armed groups that are organized under a certain command structure and have the capacity to sustain military operations, or between such organi ...

. In his mid-20s, he moved to Chicago where he played in jazz clubs and pursued studies in conducting, arranging, and orchestration, strongly influenced by the works of

Maurice Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

Claude Debussy Achille Claude Debussy (; 22 August 1862 – 25 March 1918) was a French composer. He is sometimes seen as the first Impressionism in music, Impressionist composer, although he vigorously rejected the term. He was among the most influe ...

Béla Bartók Béla Viktor János Bartók (; ; 25 March 1881 – 26 September 1945) was a Hungarian composer, pianist and ethnomusicologist. He is considered one of the most important composers of the 20th century; he and Franz Liszt are regarded as Hunga ...

and

Sergey Prokofiev Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev; alternative transliterations of his name include ''Sergey'' or ''Serge'', and ''Prokofief'', ''Prokofieff'', or ''Prokofyev''. , group=n ( – 5 March 1953) was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor who l ...

. Several years later, he accepted an invitation to Hollywood as musical director for singer Johnny Holiday, and he stayed, continuing to compose, conduct and arrange. In 1956, he was tapped by

RCA Records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...

to head their West Coast A & R and signed on as producer, arranger and recording artist. During that time, the Dennis Farnon Orchestra recorded numerous albums, including ''Magoo in Hi-Fi'', over 10 episodes of '' Mr Magoo'' cartoon shorts,

Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...

in Hollywood, ''Velvet Carpet'' – The

George Shearing Sir George Albert Shearing (13 August 191914 February 2011) was a British jazz pianist who for many years led a popular jazz group that recorded for Discovery Records, MGM Records and Capitol Records. Shearing was the composer of over 300 so ...

's Quintet, ''The Enchanted Woods'', ''Songs From The Motion Picture'' ''Gigi'' with singers

Gogi Grant Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg (September 20, 1924 – March 10, 2016), known professionally as Gogi Grant, was an American pop singer. She had a No. 1 hit in 1956 with " The Wayward Wind". Life and career Grant was born Myrtle Audrey Arinsberg in P ...

and

Tony Martin (American singer) Alvin Morris (December 25, 1913 – July 27, 2012), known professionally as Tony Martin, was an American actor and popular singer. His career spanned over seven decades, and he scored dozens of hits between the late-1930s and mid-1950s with ...

, and ''Caution! Men Swinging''. In 1957, he was one of the five founding members (along with

Paul Weston Paul Weston (né Wetstein; March 12, 1912 – September 20, 1996) was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and conductor who worked in music and television from the 1930s to the 1970s, pioneering mood music and becoming known as "the Fathe ...

, Lloyd Dunn, Jesse Kaye, and

Sonny Burke Joseph Francis "Sonny" Burke (March 22, 1914 – May 31, 1980) was an American musical arranger, composer, Big Band leader and producer. Early life and career Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania to Francis P. Burke and Rhoda Nihany, Burke grew up in D ...

) of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (now known as The Recording Academy) - the organisation which bestows the annual

Grammy Awards The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

. In the early 1960s he moved to London, where he learnt about library music and signed up with a number of publishing companies such as

Boosey and Hawkes Boosey & Hawkes is a British music publisher, purported to be the largest specialist classical music publisher in the world. Until 2003, it was also a major manufacturer of brass, string and woodwind musical instruments. Formed in 1930 throu ...

, KPM (now EMI) and

Chappell Music Warner Chappell Music, Inc. is an American music publishing company and a subsidiary of the Warner Music Group. Warner Chappell Music's catalog consists of over 1.4 million compositions and 150,000 composers, with offices in over 40 countries. ...

. Over the course of the next 20 years, he went on to compose and publish a large volume of library music licensed for film, television, radio and other media. The styles ranged from jazz, funk, drama and romantic to his personal favourite, comedy music, which more recently has appeared in ''

The Ren and Stimpy Show ''The Ren & Stimpy Show'', commonly referred to as simply ''Ren & Stimpy'', is an American animated Comedy film, comedy television series created by John Kricfalusi for Nickelodeon. The series follows the misadventures of Ren Höek, an emotion ...

'' and ''

SpongeBob SquarePants ''SpongeBob SquarePants'' is an American animated television series, animated comedy television series created by marine science educator and animator Stephen Hillenburg for Nickelodeon. It first aired as a sneak peek after the 1999 Kids' C ...

''. His movie credits include the score for the 1966

Tony Curtis Tony Curtis (born Bernard Schwartz; June 3, 1925September 29, 2010) was an American actor with a career that spanned six decades, achieving the height of his popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. He acted in more than 100 films, in roles co ...

film '' Arrivederci, Baby!''. For television, he composed music for the

Bat Out of Hell (TV series) ''Bat Out of Hell'' is a British Thriller television serial created by Francis Durbridge and originally aired on BBC Two from 26 November to 24 December 1966. The series followed two lovers, Diana Stewart (Sylvia Syms) and Mark Paxton (John Tha ...

; some episodes of the British children’s series ''

Follyfoot ''Follyfoot'' is a children's television series co-produced by the majority-partner British television company Yorkshire Television (for transmission on ITV) and the independent West German company ''TV München'' (for transmission on the ZD ...

'' (1971); and wrote the notable themes for

Jay Ward Joseph Ward Cohen Jr. (September 20, 1920 – October 12, 1989), also known as Jay Ward, was an American creator and producer of animated TV cartoon shows. He produced animated series based on such characters as Crusader Rabbit, Rocky & Bu ...

's satiric '' Fractured Flickers ''(1961-3) and the

London Weekend Television London Weekend Television (LWT; now part of the non-franchised ITV London region) was the ITV (TV network), ITV network franchise holder for Greater London and the Home Counties at weekends, broadcasting from Fridays at 5.15 pm (7:00&nbs ...

production '' Bouquet of Barbed Wire'' (1976). In 2002 EMI Records Ltd released "Soho Lounge Heat: Hip Jazz, Funk and Soul Grooves for Films & TV 1969-1977", a compilation of library music compiled by Dickie Klenchblaize which contains 20 Farnon-composed tracks recorded between 1969 and 1974. As with his brothers Brian and

, Dennis Farnon specialised in

light music Light music is a less-serious form of Western classical music, which originated in the 18th and 19th centuries and continues today. Its heyday was in the mid‑20th century. The style is through-composed, usually shorter orchestral pieces and ...

and orchestral arrangements of well-known

standards Standard may refer to: Symbols * Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs * Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification Norms, conventions or requirements * Standard (metrology), an object t ...

, sometimes writing under the pseudonyms of Paul Gerard and John Dennis. Farnon resided for a short time in

Cascais Cascais () is a town and municipality in the Lisbon District of Portugal, located on the Portuguese Riviera, Estoril Coast. The municipality has a total of 214,158 inhabitants in an area of 97.40 km2. Cascais is an important tourism in Port ...

, Portugal, where he worked with various Portuguese composers-singers including

Fernando Tordo Fernando Travassos Tordo (born 29 March 1948) is a Portuguese singer and songwriter. Since 2003, he has been a Commander of the Order of Merit, an honor bestowed on him by the Portuguese President Jorge Sampaio. Considered one of the most proli ...

Carlos do Carmo Carlos Manuel de Ascenção do Carmo de Almeida (21 December 1939 – 1 January 2021), better known as Carlos do Carmo, was a Portuguese fado singer. The son of Lucília do Carmo, a well-known ''fadista'', do Carmo began his career in fado fol ...

and Sérgio Borges. In 1979 he moved again and settled in the Netherlands. He continued writing, producing solo and chamber pieces with the classical guitarist Yves Storms and composing various short piano pieces. In the mid-1990s he was invited to the

Hilversum Hilversum () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of North Holland, Netherlands. Located in the heart of the Gooi, it is ...

recording studios to work with the celebrated Dutch Metropole Orchestra on a digitally recorded version of the '' Mother Magoo Suite''. The films '' Reversal of Fortune (1990), Fever Pitch (2005)'' and numerous popular television series such as ''Spiderman'', ''

Doctor Who ''Doctor Who'' is a British science fiction television series broadcast by the BBC since 1963. The series, created by Sydney Newman, C. E. Webber and Donald Wilson (writer and producer), Donald Wilson, depicts the adventures of an extraterre ...

'', '' Sons and Daughters'', ''

Prisoner (TV series) ''Prisoner'' (known in the UK and the US as ''Prisoner: Cell Block H'' and in Canada as ''Caged Women'') is an Australian television soap opera, which was broadcast on Network Ten (formerly the 0-10 Network) from February 27 (Melbourne) and Fe ...

'' and '' Flying Doctors'' also carry credits for his work. He continued to write short piano compositions right up until his death, always favouring lighthearted comical tunes to make people laugh, with titles such as ''The Camel with the Wooden Leg'', ''Two Doves on a Chimneypot'', ''Grass Valley and Friend'', ''Ms. Penguin'' and ''Twinkletoes and Me''. Farnon died in

Aalst, Buren Aalst is a hamlet in the Dutch province of Gelderland. It is a part of the municipality of Buren, and lies about 10 km southwest of Wageningen Wageningen () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a historic city in the c ...

in May 2019 at the age of 95.

References

External links

*
Dennis Farnon at DiscogsBillboard Naras ArticleBillboard NARAS 20th Anniversary
{{DEFAULTSORT:Farnon, Dennis 1923 births 2019 deaths 20th-century Canadian composers 20th-century Canadian conductors (music) 20th-century Canadian male musicians 21st-century Canadian composers 21st-century Canadian conductors (music) 21st-century Canadian male musicians Canadian expatriates in the Netherlands Canadian film score composers Canadian light music composers Canadian male film score composers Canadian male conductors (music) Canadian military musicians Canadian music arrangers Musicians from Toronto