Ferenc Farkas

Ferenc Farkas (; 15 December 1905 – 10 October 2000) was a Hungarian composer.

Biography

Born into a musical family (his father, Aladár Farkas, was an Olympian and soldier who played the cimbalom and his mother played the piano) in Nagykanizsa; he began his musical studies in Budapest, at the Protestant Gymnasium (Grammar School) and later attended the Music Academy, where he studied composition with Leó Weiner and Albert Siklós.

After his graduation in 1927, he worked as a repetiteur and conductor at the Municipal Theatre of Budapest and collaborated with the Diaghilev Ballet. From 1929 to 1931, he attended Ottorino Respighi's masterclass at the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. The years he spent in Rome had a decisive influence on him. He became acquainted with Italian and Mediterranean culture to which he felt a deep attraction. About this he said: "My principal aim has always been to attain for myself a latin clarity and proportion.". Ferenc Farkas among his students on his 80th birthday (1985). Sitting: Emil Petrovics and Sándor Szokolay. Standing: György Kurtág, Zsolt Durkó, László Dalos, Miklós Kocsár, Árpád Balázs and László Kalmár. Farkas returned to Budapest in the autumn of 1931. As he could not find any other assignments, he played the piano in various theatre orchestras. In 1932 he met the director Paul Fejos for whom he composed several film scores, first in Hungary, then in Vienna and Copenhagen. This collaboration was to be for Farkas the beginning of an impressive series of “applied” music (music for around 75 films and 44 theatre plays and radio plays).

In the spring of 1934 he conducted research of his own into traditional Hungarian music by collecting folk songs in Somogy County: "When I got back from my travels abroad, it became clear to me that the work and research of Bartók and Kodály raised crucial problems that we as Hungarians, had to resolve ourselves." Old Hungarian Dances from the 17th Century (4 Movements) - Saxophone Quartet - Published 1991 EditionDarok Sonata a due for viola and violoncello (1961) Ballade for violoncello and piano (1963) Quattro pezzi for double-bass and wind quintet (1966) Lavottiana − Suite of themes by János Lavotta (1764-1820) - Wind Quintet in 5 Movements - 1968 Vonósnégyes / String quartet (1970-1972) Contrafacta Hungarica for wind octet (1976) La Cour du roi Matthias for clarinet, basson, horn and string quintet (1977) Trio for violin, violoncello and piano (1979) Sonate romantique for bassoon and piano (1982) Maschere for oboe, clarinet and bassoon (1983) Ricordanze for clarinet, violin, viola and violoncello (1984) Three Burlesques for 2 clarinets, basset horn and 2 bass-clarinets (1992)

Works for instrumental solos Sonata for violoncello (1932) Correspondances for piano (1957) Six Pièces brèves for guitar (1970) Sonata for guitar (1979) Exercitium tonale for guitar (1982) Sonata for violin (1987) Sonatina for harp

Masses Missa secunda in honorem Sanctae Margaritae for mixed choir and organ or string orchestra (other version for female choir) (1964-1968) Missa in honorem Sancti Andreae for mixed choir and orchestra (1968) Requiem pro memoria M. for mixed choir and orchestra (1992)

Cantatas, oratorios Cantata lirica, cantata for mixed choir and orchestra, Hungarian text by Jenö Dsida, German translated by Anneliese Eulau-Felsenstein (1945) Cantus Pannonicus, cantata for soprano solo, mixed choir and orchestra, text in Latin by Janus Pannonius (1959) Ein Krippenspiel aus Kőröshegy, Weihnachtskantate (Nativity play of Kőröshegy, Christmas cantata) edited in English, German, French, Hungarian, for narrator, mixed or children's choir, organ and instrumental ensemble (6 instruments) or orchestra (1970) Aspirationes principis, cantata for tenor and baritone solo and orchestra, text in Hungarian by Kelemen Mikes and Paul Ràday and in Latin by Francis II Rákóczi (1974-1975) Omaggio a Pessoa, cantata for tenor solo, mixed choir and orchestra, text in Portuguese by Fernando Pessoa, Hungarian translated by Ernő Hárs (1985)

Works for mixed choir Alkony (Dusk), Hungarian text by Sándor Petőfi (1944) Rose-madrigal, English, German and French version from a Hungarian text by Sándor Weöres (1947) Az öröm illan (The joy escapes), Hungarian text by Árpád Tóth (1962) Lupus fecit (1979) Pensieri notturni, Italian text by Michelangelo Buonarroti (1982) Hommage à Rilke, German text by Rainer Maria Rilke (1984) Pater Noster (1993) Ave Maria (1994) Come away, English text by William Shakespeare (1995) Ekkosang, Danish text by Otto Gelsted (1999) Pataki diákdalok a 18. századból / Patak student songs from the 18th century, text in Latin and Hungarian

Works for male choir Silence, French text by Charles Ferdinand Ramuz (1975) Le débat du cœur et du corps (The debate of the heart and the body) for double male choir, 2 trumpets, 2 trombones, piano and timpani, French text by François Villon (1980) Hajnal-nòta (Dawn song), Troubadour song from the 13th century, Text in Hungarian or French Vallon szerenád (Walloon serenade), text in Hungarian or French

Works for female choir or children’s choir Cantus fractus, 3 Hungarian gregorian melodies for unison female or children's choir, baritone solo and 3 guitars (1982) Baszk dalok I / Euskal abestiak, 5 traditional songs, text in Basque and Hungarian (1986) Magnificat for 3-part female or children's choir and organ (1994)

Songs Maláj ábrándok (Dreams of Malaysia) for voice and piano, Hungarian text by Sándor Weöres German translated by Marcel Rubin and Otto Horn (1943) Fruit basket / Gyümölcskosár, cycle of 12 melodies (edited in Hungarian, German, French), text by Sándor Weöres for soprano and wind quintet (5 variants) (1946 – 1980) Cantiones optimae, four songs based on old Hungarian sacred melodies from the 16th and 17th centuries for soprano or alto and piano or organ or string orchestra Cinque canzoni dei trovatori, 5 songs for voice and piano or guitar (1947) Songs from the “Twelfth night”, cycle of 4 songs for soprano or alto and piano or harp, text by William Shakespeare (1954) Drei Lieder for voice and piano, German text by Anneliese Eulau-Felsenstein (1958) Trois chansons de Guillevic, cycle of 3 songs for voice and piano, French text by Eugène Guillevic (1960) Kőmíves Kelemen balladája (Ballade of Kelemen Kőmíves), popular Hungarian melody for voice and piano or orchestra (1960) Hommage à Alpbach, cycle of 4 melodies, German text by Paula von Preradovic (1968) Elfelejtett dallamok (Forgotten melodies), 4 songs for voice and piano, Hungarian texts by Benedek Virág, Dániel Berzsenyi, Mihály Babits and Endre Ady (1980) Orpheus respiciens, cycle of 8 songs for voice and piano, texts in Hungarian, Italien, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese, English by Sándor Csoóri, Petrarca, Charles Baudelaire, Luís de Camões, Rainer Maria Rilke, Antonio Machado, Oscar Wilde and Gérard de Nerval (1993)

Film music Sonnenstrahl, film by Paul Fejos (1933) People of the Mountains (Emberek a havason), film by István Szőts award-winning at the Venice Biennale in 1942 (1942) The Song of Rákóczi (1943) The Land Is Ours (1951) Baptism of Fire (1952) Rakoczy's Lieutenant (1954) Love Travels by Coach (1955) Crime at Dawn (1960) Egy magyar nábob (The last of the nabobs), film by Zoltán Várkonyi (1966) Kárpáthy Zoltán (Zoltán Kárpáthy), film by Zoltán Várkonyi (1966) Egri csillagok (Stars of Eger), film by Zoltán Várkonyi (1968) Csínom Palkó, film by Márton Keleti and Gyula Mészáros (1973)