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Robert Farnon as a composer of light classical and "mood music," is a rival to figure such as Eric Coates, David Rose, and Percy Faith. He has also been notably successful in the field of film music since the 1940's.

Robert Joseph Farnon was born into a musical family in Toronto, Canada in 1917. He showed a natural aptitude as a musician, and at age 19 was already being employed as an arranger with the Canadian Broadcasting Company Orchestra in Toronto, under the direction of Percy Faith. Farnon succeeded Faith as director of the orchestra when Faith departed Canada for America.

Farnon's main interest at the time lay in writing serious music, despite the fact that he enjoyed great success with his arrangements. At age 22, he composed his first symphony, which was performed by the Toronto Symphony in 1941, and later by the Philadelphia Orchestra. A second symphony followed a year later, and it, too, received performances in Canada, but Farnon discovered that he had little personal affinity for writing works of that depth and dimension, talented though he might have been.

It was during his service with the Canadian army during World War II, when he was assigned as a band leader and sent to England, that Farnon discovered the light classical music of composers such as Charles Williams and Eric Coates. This was something of a revelation to him--their brand of music was internally complex while not overly profound, inventive and expressive without being pretentious. Their work became something of the model upon which he chose to build his career as a composer, and that brand of light classical music led naturally, in turn, to film composition.

Farnon made his career in England after the war, writing mood music for Chappell Music, a task at which he was eminently successful, his music not only popular in the broadcasts for which it was intended, but also entering the repertory of numerous pops orchestras in England and around the world. Farnon soon entered the field of film music as well, writing his first score in 1948 for the upper-class romantic comedy Spring In Park Lane, produced by Herbert Wilcox, and the music for its direct sequel Maytime In Mayfair.

In 1951, Farnon was assigned to write the score for his first major international film, Captain Horatio Hornblower, based on the exploits of C.S. Forrester's naval hero of the Napoleonic era, starring Gregory Peck. A Warner Bros. British production directed by legendary action filmmaker Raoul Walsh, and starring Gregory Peck, Hornblower was a hit around the world and remains, as an oft-revived and telecast film, Farnon's best known screen work as well, virtually his magnum opus. He subsequently had assignments for films such as Gentlemen Marry Brunettes and the screen adaptation of The Little Hut, which left relatively little impression on the public as films. In the 1960's, his screen assignments included some slightly higher profile work, such as the music for the Hayley Mills film The Truth About Spring and also the all-star western adventure drama Shalako.

Farnon has remained a top composer in his field for 50 years. In addition to his film scores, his popular instruments include "How Beautiful Is Night," "Journey Into Melody," "Pictures in the Fire," "Westminster Waltz," and "A Promise of Spring." In addition to its melodic content, Farnon's music is noted for its deceptively complex internal structure, which makes it as interesting as it is attractive. A quiet, self-effacing man, without the gift for self-promotion that rivals such as Percy Faith or David Rose ever showed, Farnon has never had a high-visibility creative role, preferring to work quietly and show himself through his work. In 1992, Reference Recordings issued a CD of Farnon conducting his own concert pieces and a suite derived of the Captain Horatio Hornblower score.

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) has held a prominent place in British music-making for more than seven decades. With a wide reach across Britain, in addition to its regular concerts in London's Cadogan Hall, including concerts in places where access to orchestral music is limited, the RPO can lay claim to the title of Britain's national orchestra. The RPO incorporates the pops-oriented Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, the avant-garde Sharp Edge group, and RPO Resound, a community and educational outreach program.

The RPO's broad contemporary appeal, which has included appearances with popular music stars and on film, television, and video game soundtracks, would have been lauded by its founder and first conductor, Sir Thomas Beecham, who set up the RPO in 1946 and helped lead a vital revival in the U.K.'s orchestral life after World War II. The new orchestra prospered, beginning a long summer residency at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 1948 and touring the U.S. in 1950, becoming the first English orchestra to do so since 1912. Rudolf Kempe became principal conductor upon Beecham's death in 1961. The orchestra hit a rough patch in the early '60s under the leadership of Beecham's widow; Kempe departed (and then returned), and the orchestra temporarily lost the right to use the "royal" designation. That was restored by Queen Elizabeth II in 1966, and several strong conductors, Antal Doráti (1975-1978), André Previn (1985-1992), and Vladimir Ashkenazy (music director, 1987-1994), built the orchestra artistically. Later conductors have included Daniele Gatti, Yuri Temirkanov, Charles Dutoit, and Vasily Petrenko, who began his tenure as music director in 2021.

The RPO is especially notable for the depth and variety of its recording program, which in the first few years of its existence had already topped 100 items; by the early 2020s decade, the orchestra had issued many hundreds of recordings, stretching from pop (disco enthusiasts will remember it as the orchestra featured on the Hooked on Classics recordings of the 1980s) to new avant-garde music. Among these was a 125-album contract with the Tring label. The orchestra's RPO Records, formed in 1986, is thought to have been the first recording label owned by a symphony orchestra; such an arrangement is now commonplace. The following year, the RPO launched the light music (or pops in the U.S.) companion group, the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra.

In 1993, the RPO inaugurated an educational and community outreach program titled RPO Resound. This program provides musical experiences outside of traditional concert settings, such as schools, prisons, and hospitals. Among the key projects for this program is the stroke rehabilitation project STROKESTRA. The RPO is the resident music ensemble of Cadogan Hall in Chelsea, becoming the first London orchestra to have a permanent home, giving its first concert there in 2004. In 2019, the RPO released Animal Requiem by rocker Pete Townshend's collaborator and marital partner, Rachel Fuller. That year, the RPO was named the associate orchestra of the Royal Albert Hall. Among the orchestra's 2022 albums are a recording of two Sibelius Symphonies and Air, featuring the music of Oliver Davis. The next year, they teamed with Joe Hisaishi for A Symphonic Celebration, which reimagined songs from beloved Studio Ghibli animated films. ~ James Manheim & Keith Finke