Ferenc Farkas playing the piano at home in Budapest, 1970
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 CeciliainRome. 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.".[1]
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."[1]
From 1935 he taught at the Budapest City Music School. From 1941 to 1944 he was professor of composition and director at the Conservatory of Kolozsvár (today Cluj-Napoca in Romania) and he conducted the city's Opera Chorus. At the end of 1944, because of the war, he had to flee to Budapest, where he worked as the deputy conductor of the Royal Opera Chorus during the siege of the city.
In 1946, he was sent to Székesfehérvár where he founded and managed the Conservatory. He was nominated professor of composition at the Franz Liszt Music Academy of Budapest in 1949, a post he held until his retirement in 1975. As a professor he was to have his greatest influence in the second half of the century. Among his students were: György Kurtág, György Ligeti, László Kalmár, and Miklós Kocsár.
"From the beginning, I have been involved in all areas of music; I have not wanted to create only a small corner of a room, full of atmosphere, with a personal and sophisticated taste, but spaces, large and small, arranged differently, pleasant to live in, with open windows".[1]
Farkas's works include over seven hundred opuses. He composed in all genres, opera, ballet, musicals and operettas, orchestral music, concertos, chamber music and sacred music. His wide literary culture enabled him to set words to music in 13 languages, stemming from about 130 writers and poets both ancient and modern.
Most of the works mentioned below are accompanied by an external link referring to a single source: the official website of Ferenc Farkas (see "External Links") which provides a detailed description of the work and a musical extract.
Ein Krippenspiel aus Köröshegy, Weihnachtskantate (Nativity play of Köröshegy, 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 Ernö Hàrs (1985)
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
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
^ abcExtract from Im Schatten Bartòks, Geständnis eines Komponisten (In Bartòk’s shadow, the confession of a composer), a lecture presented by Ferenc Farkas at the Österreichische Gesellschaft für Musik, Vienna, 22 May 1967.
Complete catalogue of works 2011. Complete catalogue of works by Ferenc Farkas developed by Andràs Farkas, the son of the composer. This catalogue includes many musical samples.
Repertoire by instrument established from the complete catalogue of works by Andràs Farkas to facilitate the research. The listed instruments are: violin, viola, cello, bass, guitar, harp, dulcimer, flute, recorder, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, horn, Alphorn, trumpet, trombone, tuba, saxophone, tarogato, piano, harpsichord, organ, accordion.
Ferenc Farkas' official website developed by Andràs Farkas, the son of the composer in English, with biography and description of works in several languages and musical samples, currently some 160 works.
