Ferenc Farkas
Ferenc Farkas was born in Nagykanizsa, Hungary, in December 1905. He studied composition with Albert Sikós and Leó Weiner at the Budapest Academy of Music and continued his studies with Ottorino Respighi at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome. Ferenc Farkas was Professor of Composition at the Conservatory of Kolozsvár from 1941 to 1944 and also served as its director during his last year there. In 1949 Farkas was appointed Professor of Composition at the Budapest Academy of Music, a post which he held until his retirement in 1975. His pupils included Attila Bozay, Axolt Durkó, György Kurtág, György Ligeti, Emil Petrovics, Sándor Szokolay and many other prominent Hungarian composers.
In 1950, Ferenc Farkas was awarded the highest Hungarian government decoration for artistic merit, the Kossuth Prize. In 1979, he was given the Herder Prize by the F.V.Stiftung in Hamburg.
This interview was conducted in the spring of 1991.
Gaál: First of all, I would like to congratulate you on your 85th birthday which you celebrated last December and wish you continuing good health and happiness. When did you first begin to compose for harp?
Farkas: In my early compositions for orchestra, I always gave the harp part an important role. My first composition for harp solo, however, was Concertino, written in 1937 for the Budapest Municipal Orchestra and Mrs. Anna Molnár.
Gaál: Was Concertino performed outside of Hungary?
Farkas: Soon after the first performance in Budapest, a second performance was given by Mireille Flour in Brussels, followed by performances in London by Maria Korchinska, in Rome by Ada Sassoli, and in Frankfurt by Rosa Stein. Later in Hungary, the work was performed again by Liana Pasquali. Concertino was recorded in Germany by Rosa Stein and in Belgium by Mireille Flour.
Gaál: What are your feelings about writing for the harp?
Farkas: In 1937 I tried to utilize what I felt was the most generally neglected characteristic of the harp - the melodic line. I avoided the arpeggio and glissando as much as possible. In 1956, however, with the help of Professor Miklós Rékai at the Budapest Conservatory, I rewrote Concertino. I wrote what I consider to be a more "successful" role for the harp and included the previously "avoided" glissandi and arpeggi, added cadenzas, and thinned out the orchestral background in the first and third movements. The new version was then played in Hungary by Hédy Lubik and several times in Germany by Gyula Dalló.
When Johannes was in his tenth year he had made such remarkable progress that Cossel thought it best to secure a more advanced instructor. He was thus put under the care of Eduard Marxsen (Cossel?s own teacher), the royal music director at Altona, who took him unwillingly ...
Gottschalk was a child prodigy, showing astonishing musical abilities at a young age. His father, against his mother’s wishes, sent him off to study music more intensively in Paris. During his time in Paris, Gottschalk studied piano with Charles Hallé, Camille Stamaty, and later studied composition with Pierre Maleden. Paris was just the beginning of the many places where he would compose some of his finest works.
In America, video games are incredibly common. They are as common as a cell-phone,or even computers. But even with the large majority knowing who Mario or Zelda is, many games are not brought to the United States or are even restricted from citizens outside of the country it was made in. The Monster Hunter Franchise is an example of a wonderful game that doesn’t get the kind of reputation it deserves in America. Monster Hunter Frontier deserves to come to america, for it’s fanbase and parent company Capcom
Partita by Germaine Tailleferre (1892-1983) was another work from the Contemporary Period, this time performed by Judith Pfeiffer, a German pianist. This work consisted of three movements, all of which had...
Adolf Hitler was born in Austria but later on became a German solider. He went to Germany after both his parents died, and after he was rejected from an art college. During WWI Hitler was injured twice. While he was in the hospital recovering, he found out that Germany lost the war, and he became furious. Once he got out, he joined the Nazi party and tried to overthrow the government. In the end, he was only arrested, but while he was in jail, he wrote his book, Mein Kamphf. Once he got out of jail he decided to politicaly take over. He did rallies and once everyone started to like him, he was elected Chancellor. He changed laws to make all of his future plans legal, and once the Headmaster of Germany died, Hitler became the most power. Everything he did was legal there. He made this plan called the Final Solution, that if any allied troops got into his strongholds, he would back out and take everyone down with him. This included the mass killing of almost all remaining jews. He only did this so he couldnt get charged with any crime, so there would be no witnisses, but that plan failed big time.
In Dante’s Inferno, the relationship between Dante the Pilgrim and Virgil the Guide is an ever-evolving one. By analyzing the transformation of this relationship as the two sojourn through the circles of hell, one is able to learn more about the mindset of Dante the Poet. At the outset, Dante is clearly subservient to Virgil, whom he holds in high esteem for his literary genius. However, as the work progresses, Virgil facilitates Dante’s spiritual enlightenment, so that by the end, Dante has ascended to Virgil’s spiritual level and has in many respects surpassed him. In Dante’s journey with respect to Virgil, one can see man’s spiritual journey towards understanding God. While God loves man regardless of his faults, His greatest desire is to see man attain greater spirituality, in that man, already created in God’s image, may truly become divine, and in doing so, attain eternality.
Franz Liszt, Hungarian piano virtuoso and composer. Among his, many notable compositions are his 12 symphonic poems, two (completed) piano concerti, several sacred choral works, and a great variety of solo piano pieces.
When Dante is slow to learn these lessons, such as when he sympathizes with sinners or remains too long in one circle of Hell, Virgil often grows impatient with him, a trait that humanizes his usual impersonal nature. He is wise, commanding, and resourceful, but he is often helpless in protecting Dante from the true dangers of Hell and completing the journey. In Canto VIII, we see the inept side of Virgil when he requires assistance from an angelic messenger to enter the City of Dis. Allegorically, this trouble shows that even reason and wisdom cannot overcome every obstacle and that divine intervention is far more powerful than anything a human has to offer. However, reason is necessary in life to provide morals to a soul by helping him distinguish between and understand good and evil, explain the nature of moral law, and even lead him to the threshold of perfection, but reason cannot offer redemption. Only divine love provides the purification and final salvation. This is why in Purgatorio, Beatrice must take over as the guide in the Garden of Eden, where man is restored to
Finally, the selection by Ellen Taaffe Zwilich. Zwilich used techniques from the Baroque period and incorporated it into the twentieth century. It is interesting how she incorporated the harpsichord that was, for the most part, no longer used in orchestras, as well as still utilizing the new technique of freer sounds that move away from the tonal center at times. It was really surprising how the melodies continued to move back and forth between the two eras so
The Holocaust was a time period in history that is very important to learn about. We learn about it for many reasons, but I think the most important reason is to learn not to discriminate against other people. Not only is it very important to learn about the Holocaust, but it's also important to learn about Hitler's rise to power and how he came to make his decision of the discrimination affiliated with the Holocaust. The events and outcome of World War II and Anne Frank are very important topics, too. These topics are all factors that are associated with the overall events of the Holocaust and all back up the reason as to why we study the Holocaust.
Mendelssohn was born in Hamburg in 1809. His father Abraham Mendelssohn was a banker, while his mum Lea Mendelssohn was a highly educated artist and musician. Mendelssohn first had his piano lesson from his mum, but soon he was sent to study with the best teachers at that time such as Marie Bigot and Ludwig Burger. He also took composition lessons with Karl Zelter, who was the professor of the University of Berlin. Under their proper guidance, he completely showed his music talent- he first appeared as pianist at nine and as a composer at ten. At his age of twelve, he already composed nine fugues, five symphonies for strings, two operas and a huge number of smaller pieces. When he was sixteen, the publication of his Octet in E-flat Major for strings and Overture to A Mid Summer Night’s Dream marked his full maturity.
The Holocaust was one of the most tragic and trying times for the Jewish people. Hundreds of thousands of Jews and other minorities that the Nazis considered undesirable were detained in concentration camps, death camps, or labor camps. There, they were forced to work and live in the harshest of conditions, starved, and brutally murdered. Horrific things went on in Auschwitz and Majdenek during the Holocaust that wiped out approximately 1,378,000 people combined. “There is nothing that compares to the Holocaust.” –Fidel Castro
The last Piece of the program was Symphony No1. In g minor, op7 (1891-1892), features the work of the composer Carl Nielsen (18...
...e end of the novel, Huck and the reader have come to understand that Jim is not someone’s property or an inferior man, but an equal. To say that The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is a racist novel is absurd, but there are always some hot-heads claiming that the novel is racist. These claims are not simply attempts to damage the image of a great novel, they come from people who are hurt by racism and don’t like seeing it in any context. However, they must realize that this novel and its author are not racist, and the purpose of the story is to prove black equality. It is vital for the reader to recognize these ideas as society’s and to recognize that Twain throughout the novel does encourage racist ideas, he disputes them. For this reason, and its profound moral implication, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn should not be removed from the literary canon. [1056]
... without someone Heavenly to guide them. Dante shows that Virgil usually gets what he wants throughout the Inferno, but is now restricted by his lack of faith. He shows that even though Virgil is one of the greatest poets and a huge role model for Dante, Virgil can also fail. Dante has Virgil illustrate his imperfections to the character of Dante, because it is vital for Dante to understand that he must be mindful of God and sin to avoid the fate of Virgil. Virgil cannot ever move on to Heaven from Limbo as he cannot completely put his faith in God, so he guides Dante to do so. This growing faith in God allows Dante to grow more judgmental of sinners as they progress on their journey, as opposed to his sympathy for sinners before. By having his hero fail, Dante learns that he must avoid the mistakes of his guide, Virgil, by understanding the divine justice of God.