Dennis Farnon

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 He Enlisted Into The Canadian Army Band Also Travelling To Europe To Entertain The Allied Troops During The Last Years Of The War. 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 Claude Debussy Béla Bartók And Sergey Prokofiev. 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 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 In Hollywood Velvet Carpet – The George Shearing's Quintet The Enchanted Woods Songs From The Motion Picture Gigi With Singers Gogi Grant And Tony Martin American Singer And Caution! Men Swinging. In 1957 He Was One Of The Five Founding Members Along With Paul Weston Lloyd Dunn Jesse Kaye And Sonny Burke Of The National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences Now Known As The Recording Academy 4 5 - The Organisation Which Bestows The Annual Grammy Awards. 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 KPM Now EMI And Chappell Music. 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 And SpongeBob SquarePants. His Movie Credits Include The Score For The 1966 Tony Curtis Film Arrivederci Baby!. For Television He Composed Music For Some Episodes Of The British Children’s Series Follyfoot 1971 And Wrote The Theme For The London Weekend Television Production Bouquet Of Barbed Wire 1976 . As With His Brothers Brian And Robert Dennis Farnon Specialised In Light Music And Orchestral Arrangements Of Well-Known Standards Sometimes Writing Under The Pseudonyms Of Paul Gerard And John Dennis. Farnon Resided For A Short Time In Cascais Portugal Where He Worked With Various Portuguese Composers-Singers Including Fernando Tordo Carlos Do Carmo 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 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 Sons And Daughters Prisoner TV Series 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. He Died In Aalst Buren Netherlands On May 21 2019 At The Age Of 95. read less