This
article originally appeared in
the Spring 2019 edition of the
Light Music Society Magazine and
is reproduced here by kind
permission.
The Farnon
Musical Lineage
Interview with Thomas Farnon
by Dan Adams
 In Robert Farnon,
we have an undisputed great of
the Light Music Genre. In fact,
we could argue that he all but
created a form of light music,
the ripples of which have been
felt ever since. The effect on
Bob’s immediate family has
clearly also been profound.
Robert’s son
David is a composer and conductor
also, who has produced music for
dozens of popular TV shows
including Jonathan Creek,
Miss Marple and Spongebob
Squarepants. During the
1980s, David’s work was
largely in conducting and he has
worked with numerous prestigious
orchestras including the Royal
Philharmonic, London Symphony and
London Philharmonic.
Robert
Farnon’s brother, Brian, was
a bandleader and his other
brother Denis was also a TV
composer. Now, another generation
of Farnons is making waves in the
music world. Robert’s niece
Nicola is a celebrated Jazz
musician and his grandson Thomas
is a film composer.
Thomas has worked
with film composers as
illustrious as Hans Zimmer as
well as contributing music for a
variety of films including The
Dark Knight Rises, Churchill and
Hacksaw Ridge. Recently,
Thomas has co-founded Chromium
Music Group, a boutique music
house and has been releasing
albums of his non-film work under
this label. The first album, A,
was released last year and this
year he released his second album
Reverie. Both
albums are for piano and string
orchestra and evoke numerous
emotions and images for the
listener. This interview with
Thomas was conducted shortly
after the release of the Reverie
album.
*****
The
Farnon Grandchildren with Robert
The first thing
I’d really like to ask is a
relatively general question
– do you yourself have any
particular memories of Robert
Farnon ?
I have lots of
great memories of Grandpa.
Musically, one that stands out is
that I helped him to sort his
Music library out. We both lived
in Guernsey, so I would go to his
house and we would rifle through
his back catalogue together,
tidying up the sheet music and
archiving it. I would ask him
lots of questions, and it was
very inspiring as a child to get
a behind the scenes look at how
he did his thing! Aside from
that, we used to talk a lot, be
it about our shared love of
Arsenal, or how my piano playing
was going. He also tried (and
failed) to get me playing the
drums at one point; I still have
the practice pads….
Clearly
you’ve had a very musical
upbringing with your studies, but
was there also an influence from
your grandfather on your musical
development ?
Hugely- the
music I grew up with was
Grandpa's and my Dad’s [
David]. I think it’s very
inspiring seeing someone do
something that feels like a hobby
as a job. I think harmonically
I've taken a lot of inspiration
from him, we loved similar
composers, Debussy, Ravel etc.
and I used to and still do listen
to his music a lot. “ How
Beautiful Is Night”,
“Intermezzo For Harp”
and “Lady Barbara” in
my opinion are three of the most
beautiful tunes written, so its
pretty good stuff to be inspired
by. Talking to him about how
things used to be done was also
slightly scary, to think when he
was writing Hornblower, the first
time the director heard the music
would have been on the scoring
stage, nowadays it goes through
what seems like a lot of demos
before it gets recorded!
Was there a great
awareness of Robert’s
relative celebrity status in the
family, and were the family often
reminded of this through the
number of radio or TV broadcasts
of his music ?
For sure, I
think everyone was really proud
of him, his music and what
he’d achieved, I have his
Grammy in my studio now for
inspiration…. At the same
time, he was also just a lot of
fun to be around, great sense of
humour and always had a good
story!
 Naturally, Robert
Farnon was noted for his light
music compositions and an
identifiable style, but do you
know much of the composer’s
relationship to his own music?
I’m thinking in terms of the
pieces he remains best known for
(Jumping Bean and Portrait of a
Flirt) and did he ever feel a bit
too closely associated with those
pieces, given the breadth of his
work in music for concert
platforms including the 3
symphonies ?
I never spoke
to him about that personally, but
having talked with Dad about it
in the past, I think the works
that were most important to him
were his “concert and
light” works. Although a
brilliant arranger I think he
always wanted to be known for his
concert works, whether the famous
ones were in the latter bracket I
would imagine so, but I'd be
guessing.
So, onto your own
music- you’re known for
having worked with people like
Hans Zimmer on major film scores-
were these very positive
experiences and were there
unforeseen challenges along the
way ?
Positive, hard
work and rewarding! I was lucky
to start with some great film
composers early on and learnt a
lot from them. Although I went to
music college, I gained most of
what I know about how to get a
film score done from actually
doing it and being ‘chucked
in at the deep end’. I'm
sincerely grateful for having the
opportunity to go about it this
way.
You’ve
recently released two albums: A
and Reverie. Can I ask what the
impetus was for these particular
releases ?
The real
impetus was to write something
away from films and just
standalone music. When you're
writing film music, it's dictated
entirely by the picture. I wanted
to flip that on its head and have
the music in charge. I also got
to spend a fair bit of time
writing the music; deadlines are
often tight on films whereas this
was a lot more relaxed and lots
of chances to reflect on what I'd
written and tweak it till it was
just right.
Thomas
and David Farnon
For me personally,
the music on these albums
conjures fairly vivid imagery,
were there images- film-related
or not- that influenced the
tracks on these releases ?
'A' was about
emotions, so different emotions
that we all feel and representing
those in music, Reverie was a
dream, so the whole album is
based on dreaming, the first
track carrying you into a dream,
and then different things that
happen inside a dream and then
the last track snaps you out of
the dream. We recorded Reverie in
the big hall at AIR studios, so
it has a big spacious washy feel
to it as opposed to A being very
direct.
It is interesting
to me that both your
grandfather’s music and your
own has a fairly distinctive
aesthetic style, both in fact
connected to writing for string
instruments. Is there a
particular quality about working
so much with piano and string
orchestra that appeals to you
musically ?
I love strings
and piano, perhaps too much…
but I think I'm really at home
writing for them. I know what
they can do and when you’re
writing lots of dense harmonies,
you learn your way of balancing
it and know that it’ll work.
I also think having 40 people
breathing emotion into something
together as a section is a
fantastic power. It's always the
most exciting day going to the
sessions and hearing it come to
life.
Lastly, are there
any future plans/releases that
you’d like to share at this
point, or is this under wraps for
the time being ?
Yeah,
there’s an album called
Solace I'm writing at the moment
for choir (trying to wean myself
off strings) that I'm recording
next month for a summer release
and a couple of film projects to
be released this year ! I will
keep you updated.
Many thanks
for the interview, and I hope the
answers are of interest !
Dan Adams ? 2019
Facebook: http://bit.ly/2IcasmG
Twitter: https://bit.ly/2G58IYY
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/2Ggftsh
‘Reverie’ Album: https://spoti.fi/2RP4fBs
 With thanks to
George Percy of WildKat PR who
facilitated this interview. DA
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