WindSong Press Limited :: Books :: Crescent Park Music Publications - Phil Farkas & His Horn A HAPPY, WORTHWHILE LIFE

Crescent Park Music Publications - Phil Farkas & His Horn A HAPPY, WORTHWHILE LIFE

Crescent Park Music Publications - Phil Farkas & His Horn A HAPPY, WORTHWHILE LIFE

Phil Farkas & His Horn A HAPPY, WORTHWHILE LIFE by Nancy Jordan Fako

published by CRESCENT PARK MUSIC PUBLICATIONS 

The contributions of Philip Farkas in the fields of symphonic horn playing, pedagogy, and instrument design are of such importance that he will certainly be considered a major figure of the twentieth century. As a horn player, he was the only person ever to be offered the solo horn position in each of the "big five" American orchestras (Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra). His first book, The Art of French Horn Playing (Summy-Birchard Music, 1956) is considered the "bible" of horn players and is still a best seller in its field. The Art of Brass Playing (Wind Music, 1962, written in collaboration with the present author) and The Art of Musicianship (Wind Music, 1976) widened his exposure to encompass the entire music profession. The horn he designed with the Frank Holton Company in 1957 immediately established itself as the top-selling American-made horn, a position it continues to hold forty years later. This biography contains a wealth of previously unavailable correspondence, technical material, and photographs. It is a "must" for all horn players and music lovers.

"Nancy Jordan Fako is one of Philip Farkas' most faithful disciples. No one is more qualified to retrace the life of this remarkable man. Through many years of arduous investigation, she has assembled facts, testimonies, and anecdotes into a biography that is thoroughly researched and written in a most interesting manner."
Daniel Bourgue, principal horn, Paris Opera

"For generations of musicians, the Farkas name has been synonymous with the horn. Those of us at Leblanc and Holton who worked with Phil Farkas loved him for his talent, his humor, and his gentle manner. Nancy Fako's chronicle of Phil's life is an important tribute to his impact on the musical world."
Vito Pascucci, CEO, G. Leblanc Corp. 
 
ISBN 0-9662587-0-3.
 
Review by Randy C. Gardner, Cornucopia, September 1998
"Phil Farkas himself described horn playing as a happy, worthwhile way of life. For him it was also a necessity, an all-consuming obsession. A born perfectionist, always attempting to do everything right, he also had a sensitive and compassionate personality...." These words begin the Foreword to Nancy Jordan Fako's biography of the late Philip Farkas, Philip Farkas & His Horn: A Happy Worthwhile Life.

Fako -- a former student, colleague, and close personal friend of Farkas's -- has presented a multi-faceted chronological picture of this great many as part of a closely-knit family, a symphonic and chamber musician, a writer of great importance, and instrument designer in pursuit of excellence, a superb businessman, a teacher who felt that his true legacy would remain in his students around the globe, and a devoted family man.

Always a collector, Farkas left behind voluminous correspondence, well-organized scrapbooks, photographs, date books, and other memorabilia through which Fako was able to reconstruct a highly accurate account of his entire life.

Many know of his great love for flying, but one learns here that as a young teen Farkas was a prize winner in a national model airplane design competition. Few people know of his brief sojurn out of the musical world into the advertising business, during which time he "invented a device which used large transparent sheets of plastic on long rolls to display various rooms of a home."

Readers will also learn of his deeply spiritural side, discover who most strongly influenced his formative years, read humorous anecdotes and thoughts regarding some of the most famous conductors of his day, marvel at this man's truly indefatigable energy and dedication to practice, and see a wonderful human being who always left other with the gift of feeling positive about themselves.

This book will inspire the horn-playing reader to practive and reach for the starts. As the author writes, "There is much we can all learn from him."

 

 

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SKU SKU16456
 
Price: $29.95
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