Robert Farnon, 87; Composer and Arranger for Movies, Pop and Jazz

Robert Farnon, who scored about 40 motion pictures including “Captain Horatio Hornblower R.N.” and arranged popular songs for top recording artists such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett and Lena Horne, has died. He was 87.

Farnon died Saturday in his sleep at a hospice on Guernsey in Britain’s Channel Islands. The suspected cause was a heart attack.

In Britain, where he had lived and worked since World War II, Farnon earned four of the British music industry’s Ivor Novello Awards -- for “Westminster Waltz” in 1956, “Sea Shore” in 1960, “Colditz March” in 1973 and for outstanding services to British music in 1991.

In 1995, he added a Grammy Award for best instrumental arrangement for the song “Lament” on jazz trombonist J.J. Johnson’s album “Tangence.” Farnon also was nominated for Grammys in 1976 and 1992.

Although many admirers thought that Farnon would have gained greater fame had he worked in Los Angeles, he did earn acclaim among his peers.

“If you want to write string arrangements, only the best of them come up to Farnon,” Bennett once said. “Every orchestra leader in the world knows his name.”

Composers John Williams and the late Henry Mancini have acknowledged indebtedness to Farnon, and former Los Angeles Philharmonic music director Andre Previn has called Farnon “the world’s greatest arranger.”

Quincy Jones told the Record of Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, in 1997 amid celebrations of Farnon’s 80th birthday: “Whenever I can’t figure out how to do something, I grab a Bob Farnon record to figure out how he did it, and there’s my answer.”

Born in Toronto on July 24, 1917, Farnon began playing piano and drums and by age 11 was performing with the Toronto Junior Symphony Orchestra. In his teens, he became first trumpet in Percy Faith’s Canadian Broadcasting Co. radio orchestra and soon was arranging choral music for Faith. From 1937 to 1943, Farnon was a regular on the network’s popular “The Happy Gang” show.

At age 21, he composed his first symphony, which was premiered by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and soon performed by Eugene Ormandy’s Philadelphia Orchestra. Two years later, Farnon wrote his second symphony. His “Symphony No. 3: The Edinburgh” did not emerge until 2004.

The six-decade interim was filled by a career full of other projects.

Farnon went to England in 1944, as a Canadian Army captain, to conduct the Canadian Band of the Allied Expeditionary Forces, which was broadcasting over Armed Forces Radio. He worked alongside Capt. Glenn Miller, who was fronting the U.S. big band, and Sgt. George Melachrino, who was leading the British musicians.

At war’s end, Farnon decided to remain in England because it offered more film, recording and orchestral opportunities than Canada. He became a resident arranger for Decca Records, and formed the Robert Farnon Orchestra, which broadcast regularly on BBC radio and television.

Although he enjoyed serious or classical composition, Farnon had little formal training and built his career in what has become known as light orchestral music.

“A lot of what I knew about writing and arranging I had picked up from playing in bands and orchestras and trying to absorb as much as I could about the different instruments,” he told the Ottawa Citizen in 1997. “My ear was my guide, and I read a lot of books.”

Farnon became friends with Sinatra after working with him in 1962 on the singer’s only British album, “Great Songs from Great Britain.” Sinatra called him “The Guv’nor.” Farnon became a close friend of Bennett after working with him on several albums, concerts and television specials.

Inspiration for arranging, Farnon said, originated with a song’s lyrics and each vocalist’s needs.

“Lena needed a quiet, lush sound,” he told the Ottawa Citizen, “but Tony could have a big, virile sound with lots of brass because his voice was so big. That guy didn’t need a microphone.”

Farnon said he also enjoyed scoring films because he considered motion pictures more permanent than radio or recordings, and because each film required different music.

“One of my favorite projects was ‘Horatio Hornblower,’ ” he said of the 1951 film that starred Gregory Peck and Virginia Mayo, “and it’s still being played around the world more than 40 years later, as are several others.”

Among other films he scored was the final Bob Hope and Bing Crosby “road” picture, “The Road to Hong Kong,” in 1962.

Farnon also composed theme music for such British television programs as “Colditz” in 1972, “The Secret Army” in 1977, “A Man Called Intrepid” in 1979 and “Kessler” in 1981.

He wrote hundreds of works over his long career, including the three symphonies, “Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra,” the pop “Jumping Bean” and jazz works such as “Portrait of Lorraine.”

Farnon, who had lived on Guernsey since 1958, continued working until near his death.

According to the Robert Farnon Society website, he recently completed a bassoon concerto, “Romancing the Phoenix,” for American virtuoso Daniel Smith.

He is survived by his wife, Patricia; four children, and brothers Brian and Dennis.