Arthur Farwell

Arthur Farwell (April 23, 1872 – January 20, 1952) was an American composer, conductor, educationalist, lithographer, esoteric savant, and music publisher.

After studying in Boston, Farwell traveled to Europe for additional work, becoming a student of Engelbert Humperdinck in Berlin and Alexandre Guilmant in Paris.

He founded the Wa-Wan Press, dedicated to publishing the works of the American Indianist composers, among whom Farwell was a leading figure.

Among his principal compositions are a number of Symbolistic Studies for orchestra, a Symphony developed from a fragmentary opening left by his mentor Rudolph Gott, the large-scale "symphonic song ceremony" Mountain Song for orchestra and chorus (after the play by Lord Dunsany), a piano quintet, and many works both vocal and instrumental drawing from the music of Native American peoples.

[2] Curt Cacioppo calls it "the composer’s peak achievement" and "the first distinctive and confident step ever taken in American string quartet writing, unique in scope and integrative process".

[6] A gradual but ceaseless developer as a composer, in his last couple of decades Farwell produced some of his most individual works - including a series of polytonal studies for piano, several concise instrumental sonatas, numerous effective and penetrating settings of the poetry of Emily Dickinson, and a satirical opera, Cartoon, which contains extended parodies of Stravinsky and Schoenberg.

[1] Following the South Dakota Symphony's Lakota Music Project performance in 2019, a critical piece in The Washington Post led to social media portrayals of Farwell as an appropriator.