Ernest Farrar Silent Noon
... FORMATIVE ASSIGNMENT 1 Ernest Farrar – “Silent Noon”. ... Ernest Farrar was a composer and pianist (organist). ... After a brief spell at Durham University, Farrar was offered an open scholarship to the Royal College of Music in 1905. ... Farrar spent two years as organist at St. ... In 1915, Farrar enlisted in the Grenadier Guards. ... Tragically, Farrar was killed on the 18th September 1918, just ten days after he arrived. “Silent Noon” comes from a set entitled “Vagabond Songs” (Op. ... “Silent Noon” (poem by Gabriel Dante Rossetti) 3. ... Farrar’s music highlights the difference between the two words by using a B major chord for “gleams” but an A minor chord for “glooms” creating a sense of foreboding as if time is in fact slipping away, although this feeling is short-lived as the music swiftly moves to D major. ... Perhaps this is representing a spark of thought about the passage of time, or the perfection of the moment on behalf of the speaker by Farrar, or it could be a pre-emptive moment, a hint of the new key at the end of the poem. There are a number of prominent motives in Farrar’s music. ... It occurs with the words “peace”, “silence” and “love” and adds a dimension to the words as it creates a sense of peace and its lilting character is relaxing and just as it does finally at the end, each time it occurs, it has the power to stop the song, though in the first two instances it doesn’t, Farrar moves on into a new section.