# Farwell - String Quartet 'The Hako' op.65 (SQ review)



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Arthur Farwell (1872-1952) was an American composer, conductor, educationalist and music publisher. After becoming interested in Native American Indian music, he became associated with the Indianist movement and founded the Wa-Wan Press to publish it. He combined teaching, composing and conducting during his career and the American composer and critic A. Walter Kramer described Farwell as “probably the most neglected composer in our history... at the turn of the century no one wrote music with greater seriousness of purpose or fought harder for American music". 
Farwell's String Quartet in A major, Op. 65 'The Hako' was composed in 1923 and only received its world premiere recording in 2021, performed by the Dakota String Quartet on a Naxos disc (well done Naxos!). Often described as "the composer’s peak achievement" and the first important quartet in the history of American string quartet writing, Farwell's work was largely ignored or derided by a racist American press who had the opinion that "the only good Indian is a dead one". Without imitating indigenous musical melodies, Farwell's music creates a unique atmosphere of its own. It was inspired by a ceremony documented in the early 1900s that Farwell set to music. In his work 'Pawnee Horses', Farwell attempted to evoke Native American rhythms and tunes but in the Hako Quartet he doesn't and instead draws inspiration from Native American culture and sounds without attempting to imitate or emulate such melodies. The quartet was buried for far too long by ignorance and disregard to anything American Indian. The fact that Farwell tried so hard to take a culture stance in favour of social justice and humanitarian understanding at a time when American Indians were heavily persecuted speaks a great deal of the man. 

There's only one recording by the *Dakota String Quartet*, on Naxos, and it's a satisfactory one but I would like to hear this work performed by a better sounding ensemble as I feel this work needs more than this quartet can offer (dynamics are hardly hairpin, accents aren't sharp and their very homogenous sound doesn't work for me in a piece of this type). Don't get me wrong, the Dakota do work hard to emulate the effects of distant drums, natural bird sounds of the owl and woodpecker, the sounds of the Pawnee ceremony, the wind, thunder and lightning and by and large turn in a respectable performance but it's not one that is memorable or does full justice to the music for me. I also find Naxos' recorded sound a little congested and a slightly more reverberant, open soundstage would have helped here. Whatever, it's a fascinating one movement piece, lasting close to 20 minutes, and I'm sure that if you give this intriguing work a go you'll enjoy it.


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