Jumping Bean

I decided to check on "Today's Birthdays in Music" and discovered a composer born in Canada that I had never heard of before. He wrote many catchy little tunes like the one entitled "Jumping Bean". I think this would be an excellent one to find different ways to keep the beat - tap your head, your shoulders, mover your arms in different ways, etc. Take a listen:

The composer`s name is Robert Farnon. He was born in Toronto on July 24th, 1917

he was commissioned as a captain in the Canadian Army and became the conductor/arranger of the Canadian Band of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force sent overseas during World War II.

He was also a very good jazz trumpeter, and the famous trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie said he was glad Farnon decided to focus his attention to composing because he was a better trumpet player then himself.

He spend most of his life in England, although he never forgot his Canadian roots. His peers thought he was one of the greatest arranger of music. He wrote many film and television themes and incidental music.

He died at the age of 87 on April 23rd, 2005.

Let's listen to some more of his music:

Westminster Waltz

This romantic and relaxed piece became familiar as one of the themes for the popular radio show, ‘In Town Tonight’.

Waltzes are always in triple time. Can you feel the 1-2-3 beat?

Portrait of a Flirt

A Star is Born

Theme from British TV show called ``Colditz``

Here is another TV show called ``The Secret Army``

And yet another TV show called `Kessler``

This is just a small taste of the music he wrote for television!

Children`s Hour

(Listen and imagine children playing in a park)

Here is another fun one called Peanut Polka, I think this would be fun to do a movement activity to this song. It makes me think of a circus!

I cannot believe I have never heard of this composer before. I am imagining lots of cool activities I can do with his music, which there seems to be a lot!