Faning, Eaton

1850-

English composer and conductor, the son of a professor of music; born at Helston, Cornwall. He received his earliest instruction from his parents, and when very young performed at public concerts. In 1870 he entered the Royal Academy of Music, studying under Sterndale Bennett, C. Steggall and others. Two years later he won the silver medal for piano, and in 1873 the Mendelssohn Scholarship. In 1874 he gained the bronze medal for harmony, and the Lucas medal for composition in 1876. Two years later he became a professor of the Royal Academy of Music, and shortly afterward a fellow of that institution. He took the degree of Bachelor of Music from Cambridge in 1894, and of Doctor of Music in 1900, and held various positions at the National Training School, Guildhall School of Music, and the Royal College of Music until 1885, when he accepted the directorship of music at Harrow, which he held till 1901, when he retired. He has composed many charming pieces of music, notably a Magnificat and a Nunc Dimittis for voices and orchestra, performed at St. Paul's Cathedral in 1878; anthems; part-songs; a choral ballad, The Miller's Wooing; three operettas; a dramatic cantata; a symphony in C minor; overture; quartets; piano pieces; and his Song of the Vikings for four-part chorus with piano duet accompaniment, which has attained to great popularity. He has also written a dramatic cantata, Liberty; and an overture, The Holiday. In July, 1897, his operetta, The Two Majors, was performed at the Royal Academy of Music, which led to the establishment of the operatic class at that institution. A comic operetta of Faning's, Mock Turtles, was produced at the Savoy Theatre, London, in 1881. From the opening of the Royal College of Music till July, 1885, Mr. Faning taught piano and harmony, and until 1887 conducted the Choral class there.