Ferenc Farkas, Music's Polymath

The career and music of Ferenc Farkas (1905-2000) was characterized by a unique diversity. This showed not just in the more than a hundred genres in which he wrote music, or in their nearly two hundred different kinds of ensemble, but in their various styles and sources of inspiration, as well as in the activities he took part in over the course of a uniquely long life. He was primarily a composer, but also a teacher, repetiteur, choir conductor, orchestral conductor, pianist in the orchestra pit, school director and operatic chorus master. He was also active in public life and as a writer on music. We find the features of a late polymath in the versatility of his interests and his exceptional cultural knowledge. As a true "bon viveur" he was considered to be an expert on languages, poetry, literature and cuisine, and in addition when he was young he was successful at painting. Part of his skill in communication lay in the fact that he spoke more or less fluently 10 to 12 languages. His commitment to literature is shown by the fact that 97 Hungarian writers and the same number of foreign ones inspired his vocal works, which in total use texts in 16 different languages. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]