Alfred Adolphus Farland Sr. (April 10, 1864 – May 5, 1954) was a Canadian-American banjoist, playing in the classic banjo style for more than 40 years. He played the banjo wearing a tuxedo, bringing an air of sophistication to the instrument, when the 19th-century image for a banjo player tended toward the comic, the racist and the crude. He had a reputation for entertaining "cultivated audiences" with banjo adaptations of European classical music. Farland's adaptations included Bach violin sonatas, Beethoven violin sonatas, a Mendelsson violin sonata, Brahms dances, and some of Chopin's nocturnes and waltzes. His performances of this kind of music on the banjo were seen in 1900 as successfully "stretching the limits of the instrument."
Farland based his performances initially out of Pittsburg, but later moved to New York, in order to be closer to potential students during his off season. He wrote a banjo method and composed music for students to practice.
Farland was also an inventor and designed his own line of banjos with wooden rims. He held patents for banjo-related inventions, including an all-metal banjo head and an adapter to produce harp-like tones from a banjo.
Background
Alfred Farland was the youngest of nine children, 5 boys and 4 girls, his parents natives of Canada. His family moved to the United States about 1865, with some members being born in the U.S. They were involved in the clothing-making industry. His father was a tailor, and Alfred and his brothers (and sometimes his sisters) worked in the woolen mills that turned sheep's wool into cloth. Although he lived and died in the United States, he remained Canadian through at least 1920, becoming a citizen by 1940.
In 1880 when he was 14 years old, Alfred Farland worked as a weaver in a woolen mill in Westerly, Rhode Island. His brother, Joseph, lived nearby and also worked in the woolen mill. About 14 years later, Alfred would receive acclaim in his music-playing profession, playing the banjo, accompanied on piano by his niece Annie, Joseph's daughter.
He began to take lessons from music teachers in about 1877, when he was 13 years old. He was good enough that five years later in 1882 he was able to work professionally, working within "concert companies." In 1888 he moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to teach, and by 1891 had taught more than 500 students.
Professional life
Farland entered show business in 1884, the "minstrel days", as a "blackface comedian and song and dance man." The minstrel show was a form of popular music for its day, and the banjo played a prominent role in the shows. However, the music was seen as vulgar by men such as S. S. Stewart, whom Farland would work with for years. It was music of drinking and partying, not to be listened to in the parlor. Farland didn't stick with the minstrel music, but turned to European classical. He was able to break away from the minstrel acts following a banjo concert that he gave in 1893, a contest and concert sponsored by S. S. Stewart. He impressed Stewart, who wrote, "We have, as yet, met no one who can duplicate Farland's performance on the banjo. What had really impressed Stewart was Farland's adaptation of a Mendelssohn concerto, which Stewart knew to be a difficult piece on the violin, and even more difficult on the banjo.
In embracing classical music on the banjo, he was joining men like Samuel Swaim Stewart, William A. Huntley and George W. Gregory, all of whom embraced playing the banjo on the stage, separating it from the minstrel-show repertoire. After a career in blackface, Huntley broke ground by performing in "whiteface" on the stage in 1884, eliciting the newspaper comment, "Mr. Wm. A. Huntley is the only banjo artist in the country that has ever made a success in white face." Early in his career, Stewart had included lessons for performing in blackface, but it was a small part of his larger business and magazine, both centered around a refined banjo image. Gregory was the son of the president of a philharmonic society and had applied his classical-music knowledge to the banjo, beginning about 1892.
Farland would become prominent in S. S. Stewart's Banjo and Guitar Journal, and his repertoire focused on arrangements of European classical music (then contemporary music coming out of Europe) and a high level of technical skill. His performances would inspire newspapers to label him "virtuoso." Playing until he was about 70 years old, he would "average more than 100 banjo recitals per season for more than 40 years," playing across the United States and in England.
Classical-music artist
Farland adapted works by European composers to the banjo and played them across the United States.