Gideon Fagan
Gideon Fagan (1904-1980) was a South African composer.
Biography
Training
Fagan’s musical education began under the supervision of his brother, Johannes Fagan, who arranged private tutors in piano, theory and harmony. From 1916 to 1922, he attended the South African College of Music, not taking a degree course, but specializing in counterpoint, harmony, composition, score-reading and orchestration, all under the guidance of W. H. Bell. Fagan then studied for a further four years at the Royal College of Music in London. With conducting as his principal subject, Fagan obtained the highest degree (seven star) and was at the time the youngest student to conduct in the Parry Opera Theatre, and the first to conduct professional orchestras at the Trinity College of Music Patrons’ Fund concerts: the Royal Philharmonic, the Royal Albert Hall, the Queen’s Hall and the London Symphony Orchestras. Fagan returned to South African in 1926, but left again for London a year later on account of there being only limited opportunities in his chosen profession in South Africa. His second stay in England lasted until 1949.
Career
He signed a contract with the Johannesburg City Council in 1949 to conduct the City Orchestra for two years, as second conductor to Frits Schuurman. His contract was extended to three and a half years. Fagan often had the opportunity of conducting concerts, operas, school concerts and tours of the orchestra to the outlying areas.
When the Voortrekker Monument was inaugurated in 1949, he conducted the combined SABC and City orchestras, and also the massed choirs that sang in the amphitheatre at the Monument. Fagan founded the popular lunch-hour concerts and Saturday concerts in Johannesburg. Later he organized the music at the Golden Jubilee Festival of African Consolidated Theatres.
The SABC appointed Fagan as manager of their music department in Johannesburg in 1954. He was in succession manager, then music advisor, and manager of music planning, acting Head of Music and after 1964, Head of Music. During his thirteen years with the SABC, Fagan consistently strived to promote South African music.
He commissioned the first South African radio opera, The coming of the butterflies by Stephen O’Reilly to a libretto by Cecil Jubber, he founded the SABC Junior Orchestra, and he conducted on occasion the National Symphony Orchestra of the SABC and other South African orchestras.
In 1967, he became a senior lecturer at the South African College of Music, chiefly for orchestration and composition, and remained in this position until the end of 1972. He then retired to his seaside home at Betty’s Bay where he devoted himself to his creative work.
He composed music for the films: David Livingstone, The captain’s table, The last rose of summer, Auld lang syne.
Awards
In 1973 and again in 1976, the National Education Department awarded Fagan their triennial prize for ‘the best concert work written in South Africa’. His achievement and his services to music were acknowledged in 1963, when the Swiss International Institute of Arts and Letters awarded him a life Fellowship.
Sources
https://www.up.ac.za/sacomposers/article/2755760/fagan-gideon
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