Trained first as an electrical engineer, Arthur Farwell, was encouraged by Edward MacDowell, among others. He studied with Pfitzner and Humperdinck in Germany and with Guilmant in Paris, returning to teach briefly at Cornell, before founding the Wa-Wan Press for the publication of music by American composers. He later taught at Berkeley and at Michigan State College. He collected music from a variety of sources, and made much use of Amerindian melodies, at first harmonized conventionally and then with greater freedom. In his individual approach to harmony and to composition he may be compared with Ives.
