Fand IncWessex Press

Admirers of E. J. Moeran’s music will all agree as to the ‘rare gold dust’ quality to his work, and lament its scarcity.

This is particularly true of his piano music, which often seems akin to the watercolourist’s art with its intimate and picturesque delightfulness.

And now, thanks to the skill of John Mitchell, we have nine ‘new’ piano pieces from Moeran! These are arrangements of songs, and, in their new guise, stand alone as piano miniatures – Songs Without the Words – and thus are sure to be welcomed by all players of this composer.

The strong melodic lines and individual harmonic schemes of the originals are never lost sight of, but neither do the pieces ever become over complex, and so both the professional and amateur pianist will find here further music of rare gold dust!

E. J. Moeran: Songs Without the Words is a collection of nine song arrangements for solo piano, pitched at pianists of around Grade 5 to 8 standard.

Indeed, this new E. J. Moeran volume extends and complements the work that John Mitchell has already done on a pair of similar volumes of Songs Without the Words by Peter Warlock:

RECORDINGS: All of the Songs Without the Words (both Moeran and Warlock versions) can now be heard, performed by their arranger, John Mitchell, on this site. Just visit the product pages to find the tracks.

Despite many glorious spring days in 2020 there was, of course, the stain of the pandemic underlying them. The music of Peter Thompson’s Suite no 11: Spring 2020: ‘The Stain’ seeks to convey this in its often abruptly turning moods and colours.

‘The Stain’ is a six-movement suite for solo piano, pitched at around Grade 7 level.

Fand is proud to round off 2020 by introducing the music of Gordon Jacob (1895–1984) to the catalogue. His Four Bagatelles for Two Violins were composed in 1961 as a Christmas gift for his violinist friend, David Martin. They are published here for the first time, and benefit from a recent recording made by Midori Komachi and Sophie Rosa on the EM Records label.

E. J. Moeran’s Whythorne’s Shadow, composed in 1931, is a piece for small orchestra based on an Elizabethan part-song (1571) by Thomas Whythorne. By way of commemorating the seventieth anniversary of Moeran’s death in December 1950, John Mitchell has arranged this delightful work as an attractive piano solo. It complements John’s other transcription of another small orchestral composition of Moeran’s: the companion piece, Lonely Waters (also available from Fand).

Blyton: Lyrics from the Chinese

Lyrics from the Chinese: Seven Songs for High Voice and Piano by Carey Blyton.

This is a fine arrangement, by the composer, of his well-known work for voice and string orchestra, setting seven Chinese poems from 1121 BC–650 BC. This version offers the piece to a wider range of performance and is a superb addition to our Carey Blyton collection and to English Song generally.

The original version of the work, with string orchestra accompaniment, has been recorded by Ian Partridge with the Britten Sinfonia and is available on CD from Fand Music Press.

Thompson: Serenade for Orchestra

Peter Thompson’s Serenade is a seven-movement orchestral work in which the movements are linked by association, and which run continuously. The movements are subtitled: Homesickness; Reflection on Kindness; Delight; Heroes; Play; Lament; and Envoi.

Although written for a professional symphony orchestra, the work is approachable, stylistically, and is well within the range of enterprising youth and amateur orchestras. A performance by John Meccanico and the Dorico NotePerformer Orchestra illustrates this capably, if not with all the desirable subtlety.

Poster and Postcard Poems

Fand Music Press, in line with, and enhancing, its association with poetry books, is embarking on a series of poster poems – which will also be available as postcards.

The first in the series is a poster poem by Damaris West: Dog rose.

These beautifully printed posters are ideal for framing, and the cards perfect for that ‘note with a touch of class’!

Peter Thompson’s Symphony no 1 has been in the Fand catalogue for many years, but there has hitherto been no way to actually hear the music.

Now, thanks to the latest software advancements, it has been possible to add a synthetic rendition of acceptable quality to the site, so please head over to the symphony’s catalogue page and listen to this attractive and accessible work for full orchestra.

Following on from arrangements of Peter Warlock’s songs (Songs Without the Words in two volumes), we here present another first rarity: Six English Tunes by Warlock, arranged for piano duet by John Mitchell. The tunes, originally scored for string quintet, make a fitting companion to the Capriol Suite, similarly arranged for piano duet. Admirers of Warlock and English music will be especially delighted to be able to place this work on their pianos and experience it at first hand!

Published at the same time is John Mitchell’s own arrangement, for piano solo, of a folk song first collected by George Butterworth, The Rambling Sailor. This characterful, cheeky and generally good-humoured work makes a superb addition to the folio of John Mitchell titles held by Fand.

John has also been kind enough to provide a recording of himself performing the piece, which you can listen to on the score’s information page.

Thompson: Symphony no 4

Fand Music Press is pleased to announce the publication of Peter Thompson’s 4th Symphony. A compact work of three movements, but of nonetheless contrasting symphonic drama, it is approachable on both stylistic and technical levels yet is an uncompromisingly trenchant essay. As yet unperformed, we offer a simulation to allow you to hear how it sounds.

Higginson: Gallery

New to the Fand catalogue this Summer is a lavishly produced FULL COLOUR volume called Gallery, which is a fascinating collection of piano miniatures by Gary Higginson, whose idea was to write a piece as a foil to Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. The difference with Gallery is that the images are so diverse that they would never be seen together in one place.

The work is a series of eleven exhibits interspersed, like Mussorgsky’s Pictures, by four Intradas, which act as occasional promenades around the gallery, plus a concluding movement.

Each exhibition piece in the publication is accompanied by its related full-colour artwork, and the inspiration behind the music should therefore be readily apparent. Not only are the illustrations contrasting but the individual pieces are also very eclectic in style, ranging from jazz to minimalism to twelve-tone writing.

Written for Patrícia Bretas and Josiane Kevorkian (Duo Bretas–Kevorkian), this new Brazilian Scherzo for two pianos by Peter Thompson would be ideally suited as either a concert opener or an encore: a rhythmic, fast-moving, playful piece requiring scintillating ensemble work.

Fand Music Press rounds off 2019 by publishing, on New Year’s Eve, a two-volume collection of piano arrangements by John Mitchell of eighteen songs by Peter Warlock, suitable for pianists of Grades 5 to 8 standard.

Peter Warlock (1894–1930) is rightly famed for his 120 or so solo songs. They vary enormously in range, from the uproariously extrovert drinking songs, via those on pleasingly charming pastoral themes, and through tender love songs to the hauntingly sad and desolating songs of The Curlew. Another feature they share is that they are more often than not quite melodically distinguished and attractive.

The cue for arranging the nine songs in each of these volumes as piano pieces came in the form of a piano transcription that Alec Rowley had made many years ago of Warlock’s song Milkmaids. Including the latter in a recent concert, it struck John Mitchell that a similar treatment might be extended to some of the other songs in Warlock’s output. The arrangements here may appeal especially to those pianists who greatly enjoy accompanying these songs, but may not always have a singer on hand to contribute the vocal line (the latter now being incorporated into the piano texture).

Fand is honoured to present a new commemorative first edition of a work by a composer new to the catalogue: Batuque by leading Brazilian composer Murillo Santos is a spectacular and engaging encore piece, presented here in versions for both piano solo and piano duet (four hands) in the same booklet.

Sadly, the composer died during the late stages of preparation of this publication. We therefore present it in a commemorative edition with a foreword written by the pianist Patrícia Bretas. A personal friend of the composer, Patrícia has recorded the solo version of the piece on a commercial CD and – as one half of the Bretas–Kevorkian Duo – is a dedicatee of the piano duet version. Visit the piece’s product page to hear her CD recording of the solo original and a live performance by the dedicatees of the duet version.

New Songs by Peter Thompson

We are also delighted to publish two new songs for voice and piano by Peter Thompson, which set words by contemporary poets Roger Eno and Julian Farmer; additionally, we present Thompson’s two settings of the 17th century metaphysical poet Richard Crashaw for medium voice, two violins and ’cello, originally written in 1992 and now published for the first time.