| Striking setting… | ||
| — Gramophone |
Click the quotation text to discover what it refers to!
Fand IncWessex Press is a publisher of high quality sheet music, CDs and books, all focussing on accessible 20th Century and contemporary composers and concentrating mainly on first editions. Please use the tabs at the top of the page to explore the catalogue. Further details, such as information about ordering, can be found on the Contact/Info page.
Fand Music Press is delighted to present December Spring, a new piano work by John Mitchell, together with Peter Thompson’s String Quartet no 7.
Composed in December 2018, December Spring borrows its title from a Jocelyn Brooke poem, which reflects on our darkest month, and how some will see it as a negative time of year whilst others are already focused on a brighter Spring ahead. Accordingly, the piece veers towards a mood that is hauntingly sombre, but one that also has several moments of quiet optimism and serenity.
Peter Thompson’s new String Quartet no 7 is in three movements. Like the other quartets in the cycle it is unconventional in form and contains unexpected allusions to previous works – which adds a personal tone to its expression. The three movements, though tending to brevity, are nonetheless each romantic in tone and related intrinsically.
A revised second edition of Peter Thompson’s String Quartet no 2 (‘Integration’) has also just been issued.
Arcadia Calls by Peter Thompson is a set of five violin and piano pieces. They are not difficult, but offer new interpretive challenges for the Grade 3–6-standard violinist. Each number can be performed as an independent repertoire piece and they can serve as excellent fillers for school concerts if that is required. Otherwise, the suite will suit the professional player wishing to offer the audience music of a simple grace and charm as might be imagined to have existed in a long-ago Arcadia.
We are delighted to offer for sale the first published edition of Sir Arnold Bax’s Sonata in E flat for piano.
The ‘story’ of this major work from one of Britain’s foremost composers at the time is not that well known; the Bax scholar Graham Parlett writes:
—Graham Parlett
This is the work that FAND MUSIC PRESS now presents: the original version, as played by Bax that evening. The second movement is entirely different from that in the eventual symphony, being an elaborate seascape with the magical freshness of The Garden of Fand seemingly within reach. And there are new variants in the outer movements which show Bax’s original inspiration.
Carefully prepared and edited from the original manuscript by Graham Parlett, this is a wonderful addition to our Bax collection!
The new Sestina by Peter Thompson is an extended one-movement work. It takes its cue from the verse form, though it is not a literal mirror. A sense of repeated rhyme is given throughout in the way musical material is treated. This is merely a technical device whilst the music itself is Romantic in concept and, though episodic, has a sense of developing drama which the repeating ‘rhyme’ helps to evoke.
The first published edition of Sir Arnold Bax’s Piano Sonata in E flat (‘Nº 3’), later to become his First Symphony. The Sonata contains material not used in the Symphony, together with a completely different second movement. A wonderful addition to our Bax collection!
In August 1995, Gary Higginson wrote Three Ben Jonson Songs for tenor and piano, mostly for himself to sing in various concerts that he was giving at the time. Fand published them soon after. But now, with a new CD of his works due to be recorded later in 2018, containing songs and solo flute music, he felt he wanted these songs to be sung by a baritone whilst also hoping that a new transposition would open them up to a wider range of voices. Fand is delighted to issue this new baritone edition whilst still stocking the original version for tenor.
At the same time, we publish Two Pieces for Solo Flute by Gary Higginson. The first of them, Landscape, although down as Opus 62, was partly composed whilst Gary was still at school. It was enlarged and revised many years later and a new piece was composed to go with it, Sweet Song of the Summer Woods. Both pieces were initially performed by Gary in various concerts in the 1970s and ’80s.
Also new to the Fand catalogue this spring comes a pair of little pieces for piano solo: Two Wildflowers by Peter Thompson, written whilst scoring his recently completed Fourth Symphony.
John Mitchell is a house composer for Modus Music, who publish the majority of his works. Fand Music Press is therefore delighted to be permitted to publish this saucy number from the main table. Listen to John Meccanico’s performance at the composer’s ideal tempo of minim = 138, buy the music and have a go…
Fand Music Press is pleased to announce the publication of something of a milestone: the tenth in the series of piano suites by Peter Thompson. Suite no 10 is a set of five characterful movements, each lasting around a couple of minutes, aimed at competent to advanced pianists. Moods range from the contemplative to the exuberant, but the entire suite is in Thompson’s approachable, energetic and harmonically spicy style. Overall, this is a joyous and entertaining set.
Fand is also privileged to publish the autobiography of composer Frank Bayford. A pharmacist by trade (one of two Fand composers to pursue this profession), the multitalented Mr Bayford is not only an accomplished self-taught composer but also a talented artist, and several of his drawings and watercolours illustrate the book. Dispensing Notes: Stepping-Stones towards an Autobiography is a 100-page volume that tells the compelling story of Frank Bayford’s Enfield-based life and music.
The first new Fand publication of 2017 is a choral (SATB) setting of the well-known poem by Robert Burns, My love is like a red, red rose. Called simply A Red, Red Rose, this gentle setting has already received a concert performance from Philip Mead’s choir, the St Augustine’s Singers, as noted in this month’s Friends of Fand news. The video of the performance can be found on the product page.
As promised in last month’s early announcement of the new Carey Blyton CD, the disc has now been added to the Fand catalogue and has its own page with detailed track listing and sample tracks, together with sample pages from the deluxe CD packaging.
We are excited to announce that we have just taken delivery of a new CD of world première recordings of music by Carey Blyton. Produced on the Sleeveless Records label as a collaboration between the Carey Blyton Trust and Fand Music Press, this new CD is a really top quality production from all points of view.
Performers on the CD are the Chameleon Arts Wind Quintet; Harriet Adie, harp; Derek Foster, vibraphone; and Ian Partridge, narrator.
Music on the CD is as follows (all world première recordings):
The physical CD is a deluxe production with an attractive ‘picture disc’ label, full colour inlays throughout and a 16-page full-colour booklet that includes extensive music notes (including the composer’s own commentary on several pieces), the text of the poems that inspired some of the music, and ample illustrations of the Hiroshige watercolours portrayed by some of the musical settings.
The CD will, of course, soon be added to the Fand catalogue and will be listed on this site with a detailed information page and sample tracks as usual. In the meantime, you can order the CD by clicking the Add to Cart button above. The price is £10·99 + P&P.
Previous announcements may be found in the Fand News Archive.
