Fand IncWessex Press

Fand Music Press is delighted to have played a major role in the inception of the latest CD from the highly acclaimed cello and piano duo of Lionel Handy and Nigel Clayton, featuring a couple of world-première recordings of music published by Fand. The new CD is entitled From Bohemia to Wessex and is available to order now.

The meatiest work on the disc is the monumental Cello Sonata of John Barton Armstrong, here receiving its first commercial recording. The second piece to be premièred on this CD is Peter Thompson’s Cello Sonatina, coincidentally written in the same year (1981). The disc is rounded off by Handy & Clayton’s continuation of their recordings of the Cello Sonatas of Bohuslav Martinů: this time, number 2.

This is another extremely high-quality issue in a similar style to Handy & Clayton’s previous Bax CD. Cello fans should snap it up for both its superb performances and its unique repertoire.

As promised in last month’s preview, The Happy Forest by Sir Arnold Bax is now available.

This exciting new release is the very first edition of the original piano version of a work that has hitherto been known only in its later orchestral incarnation. Originally composed as a piano solo, it has spent the last hundred years unknown to the public. It was completed on 13th May 1914, and Graham Parlett has now finished this first edition, which is being released in time for the work’s centenary.

Fand is happy to announce the publication of the latest two new works by Peter Thompson.

Calydon Eclogue is a short, classically poetic study for unaccompanied violin on “Arcadian Atalanta, snowy-souled,” as featured in Swinburne’s tragedy, Atalanta in Calydon. Three Pieces is a triptych of slow, reflective and not difficult poems for piano.

Bax: The Happy Forest (preview)

At the same time, Fand is also extremely happy to be able announce the imminent release of the very first edition of Sir Arnold Bax’s original piano version of The Happy Forest.

Although it is well-known as an orchestral work by Bax, The Happy Forest was originally composed as a piano solo. It was written for Herbert Farjeon, whose prose poem of the same name had inspired the piece. Bax decided to orchestrate it some time later, and the orchestral version became established, but the original piano piece remained unpublished until now.

Composition was completed on 13th May 1914, and Graham Parlett is currently putting the final touches to his first edition, which will be published in time for the work’s centenary.

Fand’s latest issue is another important and exciting one: the first edition of Sir Arnold Bax’s Nympholept, a poem for piano.

The title Nympholept refers to a person who suffers from nympholepsy, a state of rapture inspired by nymphs; the music is based on a poem of the same name by Swinburne about panic induced by noonday silence in the woods.

Bax himself also wrote a poem of the same title a few months before composing the piano piece, and he later orchestrated the music. Neither the original piano piece nor the orchestral version was performed in his lifetime, however.

As may be expected from its title and subject matter, the piece is a typically rhapsodic Baxian offering, and is a work of some considerable substance, lasting for over 10 minutes and making considerable technical demands of the pianist.

Admirers of Carey Blyton’s work will be interested to learn of a completely new website, which has been created in place of the old one. Visitors will find a deeply searching porthole into the multifaceted work and world of Carey Blyton:

www.CareyBlyton.com

The creation of the site, the work of Richard Hallas, is an ongoing project and there is much scope, in terms of further development, for featuring Carey’s media work as well as highlighting current news, but already a number of films can be viewed as well as sundry articles, stories, letters etc.

However, perhaps the most valuable part of the new site is the fully comprehensive catalogue. Here is detailed information on each of Carey’s 111 opus numbers, together with his numerous other unnumbered works. Many of these works are still available and there are quick links to each publisher; further, there is now an online Shop where works and recordings can be instantly purchased. The Shop operates in partnership with Fand Music Press, and also offers Carey’s publications from Modus Music.

There is much else, for the website is not only a focus for scholars but is very much in keeping with the humorous nature of much of Carey’s work. The site is as friendly to the infant searching for news of B1 as it is to the venerable researcher seeking information concerning A Shoal of Fishes or Arnold and the Acorns!

Please visit www.careyblyton.com!

Fand is pleased to announce the publication of two new works by Peter Thompson.

Dark Veils, for low voice and piano, sets to music a poem by Felicity Cook whose brooding words nevertheless allow shafts of sunlight to break through. March Hares is a highly energetic, playful and rumbustious piano piece that depicts its subject matter in a most entertaining manner, and is suitable for intermediate to advanced pianists.

Peter Thompson’s String Quartet no 2, ‘Integration’ has just been republished in the new Fand style, now with an excitingly abstract front cover picture. The music itself takes its inspiration from Jungian psychology, with the four voices of the string quartet representing four personality aspects that integrate with each other to form a whole. The four-colour interwoven patterning of the new cover reflects this idea.

On an unrelated note, visitors to the Fand site may like to know that sample music pages have also recently been added to a lot more items in the catalogue. Although there are still many pieces without sample pages, more than half the items in the catalogue do now have them.

Fand is delighted to be able to supply an excellent new CD featuring the music of Sir Arnold Bax, entitled BAX: Works for Cello and Piano. Bax’s Legend-Sonata, the major work featured on this disc, was written for Florence Hooton and was first performed by her in 1943. This CD was released to mark Florence Hooton’s centenary in 2012 and features her pupil, the acclaimed cellist Lionel Handy, accompanied by Nigel Clayton in a highly authoritative set of performances. Lionel is a long-serving professor at the Royal Academy of Music, teaches at the Birmingham Conservatoire and in summer schools throughout Europe, and has been guest principal with most leading UK orchestras.

John Barton Armstrong’s Pinecroft Suite for piano solo was found amongst the composer’s papers after his death in 2010. It is an affectionate tribute to a family he used to visit regularly at a house called Pinecroft in East Horsley, and dates from around 1964. Each of its six short movements is a miniature musical sketch: one for each family member. The pieces vary in difficulty (number 4, Barnes’ Invention, being significantly more difficult than the others), but overall should suit a pianist of around Grade 6 standard.

Fand has published a new collection of three songs for medium voice and piano or harp: Country Scenes by Gary Higginson. These delicate songs all cover themes of nature and the countryside, and are suitable for both male and female singers. Note that the first of the songs may also be accompanied by guitar.

Recently, a CD of Gary Higginson’s music has been issued on the Regent label: Songs of Innocence and of Experience [REGCD381]; these three songs have been recorded for this CD, and you can hear them on this site.