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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.
The publication of Sir Arnold Bax’s Welcome, Somer is another important first for Fand; this is a previously unpublished Bax song: a vigorous and typically characterful setting of words by Chaucer, for either soprano or tenor voice and piano.
In 1914, Bax composed Three Rondels by Chaucer for high voice and piano, of which only the first, Roundel, was ever published; the other two, Welcome, Somer and Of her Mercy, remained in manuscript form only.
Welcome, Somer was completed on 20 October 1914, four days before the wedding of Joan Thornycroft, its dedicatee, to Herbert Farjeon; the song was clearly intended as a wedding present. It is a setting of a rondel near the end of Chaucer’s long poem, The Parlement of Foules, in which a narrator describes a dream-vision.
Fand’s other November releases feature the music of Peter Thompson. A pair of keys/quays to start with: The Keys of Heaven is Thompson’s individualistic arrangement of a Cheshire folksong for four voices (SATB, with piano reduction for rehearsal purposes), whilst his Sidlesham Quay is an original piece for solo piano: a limpid impression of a watery landscape, suitable for pianists of Grade 5 and above.
Finally, Thompson’s new Sonatina for Piano is a substantial four-movement work for pianists of around Grade 8 standard.
Previous announcements may be found in the Fand News Archive.
