Fand IncWessex Press

Fand presents a selection of choral pieces as its latest batch of releases – all by composers new to the Fand catalogue. The new publications are available for purchase immediately.

First of all, we are delighted to welcome J. Alex Whyte to the catalogue. A man of multiple talents, and already the author of a number of humorous books (try reading his biography for a taste of his writing style), his first Fand publication is a cantata, set to his own text, called For Unbelievers. The composer has even used his graphical talents to create the cover illustration.

For Unbelievers is a highly attractive and uplifting work. The text is non-specific and open to multiple interpretations; although not overtly religious, it nevertheless conveys a sense of the value of faith and a broad hope for peace. In the composer’s words, “It was written as an invitation to think things over. And perhaps come to a decision.”

The cantata is for SATB choir with a soloist of each voice part, and has been published in two new editions: the intended original scoring with chamber orchestra and an alternative version with piano accompaniment. The two versions are ‘compatible’ in that the choir & piano score serves both as a performable work in its own right and as the choir and soloists’ part for the version with orchestral accompaniment. So, in situations where an orchestra is not available, a satisfactory performance can still be staged.

The work has already been performed on several occasions, but with an earlier orchestral scoring. For its Fand publication, the piece has been revised by a former pupil of the composer, Julian Cole, who has improved the orchestration and written the new piano accompaniment (with the composer’s full approval).

Although intended as a serious work, we feel that this piece, given its highly tuneful and attractive nature, very straightforward musical material and positive sentiments, would make an ideal work for performance by youngsters, within schools or youth choirs etc.

English and Welsh traditions

The second person to join the Fand ranks this month is Richard Hallas. Richard has, in fact, a very long-term involvement with Fand already; as KeyNote, he has typeset many Fand editions since the early 1990s, and he is the named editor on several of Fand’s early Bax editions. Moreover, he has been Fand’s Webmaster since 2010 and is responsible for the presentation style of most of Fand’s more recent publications. He now joins the Fand ranks at last as a composer/arranger with the following two items:

Written for a specific choir and a specific concert (The Huddersfield Singers’ A Yorkshire Christmas event on 3rd December 2016), The Yorkshire Shepherds was created for a very specific purpose. However, during its creation, it became apparent that it had the potential to be of much greater interest than just something for a one-off performance, so efforts were made to maximise its appeal and flexibility – with the result that it can be performed in several ways, and provides the scope for optional audience participation within the context of a Christmas concert.

The Yorkshire Shepherds is, in fact, a setting of the text of While Shepherds Watched their Flocks by Night, to a range of traditional Yorkshire melodies. The tune that ‘everyone’ knows for this carol is called Winchester Old, and is actually used in fragmentary form in the accompaniment of this new setting. It may also optionally be sung at the end, if audience participation is desired. However, the main piece uses four alternative melodies, all of which are very popular in the Yorkshire region. A strong generations-old carolling tradition exists in the area of Yorkshire between Sheffield and Holmfirth, and the people of this area still regularly sing While Shepherds Watched to a dozen or so well-established melodies. This new piece celebrates the Yorkshire carolling tradition by taking four of the most popular of those regional melodies and setting a verse of the carol to each of them in a new concert arrangement.

The piece is intended to be light-hearted without being silly. The audience may smile in surprise as the choir enters to the well-known tune of On Ilkla Moor Baht ’At – yet this is actually authentic, as this carol was sung to this tune before the familiar ‘Ilkley Moor’ words were even written.

The music is for SATB choir with either piano or organ accompaniment, and a choice of three different ways of ending the piece (one of which involves audience participation) is available for use as circumstances dictate. Overall, then, this is a fun item that could be used as a concert highlight or perhaps an encore.

Finally, moving from Yorkshire to Wales…

This new setting of the traditional Welsh lullaby Suo Gân aims to provide an attractive version for four-part choral use. The melody was made famous particularly through its memorable use in the early Steven Spielberg war film, Empire of the Sun.

Sung to a lilting accompaniment (which will require a pianist with a fairly light touch), the first verse may be performed by a solo soprano or treble (or a small semichorus), and the rest of the song is sung by the four-part choir. Aside from the need for careful tuning in the chromatic third verse, the straightforward musical setting should put this song easily within the grasp of amateur choirs, and the generally sonorous nature of the arrangement should, we hope, make it an audience-pleaser.