Fand IncWessex Press

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:

In 1921, Arnold Bax completed the final version of his first published piano sonata (in F sharp minor) and oversaw the printing of his second (in G). On 30 June he finished a three-movement work in E flat that was originally headed ‘3rd Sonata’, but this is not the same as the published score with that title, which was composed in 1926. After he had played through the Sonata in E flat to his friends Harriet Cohen and Arthur Alexander, they urged him to turn it into a symphony, and so, following their advice, Bax crossed through the original title and wrote in its place, ‘Symphony in Eb (Sketch)’.

—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!