Fand IncWessex Press

The Martin Read Foundation has been involved in the production of a new Martin Read – A Celebration CD, launching on 27th April 2025 and featuring exclusively the music of Martin Read, an important Fand composer who tragically died suddenly in 2012. The new CD, full details of which can be found on this site, features nine works, half a dozen of which have hitherto not been published, but which Fand is now bringing before the public to coincide with the launch of the new CD. Indeed, every work on the new recording is now published by Fand. The newly published works are:

• Before History for solo oboe;
• Death, be not proud for sixteen-part choir and soloists;
• Mary Rose Songs: four sea shanties for children’s choir;
• The Death of Colonel Boles: A Cantata recounting events from the First English Civil War;
• Four Interludes from The Death of Colonel Boles: a Civil War Suite for recorder quintet;
• Troper Fragment for ’cello and piano, based on music from the Winchester Troper.

The CD also contains recordings of Autumn, Drawing Details in an Old Church and The Angel of History, which were already published by Fand.

(The Four Interludes appear as part of the full cantata on the CD, not as a separate work.)

At the Open Door CD

On the subject of CDs, Fand has also been involved in the production of an exciting new CD entitled At the Open Door. Recorded by Lorna Windsor, soprano and William Hancox, piano, the CD contains some rare material very close to the spirit of Fand, including recordings of the following actual Fand publications:

• Peter Thompson: A Red, Red Rose
• Peter Thompson: Four Swinburne Pictures: II: A Match
• Sir Arnold Bax: Welcome, Somer
• Carey Blyton: Lyrics from the East
• John Mitchell: Bright Clouds
• Carey Blyton: Lyrics from the Chinese

In addition to those Fand-published pieces, the CD also contains recordings of the following works:

• Peter Warlock: Eight individual songs
• Carey Blyton: Lachrymæ – In Memoriam John Dowland
• E. J. Moeran: Seven Poems of James Joyce

Many tracks from the CD may be previewed on this site, and the disc itself is available for purchase at a very reasonable price!

Higginson: Theme and Eight Variations

Also published by Fand this Easter is Gary Higginson’s Theme and Eight Variations for solo piano, aimed at pianists of approximately Grade 7 standard.

Although recently revised and newly published, this work has actually been in existence for a long time and is one of the composer’s earliest compositions, having been written initially when Gary Higginson was a student of Edmund Rubbra in the early 1970s. It was his first major composition exercise, although its importance and significance only revealed itself later. The work actually has a mild Christmas flavour, in that the original theme on which it is based was written on Christmas Eve 1970, and was originally considered a carol. The piece was revised somewhat back in 1990, and has undergone a few more small revisions in time for its publication in 2025.

Thompson: Aspects of Miracle

Finally, Fand’s collection of new publications this Easter is rounded off by Peter Thompson’s Aspects of Miracle for orchestra. Completed in February 2025, it is a short single-movement work whose title – the composer hopes – conveys the message of the music.