Fand IncWessex Press

Eric Thiman is probably one of England’s most prolific twentieth century composers, with over fourteen hundred published works to his credit. His attractive output comprises songs and part-songs; anthems and other choral works; piano pieces and organ music; and some orchestral works. In connection with the composer’s Piano Sonata John Mitchell writes:

Back in 2004 I was browsing through a music dealer’s catalogue when I spotted that a manuscript of Eric Thiman’s Piano Sonata was being offered for sale. I promptly purchased it and was subsequently quite surprised to learn (from an expert on Thiman’s music) that there was no prior knowledge of this particular composition. More recently, with the encouragement and support from the Eric Thiman Collection at Southwell Minster, it has been possible to get the Sonata in print for its centenary year – this substantial work was written in the summer months of 1922. Composed as a single movement, much of it is penned in a somewhat virtuosic style, which is offset by more lyrical sections. Whether it was ever performed in Thiman’s lifetime is unknown, but it received what is probably its première during a recital by Zibo Li at the Frost School of Music in the University of Miami in December 2021.

—John Mitchell, February 2022

Happily, we have managed to gain permission to reproduce the video of Zibo Li’s performance of the work (which formed part of his doctoral recital), so it may be viewed below.

These three pastorals were written as a direct response to Donald Bousted’s call (in the ‘Lockdown Spring’ of 2020) for new pieces for ukulele and recorder. I was struck, when I heard recordings of these instruments, singly and combined, by a certain ‘innocence’ of sound which seemed to return one to a far distant time (to ancient Greek or Roman days) when such simple piping and strumming was commonplace amongst the shepherd folk of the hills and meadows, as well as in the more sophisticated environment of the villas. Hence my use of the titles Air and Eclogues (the latter being used for pastoral verse by Virgil and other Roman poets). I have now arranged these pieces for recorder and piano.

—Peter Thompson, January 2022

A recording of this work may be found on the Barry Tone’s Fantastic Adventure CD.

This work has been recorded by its original dedicatee, Robert Ivan Foster, and is available on the CD, Carey Blyton – The folksong arrangements.

Jolly Roger, or The Admiral’s Daughter, is a comic opera set in Jamaica in 1690. The title refers to a person in the cast, rather than to the skull and crossbones pirate flag. The production opened at the Opera House, Manchester on 13th February 1933, with George Robey in the leading role. It soon transferred to London’s West End, where it ran for 199 performances, enjoying much critical success.

The high-spirited Overture sets the nautical scene splendidly, with a humorous quote from Rule, Britannia along the way. The concluding excessive number of tonic chords is perhaps a wry dig at the final bars of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony! This arrangement for piano duet will hopefully give this not-as-well-known-as-it-should-be overture a greater currency.

—John Mitchell, October 2021

In 1971 Carey Blyton made an arrangement for choir (SSATBB) of The Mistletoe Bough (op. 61a) which was subsequently recorded by Canzonetta and Jennifer Partridge (piano) on The Choral Music of Carey Blyton.

Amongst his papers in the studio where he worked (known as ‘The Scout Hut’), I recently came across The Ballad of Lady Maynard and Dudin Brown, this an apparently new choral work.

A little research enabled me to untangle its origins. Clearly, at some point, Carey Blyton decided to ‘arrange’ his arrangement of this well-known ballad, by composing new words and presenting them as a newly collected folksong. Perhaps the reference to mistletoe, with its Christmas kissing subtext, amusingly prompted a train of thought. This is of course speculation, but whatever initiated it, the ruse is so obvious that it was surely not intended to deceive!

However, the ‘new’ song would make a welcome ‘tongue-in-cheek’ filler to any choral programme and so Fand Music Press is delighted to present it to a wider public.

—Peter Thompson, November 2021

Written for Bandmaster Douglas Mackay and the Trumpeters of Kneller Hall, this is a welcome addition to the fanfares that bejewel British music in an illustrious tradition that included Elgar, Bax and Bliss.

THIS RECORDING IS NOT AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FROM FAND.

Fand is currently promoting this Donald Bousted recording but not supplying it directly. In order to obtain it either as a physical CD or as a digital album, please proceed to one of the following web pages:

• General information
• Buy the physical CD
• Digital Album

Julien Tiersot (1857–1936) was a pioneering musicologist responsible for transcribing French melodies and songs from the 13th to the 17th centuries. In 1906, he published a large collection of folksongs from the French Alps, Chansons populaires recueillies dans les Alpes françaises. This volume contains 1200 pages of songs, including L’amour de moi, which is thought to originate from the 15th century.

The British singer and scholar John Goss (1891–1953) published an arrangement by Hubert Foss in his Anthology of Song (Oxford University Press, 1929). Goss, a lyric baritone, was an early recording artist for HMV, performing with his own Cathedral Male Quartet in ballads, folksongs and sea shanties. He was also a close friend and collaborator with composers of his era, such as Peter Warlock, E. J. Moeran, Bernard van Dieren, Rebecca Clarke and Frederick Delius. His own personal dossier of songs in manuscript form was discovered in 2008. Along with many other transcriptions of songs in his own hand, here we find his own keyboard arrangement of L’amour de moi. Foss’s version with a simpler harmonic treatment is set in the key of E flat major, whereas Goss’s version is in D flat major, a preferable key for baritones and mezzo-sopranos.

The song has been a favourite for many years with popular recording artists, and has been recorded in arrangements by Jane Birkin and by the Mediæval Bæbes. Foss’s version features on Gossiana, a 1920s Anthology of Song celebrating the life and work of John Goss.

This is the first time Goss’s version has appeared in print, along with a new translation for singers who are more comfortable with English. It does so with the kind permission and approval of Andy Low, the grandson of John Goss.

—Giles Davies, August 2021

 
Have you ever noticed how a certain area or view can have that special personal appeal that can’t quite be readily accounted for in words? Such is a place for myself, just a few miles from where I live in East Kent, where a quiet country lane approaches Wheelbarrow Town. The name itself is rather spurious in that the latter is actually a small hamlet, located just south of the village of Stelling Minnis. How it got its curious name seems to be somewhat shrouded in mystery; all that appears to be known about it is that in the eighteenth century a remote Baptist settlement was established there, and in the nearby burial ground there can still be seen three well preserved tombstones from that period.

I like to think the piano piece I have written contains something of the magical and mystical nature that the location holds for myself, an aspect that is well captured in Richard Hallas’ wonderfully imaginative artwork on the cover.

—John Mitchell, July 2021