Fand IncWessex Press

Parts are available for hire; please enquire.

South Coast Postcards is a score which was completed in 1998. The orchestra used is for double woodwind, two trumpets, two horns, percussion (including piano) and strings.

There are three postcards. All are miniature tone poems; so in movement 1 a picture of kites flying over, and falling down, and being launched from the slopes of Butser Hill is presented. Number 2 visits Emsworth Harbour on an autumnal, rather overcast evening and number 3, Roller-Coaster, is an energetic contrast of movement and dipping fun.

Parts are available for hire; please enquire.

South Coast Postcards is a score which was completed in 1998. The orchestra used is for double woodwind, two trumpets, two horns, percussion (including piano) and strings.

There are three postcards. All are miniature tone poems; so in movement 1 a picture of kites flying over, and falling down, and being launched from the slopes of Butser Hill is presented. Number 2 visits Emsworth Harbour on an autumnal, rather overcast evening and number 3, Roller-Coaster, is an energetic contrast of movement and dipping fun.

Out of the Blue was composed in the early 1930s for performance at an RAF display at Hendon. In 1931 it was published by R. Feldman & Co., London, in a piano solo arrangement, bearing a dedication to the Royal Air Force Depot, Uxbridge, Middlesex, and with words (written by Lt Col. Graham Seton Hutchinson) provided for the Trio section. The march gained enormously in popularity when BBC Radio began to utilise it in 1948 as the theme music for their regularly broadcast Sports Report. Very unusually, the BBC has kept it in use since the programme’s inception.

The piano solo arrangement has a few awkward corners in it, with it not being possible to play some of the counter-melody material. This prompted me to adapt the piece into piano duet format, so as to include more detail and hopefully make it more playable and easier to articulate. The arrangement is dedicated to Kevin Bull, pianist and sight-reader extraordinaire, with whom I have spent many happy hours playing music for two pianos.

—John Mitchell, January 2022

Note: The repeat of the main march after the Trio is specified in Bath’s original score. However, for reasons of balance, the work can be concluded quite convincingly at the end of the Trio, and some commercial recordings take this approach. The two sample recordings provided below demonstrate the piece in both of its forms, with the full version taking around 4¼ minutes and the abbreviated version requiring only 2¾ minutes. John Mitchell’s personal preference is for the abbreviated version.

The Symphonietta Doppio score was written in the late 1990s and completed in March 1999. It is scored for a large orchestra and is in one movement.

The ‘doppio’ in the title refers to the doubling and halving of basic tempos throughout. There is thus a certain formal conflict.

Otherwise the music has the ambience of an overture and would be well placed to open a concert of symphonic music.

The Symphonietta Doppio score was written in the late 1990s and completed in March 1999. It is scored for a large orchestra and is in one movement.

The ‘doppio’ in the title refers to the doubling and halving of basic tempos throughout. There is thus a certain formal conflict.

Otherwise the music has the ambience of an overture and would be well placed to open a concert of symphonic music.

The Symphonietta Doppio score was written in the late 1990s and completed in March 1999. It is scored for a large orchestra and is in one movement.

The ‘doppio’ in the title refers to the doubling and halving of basic tempos throughout. There is thus a certain formal conflict.

Otherwise the music has the ambience of an overture and would be well placed to open a concert of symphonic music.

A career in conducting the Royal Ballet had some impact on the time that Constant Lambert was able to devote to composition, and his fame as a composer has been somewhat eclipsed accordingly. His most often heard work is the jazz-influenced The Rio Grande. His Aubade Héroïque was originally composed for small orchestra in 1942, partly as a 70th birthday tribute to Ralph Vaughan Williams, but also to capture in music an experience Lambert had had two years earlier, when an idyllic morning spent in the garden of a Dutch château was set against the backdrop of the German invasion of Holland in 1940 (the blissful nature of the occasion being clouded by distance gunfire).

Lambert only published three works for solo piano during his lifetime – a substantial Piano Sonata and two shorter pieces – and the present arrangement will add a further option to those pianists wishing to play his music.

—John Mitchell, February 2022

Peter Thompson’s Autumn Sketchbook is the twelfth in a series of piano suites exploring the art of writing for the piano in fairly brief movements. Suite no 12 concentrates mainly on the reflective and colourful aspects of Autumn, rather than the stormy and winter-leaning traits, although one of the movements, Twirling Winds, encourages a challenging briskness.

Qui creavit cælum is a new and very appealing (yet straightforward) Christmas carol setting for SATB choir. Using a relatively uncommon (though far from unknown) text, this lullaby is simple but deeply felt, and should fall well within the capabilities of most amateur choirs whilst nevertheless producing an enchanting effect on the audience. There is a simple piano or organ accompaniment.

Qui creavit cælum is a new and very appealing (yet straightforward) Christmas carol setting for SATB choir. Using a relatively uncommon (though far from unknown) text, this lullaby is simple but deeply felt, and should fall well within the capabilities of most amateur choirs whilst nevertheless producing an enchanting effect on the audience. There is a simple piano or organ accompaniment.