Dennis Wickens

You will be familiar with the technique – the well-known tune is thundered out on the pedal with toccata-like passage work for the manuals. As it happens one of our very best sellers, Martin Setchell’s Toccata on ‘Joy to the World’, uses the same layout, and here then is an opportunity to provide a dazzling postlude for an Easter service. It is a bit spikier than Martin’s piece but still is very approachable. It is not really sight-readable but lies under the hand very well, so a bit of work at home should do the trick.

This is a chorale prelude on the tune ‘St Anne’ in which remarkably bell-like manual figurations are underpinned by the tune in the pedals. This will need a bit of working out, but it lies under the hands very nicely.

The descriptive titles tell us most of what we need to know. The gentle dissonances are very effective. The pieces may be played separately or as a Suite and either as voluntaries or a recital item.

These two pieces are musical interpretations of two poems by the nation’s favourite poet. There is a full description for a programme note.

The subtitle is a poem by Thomas Nashe (1593) and is the second piece this autumn by Fagus composers to reflect on our troubles with Covid.

Choral Music

The Unknown (B+)

Choir with divisi and piano

£4.00

This 5 minute piece sets a haunting text by John Davidson. The idiom is contemporary but the writing for choir is very skilfully managed to avoid unnecessary difficulties. A competent pianist is however required. While the music is undoubtedly ‘modern’ in idiom, it is direct in its appeal, and very effective in carrying the sentiments of the text. Any moderately adventurous choir will enjoy tackling it.

The Life to Come (C)	SATB and organ	£3.00
The Revival (C)	SATB and organ	£3.00
They lie at rest (C)	SATB Unaccompanied	£3.00

These three choral items should interest directors of competent choirs looking for something contemporary but not of unreasonable difficulty. The composer chooses very appropriate texts and sets them with flair and sensitivity. The gentle dissonances are applied with discretion.

The Unkown (October 2018 issue)

This is also available scored for full orchestra. Please ask for further details.

And I saw a new heaven (C)
SATB and Organ

£2.50

Dennis is a brave man, taking on Bainton and the easier Malcolm Archer settings of this celebrated text. But we think there is room for a further interpretation in a contemporary idiom.

And I saw a new heaven (C)

£3.00

We are well aware that there are at least two other settings of these words in current use. However, we feel there is room for a slightly more astringent - but very sensitive - version of this famous text.