A3 Size Score-Edward Thomas was born in Lambeth on 3rd March 1878 and spent most of his childhood in London. His holidays however were spent with relatives in Swindon and it was there that he developed his abiding love of all things rural. He was educated at St Paul's Hammersmith and was encouraged in his creative writing by James Ashcroft Noble whose daughter he secretly married after her father's death and to the great disapproval of her family. Despite growing anxiety over poverty ill health and literary discouragement which exacerbated a natural tendency to depression Thomas worked unstintingly as a reviewer and wrote and published over 30 books between 1897 and 1917.'Adlestrop' was written with four other poems between 7th and 9th June 1915. He enlisted in 1915 at the age of 37 and was called to the Front in 1917. He arrived at Arras on 9th February 1917 and was killed on the 9th April Easter Monday by a shell blast in the opening minutes of the offensive.This work for Soprano and Piano is set to the text of Edward Thomas.

This series includes songs by composers who may be little known outside specialist circles but who have achieved something distinctive in this field. Many of these songs and some by well-known composers have long been out of print. Although several publishers now offer an authorized photocopy service the problem is often knowing of the existence of a song rather than of obtaining a copy of it. To keep costs to minimum use has in many cases been made of the original engraving (corrected where necessary) even where this may lead to a somewhat uneven result visually. The intention is to get these volumes into the hands of performers of all ages at an economic price.There is above all a simple missionary purpose: to enthuse encourage and (in the best sense) educate.

Composer performer and arranger Richard Rodney Bennett was internationally respected for his serious music and many award-winning film scores (Murder on the Orient Express Nicholas and Alexandra) as well as his works for children and his religious pieces. The playful and sensitive side of Bennett comes to the fore with this delightful setting of five songs of poems by Marjorie Fleming. Marjorie Fleming was a very young Scottish poetess who was born in Kirkcaldy in 1803 and died just eight years later leaving journals and a handful of poems. Her words are artless and evocative her spelling and language inventive. ‘Three Turkeys now their last have breathed And nowthis world forever leaved ’ she writes in A Melancholy Lay.This set of art songs is witty and poignant.