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. Despitegrowing 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 was premiered by Jane Manning and Dominic Saunders at the Aldeburgh Festival in 1989. Text by Edward Thomas. A3 ScoreAvailable: SOS03574

Nine Amen and Halleluja Movements-Between 1728 and 1747 Handel composed these nine two-part movements for soprano and instrumental bass. Though speculation exists the occasion for which the pieces were composed as well as the exact date of their composition remain unknown.The soprano sings short liturgical phrases such as ?Amen? ?Allelujah? ?Alleluja amen? or ?Amen alleluia?. The editor has supplied a text for the movement HWV 275 which until now has for reasons unknown been without text. The Amen and Hallelujah movements are in easy keys (using up to one sharp or two flats) and the modulations rarely move to harmonically distant tonal areas. Handel figured the bassline very detailed which playsmostly an accompanying supportive role imitating the voice in a few places. The vocal part is distinguished by the repetition of motives by repeated notes but also by short or extended coloratura. Presumably these movements were intended for use in teaching.Today these short movements of between 25 and 76 bars lend themselves well to use in church services.Based on the Urtext of the ?Halle Handel Edition?Idiomatic realization of the continuo part