Skip to main content

Peter Tranchell, Composer

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Resources
    • About This Website
    • The Peter Tranchell Foundation
    • 2022: the Peter Tranchell Centenary
      • How to donate to the Centenary Appeal
        • KindLink Online Donation
        • Donating with Amazon Smile
      • Centenary Appeal Donors
      • Peter Tranchell Centenary Composition Competition (for Organ)
      • Peter Tranchell Centenary Press Release, 3rd May 2022
    • Archive
    • Recordings
      • The Commemoration CD
      • Music from Caius
    • Performance Calendar
    • BCP Psalter
    • Index to Musical Works
    • The Musical Works
    • The Writings
    • Classified Handlist
    • Caius Chapel Choir
    • The Gonville and Caius College Psalter
    • A list of Gonville and Caius musicians
    • Off the record
    • Music in The Caian
    • Photographs of Peter Tranchell
  • Search
  • Contact
  • Log in
  1. Home
  2. Blog
  3. about pat

To ensure you get the best experience, this website uses cookies.

Learn More

Peter Tranchell's grave

June 3. 2022
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

Peter Tranchell's grave is in Wolvercote cemetery (north Oxford), "No 11 Section H3 next to James”.

[...Read More]

Daisy Simpkins performance in Selwyn College, 1962

April 17. 2021
  •  Posted in:
  • music
  • about PAT
  • photo

Information and a photograph of a rehearsal of "Daisy Simpkins" in Selwyn College, Cambridge, 1962

[...Read More]

Commemoration Weekend 2005

March 6. 2021
  •  Posted in:
  • music
  • about PAT

About the Peter Tranchell Commemoration weekend: Saturday 24th September and Sunday 25th September 2005, including the programmes of music

[...Read More]

From "Going Up" by Frederic Raphael

July 10. 2020
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

Memories of Peter Tranchell' advice to new Footlights members, from "Going Up" by Frederic Raphael

[...Read More]

An extract from "Bright Tracks", by Richard Pike, 2017

September 15. 2019
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

A passage about first meeting "Angelo", a flamboyant ballet trainer from Athens, during travels in Greece in 1959, on page 119 [...Read More]

The Gentle Power of Song

December 9. 2018
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music

Members of Peter T's Caius choir formed the late-1960s psychedelic band "The Gentle Power of Song", recording the marvellous "Constant Penelope" track

[...Read More]

A letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Peter Tranchell

June 11. 2018
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music

A RVW letter found amongst Peter Tranchell’s papers about ‘The Mayor of Casterbridge’

[...Read More]

Is the cow just an innocent bystander?

June 6. 2017
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

A beer tin from Swiss Airlines ... Why is the boy so red in the face? Why is the dog's tongue out? Is the cow just an innocent bystander?

[...Read More]

Gonville and Caius College Christmas Concert 2nd December 1963

May 27. 2017
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music

Programme for the Caius College Christmas Concert 1963, including an "Improvisation for piano duet" featuring John West & Peter Tranchell.

[...Read More]

Gonville and Caius College Lent Term Concert 11th March 1962

May 21. 2017
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music

Programme for the Caius College Music Society Summer Concert, 1962, with Peter T conducting the Caius Chorus in Handel's The Passion.

[...Read More]

From "Slipstream", the memoir of Elizabeth Jane Howard

May 1. 2017
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

Elizabeth Jane Howard remembers Peter T (aka "Mephi").

[...Read More]

Gonville and Caius College Lent Term Concert 9th March 1964

March 4. 2017
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music

Programme for the Caius College Lent Term Concert, 1964, with Peter T conducting Carissimi's Jonah.

[...Read More]

A Christmas Card

January 6. 2017
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

A hand-made Christmas card sent by Peter Tranchell to friends and members of the choir in 1978

[...Read More]

Divertissement, by Geoffrey Weaver, dedicated to Peter Tranchell

December 13. 2016
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music

"Divertissement" for violin, viola, 'cello, trumpet, horn, bassoon and piano, by Geoffrey Weaver, dedicated to Peter Tranchell.

[...Read More]

Daisy Simpkins performance in Northampton, 1961

December 7. 2016
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music
  • photo

Information and a photograph from a performance of Daisy Simpkins in Northampton, 1961

[...Read More]

The Will, as recorded in The Independent

September 4. 2016
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

From The Independent, Saturday 8 January 1994

[...Read More]

A biography of Peter Tranchell by John Gwinnell

May 28. 2016
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

Peter Andrew Tranchell was born on 14 July 1922 in Cuddalore, India

[...Read More]

Memories from Eastbourne College

April 17. 2016
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

Memories of Peter T from A history of music at Eastbourne College from  its foundation in 1867 until the move into the Birley Centre

[...Read More]

A voiceless velar stop

March 16. 2016
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

The Ripon Lay Clerks found it hard to believe that the "ch" in Tranchell was a [k] and not a [tʃ], so we offered to print this on every score:

[...Read More]

Haiku for Peter

January 29. 2016
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • poem

Peter T is dead

But his music still lives on

(I hear the cackle:-)

Vyvyan Chatterjie, by email, 29/01/2016 

[...Read More]

When altos joined the choir - reminiscences from Chris Henshall

January 17. 2016
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

Chris Henshall (1972) remembers...

[...Read More]

Memorial Service Address, Leppard, 12 February 1994

February 12. 1994
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

Address delivered by Raymond Leppard at the Memorial Service for Peter Tranchell, 12 February 1994

[...Read More]

Peter Tranchell, a poem by Paul Archer

October 1. 1993
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • poem

Another take on Peter T may be found in this poem by Paul Archer http://www.paularcher.net/poems/peter_tranchell.html

[...Read More]

Obituary of Peter Tranchell, Porter, The Independent, September 1993

September 20. 1993
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

Peter Tranchell, the composer, was for 40 years a key figure in the musical world of Cambridge University.

By the [...Read More]

Obituary of Peter Tranchell, The Daily Telegraph, 18 September 1993

September 18. 1993
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

The Daily Telegraph London, p19, September 18, 1993

Obituary: PETER TRANCHELL, the musician and teacher who has [...Read More]

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, Radcliffe, The Cambridge Review, 7th February 1959

February 7. 1959
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music

Philip Radcliffe applauds the revival of PAT’s The Mayor of Casterbridge, conducted by Guy Woolfenden, and hopes that it will soon be as widely known as it deserves.

[...Read More]

Tranchell’s Decalogue, Epps, The Cambridge Review, 3rd March 1956

March 3. 1956
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • review
  • music

A review by David Epps of a concert performance of Peter Tranchell’s Decalogue in St John’s College Chapel by the C.U.M.S. chorus, brass and percussion; from The Cambridge Review, 3rd March 1956

[...Read More]

THE MUSIC FOR THE “BACCHAE”, Radcliffe, The Cambridge Review, 25th February 1956

February 25. 1956
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • music
  • review

Philip Radcliffe reviews Peter Tranchell's music for The Bacchae.

[...Read More]

ZULEIKA—HER MUSIC, Lowe, The Cambridge Review, 13th November 1954

November 13. 1954
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • review
  • music

In this article the Director of Music for the B.B.C.’s. Midland Region discusses the music of Zuleika.

[...Read More]

HOMERTON COLLEGE MUSICAL SOCIETY [This Sorry Scheme of Things, February 13], Radcliffe, 21st February 1953

February 21. 1953
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT
  • review
  • music

The most notable feature of this concert was the first performance of Peter Tranchell’s new Cantata, “This Sorry Scheme of [...Read More]

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE, Leppard, The Cambridge Review, Volume LXXIII, 13 October 1951

October 13. 1951
  •  Posted in:
  • about PAT

A review by Raymond Leppard of Peter Tranchell's opera The Mayor of Casterbridge, The Cambridge Review, Volume LXXIII, 13 October 1951

[...Read More]

 About

Music

Tranchell's music, composed over a period of almost 60 years, covered many genres, from song cycles to psalms, and from organ sonatas to "detective cantatas". Find out more...

Writings

Tranchell was a prolific writer of letters, reviews, verse etc. Find out more...

 Categories

  • about PAT (31)
  • analysis (2)
  • college (1)
  • music (29)
  • photo (2)
  • poem (2)
  • programme (1)
  • radio (1)
  • recording (6)
  • review (5)
  • TV (1)

 Archives

  • 2022-06 (1)
  • 2021-12 (1)
  • 2021-11 (1)
  • 2021-09 (1)
  • 2021-08 (1)
  • 2021-04 (1)
  • 2021-03 (2)
  • 2020-07 (1)
  • 2020-02 (1)
  • 2019-09 (2)
  • 2019-08 (1)
  • 2018-12 (1)
  • 2018-09 (1)
  • 2018-06 (1)
  • 2018-03 (1)
  • 2018-01 (1)
  • 2017-12 (1)
  • 2017-10 (1)
  • 2017-08 (1)
  • 2017-06 (1)
  • 2017-05 (3)
  • 2017-04 (1)
  • 2017-03 (1)
  • 2017-01 (1)
  • 2016-12 (2)
  • 2016-11 (2)
  • 2016-10 (1)
  • 2016-09 (1)
  • 2016-05 (1)
  • 2016-04 (1)
  • 2016-03 (1)
  • 2016-02 (1)
  • 2016-01 (4)
  • 1994-02 (1)
  • 1993-10 (1)
  • 1993-09 (2)
  • 1959-02 (1)
  • 1956-03 (1)
  • 1956-02 (1)
  • 1954-11 (1)
  • 1953-02 (1)
  • 1951-10 (1)
  • Site Map
  • Privacy Policy
  • Website by Crispin
  • Powered by cloudscribe
  • Site Map
  • Privacy Policy
  • Website by Crispin
  • Powered by cloudscribe