Musical Works

Peter Tranchell's SATBrB arrangement of Or Sus, Vous Dormés Trop is known to have been performed by the Choir of Gonville & Caius College at the Perse Feast, Friday 11 December 1987. The manuscript score states that the words and music are Anon c.1360.

Movements, composed in 1987, is one of Peter Tranchell's final works. It is scored for flute, viola, bassoon, harpsichord and piano, duration approx. 13 minutes.

Peter Tranchell's Variations for String Quartet on Chopin's Prelude no. 7 (Op. 28). Seven variations and the theme.

Tranchell's piano transcription of The Remembrance Waltz, aka Souvenir d’un jour d’espoir, from his 1947 incidental music for Johnson Over Jordan (the 1939 play by J.B. Priestley).

A song for Men's voices by Peter Tranchell, based on a newspaper article about a story from Hungary, set to music in a Roma/Gypsy Folk style: 'Tired of his wife's nagging, Janos Dey, a Hungarian living at Debrecin, decided to frighten her by faking suicide...'

8 songs for baritone and piano, with words from News of the World, 9th Aug 1953, and the Daily Telegraph, 8th or 10th Aug 1953

An SATB unaccompanied setting of this Christina Rossetti's poem "Twist me a crown of wind-flowers"

Peter Tranchell's piano duet "Spring Rondo" (four hands one piano), composed in 1968, duration approx 2'45".

A bidding anthem for SATTBBB, duration c.20 seconds.

A round for four men's voices, with hidden depths, paying tribute to the "bandy legged and contemptuously regarded" Professor Nicholas Staggins, Master of the King's Music and Professor of Music at Cambridge University.

This light song sets words from a newspaper article to music for unaccompanied ATTBB or TTBB choir. This could easily be arranged for SATBB.

A light song written in 1979, exposing the savagery of the rose garden. For SATBB or ATTBB choir.

"His first Mayweek", or, "The scholar's progress: a speculation with music in five scenes". For male and female soloists, male-voice chorus, and two pianos. Words and music by Peter Tranchell.

Twice A Kiss, an operetta in one act for seven soloists, piano and electronic organ, with libretto by Maurice Holt, was written for Peter le Huray and St Catherine’s College to perform in May Week in June 1955.

"The Robot Emperor" is an "entertainment" in 5 scenes for solos, chorus and orchestra, with words and music by Peter Tranchell, written in 1965.

"Heaven!", for voice and piano, was written in 1954 for performance in "Just as it Comes" at Trinity College, Cambridge. The lyrics are by Simon Phipps (Chaplain at Trinity College 1953-57 and Bishop of Lincoln between 1974 and 1987).

Four Piano Duets (One Piano – Four Hands), by Peter Tranchell (1922 – 1993). Composed in May 1953.

Tranchell's Festive Overture was written in 1966 for Peter Marchbank and the Basingstoke Musical Society Orchestra (now the Basingstoke Symphony Orchestra). We have published a free score, and an arrangement for organ by Tim Harper.

Peter T wrote the music for two Cambridge Greek plays, including Antigone of Sophocles in 1959.

Peter Tranchell composed this 1958 Sonata for Organ (his second) for, and partly based on the name of, Peter Le Huray, a fellow lecturer in the Music Faculty of Cambridge University, and Director of Music at St Catharine’s College.

Peter Tranchell set this famous text (from Edward Fitzgerald’s version of Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám of Naishápúr) to music in May 1978, shortly before the death of Geoffrey Thornton, the Caius Chapel organ scholar who succumbed to melanoma. Peter knew it was inevitable and although there's nothing on the score it was conceived very much as an In Memoriam.

Peter Tranchell composed the Thackeray Ditties for the Cambridge University Madrigal Society’s May Week Concert in June 1962, which was conducted by Raymond Leppard. The concert traditionally took place on the Backs with the choir in punts on the Cam while the audience sat on the riverbank.