Decalogue

Variations for brass, percussion and organ, based on the Ten Commandments, by Peter Tranchell, composed 1956.

Free score (first draft)

Computerised playback:

Peter Marchbank wrote of the work:

A major event took place on Wednesday 22nd February 1956 when the first performance of Decalogue (Variations for brass, percussion and organ) was given at a Cambridge University Music Society concert, conducted by Allen Percival, in St John’s College Chapel. Peter had originally considered writing a tone poem based on the Ten Commandments for soprano and full orchestra. He had even written out the title page and inserted the orchestration and bar lines before changing his mind and composing an ensemble piece for two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion and organ. For the first performance, he provided the following programme note: “The programme of this work is taken from Exodus 20. A tremor is followed by a mysterious hush (“And God spoke”).  The plain octave implies “I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt have no other Gods before me.”

The theme consists of the notes sounded at a performance of the two trumpets from the tomb of Tutankhamon. (“Out of the land of Egypt”). It is first heard already varied to convey “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image.” The other variations follow without a break;  “Shewing mercy unto them that love me”;  “Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain”;  “Remember the Sabbath day”. In this latter variation the glockenspiel is first heard and the sound of a coin falling on a drumhead (thirty pieces of silver) is intended to suggest betrayal.

Then: “Honour thy father and thy mother”; “Thou shalt not kill” announced by a quotation of Wagner’s “murder” motif in the tuba; “Thou shalt not commit adultery”. The latter starts with a concord to which a third note adds dissonance. The organ manuals are heard here as an intrusive element to the work. Elsewhere only the pedals are used.

Then: “Thou shalt not steal” in which a trombone ostinato represents an apparent innocence suddenly abandoned for a section of conflicting rhythms; “Thou shalt not bear false witness”  is a fugato; “Thou shalt not covet” employing Wagner’s “Ring” motif to signify worldly greed; and a finale reprising the idea “Shewing mercy to them that love me” and embodying Wagner’s motif “redemption by love”. In this, however, may be heard the mills of God grinding slow but sure.  At the end, the noise dies away, the theme appears in its basic form and the work closes with the plain octave “I am the Lord thy God”.

In an early undated draft of the work, Peter listed the notes of the trumpets found in Tutankhamen’s tomb. The silver trumpet could play the three notes E, G sharp and C above middle C, though the third note was somewhat flat, while the copper trumpet could play the three notes B, D, and F sharp, starting a 7th above middle C.  At the same time, he jotted down a melody which he described as a “Cambridge folk-song”. And, in a note to himself, he characterises each Commandment:

Prologue (wind, earthquake, fire)
1. No other Gods (still small voice)
2. No graven images (loud)
3. No taking Lord’s name in vain   (laughing)
4. Keep Sabbath (soft)
5. Honour Father and Mother (nobilmente)
6. Not kill (brutal)
7. Not adultery (voluptuous)
8. Not steal (scherzo)
9. Not bear false witness (pompous)
10. Not covet (ironic)
Epilogue (thunderings, lightnings, noise of trumpet, mountain smoking)

It is regrettable that one of Peter’s more ambitious works, lasting about twelve minutes, should have received only the one performance.