Dodecafonia

Tranchell composed Dodecafonia in 1950.

Typeset score

Peter Marchbank said of the work:

Dodecafonia for solo piano can best be described as an exercise in using serial technique to emulate Berg’s warm romantic sound. Although it’s written in ink, there are no tempo or metronome markings so it is unlikely to have been performed. Among the sketches are four tone rows, each consisting of 2 groups of six notes which are played simultaneously in the first three bars of the work:

1. G A♭ B♭ B C D / E♭ F F# A C# E

2. G F# E E♭ D C / B A G# F D♭ B♭

3. E C# A F# F E♭ / D C B B♭ A♭ G

4. B♭ D♭ F G# A B / C D E♭ E F# G

The music is in four sections. The brief opening section is probably slow, is in 4/4 and ends around the tonality of G. This leads into a 12/8 section in which duplets and quadruplets soon begin to take over before again ending around G. The third section, again in 4/4, has a good feel for pianistic style before ending on E flat. The final section is march-like and ends on a D flat.

The recording below is a computerised performance by MuseScore notation software, playing a draft of the typeset score. No dynamics or pedalling have been added.