IN PREP

Seven Pieces in Alphabetical Order. 1947 revised 1960. For piano.

Note on title page:
'These pieces are designed to be played in the order given, on a piano which has the top C.
It is said that in Hindu music certain notes are named after creatures.
This work, first written in July 1947, was re-written in September 1960'.
Note on title page of original: 'The notes of the Hindu scale are called after various birds and animals: C. Peacock - D. Rainy season bird - E. Goat - F. Crane - G. Cuckoo - A. Frog - B. Elephant. The music attempts to illustrate the animals and suggest the appropriate key'.

Peter Tranchell's Sonatina for pianoforte (1949) is a little mysterious - Tranchell didn't mention it in letters home, and was at the time talking more about his piano concerto (which either never materialised or has been lost). Two versions of the Sonatina exists in the CU archive; one bearing the dedication "For Jane" is presumed by Peter Marchbank to be the definitive version.

"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).

"Suite" was published in the Draconian, the school magazine of the Dragon School, in August 1935. The score shows that Tranchell

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.