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| Peter Tranchell (Courtesy: Independent Society of Musicians) |
Peter Tranchell: Tu es Petrus in fuga, Seven Pieces in Alphabetical Order, The Dog That Sat, No more of THEE and ME, Twice a Kiss, Maho Ishizaka: Tickle the Keys; Daniel Gilchrist, Sophie Bevan, Hilary Summers, Jennifer France, Henry Waddington, James Gilchrist, Christopher Purves, Tom Winpenny, Piers Lane, David Doidge, Michael Papadopoulos, Imperial College Chamber Choir, Jonathan Wikeley
Reviewed 18 April 2025
A comic operetta by 20th-century Cambridge composer Peter Tranchell proves to be a delightful jeu d'esprit with a strong cast demonstrating their enjoyment of the music, alongside a selection of pieces giving us an idea of the wide range of Tranchell's musical world
Peter Tranchell was a Cambridge-trained composer and conductor who lectured in music at the university and was Praecentor of Gonville and Caius College until his retirement in 1989. His musical output, often linked to his various musical activities at the university, was many and varied with a chameleon-like assumption of style along with an interest in serialism, his music moving between writing for the Footlights, the chapel choir along with larger-scale works like his opera The Mayor of Casterbridge (1951).
About this latter, Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote to Tranchell after hearing a performance in Cambridge, 'I was very much interested in your opera. Of course to my old-fashioned ears there were rather too many “wrong notes” in the music, but that is my misfortune. It seemed to me, if I may say so, that your music definitely understood the stage and was very effective dramatic music, which is after all what opera should be.' The 'wrong notes' being RVW's references to Tranchell's fondness for twelve-tone writing.
The Peter Tranchell Foundation was created to promote his music and from 2022 (the year of his centenary) has run a composition prize. On Saturday 18 April 2026 at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge the Foundation presented an evening of Tranchell's music alongside a performance of the winning entry in the 2025 competition, Maho Ishizaka's Tickle the Keys. The centrepiece of the evening was a performance of Tranchell's comic one-act operetta Twice a Kiss with Daniel Gilchrist, Sophie Bevan, Hilary Summers, Jennifer France, Henry Waddington, James Gilchrist, and Christopher Purves, along with Piers Lane (piano), David Doidge (piano) and Tom Winpenny (organ), conducted by Michael Papadopoulos.
The evening began with Tom Winpenny playing the third and final movement of Tranchell's organ sonata Tu es Petrus in Fuga on the organ of St Paul's Church. This work was written for Peter Le Huray in 1958, the letters from whose name are used to create the pitches of the main themes. Though notated in quadruple time, the music plays with irregular rhythms and the result was a surprisingly perky, rhythmically intriguing theme that Tranchell developed into music that mixed opaque harmony with constant, dramatic movement.
There followed Tranchell's Seven Pieces in Alphabetical Order played by pianist Piers Lane. These were written in 1947 and revised in 1960, each one based on the idea that in Hindu music certain notes were named after creatures. So we had 'C Peacock', 'D Rainy season bird', 'E Goat', 'F Crane', 'G Cuckoo', 'A Frog' and 'B Elephant'. Tranchell had provided fanciful descriptive notes for each movement and these were read by Tasmin Little. There was something deliberately arch about these, not to say camp, and I did wonder whether they improved our appreciation of the music.
The Peacock was all romantic expressionism and lush harmonies, whilst the Rainy Season Bird was lively and rhythmic with plenty of dazzle in the piano writing. The Goat alternated between an edgy, nagging motif and more lyrical elements, then the Crane was all sharp rhythms and lush harmonies supporting a romantic outline. The constantly moving music for the Cuckoo was equally lush, and we only reached the rather expressionist cuckoo call at the very end. The Frog was a fast, spiky moto perpetuo until the final leap at the end, and then the Elephant was vigorous and dramatic.
These were charmingly characterful pieces with just the right amount of showing off. Tranchell's musical language hovering nicely between romanticism and spiky modernism.
The final Tranchell works in the first half were two choral pieces performed by Imperial College Chamber Choir conducted by Jonathan Wikeley. The first, The Dog That Sat was an unaccompanied setting of a newspaper article about a dog sitting at the side of the road. Tranchell's style here was approachable, with jazzy rhythms and close-harmony style, keeping the delightful words to the fore. And it sounded a lot of fun to sing. No more of THEE and ME, which also feature pianist Piers Lane, was a setting of part of Edward Fitzgerald's translation of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam. This was lyrical and distinctly romantic with some lovely choral textures creating a very attractive piece.
The winner of the 2025 composition competition was Japanese composer Maho Ishizaka's Tickle the Keys. The brief was that the piece should draw inspiration from Tranchell's Twice a kiss and be scored for piano and organ, an instrumental line-up of which Tranchell seems to have been fond. The result featured constantly moving jazzy chords with a clever differentiation between the timbres of the piano and the electric organ (not the instrument Winpenny played the opening work on), though I was not completely convinced of the equable balance between piano and organ.
Tranchell's comic operetta Twice a Kiss for seven soloists, piano and electric organ was written for Peter le Huray and St Catharine's College to perform during May Week in Cambridge in June 1955. The libretto was by Maurice Holt, an undergraduate at the time who went on to be one of Tranchell's favourite collaborators. The work was revived in 1982 by Cambridge Amateur Dramatic Club where the cast including Christopher Purves who returned to the role of Mr Honeywood for this performance. The cast for the present performance also featured Henry Waddington as Sir Robert Asymptote, James Gilchrist as Sir Peter Parallel, Daniel Gilchrist as Knipp, Jennifer France as Lady Asymptote, Hilary Summers as Sarah and Sophie Bevan as Susan.
The plot was admirably well constructed considering that the work lasts under an hour, and Holt's libretto gave each soloist their moment. Set in the 17th century it involved a rich ward, Sarah (Hilary Summers), with a pert maid, Susan (Sophie Bevan). A guardian with a wandering eye and a fondness for writing plays, Sir Robert Asymptote (Henry Waddington), his mistrustful wife, Lady Asymptote (Jennifer France), a foolish fop in debt to Sir Robert (James Gilchrist), the manager of a playhouse who Sir Robert hopes to persuade to perform his play, Mr Honeywood (Christopher Purves) and the houseboy Knipp (Daniel Gilchrist). The plot is kick-started by a misunderstanding over a love-letter which is claimed by both young women, Sarah and Susan, both with different ideas. There is also a deal of farce involving hiding behind a screen.
The result is a delightful jeu d'esprit which manages to cram just enough plot into the fast moving action so that the work keeps going yet Holt and Tranchell provide fine solo moments for each singer. In some ways the work seems related to Malcolm Arnold's opera The Dancing Master (written in 1952 and rejected by the BBC). Both live in a similar tonal, 1950s English musical world and both are set in the late 17th century. Yet Holt's libretto is firmly tongue in cheek whilst Tranchell's music provides for some lyrical flowering in the voices yet keeps the spiky harmonies underneath in piano and organ. He once referred to the pieces as twelve-tone meets Broadway!
The cast clearly were having great fun and even though we had surtitles, we hardly needed them. Henry Waddington was a suitably pompous Sir Robert, mixing his delusions about the worthiness of his play with a determination to let his hands wander far and wide. As his wife, Jennifer France was strong-minded and characterful, yet not above a bit of flirtation herself with James Gilchrist's delightfully idiotic Sir Peter. Sarah, the rich orphan ward, was played with a rich vein of romanticism yet also a feeling of being strong-minded by Hilary Summers, who clearly relished the opportunity to be the romantic heroine. Sophie Bevan had equal fun as the pert maid, complete with cod Cockney accent, who was not above flirting with her employer, Sir Robert. As Mr Honeywood, Christopher Purves made the most of his grand entrance and brought out all the actorly idiocy.
The result was great fun yet never outstayed its welcome, it was arch but managed to be spiky too, whilst the music was generous to the soloists but the piano and organ provided witty commentaries, including some sly musical allusions. As in the first half, I felt that the organ could have been a bit more prominent, but overall this sound-world was rather seductive.
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