George Norman Peterkin (

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

, 21 December 1886 –

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, England, around south-west of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The nam ...

, 15 December 1982) was an English composer and music publisher. He is perhaps best known today for his brief song "I heard a piper piping". Peterkin was born in Liverpool and was mostly self-taught in music. He started work with the local organ builder Rushworth & Dreaper in the late 1900s, moving to their Singapore office in 1911, and later to Hong Kong. While there he established himself as a pianist and also began to compose, much influenced by

Cyril Scott Cyril Meir Scott (27 September 1879 – 31 December 1970) was an English composer, writer, poet, and occultist. He created around four hundred musical compositions including piano, violin, cello concertos, symphonies, and operas. He also wrot ...

.Chisholm, Alastair, Notes to Lyrita CD SRCD 362, 2017
/ref> He returned to England in 1918. In 1924 he became second-in-command to Hubert Foss at the

Oxford University Press Oxford University Press (OUP) is the publishing house of the University of Oxford. It is the largest university press in the world. Its first book was printed in Oxford in 1478, with the Press officially granted the legal right to print books ...

Music Department (which had published some of his songs), taking over as head of department when Foss resigned in 1941. The strain of keeping things going almost alone throughout the war exhausted him, and he asked for early retirement at the end of 1947. He was succeeded at OUP by Alan Frank. As a composer, Peterkin wrote mostly songs and a few short piano pieces, such as the suites ''Dreamer's Tales'' (1918), ''Betel-Jade-Ivory'' (1920) and ''Centaurs''. A Rhapsody for violin (or oboe) and piano was published by OUP in 1926. Most of his works were composed during his stay abroad, on his return to Liverpool in the early 1920s and then on to London. His contemporaries there were Peter Warlock and Bernard van Dieren. He also became friendly with Kaikhosru Sorabji and

Elizabeth Poston Elizabeth Poston (24 October 1905 – 18 March 1987) was an English composer, pianist and writer. Early life and career Poston was born in Highfield House in Pin Green, which is now the site of Hampson Park in Stevenage. In 1914 she moved wi ...

, whom he encouraged. Sorabji dedicated four of his works to Peterkin. His best known song, 'I Heard a Piper Piping', is a setting of words by

Seumas O'Sullivan Seumas or Seamus O'Sullivan (born James Sullivan Starkey; 17 July 1879 – 24 March 1958) was an Irish poetry, Irish poet and editor of ''The Dublin Magazine''. His father, William Starkey (1836–1918), a physician, was also a poet and a friend of ...

, the pen name of poet James Starkey (1879-1958). Peterkin also wrote a number of songs setting words by his wife Marie (née Lang; died 1960).British Library catalogue
/ref>

Recordings

Charlotte de Rothschild (soprano), Adrian Farmer (piano) Lyrita Records

Recordings

References

See also