Nostalgia, love and loss are recurrent themes in Tchaikovsky's songs of which he composed more than one hundred between 1869 and his death twenty-four years later. Essentially intimate pieces, and frequently reflecting the composer's melancholy temperament and inner emotional turmoil, they lend themselves well to transcription calling for breadth of tonal colouring and sensitive use of rubato in order to capture the Romantic character at their heart.

None but the lonely heart Op. 6 No. 6: One of Tchaikovsky's most popular songs, is a setting in Russian of Goethe's Nun wer die Sehnsucht kennt from Wilhelm Meister, in which the young girl, Mignon, opines that unless they, too, have had a similar experience, no-one can understand her feeling of desolation following the loss of her beloved.
At the ball Op. 38, No. 3: The text by Count Alexei Tolstoy tells of a young man drifting in and out of sleep as he tries to understand his feelings for the girl who has bewitched him at the ball that evening.
Believe it not, my friend Op. 6 No. 1: Another text by Alexei Tolstoy in which the lover, regretting his moment of madness when he told his beloved he no longer loved her, declares his feelings for her to be as strong as ever they were.

Christopher Field studied with Juliet Cunningham and Diana Fryer. He began teaching the double bass in 1964 and has written numerous small pieces for teaching purposes some of which have, over the years, appeared in the graded syllabuses of the major examination boards. Primarily a singer, he has also transcribed arias and songs for double bass and piano.