The composer Norman 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, 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 the Irish poet, Seumas O'Sullivan. Later in his life he bacame a friend of the Scottish poet Hugh MacDiarmid and wrote musical accompaniments for a number of the poet's poems.