Transposing copyrighted music

[haydenmuhl]

I love Finzi's "Let Us Garlands Bring", but it is only published in a key too low for me to sing. If I bought a copy of "Garlands" and transposed it into a range I could sing, would I be running afoul of any laws? In other words, does transposition of a work fall under fair use?

It seems to me this is little different from photocopying music for personal use, since transposition is a purely mechanical process.

[pml]

It shouldn’t be a problem provided you have an original copy.

Cheers, PML