Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji
Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892–1988) was a pianist, music journalist and composer of Spanish-Sicilian and Parsi descent, who was born in and lived in Britain. He was born Leon Dudley, but identified with his Parsi heritage (referring to the Parsi community and not the Zoroastrian religion), emphatically not with his British birth (explaining in a letter excerpted in the below Critical Celebration why he went by Sorabji, and how this related).
His works were influenced by Alkan, Busoni (to whom his second piano sonata is dedicated), Godowsky and Delius. He was friends with Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) and became a music journalist in part because of their friendship.
His work Opus Clavicembalisticum (1930) for solo piano takes about 4 hours to play, and consists of three sections each divided into several movements. It was once listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest piano piece ever written. However Sorabji's Symphonic Variations, which occupies 500 pages of manuscript, would take even longer – about 6 hours.
Characteristic is his use, inspired by Busoni, of baroque forms — chorale prelude, passacaglia, and fugue — with harmonies, melodies, and approaches that are not neoclassical as usually understood.
Many details of his life were for a long time hard to come by, as Sorabji was extraordinarily reticent about his life. He was notorious for almost always refusing requests for interviews or information, often with rude messages and warnings not to approach him again. He was equally notorious for refusing permission for his works to be publicly performed.
Many pianists have decided to tackle Sorabji's enormously difficult works. Such pianists include: Michael Habermann, Donna Amato, John Ogdon, Geoffrey Douglas Madge, Jonathan Powell and Marc-André Hamelin.
Table of contents |
Books
- Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Around Music, reprinted 1979 by Hyperion Press. ISBN 0883557649. May not be currently available.
- Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Mi Contra Fa: The Immoralisings of a Machiavellian Musician, reprinted 1986 by Da Capo Press, ISBN 0306762757, may not be currently available.
- Paul Rapoport has edited a book, Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1992, ISBN 0–85967–923–3. This book, the first to be devoted to the composer's life and music, clarifies some once‐obscure biographical details, contains a more complete list of works than was previously available, and also includes several interviews and analyses.
Selected Worklist
Adapted from A Critical Celebration below, with permission.
- Works for orchestra
- First symphony for piano, organ, chorus and large orchestra (1921–22)
- Third symphony "Jami" for baritone solo, wordless chorus, and large orchestra (including piano and organ) (1942–51) (Title has diacritics which are difficult to reproduce here.)
- (The second symphony, 1930–31, was intended for piano, large orchestra, organ, a final chorus and six solo voices; only the piano part was completed, though this is, in number of pages, itself longer than the Opus Clavicembalisticum and seems to be a self-sufficient work.)
- Messa alta sinfonica (Symphonic High Mass) (8 soloists, 2 choirs and orchestra.) (1955–61)
- Works for piano with orchestra
- Piano concertos (no. 1, 1915–16 to no. 8, 1927–28, some unpublished, full score of no. 2 missing. The numbering used by Rapoport et al. is based on rediscoveries and reconstructed chronology, not on the numbers given at the contemporary publications or even on the manuscript (eg. "Concerto V" written 1927–28 seems to have been the eighth in order of composition.)
- Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (orchestrated in 1953–56 from the first book of the three-book piano work written in 1935–37)
- Opus clavisymphonicum — Concerto for Piano and Large Orchestra (1957–59)
- Opusculum clavisymphonicum vel claviorchestrale (Little Work for Keyboard and Orchestra) (1973–75)
- Chamber works
- Primary among these are the two piano quintets, written 1919–20 and 1932–33 (a lengthy work at 432 pages, challenging Feldman's second quartet for longest chamber work status). Several briefer works are in the process of publication.
- Works for solo piano
- Five sonatas (sonatas 1–5, 1919–1934–5. Also sonata '0', 1917, rediscovered posthumously)
- Six piano symphonies (Tantrik Symphony, 1938–9, Second Symphony, 1954, Third Symphony, 1959–60, Fourth Symphony, 1962–4, Symphonia brevis, 1973, Symphonia claviensis, 1975–6)
- Four numbered toccatas (Toccata, 1928; Toccata seconda, 1933–4; Toccata terza (lost); Toccata quarta, 1964–7. Also Toccata from two piano pieces, 1920 and Toccatinetta sopra C.G.F, 1929)
- Opus Clavicembalisticum (1929–30)
- Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (1935–7) (in three books, of which the first was later orchestrated. Despite the name they are not sketches but complete piano pieces.)
- Études transcendantes (1940–4) (in 4 volumes)
- Concerto da suonare da me solo e senza orchestra, per divertirsi (1946)
- Sequentia cyclica super "Dies iræ" ex Missa pro defunctis (1948–9)
- Works for organ
- Three organ symphonies (1924, 1929–32, 1949–53)
- Also many songs, briefer piano works, "Frammenti aforistici" (extremely brief miniatures), arrangements (one of his pastiches on Chopin's Minute Waltz has become well-known), etc.
Selected List of Performed and Recorded Works
List of works listed above that are known to have received public or broadcast performances, and/or recordings.
There is information on performances up to its date of publication in the book A Critical Celebration, in the chapter Un tessuto d'esecuzioni (named in parallel with the composer's chamber piece Il tessuto d'arabeschi (1979, for flute and string quartet and dedicated "To the Memory of Delius.") Information on premieres, again up to that date and so far as known can also be found in the entries on individual works in The "Detailed Catalog" section of the chapter called "Could you just send me a list of his works?"
- Works for piano with orchestra
- Piano concerto no. 5 (Published as Concerto II pour piano et orchestre in 1923 by F. and B. Goodwin Ltd. of London, written in 1920. Broadcast by Radio Hilversum, Netherlands in May 2003 [1] with Donna Amato, soloist)
- Works for chamber ensemble
- Piano quintet no. 1 (public performance, not recorded, Chris Berg piano. String quartet known? This concert also contained the "modern premiere" of the second piano sonata, that is, its first performance since the composer had performed it in the 1920s.)
- Il tessuto d'arabeschi — performed May 1982 in Philadelphia.
- Works for organ solo
- Organ symphony no. 1 — second movement performed in 1928 by E. Emlyn Davies. Entire work premiered by Kevin Bowyer and Thomas Trotter in 1987.
- Works for piano solo
- Sonatas
- Sonata 1 premiered by Sorabji in 1920, recorded by Marc-André Hamelin for the label Altarus in 1990
- Sonata 2 premiered by Sorabji in 1922, recorded by Tellef Johnson for the label Altarus in 1999
- Sonata 3 premiered by Yonty Solomon in 1977, announced by Altarus as in progress [2]
- Sonata 4 premiered by Sorabji in 1930, recorded by Jonathan Powell for Altarus (in 2004?)
- Symphonies
- Toccatas
- Of the numbered toccatas, Toccata (1928) is recorded (also by Jonathan Powell, for Altarus in 2003).
- Opus Clavicembalisticum
- Premiered by Sorabji in 1930. Given its second complete performance in 1982 by Geoffrey Douglas Madge, who performed it several times; two of these performances have made it to recording media, one is on a set of BIS CDs (a Swedish label). Altarus has re-released their John Ogdon recording, also.
- Études transcendantes
- Individual ones of these (and individual numbers of his set of Symphonic variations) have found their way into concerts (e.g. at the Newport Festival and the Schloss vor Husum festival of unusual piano music) and onto recordings.
- Sonatas
External links
Categories: 1892 births | 1988 deaths | 20th century classical composers | Music critics | Classical pianists