Musicians - Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

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	Musicians - Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (August 14, 1892 – October 15, 1988) was a pianist, music journalist and composer of mixed Parsi and Spanish-Italian/Sicilian descent, who was born in and lived in Britain (Epping, Essex).

He was born Leon Dudley, but he strongly identified with his Parsi heritage, rather than with his British birth. He explained in Critical Celebration (see below) why he changed his name.

As a critic he was loosely connected to the "New Age" Magazine group surrounding A. R. Orage. His critical publications were of concentrated bitterness, weight and sharpness, yet were wickedly funny and had an extreme mistrust of the English public taste. Among his best publications one can count essays about Busoni, Reger, Szymanowski and Bernard van Dieren. Studies about Tantric Hinduism led him to his essay Metaphysical motivation in music and to his Tantrik Symphony.

His works were influenced by Alkan, Busoni (to whom his second piano sonata is dedicated), Godowsky, Reger, Szymanowski, Scriabin 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 4.5 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Sorabji's Symphonic Variations, which occupies 500 pages of manuscript, takes even longer—about 6 hours (also since superseded; Frederic Rzewski's work The Road takes about 8 hours to perform).

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, Jonathan Powell and Marc-André Hamelin.

Selected Worklist

This is adapted from A Critical Celebration below, with permission, together with information from the brochure of the Sorabji Archive. Many of the manuscripts have been edited, and copies of the original manuscripts, and of the new editions, are available from the Sorabji Archive.

Works for orchestra

Chaleur, a short piece for orchestra (1917)
First symphony for piano, organ, chorus and large orchestra (1921–22)
Opusculum, a fairly short piece for orchestra (1923)
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)

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