Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji (1892 - 1988)

[Boilk]

Indeed so! We have a copy of this, along with some letters in the opposite direction; where did youu find the one that you quote, just out of interest?

It's on pages 61/62 of Hugh MacDiarmid's book The Company I've Kept which I found on Google Books.

You can then search the above on specific words/phrases, such as "serialists" or "tone-row"

[Richard Barrett]

nothing but a jigsaw in terms of notes instead of words

I'm not sure I've ever seen a jigsaw made of words.

[ahinton]

It's on pages 61/62 of Hugh MacDiarmid's book The Company I've Kept which I found on Google Books.

You can then search the above on specific words/phrases, such as "serialists" or "tone-row"

Of course! I was forgetting that quotation...

[ahinton]

I'm not sure I've ever seen a jigsaw made of words.

There's a first time for most things, one might suppose...

[peterthekeys]

I worked at Banks' music shop in York in the late '70s/early '80s, and for a time I was responsible for identifying gaps in their stock, and filling them. I discovered that they did not have any Sorabji in stock, and subsequently that OUP still had stocks of the original editions of a number of his compositions (as well as several piano works, one could still get the Organ Symphony, two sets of Verlaine songs, a Piano Quintet, and the full score of (I think) the Fifth Piano Concerto. All at preposterously low prices - I think Le Jardin Parfumé was £4.50.) I persuaded Banks' to get in stocks of them all (and they went like hot cakes).

(A few years earlier, I'd been to London for some reason, and encountered a copy of Opus Clavicembalisticum in Foyles' - and didn't buy it because I didn't have the requisite £7.50 with me. By the time I got round to phoning them some days later, it had gone - and it was also out of print. I've been kicking myself ever since.)

[Sydney Grew]

Leon Dudley Sorabji was born at Chingford in 1892.

He attended a school of about twenty boys where, in addition to general education, he took music lessons in piano, organ and harmony, as well as language classes for German and Italian.

He joined the Parsi community in 1913 or 1914 by attending a Navjote ceremony (probably performed in his home by a priest) and changed his name. He had apparently been mistreated by other boys in the school he attended and his tutor, who sought to make an English gentleman of him, would make derogatory comments about India and hit him on the head with a book, which gave him recurring headaches. Sorabji said that in 1914, a "howling mob" with brickbats and large stones pursued him and "half killed" him. These experiences have been identified as the root of his dislike of England, and he was soon to describe English people as intentionally and systematically mistreating foreigners.

In 1913 Warlock inspired Sorabji to become a music critic and focus on composition.

In 1950, Sorabji left London, and in 1956, he finally settled in The Eye, a house that he had built for himself in the Dorset village of Corfe Castle. He had been taking holidays in Corfe Castle since 1928 and the place had appealed to him for many years.

He left a good deal of music:

Symphony no. 1 for Piano, Orchestra, Chorus and Organ (1922)

Symphony no. 2, for Orchestra, Wordless Chorus, and Baritone solo (1951)

Symphony no. 3, ‘Jami’, for orchestra, baritone, chorus (1951 - perhaps identical to no. 2) What does "Jami" mean - does any one know?

Nine piano concertos, dating from 1915 to 1959.

Two piano quintets:
no. 1, 1920;
and
no. 2, 1933.

Have they been recorded?

[Bryn]

Before Alistair gets in, http://www.sorabji-archive.co.uk/

[Bryn]

. . . Symphony no. 3, ‘Jami’, for orchestra, baritone, chorus (1951 - perhaps identical to no. 2) What does "Jami" mean - does any one know?

. . .

Have they been recorded?

The first movement, sort of, though labelled as Symphony No2:

Other movements are also available on Youtube.

As to Jâmî, see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jami

[seabright]

I'm surprised that the London Weekend TV documentary "Aquarius: The Sorabji Legend," shown on 11 June 1977, in which Russell Harty interviewed Felix Aprahamian, Yonty Solomon, Sacheverell Sitwell, the aforementioned A. Hinton and Sorabji himself, hasn't yet popped up on that great archive of historical broadcasts, namely YouTube. Domestic video recorders had already come in and as there are loads of Russell Harty TV episodes on YouTube already, the omission of the Sorabji programme is a puzzle.

[Bryn]

I'm surprised that the London Weekend TV documentary "Aquarius: The Sorabji Legend," shown on 11 June 1977, in which Russell Harty interviewed Felix Aprahamian, Yonty Solomon, Sacheverell Sitwell, the aforementioned A. Hinton and Sorabji himself, hasn't yet popped up on that great archive of historical broadcasts, namely YouTube. Domestic video recorders had already come in and as there are loads of Russell Harty TV episodes on YouTube already, the omission of the Sorabji programme is a puzzle.

There is this: http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/l...0&fn=permalink but how access is gained I leaave it to others to discover.

[Sydney Grew]

"As to Jâmî, see"

Many thanks to Bryn for that most interesting and enlightening post.

And have the piano quintets been recorded?

[ahinton]

"As to Jâmî, see"

Many thanks to Bryn for that most interesting and enlightening post.

And have the piano quintets been recorded?

No; the first one has received several performances but the second, although its score has been typeset, has yet to reach performance stage. The first is a single movement of just under half an hour whereas the second is a multi-movement work whose duration is hard to assess but which almost certainly exceeds three hours.

[seabright]

There is this: http://explore.bl.uk/primo_library/l...0&fn=permalink but how access is gained I leaave it to others to discover.

Thanks but unfortunately it seems to have been donated to the British Library by one Mrs Janet Wilkinson who evidently made a complete hash of recording it off the telly.

To quote: "Begins and ends abruptly. Incomplete: some 15 min. missing. Several abrupt breaks in recording, including one at 11 min. 10 sec. for advertisements. Quality variable. Occasional distortion. At 44 sec. and 1 min. 34 sec., bursts of interference followed by tape spooling. At 18 min. 10 sec., slight drop in level."

Surely at least one complete good quality copy of this transmission must exist somewhere? ... At any rate, YouTube has loads of entries on Sorabji so the omission of this TV documentary thereon is a puzzle.