Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (born Leon Dudley Sorabji; 14 August 1892 – 15 October 1988) was an English composer, music critic, and pianist. He wrote music for over 70 years. He was one of the most important 20th-century composers. He wrote many famous songs for the piano, such as nocturnes such as Gulistān and Villa Tasca. He also wrote very long and complicated songs. He wrote 7 symphonies for piano solo, 4 toccatas, Sequentia cyclica and 100 Transcendental Studies. He was homosexual and had mixed ancestry. This led him to him being alone for a lot of his life.

Sorabji had private education. His mother was English. His father was a Parsi businessman from India. His father started a trust fund so that his family would not need to work. Sorabji was not a virtuoso and did not play in many performances. However, he played some of his music in public from 1920 and 1936. From the late 1930s to 1976, he changed his music. Very few people heard his music at this time. He was only known in these years this time because of his writings. He wrote the books Around Music and Mi contra fa: The Immoralisings of a Machiavellian Musician. He also left London and moved to Corfe Castle, Dorset. Most of the information known about his later life is from letters that he wrote to friends.

Sorabji taught himself to be a composer. At first, he made modernist music. However, he was then influenced by people like Ferruccio Busoni, Claude Debussy and Karol Szymanowski. He started to use baroque forms and polyrhythms. He also used both tonal and atonal music. He used lots of ornamentation. He mostly composed for the piano. However, he also wrote for orchestras, chambers and organs. Most of his music was never published until the 2000s. Interest in his music has grown since then.

 Further reading 

 Abrahams, Simon John (2002). Le mauvais jardinier: A Reassessment of the Myths and Music of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji  (PhD). King's College London. .
 Anon. (1937). "Music in Scotland". Musical Opinion, vol. 60, no. 713 (February 1937). pp. 426–427.
 Anon. (2016). "Letters". Fanfare, vol. 39, no. 3 (January–February 2016). p. 14. 
 Bechert, Paul. "Persian Composer-Pianist Baffles". Musical Courier, vol. 84, no. 9 (2 March 1922). p. 7.
 Derus, Kenneth; Ullén, Fredrik (2004). Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, 100 Transcendental Studies, Nos. 1–25 (liner notes). Fredrik Ullén. Åkersberga: BIS Records (published 2006). . BIS-CD-1373.
 Derus, Kenneth (2009); Ullén, Fredrik (2010). Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, 100 Transcendental Studies, Nos. 44–62 (liner notes). Fredrik Ullén. Åkersberga: BIS Records (published 2010). . BIS-CD-1713.
 Gray-Fisk, Clinton: "Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji". The Musical Times, vol. 101 (April 1960). pp. 230–232. 
 Grew, Sydney. "Kaikhosru Sorabji—'Le Jardin Parfumé': Poem for Piano". The British Musician, vol. 4, no. 3 (May 1928). pp. 85–86.
 Harrison, Max (1994a). "Book Review". Musical Opinion, vol. 117 (February 1994). pp. 61–62. Retrieved 23 November 2012.
 Harrison, Max (1994b). "CDs". Musical Opinion, vol. 117 (February 1994). p. 60.
 Huisman, Lukas (2016). Sorabji: Symphonic Nocturne (liner notes). Lukas Huisman. Piano Classics. . PCLD0119.
 Inglis, Brian Andrew (2010). "Fruits of Sorabji's Indian Summer: Il tessuto d'arabeschi and Fantasiettina atematica". Tempo, vol. 64, no. 254 (Cambridge Journals). pp. 41–49. . Retrieved 23 June 2012. 
 McMenamin, Sean (2016). K. S. Sorabji on Neglected Works: Counter-Canon as Cultural Critique (PhD). Newcastle University, International Centre for Music Studies. .
 Mead, Andrew (2016). "Gradus Ad Sorabji". Perspectives of New Music, vol. 54, no. 2, pp. 181–218. . Retrieved 15 May 2020. 
 Owen, Sean Vaughn (2006). Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji: An Oral Biography (PhD). University of Southampton (UK). .
 Powell, Jonathan (2003a). Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Toccata No. 1 (liner notes). Jonathan Powell. Altarus Records. . AIR-CD-9068.
 Powell, Jonathan (2003b). Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Piano Sonata no.4 (liner notes). Jonathan Powell. Altarus Records. . AIR-CD-9069(3).
 Powell, Jonathan (2006). Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, Concerto per suonare da me solo (liner notes). Jonathan Powell. Altarus Records. . AIR-CD-9081.
 Powell, Jonathan (2020). Sorabji: Sequentia Cyclica (liner notes). Jonathan Powell. Piano Classics. . PCL10206.
 Purser, John (2009). Erik Chisholm, Scottish Modernist, 1904–1965: Chasing a Restless Muse. Boydell & Brewer. .
 Rabinowitz, Peter J. "Feature Review". Fanfare, vol. 39, no. 2 (November–December 2015). pp. 100–102. 
 Rapoport, Paul, ed. (1992). Sorabji: A Critical Celebration. Aldershot: Scolar Press. .
  (1983; in French). "Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, compositeur sui generis"  (PDF format). Sonances, vol. 2, no. 3 (Sainte-Foy, Québec: Société du Journal Rond-Point). pp. 17–21. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
 Roberge, Marc-André (1991). "The Busoni Network and the Art of Creative Transcription"  (PDF format). Canadian University Music Review, vol. 11, no. 1 (Ottawa: Société de musique des universités canadiennes). pp. 68–88. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
 Roberge, Marc-André (1996). "Producing Evidence for the Beatification of a Composer: Sorabji's Deification of Busoni"  (PDF format). Music Review, vol. 54, no. 2 (Cambridge, England: Black Bear Press Ltd.). pp. 123–136. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
 Roberge, Marc-André (1997). "Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's Quintet for Piano and Four Stringed Instruments and its intended performance by Norah Drewett and the Hart House String Quartet"  (PDF format). In Guido, Bimberg. Music in Canada/La musique au Canada: A Collection of Essays, Volume I. Kanada-Studien, vol. 25. Bochum: Universitätsverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer. pp. 91–108. .
 Roberge, Marc-André (2020). Opus sorabjianum: The Life and Works of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji. Retrieved 1 August 2020.
 Slonimsky, Nicolas. "Ranging Round the World of Music: Persian Composer". Boston Evening Transcript, 9 February 1935, pt. 3, 4–5; 5. Reprinted in Writings on Music: Early Articles for the Boston Evening Transcript (2004). Routledge. pp. 152–154. 
 Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji (1930a). "Letters to the Editor: The Mason and Hamlin Pianoforte". The Musical Times, vol. 71, no. 1050 (1 August 1930). p. 739. 
 Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji (1930b). The Fruits of Misanthropy, being The Animadversions of a Machiavellian (unpublished essay).
 Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji (1934). The New Age, vol. 55 (July 1934). pp. 141–142.
 Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji (1947). Mi contra fa: The Immoralisings of a Machiavellian Musician. London: Porcupine Press.
 Sorabji, Kaikhosru Shapurji (1953). Animadversions. Essay about His Works Published on the Occasion of the Microfilming of Some of His Manuscripts (unpublished essay).
 Stevenson, Ronald. "Book Review". Tempo, no. 185 (June 1993). pp. 35–44. . Retrieved 23 November 2012. 
 Ullén, Fredrik (2004). "Transcendental Studies". In Derus, Kenneth; Ullén, Fredrik (2004). pp. 9–13.
 Ullén, Fredrik (2010). "Transcendental Studies". In Derus, Kenneth (2009); Ullén, Fredrik (2010). pp. 4–7.

 Other websites 

 The website of The Sorabji Archive has up-to-date information on scores, performances, recordings and broadcasts of Sorabji's music.
 The Sorabji Resource Site, by Marc-André Roberge, is an large repository of lists, compilations, tables, analytical charts and links about many aspects of Sorabji's life and works. One of its menu entries is about the author's Opus sorabjianum: The Life and Works of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, with a link to the complete file in PDF format (available as a free download).


Category:1892 births
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