EDIT: One piece you would rather not hear anymore?

[stevie]

. Also it's based on the erotic text The Perfumed Garden, which is, by itself, an interesting read.

Various Lengths of the Virile Member
The virile member, to please women, must have at most a length of the breadth of twelve fingers, or three handbreadths, and at least six fingers, or a hand and a half breadth.

There are men with members of twelve fingers, or three hand-breadths; others of ten fingers, or two and a half hands. And others measure eight fingers, or two hands. A man whose member is of less dimensions cannot please women.

this is what the piece is based on?!!?! 

[JCarey]

this is what the piece is based on?!!?! 

Yes.

[stevie]

Yes.

hahahahahahahaha, awesome

sorabji was cool 

[ahinton]

And I have the feeling that his songs for soprano are going to be entirely different from these two styles too, though this is pure speculation since I do not know anything about them. Maybe Alistair can tell us something about those works.

Best (for the time being, anyway) to get Centaur CRC2613...

Best,

Alistair

[xvimbi]

Not "wrong", exactly, but it is fair to say that the score is by no means a mess; it has proved satisfactory for Mr Powell to use as text from which to prepare his performances so, although it is not ideal, it serves well as a legible document which is 98+% accurate. Had the composer's "working copy" publication been as error-ridden as some people seem to assume it to be, we would not even have thought of supplying it; as it is, we have supplied hundreds of them over the years, including many to those who have the existing recordings and no one has complained to us so far. Of course we would like a brand new edition, but in the editorial work that we have encouraged, we have tended to prioritise those works which have previously existed only in ms. form - a sensible stance, we think.

What I meant was that you yourself have indicated that the PDF version that seems to be floating around is not the best version to work with (for various reasons). A good example is the final chord, which has stirred up all kinds of dust, only to be identified as a typo by you. You did mention that there is a newer version, which is still a working version, and that is probably what you are referring to in your post, but it didn't seem to me anybody on this forum actually has it. But again, I could be wrong.

[ahinton]

What I meant was that you yourself have indicated that the PDF version that seems to be floating around is not the best version to work with (for various reasons). A good example is the final chord, which has stirred up all kinds of dust, only to be identified as a typo by you. You did mention that there is a newer version, which is still a working version, and that is probably what you are referring to in your post, but it didn't seem to me anybody on this forum actually has it. But again, I could be wrong.

OK - so let me clarify. For several years, the article of which we issued copies was the publication of OC, warts and all. Some years ago, we were most kindly presented (by its owner of at least half a century) with a copy of that publication as amended with annotations in Sorabji's own hand; these emendations are by no means comprehensive but they do go some way towards a proper error-free presentation of the work in print and, ever since we received it, we have used this as our master copy from which to make copies for anyone who wants the work. I have written to mr Powell asking him if he would let us have the pages that he has reset and corrected and, if he is prepared to let us have these to include in what we subsequently supply, we will supply accordingly, even on the understanding that this will still not yet be a 100% error-free edition. I hope that this clarifies the situation!

Best,

Alistair