Opus Archimagicum

[soliloquy]

This is mostly directed towards Alistair obviously:


What work is being done, if any, in preparing a typeset of this piece and/or a performance?  And who is doing it?

[indutrial]

This is mostly directed towards Alistair obviously:


What work is being done, if any, in preparing a typeset of this piece and/or a performance?  And who is doing it?

Alastair told me at one time, maybe almost a year ago, that this work is indeed being typeset, but did not mention a great deal of detail on it. The next of Sorabji's ginormous works to be typeset will, by my guess, be the Sequencia Cyclia, which I'm certainly excited to see when it's done.

Jonathan Powell mentioned this in response to a similar inquiry on GFF:

"...I have a copy of the ms of Sonata no.5. I'm not exactly in a hurry to play it, since I might have a stab at a couple of the other "huge" ones before that, and one only lives so long. It did look as though it was full of impressive passages, though, and someone sometime should have a go at it. I think the Sequentia cyclica is one of the most impressive long pieces, and that one really asks for a performance, as far as I can tell!"

He also said that the m.s. of Sonata 5 was far more "readable" than others of that period, so it may be interesting for you to contact Alastair about acquiring a copy of that rather than waiting the 2-3 years that a proper typesetting would require. Then again, I'm torn on that, because what little I've seen of the Sequencia m.s. and other works in m.s., Sorabji's handwriting can be a bit nightmarish to read.

To the best of my knowledge, Julliard holds a copy of Sonata 5's m.s., so if you have access...

I'm not an authority, but I seriously doubt that a performance of this will occur before a typesetting. Then again, who knows. The Piano Symphony no. 4 received a performance sans typesetting (and it still isn't) so maybe it is possible.

[ahinton]

Charles Hopkins was going to do it. I don't know if he did any work on it but, having battled with bowel cancer for 4½ years, he died almost three months ago, aged just 55.

It's now in the hands of one Artur Cimirro in Brazil who has only just started on it. I have no idea when it will be ready but I imagine that it is unlikely to be so before 2009.

Sequentia Cyclica edition progresses apace (Alexander Abercrombie) and will, I imagine, be ready sometime net year.

Best,

Alistair

[indutrial]

Interesting...

Is anybody currently working on typsesetting any of the piano symphonies (1-6), the fourth Toccata, the Symphonic Nocturne, the Symphonic Variations  , or the last Organ Symphony. Those pieces all seem to be rather large works of Sorabji's and I'm curious what, if anything, is going on with them. I'm currently teaching myself how to properly typeset works so maybe in the future, I'll try to tackle one of the untouched ones, if that remains the case.

[mephisto]

How on earth could someone have the time to write all of this music?

I just got the 1st vol of the piano etudes. They are of great quality (some better than others). The thing about Sorabji is that he didn't write 12 etudes, but he wrote 100! That is just amazing, and the quality of the music is great too.

And how did he earn for a living? Nobody (I don't mean this literary) cared about his music while he was alive.

[ahinton]

Interesting...

Is anybody currently working on typsesetting any of the piano symphonies (1-6), the fourth Toccata, the Symphonic Nocturne, the Symphonic Variations  , or the last Organ Symphony. Those pieces all seem to be rather large works of Sorabji's and I'm curious what, if anything, is going on with them. I'm currently teaching myself how to properly typeset works so maybe in the future, I'll try to tackle one of the untouched ones, if that remains the case.

The current state of play on all of these works (as best I can tell) is as follows. One editor is at work on all of these apart from the Third Organ Symphony, as part of an overall project which will also include a substantial book on the music of Sorabji; that editor is Simon Abrahams, who certainly takes time producing what he produces but the quality of those editorial productions may be witnessed in his typeset editions of my own third and fourth piano sonats and Étude en forme de Chopin and, above all else, his edition of Sorabji's Fourth Piano Sonata (as played on Jonathan Powell's recording of that work on Altarus AIR-CD-9069[3]). His scholarship and editorial skills are almost peerless. He has also edited Villa Tasca and most of the Fifth Piano Symphony but these editions need to be reset and reworked becuse the software edition used is now incompatible with the same software manufacturers' current editions (Finale in this case, although Sibelius is equally guilty of lack of forward and backwards compatibility). I have absolutely no idea when his editions of any of these works will become available

Editing of the Third Organ Symphony has (perhaps inevitably) been reserved by Kevin Bowyer, whose splendid handwritten edition of the Second Organ Symphony has been abailable from us for some 17 years; Kevin is already working on typesetting this edition and, at this point, almost one quarter of it has been done. Again, no end dates in sight, but we'll just have to hope for the best.

In the meantime, Alexander Abercrombie has created typeset editions of several large-scale Sorabji pieces, These are 78 of the 100 Transcendental Studies (18 of the remainder were edited in handwritten form years ago by Marc-André Hamelin and these have now all been typeset by Lukas Huisman [16] and Frazer Jarvis [2]; the other four have been typeset by Simon Abrahams and Jonathan Powell [2 each]), as well as Toccata No. 2, Il Grido del Gallino d'Oro and Piano Quintet No. 2 (he's now working on Sequentia Cyclica).

In addition, David Carter has edited the "Jami" Symphony (an unbelievable orchjestral score of not far short of 1,000 pages), although this will need some further attention before a performing score can be produced.

All of these editions will become available from us as soon as they are ready.

Best,

Alistair

[ahinton]

How on earth could someone have the time to write all of this music?

It's called sheer hard work allied to an imagination that did not allow the composer not to write it. He often wrote at a great speed that did not help the legibility of his scores, which is why the likelihood of performances from unedited versions of them is very small indeed. I only ever actually saw him work once - this was in 1979 while he was in the throes of Il Grido del Gallino d'Oro (a little 85-minute miniature first performed in the Radio-France et Montpellier Festival in 2005 by Jonathan POwell from Alexander Abercrombie's typeset edition); I have never seen a pen nib racing across a page quite like Sorabji's did on that occasion...

I just got the 1st vol of the piano etudes. They are of great quality (some better than others). The thing about Sorabji is that he didn't write 12 etudes, but he wrote 100! That is just amazing, and the quality of the music is great too.

Volumes 2 & 3 should be out next year sometime.

And how did he earn for a living? Nobody (I don't mean this literary) cared about his music while he was alive.

Basically, he didn't. He derived tiny sums from the sales of his published scores up until the latter 1970s and for the rest of his income he depended upon a small trust fund set up for his benefit (and I MEAN small!) and the canny sales from time to time of items of antique furnitue and decorative items, rare books and so on, none of which he ever bought for the specific purpose of investment but which occasionally came in useful to support his needs when his house threatened to become rather too full of things that he likes to have around him. In his final 20 years or so, during which performances and broadcasts began, he derived (for the first time hin his life) some additional income from royalties. He lived somewhat modestly and managed to do what he wanted to do.

Best,

Alistair

[gep]

This is mostly directed towards Alistair obviously:


What work is being done, if any, in preparing a typeset of this piece and/or a performance?  And who is doing it?

This might answer your question perhaps? I got this from Tellef Johnson, to put up for those interested!

www.opusarchimagicum.com
On November 19, 2009, the website www.opusarchimagicum.com will go “live.”
The purpose of the site is to celebrate Kaikhosru Sorabji, the composer, and one of his
most unusual, striking, and volcanic major compositions. As Sonata V (OPUS
ARCHIMAGICUM) is relatively unknown, having only been typeset only this year, the
website intends to get people acquainted with a work that has just as much potential for
equal parts admiration and notoriety as Sorabji’s OPUS CLAVICEMBALISTICUM,
which had the benefit of being published and therefore available to the public for study
since the 1930s.
Featured on the website is:
Major recorded excerpts from the work itself:
-The entire movement 2 (5:49) – “Presto: Sotto Voce Inquieto”
-Three excerpts from Movement 3 – “Punta D’Organo” [one of the most haunting ‘drone
pedal’ movements in the Sorabjian output]
-Numerous excerpts from Movement 7 – “Preludio”
-Many excerpts from Movement 8 – “Preludio Corale sopra Dies Irae”
-Entire Movement 9 – (3:20) “Cadenza”
-The concluding finale of “Fuga cinque a tre soggetti”( movement 10) and the work itself.
Original conceptual artwork from the upcoming recording itself.
A series of essays straddling diverse concerns that ultimately knit together to
explain the significance of “Sonata V - Opus Archimagicum” in Sorabji’s middleperiod
and why it stands as one of the most unique and structurally successful of his
multi-movement works.
- “Sorabji’s Piano Sonatas”
- “Sorabji and the Occult”
- “Sorabji and Dies Irae”
- “Sorabji and Bach”
- “Motivic development in Archimagicum”
- “Opus Clav, Opus Arch and Beyond”
- “The Tarot”
- “The Archmage”
- “Sorabji’s Dedication (BroMAGE)”
- “Sorabji and Busoni”
- “Sorabji and the Fugue”
- “Sorabji and the Multi-movement Mechanism and its Techniques”
- A number of hidden “easter eggs” that will require a little more investigative
forethought than just random clicks (and in the spirit of the tarot itself):
- Sorabji Piano Sonata No. 2 (studio premiere recording!!!)
- Video interview with Tellef Johnson
- Previously unseen video footage of Johnson playing excerpts from Sorabji’s Piano
Sonata No. 3, and “Punta d’Organo” from Opus Archimagicum.
- Information about the upcoming audio release of the entire OPUS
ARCHIMAGICUM, spanning six hours, scheduled for release in summer 2010 from
TOR MUSIC in a variety of audio formats new and old: Digital Download, CD,
BluRay, DVD-R/A.
- Information about upcoming, “surprise” premiere performances of
Archimagicum’s Parts 1,2,3 as T. Johnson’s directorial-film career schedule will
allow!
- And constant updates and hopefully other interactive Sorabji related media and
input from admirers and scholars of Sorabji as time moves on.


All best,
Gep

[retrouvailles]

I also came across that flyer (which I also got via email). There are some extracts of Opus Archimagicum already on YouTube (I forget the links).

[ahinton]

I should add here that Alexander Abercrombie recently completed his typeset edition of the score of this remarkable piece and it is now available from us (those interested, please see www.sorabji-archive.co.uk or email us at sorabji-archive@lineone.net).

Best,

Alistair

[john11inc]

Yes, it almost seems a shame, though.  As much as I enjoy the Opus Archimagicum (in comparison to the Opus Clavicembalisticum, and, of course, my knowledge on such only based on the manuscript and the snippets that have been scattered across the internet the past, few months) I feel like I somehow more enjoyed its enigmatic role.

So, let's change gear.


Tantrik Symphony?

[ahinton]

Yes, it almost seems a shame, though.  As much as I enjoy the Opus Archimagicum (in comparison to the Opus Clavicembalisticum, and, of course, my knowledge on such only based on the manuscript and the snippets that have been scattered across the internet the past, few months) I feel like I somehow more enjoyed its enigmatic role.

So, let's change gear.

Tantrik Symphony?

Let's not change gear too rapidly! - and let's give Opus Archimagicum the chances that it needs and has awaited for almost three quarters of a century! Yes, of course, it will be good to have a typeset edition of the Tantrik Symphony (the first of Sorabji's symphonies for solo piano, unless you count as one of them the symphony from the early 1930s, originally [apparently] intended as a work for piano and orchestra but which exists only as a complete work for piano solo) and, of course, to hear performances of it, but to date all that I can say is that Reinier van Houdt (who premièred Sorabji's Fourth Piano Symphony in his native Netherlands in 2003) is, I believe, working on it and an editor is in the throes of preparing typeset editions of all of Sorabji's piano symphonies (although he recently laid this project to one side for the time being in order to concentrate his editorial energies on preparing a new typeset edition of OC which Jonathan Powell will eventually use to make his recording of it). I don't know how much progress has been made to the edition of the Tantrik Symphony to date, however; what I do know is that the first of this edited series to appear will be the Fifth Piano Symphony, which is the shortest of them all and the only one that has so far been performed and, frankly, I could well do with hearing more performances of that...

Best,

Alistair

[john11inc]

I suppose the Tantrik Symphony is a particular interest merely because I preferred Sorabji's earlier harmonic language.  In fact, I'm much more interested in that than the Opus Archimagicum; however, that is not to discredit my interest in that piece (obviously, albeit only obviously to a few).  Actually, I haven't seen or heard anything of the Tantrik Symphony; do you have any information on the piece you'd be willing to share?  Given its temporal proximity to other pieces with which I'm much more familiar and enjoy quite a bit more than some of his later, more dense and contrapuntal works, it's simply of particular interest to me, for a completely different set of reasons than the Opus Archimagicum, which I believe I did say I was rather impressed with, given the information that's been made available on it.

[gep]

Fifth Piano Symphony, which is the shortest of them all and the only one that has so far been performed

Ehmmmm......
You sure of that...?

Reinier van Houdt (who premièred Sorabji's Fourth Piano Symphony in his native Netherlands in 2003) is, I believe, working on (...) the Tantrik Symphony

He did once tell me the Tantrik Symphony contains music of a kind nowhere else to be found in Sorabji's oeuvre. Now that makes me curious! I'll write to him soon about it!

gep

[ahinton]

Ehmmmm......
You sure of that...?

I sit corrected - I meant to write "the only other one" (especially in the context of having already drawn attention to RvH's première of no. 4!).

He did once tell me the Tantrik Symphony contains music of a kind nowhere else to be found in Sorabji's oeuvre. Now that makes me curious! I'll write to him soon about it!

RvH doesn't give much away as to what he gets up to, but I'm assuming that he's putting his performance of the Tantrik together in his own time and, as we know that he can play no. 4, we should be entitled to expectations even if we do not yet know the dates on which they will be realised...

Best,

Alistair

[indutrial]

Mr. Abercrombie has certainly kept himself busy this past year. I've still barely scratched the surface of giving the Sequentia Cyclia a thorough look, though I've had it for almost a year.  It's good to know that the Sonata V is finally available, though, as I've continued to harbor long term plans of studying it down the road. My interest in Sorabji admittedly comes in fits and starts.

[ahinton]

Mr. Abercrombie has certainly kept himself busy this past year. I've still barely scratched the surface of giving the Sequentia Cyclia a thorough look, though I've had it for almost a year.  It's good to know that the Sonata V is finally available, though, as I've continued to harbor long term plans of studying it down the road. My interest in Sorabji admittedly comes in fits and starts.

Fair enough - although I'm sure you'd agree that it's a very good thing for us all that Mr Abercrombie's doesn't! That said, he does have other pursuits (besides those of eating, sleeping [assuming that he ever does sleep] and other normal human activity), not least his work as a mathematician which will now be preoccupying the majority of his working hours for the next three months or so.

Best,

Alistair

[mwsc042]

Any updates on https://www.opusarchimagicum.com? So far (as of 22 Nov) it's nothing but headache-inducing revolving tarot cards with nothing resembling a website. Has there been a delay? Really looking forward to the proposed content.

[gep]

Any updates on https://www.opusarchimagicum.com? So far (as of 22 Nov) it's nothing but headache-inducing revolving tarot cards with nothing resembling a website. Has there been a delay? Really looking forward to the proposed content.

Got a mail from Tellef stating that the site is now up and running. Unfortunately I'm currently on a computer that doesn't support the Flash required so cannot check now and here...

[gep]

Having subscribed to the mailing list of the Opus Arch site, I got this most interesting of messages:

2010 marks an exciting year for one of the greatest works ever conceived for the piano but never fully heard since its inception seventy-five years ago. 


Over the course of this year, you will receive updates and information about Piano Sonata V:Opus Archimagicum's upcoming performances as well as due dates for the epic complete recording of the work.  From time to time, we may request your input in the form of electronic surveys regarding various aspects of our project.


Tellef Johnson's writings ("Essays Pertaining Directly, Abstractly or Peripherally to Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's Piano Sonata V:Opus Archimagicum")  are now available from the www.opusarchimagicum.com website on the Essays page as a PDF download as well as in paperback and hardcover book form through a special arrangement with the publisher, Hyperfocal Media Press.


In addition, the Sorabji Soiree series will commence this summer via the site, the first ever live streaming parlor recital series of various Sorabjian works with a few world premieres at hand.


Do not hesitate to contact us at opusarchimagicum@gmail.com for any further comments or questions.

Can't wait to get those CD's AND streaming audios!

All best,
gep

[georgecziffra]

I got that message too. I can't wait for this. I'm going to have to start saving up so I can purchase both the score and the recording when it's released.

[lontano]

I recently exchanged email w/Tellef Johnson regarding the Sonata V, and he has great belief in the general cohesion of the work, above all other Sorabji major works, and asks that the word be passed to anyone who might be in anyway be a potential purchaser of this recording, to be released sometime this year.

Tellef considers this to be (certainly so-far) the finest, best organized and structured solo piano work of the composer, and taking an hour or 2 (and more as progress demands) to explore his ever-expanding www.opusarchimagicium.com (where you will find a cohesion of the composers intent and the performers deep reflections on the work). So please, anyone interested in supporting Tellef and his 1st Sprabji "mega-project" (and his amazing future plans!), spread the word to anyone/ALL who might have even the slightest glimmer of interest in such a project.

If Tellef Johnson has the chops to record this very significant work of Sorabji to CDs, everyone with any interest/fascination with Sorabji's music really should feel a renewed sense of urgency in spreading the news to their associates, before the benefits of years of work are wiped clean via inevitable MP3 rips and internet distribution. Personally, I would eagerly opt to pay for both the recording and the score, as that would keep me remarkably busy for quite a long time, and I would have the essence of a modern masterpiece in my personal library, which in a perfect world might help to bring promotion to both Sorabji and the (best of) performers who have taken so much time/work to explore, learn and present the wonders of the KS Sorabji catalog, as well as many other gifted, but little-known/mis-understood contemporary composers! They are among the smallest members of a group of music explorers alive today, and their counterparts, the hopefully paying listeners, friends and followers of Sorabji and exponents of his tight-knit circle MUST become a powerful point of attraction to his music, being heard so slowly, yet deliberately.

I would also like to note that as Tellef Johnson works on this major program, his website will be hosting all the performances via Web-broadcasting, (certainly, possibly exclusively) all-Sorabji performances in intimate settings, towards the 2010 Spring/Summer times. Please go to his website for more info!

Adressing those who seriously perform and record new KSS works, and have managers & promoters to back them up, I believe it's just a matter of time before we see KSS's works in libraries, stores and more common literature in the few classical music periodicals. The more we "Sorabji-inspired" followers spread the message of the www.OpusArchimagicum.com project the more we all will do for the support of the many amazing "new" works of Sorabji, and new recordings by the likes of Tellef Johnson, who, like most artists, may not likely progress to another GREAT project if he makes no profit from this initial, and amazing work.Tellif's work on Opusarchimagicum might never grab the stadium of Guinness World Records, but it has the potential to rock lose (some of) the post-Slominsky edited issues of Baker's, and probably more, as long as it is published and promoted, with great sincerity, as far as possible.  Personally, I would love to see this come about, should I live so long (I have similar feelings regarding the controversial Large Hadron Collider, inch by inch until it finally comes online at full power and explores the roots of matter at the very (indescribably small) of the smallest of sub-atomic structure of the Universe, and everything in it, down to the near ephemeral nature of matter at its smallest, elusive "primitive state").

My message is done. I hope it doesn't fall on deaf ears (not likely here!), and the cause is taken up. I hope no one was offended, and some may have gathered a bit of inspiration.

My best wishes to all,

Lontano

[ahinton]

Well, much as excellent work has been done by musicologists various in the past, including Prof. Marc-André Roberge (whose book on the composer has been completed some while ago but still awaits publication), the dissemination of Sorabji's music is, inevitably, dependent upon the performers and, in turn, what they do is dependent upon the editors who have laboured and continue to labour with immense skill, patience and dedication to adding more scores to the burgeoning collection of corrected typeset editions. A glance at the current Sorabji Archive catalogue will demonstrate just how far this project has already advanced; there remains quite a kong way to go, inevitably, since Sorabji wrote so much music. It has been an continues to be a privilege to be in the position to encourage this kind of work and to provide information and distribute Sorabji's scores as we have done now for almost a quarter of a century. As I have mentioned previously, 35 years ago there were no commercial recordings, very few performances and a depleting number of scores in print; today, Sorabji's music has been performed and broadcast in more than 20 countries, more than 30 recordings have been made (most of which remain available), every one of his known scores is easily available to order and an increasing number of these are now in a typeset state so as to enable the preparation of performances.

This year looks set to be a good one for Sorabji's work. In addition to Tellef's project (which would not have been possible without the sterling editing work of Alexander Abercrombie), part 2 of Sequentia Cyclica was premièred in London almost two weeks ago and the entire work is scheduled for première in Glasgow in June this year, hot on the heels of the world première of his Organ Symphony No. 2 in the same city. The organ work gets a repeat performance in Amsterdam in this year's Holland Festival as well as a performance of its first movement in York Minster. Moves are also afoot to put together a mini-Sorabji-fest later this year but, as this is still very much at preparation stage, I cannot provide any further details as yet - but watch this space!

Best,

Alistair

[lontano]

This year looks set to be a good one for Sorabji's work. In addition to Tellef's project (which would not have been possible without the sterling editing work of Alexander Abercrombie), part 2 of Sequentia Cyclica was premièred in London almost two weeks ago and the entire work is scheduled for première in Glasgow in June this year, hot on the heels of the world première of his Organ Symphony No. 2 in the same city. The organ work gets a repeat performance in Amsterdam in this year's Holland Festival as well as a performance of its first movement in York Minster. Moves are also afoot to put together a mini-Sorabji-fest later this year but, as this is still very much at preparation stage, I cannot provide any further details as yet - but watch this space!

Alistair, I've been curious if you've been able to attend any of the premières (or other recent Sorabji-related events) you mention. I'd very much like to read some good critiquing if you have anything to offer (and/or links to such by others).

Lontano

[ahinton]

Alistair, I've been curious if you've been able to attend any of the premières (or other recent Sorabji-related events) you mention. I'd very much like to read some good critiquing if you have anything to offer (and/or links to such by others).

Most of these have yet to occur! I did attend the recent première of variations 14-22 of Sequentia Cyclica in London with Jonathan Powell giving us a real edge-of-seat experience throughout, but the première of the entire work is not due until 18 June, two weeks after that of Organ Symphony No. 2. I also attended last year the première of the finale of Organ Symphony No. 2 and admit that my trepidation (even as a seasoned Sorabjian of quite a few years) at the prospect of listening to a single symphonic movement of some three hours of which the latter two-thirds (no less) was a fugue was only exacerbated on arriving at the venue to find the programme note describing the performance-to-be as a "work-in-progress play-through", as though attendees were to be given no more than a fly-on-wall experience of Kevin Bowyer summarising the totality of his practice on the movement up to that point; I need not have worried, for although the Toccata needed quite a bit of tidying and speeding up and some emergency rallentandi in the second and third parts of the final triple fugue required ironing out, the performance was anything but the way in which it had been described in advance and even the fugue - vastly longer than any other Sorabji fugue I had ever heard - managed never to outstay its welcome and, indeed, its Coda-Stretta builds up a tension that finally propels itself to ultimate resolution with something almost approaching suddenness. The symphony's middle movement (the only part of the work that has yet to be performed) is in some ways its largest challenge; keeping a set of variations going for some 225 minutes is alone beyond daunting, but when one considers that 20+ minutes towards the end of this embraces what is almost certainly the most sustained passages of unremitting difficulty in the entire symphony, one's heart might well sink (well, unless one is Kevin Bowyer!).

Best,

Alistair

[ctrastevere]

I also attended last year the première of the finale of Organ Symphony No. 2 and admit that my trepidation (even as a seasoned Sorabjian of quite a few years) at the prospect of listening to a single symphonic movement of some three hours of which the latter two-thirds (no less) was a fugue was only exacerbated on arriving at the venue to find the programme note describing the performance-to-be as a "work-in-progress play-through", as though attendees were to be given no more than a fly-on-wall experience of Kevin Bowyer summarising the totality of his practice on the movement up to that point; I need not have worried, for although the Toccata needed quite a bit of tidying and speeding up and some emergency rallentandi in the second and third parts of the final triple fugue required ironing out, the performance was anything but the way in which it had been described in advance and even the fugue - vastly longer than any other Sorabji fugue I had ever heard - managed never to outstay its welcome and, indeed, its Coda-Stretta builds up a tension that finally propels itself to ultimate resolution with something almost approaching suddenness.

That is quite possibly one of the longest sentences I have ever seen. 

[ahinton]

That is quite possibly one of the longest sentences I have ever seen.

...some of which was about one of the longest pieces that I have ever heard (part of)...

Best,

Alistair

[john11inc]

That is quite possibly one of the longest sentences I have ever seen. 

Mulveys was the first when I was in bed that morning and Mrs Rubio brought it in with the coffee she stood there standing when I asked her to hand me and I pointing at them I couldnt think of the word a hairpin to open it with ah horquilla disobliging old thing and it staring her in the face with her switch of false hair on her and vain about her appearance ugly as she was near 80 or a loo her face a mass of wrinkles with all her religion domineering because she never could get over the Atlantic fleet coming in half the ships of the world and the Union Jack flying with all her carabineros because 4 drunken English sailors took all the rock from them and because I didnt run into mass often enough in Santa Maria to please her with her shawl up on her except when there was a marriage on with all her miracles of the saints and her black blessed virgin with the silver dress and the sun dancing 3 times on Easter Sunday morning and when the priest was going by with the bell bringing the vatican to the dying blessing herself for his Majestad an admirer he signed it I near jumped out of my skin I wanted to pick him up when I saw him following me along the Calle Real in the shop window then he tipped me just in passing but I never thought hed write making an appointment I had it inside my petticoat bodice all day reading it up in every hole and corner while father was up at the drill instructing to find out by the handwriting or the language of stamps singing I remember shall I wear a white rose and I wanted to put on the old stupid clock to near the time he was the first man kissed me under the Moorish wall my sweetheart when a boy it never entered my head what kissing meant till he put his tongue in my mouth his mouth was sweetlike young I put my knee up to him a few times to learn the way what did I tell him I was engaged for for fun to the son of a Spanish nobleman named Don Miguel de la Flora and he believed me that I was to be married to him in 3 years time theres many a true word spoken in jest there is a flower that bloometh a few things I told him true about myself just for him to be imagining the Spanish girls he didnt like I suppose one of them wouldnt have him I got him excited he crushed all the flowers on my bosom he brought me he couldnt count the pesetas and the perragordas till I taught him Cappoquin he came from he said on the black water but it was too short then the day before he left May yes it was May when the infant king of Spain was born Im always like that in the spring Id like a new fellow every year up on the tiptop under the rockgun near OHaras tower I told him it was struck by lightning and all about the old Barbary apes they sent to Clapham without a tail careering all over the show on each others back Mrs Rubio said she was a regular old rock scorpion robbing the chickens out of Inces farm and throw stones at you if you went anear he was looking at me I had that white blouse on open in the front to encourage him as much as I could without too openly they were just beginning to be plump I said I was tired we lay over the firtree cove a wild place I suppose it must be the highest rock in existence the galleries and casemates and those frightful rocks and Saint Michaels cave with the icicles or whatever they call them hanging down and ladders all the mud plotching my boots Im sure thats the way down the monkeys go under the sea to Africa when they die the ships out far like chips that was the Malta boat passing yes the sea and the sky you could do what you liked lie there for ever he caressed them outside they love doing that its the roundness there I was leaning over him with my white ricestraw hat to take the newness out of it the left side of my face the best my blouse open for his last day transparent kind of shirt he had I could see his chest pink he wanted to touch mine with his for a moment but I wouldnt lee him he was awfully put out first for fear you never know consumption or leave me with a child embarazada that old servant Ines told me that one drop even if it got into you at all after I tried with the Banana but I was afraid it might break and get lost up in me somewhere because they once took something down out of a woman that was up there for years covered with limesalts theyre all mad to get in there where they come out of youd think they could never go far enough up and then theyre done with you in a way till the next time yes because theres a wonderful feeling there so tender all the time how did we finish it off yes O yes I pulled him off into my handkerchief pretending not to be excited but I opened my legs I wouldnt let him touch me inside my petticoat because I had a skirt opening up the side I tormented the life out of him first tickling him I loved rousing that dog in the hotel rrrsssstt awokwokawok his eyes shut and a bird flying below us he was shy all the same I liked him like that moaning I made him blush a little when I got over him that way when I unbuttoned him and took his out and drew back the skin it had a kind of eye in it theyre all Buttons men down the middle on the wrong side of them Molly darling he called me what was his name Jack Joe Harry Mulvey was it yes I think a lieutenant he was rather fair he had a laughing kind of a voice so I went round to the whatyoucallit everything was whatyoucallit moustache had he he said hed come back Lord its just like yesterday to me and if I was married hed do it to me and I promised him yes faithfully Id let him block me now flying perhaps hes dead or killed or a captain or admiral its nearly 20 years if I said firtree cove he would if he came up behind me and put his hands over my eyes to guess who I might recognise him hes young still about 40 perhaps hes married some girl on the black water and is quite changed they all do they havent half the character a woman has she little knows what I did with her beloved husband before he ever dreamt of her in broad daylight too in the sight of the whole world you might say they could have put an article about it in the Chronicle I was a bit wild after when I blew out the old bag the biscuits were in from Benady Bros and exploded it Lord what a bang all the woodcocks and pigeons screaming coming back the same way that we went over middle hill round by the old guardhouse and the jews burialplace pretending to read out the Hebrew on them I wanted to fire his pistol he said he hadnt one he didnt know what to make of me with his peak cap on that he always wore crooked as often as I settled it straight H M S Calypso swinging my hat that old Bishop that spoke off the altar his long preach about womans higher functions about girls now riding the bicycle and wearing peak caps and the new woman bloomers God send him sense and me more money I suppose theyre called after him I never thought that would be my name Bloom when I used to write it in print to see how it looked on a visiting card or practising for the butcher and oblige M Bloom youre looking blooming Josie used to say after I married him well its better than Breen or Briggs does brig or those awful names with bottom in them Mrs Ramsbottom or some other kind of a bottom Mulvey I wouldnt go mad about either or suppose I divorced him Mrs Boylan my mother whoever she was might have given me a nicer name the Lord knows after the lovely one she had Lunita Laredo the fun we had running along Williss road to Europa point twisting in and out all round the other side of Jersey they were shaking and dancing about in my blouse like Millys little ones now when she runs up the stairs I loved looking down at them I was jumping up at the pepper trees and the white poplars pulling the leaves off and throwing them at him he went to India he was to write the voyages those men have to make to the ends of the world and back its the least they might get a squeeze or two at a woman while they can going out to be drowned or blown up somewhere I went up Windmill hill to the flats that Sunday morning with captain Rubios that was dead spyglass like the sentry had he said hed have one or two from on board I wore that frock from the B Marche paris and the coral necklace the straits shining I could see over to Morocco almost the bay of Tangier white and the Atlas mountain with snow on it and the straits like a river so clear Harry Molly darling I was thinking of him on the sea all the time after at mass when my petticoat began to slip down at the elevation weeks and weeks I kept the handkerchief under my pillow for the smell of him there was no decent perfume to be got in that Gibraltar only that cheap peau dEspagne that faded and left a stink on you more than anything else I wanted to give him a memento he gave me that clumsy Claddagh ring for luck that I gave Gardner going to south Africa where those Boers killed him with their war and fever but they were well beaten all the same as if it brought its bad luck with it like an opal or pearl still it must have been pure 18 carrot gold because it was very heavy but what could you get in a place like that the sandfrog shower from Africa and that derelict ship that came up to the harbour Marie the Marie whatyoucallit no he hadnt a moustache that was Gardner yes I can see his face cleanshaven Frseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeefrong that train again weeping tone once in the dear deaead days beyondre call close my eyes breath my lips forward kiss sad look eyes open piano ere oer the world the mists began I hate that istsbeg comes loves sweet sooooooooooong Ill let that out full when I get in front of the footlights again Kathleen Kearney and her lot of squealers Miss This Miss That Miss Theother lot of sparrowfarts skitting around talking about politics they know as much about as my backside anything in the world to make themselves someway interesting Irish homemade beauties soldiers daughter am I ay and whose are you bootmakers and publicans I beg your pardon coach I thought you were a wheelbarrow theyd die down dead off their feet if ever they got a chance of walking down the Alameda on an officers arm like me on the bandnight my eyes flash my bust that they havent passion God help their poor head I knew more about men and life when I was I S than theyll all know at 50 they dont know how to sing a song like that Gardner said no man could look at my mouth and teeth smiling like that and not think of it I was afraid he mightnt like my accent first he so English all father left me in spite of his stamps Ive my mothers eyes and figure anyhow he always said theyre so snotty about themselves some of those cads he wasnt a bit like that he was dead gone on my lips let them get a husband first thats fit to be looked at and a daughter like mine or see if they can excite a swell with money that can pick and choose whoever he wants like Boylan to do it 4 or 5 times locked in each others arms or the voice either I could have been a prima donna only I married him comes looooves old deep down chin back not too much make it double My Ladys Bower is too long for an encore about the moated grange at twilight and vaunted rooms yes Ill sing Winds that blow from the south that he gave after the choirstairs performance Ill change that lace on my black dress to show off my bubs and Ill yes by God Ill get that big fan mended make them burst with envy my hole is itching me always when I think of him I feel I want to I feel some wind in me better go easy not wake him have him at it again slobbering after washing every bit of myself back belly and sides if we had even a bath itself or my own room anyway I wish hed sleep in some bed by himself with his cold feet on me give us room even to let a fart God or do the least thing better yes hold them like that a bit on my side piano quietly sweeeee theres that train far away pianissimo eeeee one more song that was a relief wherever you be let your wind go free who knows if that pork chop I took with my cup of tea after was quite good with the heat I couldnt smell anything off it Im sure that queerlooking man in the porkbutchers is a great rogue I hope that lamp is not smoking fill my nose up with smuts better than having him leaving the gas on all night I couldnt rest easy in my bed in Gibraltar even getting up to see why am I so damned nervous about that though I like it in the winter its more company O Lord it was rotten cold too that winter when I was only about ten was I yes I had the big doll with all the funny clothes dressing her up and undressing that icy wind skeeting across from those mountains the something Nevada sierra nevada standing at the fire with the little bit of a short shift I had up to heat myself I loved dancing about in it then make a race back into bed Im sure that fellow opposite used to be there the whole time watching with the lights out in the summer and I in my skin hopping around I used to love myself then stripped at the washstand dabbing and creaming only when it came to the chamber performance I put out the light too so then there were 2 of us goodbye to my sleep for this night anyhow I hope hes not going to get in with those medicals leading him astray to imagine hes young again coming in at 4 in the morning it must be if not more still he had the manners not to wake me what do they find to gabber about all night squandering money and getting drunker and drunker couldnt they drink water then he starts giving us his orders for eggs and tea and Findon haddy and hot buttered toast I suppose well have him sitting up like the king of the country pumping the wrong end of the spoon up and down in his egg wherever he learned that from and I love to hear him falling up the stairs of a morning with the cups rattling on the tray and then play with the cat she rubs up against you for her own sake I wonder has she fleas shes as bad as a woman always licking and lecking but I hate their claws I wonder do they see anything that we cant staring like that when she sits at the top of the stairs so long and listening as I wait always what a robber too that lovely fresh place I bought I think Ill get a bit of fish tomorrow or today is it Friday yes I will with some blancmange with black currant jam like long ago not those 2 lb pots of mixed plum and apple from the London and Newcastle Williams and Woods goes twice as far only for the bones I hate those eels cod yes Ill get a nice piece of cod Im always getting enough for 3 forgetting anyway Im sick of that everlasting butchers meat from Buckleys loin chops and leg beef and rib steak and scrag of mutton and calfs pluck the very name is enough or a picnic suppose we all gave 5/- each and or let him pay it and invite some other woman for him who Mrs Fleming and drove out to the furry glen or the strawberry beds wed have him examining all the horses toenails first like he does with the letters no not with Boylan there yes with some cold veal and ham mixed sandwiches there are little houses down at the bottom of the banks there on purpose but its as hot as blazes he says not a bank holiday anyhow I hate those ruck of Mary Ann coalboxes out for the day Whit Monday is a cursed day too no wonder that bee bit him better the seaside but Id never again in this life get into a boat with him after him at Bray telling the boatman he knew how to row if anyone asked could he ride the steeplechase for the gold cup hed say yes then it came on to get rough the old thing crookeding about and the weight all down my side telling me pull the right reins now pull the left and the tide all swamping in floods in through the bottom and his oar slipping out of the stirrup its a mercy we werent all drowned he can swim of course me no theres no danger whatsoever keep yourself calm in his flannel trousers Id like to have tattered them down off him before all the people and give him what that one calls flagellate till he was black and blue do him all the good in the world only for that longnosed chap I dont know who he is with that other beauty Burke out of the City Arms hotel was there spying around as usual on the slip always where he wasnt wanted if there was a row on youd vomit a better face there was no love lost between us thats 1 consolation I wonder what kind is that book he brought me Sweets of Sin by a gentleman of fashion some other Mr de Kock I suppose the people gave him that nickname going about with his tube from one woman to another I couldnt even change my new white shoes all ruined with the saltwater and the hat I had with that feather all blowy and tossed on me how annoying and provoking because the smell of the sea excited me of course the sardines and the bream in Catalan bay round the back of the rock they were fine all silver in the fishermens baskets old Luigi near a hundred they said came from Genoa and the tall old chap with the earrings I dont like a man you have to climb up to to get at I suppose theyre all dead and rotten long ago besides I dont like being alone in this big barracks of a place at night I suppose Ill have to put up with it I never brought a bit of salt in even when we moved in the confusion musical academy he was going to make on the first floor drawingroom with a brassplate or Blooms private hotel he suggested go and ruin himself altogether the way his father did down in Ennis like all the things he told father he was going to do and me but I saw through him telling me all the lovely places we could go for the honeymoon Venice by moonlight with the gondolas and the lake of Como he had a picture cut out of some paper of and mandolines and lanterns O how nice I said whatever I liked he was going to do immediately if not sooner will you be my man will you carry my can he ought to get a leather medal with a putty rim for all the plans he invents then leaving us here all day youd never know what old beggar at the door for a crust with his long story might be a tramp and put his foot in the way to prevent me shutting it like that picture of that hardened criminal he was called in Lloyds Weekly news 20 years in jail then he comes out and murders an old woman for her money imagine his poor wife or mother or whoever she is such a face youd run miles away from I couldnt rest easy till I bolted all the doors and windows to make sure but its worse again being locked up like in a prison or a madhouse they ought to be all shot or the cat of nine tails a big brute like that that would attack a poor old woman to murder her in her bed Id cut them off him so I would not that hed be much use still better than nothing the night I was sure I heard burglars in the kitchen and he went down in his shirt with a candle and a poker as if he was looking for a mouse as white as a sheet frightened out of his wits making as much noise as he possibly could for the burglars benefit there isnt much to steal indeed the Lord knows still its the feeling especially now with Milly away such an idea for him to send the girl down there to learn to take photographs on account of his grandfather instead of sending her to Skerrys academy where shed have to learn not like me getting all IS at school only hed do a thing like that all the same on account of me and Boylan thats why he did it Im certain the way he plots and plans everything out I couldnt turn round with her in the place lately unless I bolted the door first gave me the fidgets coming in without knocking first when I put the chair against the door just as I was washing myself there below with the glove get on your nerves then doing the loglady all day put her in a glasscase with two at a time to look at her if he knew she broke off the hand off that little gimcrack statue with her roughness and carelessness before she left that I got that little Italian boy to mend so that you cant see the join for 2 shillings wouldnt even teem the potatoes for you of course shes right not to ruin her hands I noticed he was always talking to her lately at the table explaining things in the paper and she pretending to understand sly of course that comes from his side of the house he cant say I pretend things can he Im too honest as a matter of fact and helping her into her coat but if there was anything wrong with her its me shed tell not him I suppose he thinks Im finished

[john11inc]

out and laid on the shelf well Im not no nor anything like it well see well see now shes well on for flirting too with Tom Devans two sons imitating me whistling with those romps of Murray girls calling for her can Milly come out please shes in great demand to pick what they can out of her round in Nelson street riding Harry Devans bicycle at night its as well he sent her where she is she was just getting out of bounds wanting to go on the skatingrink and smoking their cigarettes through their nose I smelt it off her dress when I was biting off the thread of the button I sewed on to the bottom of her jacket she couldnt hide much from me I tell you only I oughtnt to have stitched it and it on her it brings a parting and the last plumpudding too split in 2 halves see it comes out no matter what they say her tongue is a bit too long for my taste your blouse is open too low she says to me the pan calling the kettle blackbottom and I had to tell her not to cock her legs up like that on show on the windowsill before all the people passing they all look at her like me when I was her age of course any old rag looks well on you then a great touchmenot too in her own way at the Only Way in the Theatre royal take your foot away out of that I hate people touching me afraid of her life Id crush her skirt with the pleats a lot of that touching must go on in theatres in the crush in the dark theyre always trying to wiggle up to you that fellow in the pit at the Gaiety for Beerbohm Tree in Trilby the last time Ill ever go there to be squashed like that for any Trilby or her barebum every two minutes tipping me there and looking away hes a bit daft I think I saw him after trying to get near two stylishdressed ladies outside Switzers window at the same little game I recognised him on the moment the face and everything but he didnt remember me yes and she didnt even want me to kiss her at the Broadstone going away well I hope shell get someone to dance attendance on her the way I did when she was down with the mumps and her glands swollen wheres this and wheres that of course she cant feel anything deep yet I never came properly till I was what 22 or so it went into the wrong place always only the usual girls nonsense and giggling that Conny Connolly writing to her in white ink on black paper sealed with sealingwax though she clapped when the curtain came down because he looked so handsome then we had Martin Harvey for breakfast dinner and supper I thought to myself afterwards it must be real love if a man gives up his life for her that way for nothing I suppose there are a few men like that left its hard to believe in it though unless it really happened to me the majority of them with not a particle of love in their natures to find two people like that nowadays full up of each other that would feel the same way as you do theyre usually a bit foolish in the head his father must have been a bit queer to go and poison himself after her still poor old man I suppose he felt lost shes always making love to my things too the few old rags I have wanting to put her hair up at I S my powder too only ruin her skin on her shes time enough for that all her life after of course shes restless knowing shes pretty with her lips so red a pity they wont stay that way I was too but theres no use going to the fair with the thing answering me like a fishwoman when I asked to go for a half a stone of potatoes the day we met Mrs Joe Gallaher at the trottingmatches and she pretended not to see us in her trap with Friery the solicitor we werent grand enough till I gave her 2 damn fine cracks across the ear for herself take that now for answering me like that and that for your impudence she had me that exasperated of course contradicting I was badtempered too because how was it there was a weed in the tea or I didnt sleep the night before cheese I ate was it and I told her over and over again not to leave knives crossed like that because she has nobody to command her as she said herself well if he doesnt correct her faith I will that was the last time she turned on the teartap I was just like that myself they darent order me about the place its his fault of course having the two of us slaving here instead of getting in a woman long ago am I ever going to have a proper servant again of course then shed see him coming Id have to let her know or shed revenge it arent they a nuisance that old Mrs Fleming you have to be walking round after her putting the things into her hands sneezing and farting into the pots well of course shes old she cant help it a good job I found that rotten old smelly dishcloth that got lost behind the dresser I knew there was something and opened the area window to let out the smell bringing in his friends to entertain them like the night he walked home with a dog if you please that might have been mad especially Simon Dedalus son his father such a criticiser with his glasses up with his tall hat on him at the cricket match and a great big hole in his sock one thing laughing at the other and his son that got all those prizes for whatever he won them in the intermediate imagine climbing over the railings if anybody saw him that knew us I wonder he didnt tear a big hole in his grand funeral trousers as if the one nature gave wasnt enough for anybody hawking him down into the dirty old kitchen now is he right in his head I ask pity it wasnt washing day my old pair of drawers might have been hanging up too on the line on exhibition for all hed ever care with the ironmould mark the stupid old bundle burned on them he might think was something else and she never even rendered down the fat I told her and now shes going such as she was on account of her paralysed husband getting worse theres always something wrong with them disease or they have to go under an operation or if its not that its drink and he beats her Ill have to hunt around again for someone every day I get up theres some new thing on sweet God sweet God well when Im stretched out dead in my grave I suppose 111 have some peace I want to get up a minute if Im let wait O Jesus wait yes that thing has come on me yes now wouldnt that afflict you of course all the poking and rooting and ploughing he had up in me now what am I to do Friday Saturday Sunday wouldnt that pester the soul out of a body unless he likes it some men do God knows theres always something wrong with us 5 days every 3 or 4 weeks usual monthly auction isnt it simply sickening that night it came on me like that the one and only time we were in a box that Michael Gunn gave him to see Mrs Kendal and her husband at the Gaiety something he did about insurance for him in Drimmies I was fit to be tied though I wouldnt give in with that gentleman of fashion staring down at me with his glasses and him the other side of me talking about Spinoza and his soul thats dead I suppose millions of years ago I smiled the best I could all in a swamp leaning forward as if I was interested having to sit it out then to the last tag I wont forget that wife of Scarli in a hurry supposed to be a fast play about adultery that idiot in the gallery hissing the woman adulteress he shouted I suppose he went and had a woman in the next lane running round all the back ways after to make up for it I wish he had what I had then hed boo I bet the cat itself is better off than us have we too much blood up in us or what O patience above its pouring out of me like the sea anyhow he didnt make me pregnant as big as he is I dont want to ruin the clean sheets I just put on I suppose the clean linen I wore brought it on too damn it damn it and they always want to see a stain on the bed to know youre a virgin for them all thats troubling them theyre such fools too you could be a widow or divorced 40 times over a daub of red ink would do or blackberry juice no thats too purply O Jamesy let me up out of this pooh sweets of sin whoever suggested that business for women what between clothes and cooking and children this damned old bed too jingling like the dickens I suppose they could hear us away over the other side of the park till I suggested to put the quilt on the floor with the pillow under my bottom I wonder is it nicer in the day I think it is easy I think Ill cut all this hair off me there scalding me I might look like a young girl wouldnt he get the great suckin the next time he turned up my clothes on me Id give anything to see his face wheres the chamber gone easy Ive a holy horror of its breaking under me after that old commode I wonder was I too heavy sitting on his knee I made him sit on the easychair purposely when I took off only my blouse and skirt first in the other room he was so busy where he oughtnt to be he never felt me I hope my breath was sweet after those kissing comfits easy God I remember one time I could scout it out straight whistling like a man almost easy O Lord how noisy I hope theyre bubbles on it for a wad of money from some fellow 111 have to perfume it in the morning dont forget I bet he never saw a better pair of thighs than that look how white they are the smoothest place is right there between this bit here how soft like a peach easy God I wouldnt mind being a man and get up on a lovely woman O Lord what a row youre making like the jersey lily easy easy O how the waters come down at Lahore who knows is there anything the matter with my insides or have I something growing in me getting that thing like that every week when was it last I Whit Monday yes its only about 3 weeks I ought to go to the doctor only it would be like before I married him when I had that white thing coming from me and Floey made me go to that dry old stick Dr Collins for womens diseases on Pembroke road your vagina he called it I suppose thats how he got all the gilt mirrors and carpets getting round those rich ones off Stephens green running up to him for every little fiddlefaddle her vagina and her cochinchina theyve money of course so theyre all right I wouldnt marry him not if he was the last man in the world besides theres something queer about their children always smelling around those filthy bitches all sides asking me if what I did had an offensive odour what did he want me to do but the one thing gold maybe what a question if I smathered it all over his wrinkly old face for him with all my compriments I suppose hed know then and could you pass it easily pass what I thought he was talking about the rock of Gibraltar the way he put it thats a very nice invention too by the way only I like letting myself down after in the hole as far as I can squeeze and pull the chain then to flush it nice cool pins and needles still theres something in it I suppose I always used to know by Millys when she was a child whether she had worms or not still all the same paying him for that how much is that doctor one guinea please and asking me had I frequent omissions where do those old fellows get all the words they have omissions with his shortsighted eyes on me cocked sideways I wouldnt trust him too far to give me chloroform or God knows what else still I liked him when he sat down to write the thing out frowning so severe his nose intelligent like that you be damned you lying strap O anything no matter who except an idiot he was clever enough to spot that of course that was all thinking of him and his mad crazy letters my Precious one everything connected with your glorious Body everything underlined that comes from it is a thing of beauty and of joy for ever something he got out of some nonsensical book that he had me always at myself 4 and 5 times a day sometimes and I said I hadnt are you sure O yes I said I am quite sure in a way that shut him up I knew what was coming next only natural weakness it was he excited me I dont know how the first night ever we met when I was living in Rehoboth terrace we stood staring at one another for about lo minutes as if we met somewhere I suppose on account of my being jewess looking after my mother he used to amuse me the things he said with the half sloothering smile on him and all the Doyles said he was going to stand for a member of Parliament O wasnt I the born fool to believe all his blather about home rule and the land league sending me that long strool of a song out of the Huguenots to sing in French to be more classy O beau pays de la Touraine that I never even sang once explaining and rigmaroling about religion and persecution he wont let you enjoy anything naturally then might he as a great favour the very 1st opportunity he got a chance in Brighton square running into my bedroom pretending the ink got on his hands to wash it off with the Albion milk and sulphur soap I used to use and the gelatine still round it O I laughed myself sick at him that day I better not make an alnight sitting on this affair they ought to make chambers a natural size so that a woman could sit on it properly he kneels down to do it I suppose there isnt in all creation another man with the habits he has look at the way hes sleeping at the foot of the bed how can he without a hard bolster its well he doesnt kick or he might knock out all my teeth breathing with his hand on his nose like that Indian god he took me to show one wet Sunday in the museum in Kildare street all yellow in a pinafore lying on his side on his hand with his ten toes sticking out that he said was a bigger religion than the jews and Our Lords both put together all over Asia imitating him as hes always imitating everybody I suppose he used to sleep at the foot of the bed too with his big square feet up in his wifes mouth damn this stinking thing anyway wheres this those napkins are ah yes I know I hope the old press doesnt creak ah I knew it would hes sleeping hard had a good time somewhere still she must have given him great value for his money of course he has to pay for it from her O this nuisance of a thing I hope theyll have something better for us in the other world tying ourselves up God help us thats all right for tonight now the lumpy old jingly bed always reminds me of old Cohen I suppose he scratched himself in it often enough and he thinks father bought it from Lord Napier that I used to admire when I was a little girl because I told him easy piano O I like my bed God here we are as bad as ever after 16 years how many houses were we in at all Raymond terrace and Ontario terrace and Lombard street and Holles street and he goes about whistling every time were on the run again his huguenots or the frogs march pretending to help the men with our 4 sticks of furniture and then the City Arms hotel worse and worse says Warden Daly that charming place on the landing always somebody inside praying then leaving all their stinks after them always know who was in there last every time were just getting on right something happens or he puts his big foot in it Thoms and Helys and Mr Cuffes and Drimmies either hes going to be run into prison over his old lottery tickets that was to be all our salvations or he goes and gives impudence well have him coming home with the sack soon out of the Freeman too like the rest on account of those Sinner Fein or the freemasons then well see if the little man he showed me dribbling along in the wet all by himself round by Coadys lane will give him much consolation that he says is so capable and sincerely Irish he is indeed judging by the sincerity of the trousers I saw on him wait theres Georges church bells wait 3 quarters the hour l wait 2 oclock well thats a nice hour of the night for him to be coming home at to anybody climbing down into the area if anybody saw him Ill knock him off that little habit tomorrow first Ill look at his shirt to see or Ill see if he has that French letter still in his pocketbook I suppose he thinks I dont know deceitful men all their 20 pockets arent enough for their lies then why should we tell them even if its the truth they dont believe you then tucked up in bed like those babies in the Aristocrats Masterpiece he brought me another time as if we hadnt enough of that in real life without some old Aristocrat or whatever his name is disgusting you more with those rotten pictures children with two heads and no legs thats the kind of villainy theyre always dreaming about with not another thing in their empty heads they ought to get slow poison the half of them then tea and toast for him buttered on both sides and newlaid eggs I suppose Im nothing any more when I wouldnt let him lick me in Holles street one night man man tyrant as ever for the one thing he slept on the floor half the night naked the way the jews used when somebody dies belonged to them and wouldnt eat any breakfast or speak a word wanting to be petted so I thought I stood out enough for one time and let him he does it all wrong too thinking only of his own pleasure his tongue is too flat or I dont know what he forgets that wethen I dont Ill make him do it again if he doesnt mind himself and lock him down to sleep in the coalcellar with the blackbeetles I wonder was it her Josie off her head with my castoffs hes such a born liar too no hed never have the courage with a married woman thats why he wants me and Boylan though as for her Denis as she calls him that forlornlooking spectacle you couldnt call him a husband yes its some little pregnant dog hes got in with even when I was with him with Milly at the College races that Hornblower with the childs bonnet on the top of his nob let us into by the back way he was throwing his sheeps eyes at those two doing skirt duty up and down I tried to wink at him first no use of course and thats the way his money goes this is the fruits of Mr Paddy Dignam yes they were all in great style at the grand funeral in the paper Boylan brought in if they saw a real officers funeral thatd be something reversed arms muffled drums the poor horse walking behind in black L Boom and Tom Kernan that drunken little barrelly man that bit his tongue off falling down the mens W C drunk in some place or other and Martin Cunningham and the two Dedaluses and Fanny MCoys husband white head of cabbage skinny thing with a turn in her eye trying to sing my songs shed want to be born all over again and her old green dress with the lowneck as she cant attract them any other way like dabbling on a rainy day I see it all now plainly and they call that friendship killing and then burying one another and they all with their wives and families at home more especially Jack Power keeping that barmaid he does of course his wife is always sick or going to be sick or just getting better of it and hes a goodlooking man still though hes getting a bit grey over the ears theyre a nice lot all of them well theyre not going to get my husband again into their clutches if I can help it making fun of him then behind his back I know well when he goes on with his idiotics because he has sense enough not to squander every penny piece he earns down their gullets and looks after his wife and family goodfornothings poor Paddy Dignam all the same Im sorry in a way for him what are his wife and 5 children going to do unless he was insured comical little teetotum always stuck up in some pub corner and her or her son waiting Bill Bailey wont you please come home her widows weeds wont improve her appearance theyre awfully becoming though if youre goodlooking what men wasnt he yes he was at the Glencree dinner and Ben Dollard base barreltone the night he borrowed the swallowtail to sing out of in Holles street squeezed and squashed into them and grinning all over his big Dolly face like a wellwhipped childs botty didnt he look a balmy ballocks sure enough that must have been a spectacle on the stage imagine paying 5/- in the preserved seats for that to see him trotting off in his trowlers and Simon Dedalus too he was always turning up half screwed singing the second verse first the old love is the new was one of his so sweetly sang the maiden on the hawthorn bough he was always on for flirtyfying too when I sang Maritana with him at Freddy Mayers private opera he had a delicious glorious voice Phoebe dearest goodbye sweetheart sweetheart he always sang it not like Bartell Darcy sweet tart goodbye of course he had the gift of the voice so there was no art in it all over you like a warm showerbath O Maritana wildwood flower we sang splendidly though it was a bit too high for my register even transposed and he was married at the time to May Goulding but then hed say or do something to knock the good out of it hes a widower now I wonder what sort is his son he says hes an author and going to be a university professor of Italian and Im to take lessons what is he driving at now showing him my photo its not good of me I ought to have got it taken in drapery that never looks out of fashion still I look young in it I wonder he didnt make him a present of it altogether and me too after all why not I saw him driving down to the Kingsbridge station with his father and mother I was in mourning thats 11 years ago now yes hed be 11 though what was the good in going into mourning for what was neither one thing nor the other the first cry was enough for me I heard the deathwatch too ticking in the wall of course he insisted hed go into mourning for the cat I suppose hes a man now by this time he was an innocent boy then and a darling little fellow in his lord Fauntleroy suit and curly hair like a prince on the stage when I saw him at Mat Dillons he liked me too I remember they all do wait by God yes wait yes hold on he was on the cards this morning when I laid out the deck union with a young stranger neither dark nor fair you met before I thought it meant him but hes no chicken nor a stranger either besides my face was turned the other way what was the 7th card after that the 10 of spades for a journey by land then there was a letter on its way and scandals too the 3 queens and the 8 of diamonds for a rise in society yes wait it all came out and 2 red 8s for new garments look at that and didnt I dream something too yes there was something about poetry in it I hope he hasnt long greasy hair hanging into his eyes or standing up like a red Indian what do they go about like that for only getting themselves and their poetry laughed at I always liked poetry when I was a girl first I thought he was a poet like lord Byron and not an ounce of it in his composition I

[john11inc]

thought he was quite different I wonder is he too young hes about wait 88 I was married 88 Milly is 15 yesterday 89 what age was he then at Dillons 5 or 6 about 88 I suppose hes 20 or more Im not too old for him if hes 23 or 24 I hope hes not that stuckup university student sort no otherwise he wouldnt go sitting down in the old kitchen with him taking Eppss cocoa and talking of course he pretended to understand it all probably he told him he was out of Trinity college hes very young to be a professor I hope hes not a professor like Goodwin was he was a potent professor of John Jameson they all write about some woman in their poetry well I suppose he wont find many like me where softly sighs of love the light guitar where poetry is in the air the blue sea and the moon shining so beautifully coming back on the nightboat from Tarifa the lighthouse at Europa point the guitar that fellow played was so expressive will I ever go back there again all new faces two glancing eyes a lattice hid Ill sing that for him theyre my eyes if hes anything of a poet two eyes as darkly bright as loves own star arent those beautiful words as loves young star itll be a change the Lord knows to have an intelligent person to talk to about yourself not always listening to him and Billy Prescotts ad and Keyess ad and Tom the Devils ad then if anything goes wrong in their business we have to suffer Im sure hes very distinguished Id like to meet a man like that God not those other ruck besides hes young those fine young men I could see down in Margate strand bathingplace from the side of the rock standing up in the sun naked like a God or something and then plunging into the sea with them why arent all men like that thered be some consolation for a woman like that lovely little statue he bought I could look at him all day long curly head and his shoulders his finger up for you to listen theres real beauty and poetry for you I often felt I wanted to kiss him all over also his lovely young cock there so simple I wouldnt mind taking him in my mouth if nobody was looking as if it was asking you to suck it so clean and white he looks with his boyish face I would too in 1/2 a minute even if some of it went down what its only like gruel or the dew theres no danger besides hed be so clean compared with those pigs of men I suppose never dream of washing it from I years end to the other the most of them only thats what gives the women the moustaches Im sure itll be grand if I can only get in with a handsome young poet at my age Ill throw them the 1st thing in the morning till I see if the wishcard comes out or Ill try pairing the lady herself and see if he comes out Ill read and study all I can find or learn a bit off by heart if I knew who he likes so he wont think me stupid if he thinks all women are the same and I can teach him the other part Ill make him feel all over him till he half faints under me then hell write about me lover and mistress publicly too with our 2 photographs in all the papers when he becomes famous O but then what am I going to do about him though no thats no way for him has he no manners nor no refinement nor no nothing in his nature slapping us behind like that on my bottom because I didnt call him Hugh the ignoramus that doesnt know poetry from a cabbage thats what you get for not keeping them in their proper place pulling off his shoes and trousers there on the chair before me so barefaced without even asking permission and standing out that vulgar way in the half of a shirt they wear to be admired like a priest or a butcher or those old hypocrites in the time of Julius Caesar of course hes right enough in his way to pass the time as a joke sure you might as well be in bed with what with a lion God Im sure hed have something better to say for himself an old Lion would O well I suppose its because they were so plump and tempting in my short petticoat he couldnt resist they excite myself sometimes its well for men all the amount of pleasure they get off a womans body were so round and white for them always I wished I was one myself for a change just to try with that thing they have swelling up on you so hard and at the same time so soft when you touch it my uncle John has a thing long I heard those cornerboys saying passing the comer of Marrowbone lane my aunt Mary has a thing hairy because it was dark and they knew a girl was passing it didnt make me blush why should it either its only nature and he puts his thing long into my aunt Marys hairy etcetera and turns out to be you put the handle in a sweepingbrush men again all over they can pick and choose what they please a married woman or a fast widow or a girl for their different tastes like those houses round behind Irish street no but were to be always chained up theyre not going to be chaining me up no damn fear once I start I tell you for their stupid husbands jealousy why cant we all remain friends over it instead of quarrelling her husband found it out what they did together well naturally and if he did can he undo it hes coronado anyway whatever he does and then he going to the other mad extreme about the wife in Fair Tyrants of course the man never even casts a 2nd thought on the husband or wife either its the woman he wants and he gets her what else were we given all those desires for Id like to know I cant help it if Im young still can I its a wonder Im not an old shrivelled hag before my time living with him so cold never embracing me except sometimes when hes asleep the wrong end of me not knowing I suppose who he has any man thatd kiss a womans bottom Id throw my hat at him after that hed kiss anything unnatural where we havent I atom of any kind of expression in us all of us the same 2 lumps of lard before ever Id do that to a man pfooh the dirty brutes the mere thought is enough I kiss the feet of you senorita theres some sense in that didnt he kiss our halldoor yes he did what a madman nobody understands his cracked ideas but me still of course a woman wants to be embraced 20 times a day almost to make her look young no matter by who so long as to be in love or loved by somebody if the fellow you want isnt there sometimes by the Lord God I was thinking would I go around by the quays there some dark evening where nobodyd know me and pick up a sailor off the sea thatd be hot on for it and not care a pin whose I was only do it off up in a gate somewhere or one of those wildlooking gipsies in Rathfarnham had their camp pitched near the Bloomfield laundry to try and steal our things if they could I only sent mine there a few times for the name model laundry sending me back over and over some old ones odd stockings that blackguardlooking fellow with the fine eyes peeling a switch attack me in the dark and ride me up against the wall without a word or a murderer anybody what they do themselves the fine gentlemen in their silk hats that K C lives up somewhere this way coming out of Hardwicke lane the night he gave us the fish supper on account of winning over the boxing match of course it was for me he gave it I knew him by his gaiters and the walk and when I turned round a minute after just to see there was a woman after coming out of it too some filthy prostitute then he goes home to his wife after that only I suppose the half of those sailors are rotten again with disease O move over your big carcass out of that for the love of Mike listen to him the winds that waft my sighs to thee so well he may sleep and sigh the great Suggester Don Poldo de la Flora if he knew how he came out on the cards this morning hed have something to sigh for a dark man in some perplexity between 2 7s too in prison for Lord knows what he does that I dont know and Im to be slooching around down in the kitchen to get his lordship his breakfast while hes rolled up like a mummy will I indeed did you ever see me running Id just like to see myself at it show them attention and they treat you like dirt I dont care what anybody says itd be much better for the world to be governed by the women in it you wouldnt see women going and killing one another and slaughtering when do you ever see women rolling around drunk like they do or gambling every penny they have and losing it on horses yes because a woman whatever she does she knows where to stop sure they wouldnt be in the world at all only for us they dont know what it is to be a woman and a mother how could they where would they all of them be if they hadnt all a mother to look after them what I never had thats why I suppose hes running wild now out at night away from his books and studies and not living at home on account of the usual rowy house I suppose well its a poor case that those that have a fine son like that theyre not satisfied and I none was he not able to make one it wasnt my fault we came together when I was watching the two dogs up in her behind in the middle of the naked street that disheartened me altogether I suppose I oughtnt to have buried him in that little woolly jacket I knitted crying as I was but give it to some poor child but I knew well Id never have another our 1st death too it was we were never the same since O Im not going to think myself into the glooms about that any more I wonder why he wouldnt stay the night I felt all the time it was somebody strange he brought in instead of roving around the city meeting God knows who nightwalkers and pickpockets his poor mother wouldnt like that if she was alive ruining himself for life perhaps still its a lovely hour so silent I used to love coming home after dances the air of the night they have friends they can talk to weve none either he wants what he wont get or its some woman ready to stick her knife in you I hate that in women no wonder they treat us the way they do we are a dreadful lot of bitches I suppose its all the troubles we have makes us so snappy Im not like that he could easy have slept in there on the sofa in the other room I suppose he was as shy as a boy he being so young hardly 20 of me in the next room hed have heard me on the chamber arrah what harm Dedalus I wonder its like those names in Gibraltar Delapaz Delagracia they had the devils queer names there father Vilaplana of Santa Maria that gave me the rosary Rosales y OReilly in the Calle las Siete Revueltas and Pisimbo and Mrs Opisso in Governor street O what a name Id go and drown myself in the first river if I had a name like her O my and all the bits of streets Paradise ramp and Bedlam ramp and Rodgers ramp and Crutchetts ramp and the devils gap steps well small blame to me if I am a harumscarum I know I am a bit I declare to God I dont feel a day older than then I wonder could I get my tongue round any of the Spanish como esta usted muy bien gracias y usted see I havent forgotten it all I thought I had only for the grammar a noun is the name of any person place or thing pity I never tried to read that novel cantankerous Mrs Rubio lent me by Valera with the questions in it all upside down the two ways I always knew wed go away in the end I can tell him the Spanish and he tell me the Italian then hell see Im not so ignorant what a pity he didnt stay Im sure the poor fellow was dead tired and wanted a good sleep badly I could have brought him in his breakfast in bed with a bit of toast so long as I didnt do it on the knife for bad luck or if the woman was going her rounds with the watercress and something nice and tasty there are a few olives in the kitchen he might like I never could bear the look of them in Abrines I could do the criada the room looks all right since I changed it the other way you see something was telling me all the time Id have to introduce myself not knowing me from Adam very funny wouldnt it Im his wife or pretend we were in Spain with him half awake without a Gods notion where he is dos huevos estrellados senor Lord the cracked things come into my head sometimes itd be great fun supposing he stayed with us why not theres the room upstairs empty and Millys bed in the back room he could do his writing and studies at the table in there for all the scribbling he does at it and if he wants to read in bed in the morning like me as hes making the breakfast for I he can make it for 2 Im sure Im not going to take in lodgers off the street for him if he takes a gesabo of a house like this Id love to have a long talk with an intelligent welleducated person Id have to get a nice pair of red slippers like those Turks with the fez used to sell or yellow and a nice semitransparent morning gown that I badly want or a peachblossom dressing jacket like the one long ago in Walpoles only 8/6 or 18/6 Ill just give him one more chance Ill get up early in the morning Im sick of Cohens old bed in any case I might go over to the markets to see all the vegetables and cabbages and tomatoes and carrots and all kinds of splendid fruits all coming in lovely and fresh who knows whod be the 1st man Id meet theyre out looking for it in the morning Mamy Dillon used to say they are and the night too that was her massgoing Id love a big juicy pear now to melt in your mouth like when I used to be in the longing way then Ill throw him up his eggs and tea in the moustachecup she gave him to make his mouth bigger I suppose hed like my nice cream too I know what Ill do Ill go about rather gay not too much singing a bit now and then mi fa pieta Masetto then Ill start dressing myself to go out presto non son piu forte Ill put on my best shift and drawers let him have a good eyeful out of that to make his micky stand for him Ill let him know if thats what he wanted that his wife is I s l o fucked yes and damn well fucked too up to my neck nearly not by him 5 or 6 times handrunning theres the mark of his spunk on the clean sheet I wouldnt bother to even iron it out that ought to satisfy him if you dont believe me feel my belly unless I made him stand there and put him into me Ive a mind to tell him every scrap and make him do it out in front of me serve him right its all his own fault if I am an adulteress as the thing in the gallery said O much about it if thats all the harm ever we did in this vale of tears God knows its not much doesnt everybody only they hide it I suppose thats what a woman is supposed to be there for or He wouldnt have made us the way He did so attractive to men then if he wants to kiss my bottom Ill drag open my drawers and bulge it right out in his face as large as life he can stick his tongue 7 miles up my hole as hes there my brown part then Ill tell him I want LI or perhaps 30/- Ill tell him I want to buy underclothes then if he gives me that well he wont be too bad I dont want to soak it all out of him like other women do I could often have written out a fine cheque for myself and write his name on it for a couple of pounds a few times he forgot to lock it up besides he wont spend it Ill let him do it off on me behind provided he doesnt smear all my good drawers O I suppose that cant be helped Ill do the indifferent l or 2 questions Ill know by the answers when hes like that he cant keep a thing back I know every turn in him Ill tighten my bottom well and let out a few smutty words smellrump or lick my sh*t or the first mad thing comes into my head then Ill suggest about yes O wait now sonny my turn is coming Ill be quite gay and friendly over it O but I was forgetting this bloody pest of a thing pfooh you wouldnt know which to laugh or cry were such a mixture of plum and apple no Ill have to wear the old things so much the better itll be more pointed hell never know whether he did it or not there thats good enough for you any old thing at all then Ill wipe him off me just like a business his omission then Ill go out Ill have him eying up at the ceiling where is she gone now make him want me thats the only way a quarter after what an unearthly hour I suppose theyre just getting up in China now combing out their pigtails for the day well soon have the nuns ringing the angelus theyve nobody coming in to spoil their sleep except an odd priest or two for his night office or the alarmclock next door at cockshout clattering the brains out of itself let me see if I can doze off 1 2 3 4 5 what kind of flowers are those they invented like the stars the wallpaper in Lombard street was much nicer the apron he gave me was like that something only I only wore it twice better lower this lamp and try again so as I can get up early Ill go to Lambes there beside Findlaters and get them to send us some flowers to put about the place in case he brings him home tomorrow today I mean no no Fridays an unlucky day first I want to do the place up someway the dust grows in it I think while Im asleep then we can have music and cigarettes I can accompany him first I must clean the keys of the piano with milk whatll I wear shall I wear a white rose or those fairy cakes in Liptons I love the smell of a rich big shop at 7 1/2d a lb or the other ones with the cherries in them and the pinky sugar I Id a couple of lbs of those a nice plant for the middle of the table Id get that cheaper in wait wheres this I saw them not long ago I love flowers Id love to have the whole place swimming in roses God of heaven theres nothing like nature the wild mountains then the sea and the waves rushing then the beautiful country with the fields of oats and wheat and all kinds of things and all the fine cattle going about that would do your heart good to see rivers and lakes and flowers all sorts of shapes and smells and colours springing up even out of the ditches primroses and violets nature it is as for them saying theres no God I wouldnt give a snap of my two fingers for all their learning why dont they go and create something I often asked him atheists or whatever they call themselves go and wash the cobbles off themselves first then they go howling for the priest and they dying and why why because theyre afraid of hell on account of their bad conscience ah yes I know them well who was the first person in the universe before there was anybody that made it all who ah that they dont know neither do I so there you are they might as well try to stop the sun from rising tomorrow the sun shines for you he said the day we were lying among the rhododendrons on Howth head in the grey tweed suit and his straw hat the day I got him to propose to me yes first I gave him the bit of seedcake out of my mouth and it was leapyear like now yes 16 years ago my God after that long kiss I near lost my breath yes he said I was a flower of the mountain yes so we are flowers all a womans body yes that was one true thing he said in his life and the sun shines for you today yes that was why I liked him because I saw he understood or felt what a woman is and I knew I could always get round him and I gave him all the pleasure I could leading him on till he asked me to say yes and I wouldnt answer first only looked out over the sea and the sky I was thinking of so many things he didnt know of Mulvey and Mr Stanhope and Hester and father and old captain Groves and the sailors playing all birds fly and I say stoop and washing up dishes they called it on the pier and the sentry in front of the governors house with the thing round his white helmet poor devil half roasted and the Spanish girls laughing in their shawls and their tall combs and the auctions in the morning the Greeks and the jews and the Arabs and the devil knows who else from all the ends of Europe and Duke street and the fowl market all clucking outside Larby Sharons and the poor donkeys slipping half asleep and the vague fellows in the cloaks asleep in the shade on the steps and the big wheels of the carts of the bulls and the old castle thousands of years old yes and those handsome Moors all in white and turbans like kings asking you to sit down in their little bit of a shop and Ronda with the old windows of the posadas 2 glancing eyes a lattice hid for her lover to kiss the iron and the wineshops half open at night and the castanets and the night we missed the boat at Algeciras the watchman going about serene with his lamp and O that awful deepdown torrent O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.


-Molly's Soliloquy, Ulysses, James Joyce.  Fourth-longest sentence I'm familiar with.  The one directly preceding it in Ulysses is only about 200 words shorter.

[furtwaengler]

And see here for the the largest known prime number. 

[lontano]

I sit corrected - I meant to write "the only other one" (especially in the context of having already drawn attention to RvH's première of no. 4!).
RvH doesn't give much away as to what he gets up to, but I'm assuming that he's putting his performance of the Tantrik together in his own time and, as we know that he can play no. 4, we should be entitled to expectations even if we do not yet know the dates on which they will be realised...

Best,

Alistair

As of mid-March 2010 there appears to be only an original ms of Symphony #4, and to my knowledge, the only recording of the work, by RvH, is the very good, live recording w/commentary that made its way around the net a couple of years ago. I'm asking if anyone knows just what edition of the score RvH used to prepare for this performance, and has he released any recording of Sym4 on CD, or have plans for future Sorabji projects, such as the Tantrik. I understand that some of these questions have been at least partially speculated or answered, and there may not be any news to report.

Presently I'm most interested in Opus Archimagicum, as the edited score being available, and recording will hopefully be released this year. As Soon as the (CD/DVD/BRay/etc) editions of Tellef Johnson's performance become available, I anticipate (hope!) the Sorabji Archive may be quite busy producing enough copies for distribution. I've decided to drop my health/property/auto  insurance so I can afford the complete package of OA.

On a more serious note, has anyone seen any evolution on www.opusarchimagicum.com in the last 2 months? I may be missing something...

L.

[minor9th]

Has Tellef Johnson announced a release date for his recording of O.A.?

[ahinton]

As of mid-March 2010 there appears to be only an original ms of Symphony #4, and to my knowledge, the only recording of the work, by RvH, is the very good, live recording w/commentary that made its way around the net a couple of years ago. I'm asking if anyone knows just what edition of the score RvH used to prepare for this performance, and has he released any recording of Sym4 on CD, or have plans for future Sorabji projects, such as the Tantrik. I understand that some of these questions have been at least partially speculated or answered, and there may not be any news to report.

RvH used a copy of the ms. that he had annotated heavily to make it more legible. No plans of which I am currently aware for release of a recording.

Presently I'm most interested in Opus Archimagicum, as the edited score being available, and recording will hopefully be released this year. As Soon as the (CD/DVD/BRay/etc) editions of Tellef Johnson's performance become available, I anticipate (hope!) the Sorabji Archive may be quite busy producing enough copies for distribution. I've decided to drop my health/property/auto  insurance so I can afford the complete package of OA.

We've not been asked to do this and I imagine that Tellef Johnson already has his own plans for what he proposes to do about this.

Best,

Alistair

[lontano]

We've not been asked to do this and I imagine that Tellef Johnson already has his own plans for what he proposes to do about this.

Actually I was simply making my own plans, primarily on a financial schedule, for investing in whatever Tellef releases, and then/when I can afford it, purchase the score (and maybe a tarot deck  ). As it seems no one yet is sure when Tellef's project will reach a purchasable state, I simply plan to buy whatever seems most appropriate to my needs. After that, should it be the logical next step, I would send in an order for the score. It's a very big project and making the financial embrace to have the entire work implies, for myself for certain, an expense I must make adjustments for.

Lontano

[lontano]

... O and the sea the sea crimson sometimes like fire and the glorious sunsets and the figtrees in the Alameda gardens yes and all the queer little streets and the pink and blue and yellow houses and the rosegardens and the jessamine and geraniums and cactuses and Gibraltar as a girl where I was a Flower of the mountain yes when I put the rose in my hair like the Andalusian girls used or shall I wear a red yes and how he kissed me under the Moorish wall and I thought well as well him as another and then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.


-Molly's Soliloquy, Ulysses, James Joyce.  Fourth-longest sentence I'm familiar with.  The one directly preceding it in Ulysses is only about 200 words shorter.

I wasn't quite certain until I got to the familiar last few lines (above). Have you ever considered setting this to music...........................................?

[djealnla]

So, how is Tellef Johnson doing? There have been no updates on his project for quite a while.   

[lontano]

So, how is Tellef Johnson doing? There have been no updates on his project for quite a while.   

Unfortunately there seems to be little evidence (to me) of people taking interest in viewing the "Sorabji Soiree" with excerpts streamed on June 25. I hope far more people than is evident to me watched this show. Here's a press release for anyone who hasn't seen it.
-----
K. SORABJI - SONATA V "OPUS ARCHIMAGICUM" SAMPLER
https://vimeo.com/12829441

"Tellef Johnson inaugurates his proposed "Sorabji Soiree" series of live streaming piano performances of music by legendary Parsi-English composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988) with this fifteen-minute sampler/teaser (in high-definition video) of Sorabji's PIANO SONATA V: OPUS ARCHIMAGICUM (1934-35).

OPUS ARCHIMAGICUM may be Sorabji's unheard masterpiece, for nowhere else in the composer's output can one find such a consistent and proportionate balance of form, contrast and variety within such a large-scale composition. The work's use of various mottos based on Bach, occultist Bernard Bromage, and the infamous Dies Irae plainchant (a theme that would interest Sorabji for decades and was prominently used in several of his works) help sew together a vast epic in three massive parts defined by a curiously unique and programmatic occult game plan: the Tarot and its Major and Minor Arcana, as well as the Grand High Sorcerer himself: the Arch-Mage. If there ever was a musical equivalent of Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, this piano behemoth may come close.

Housed in ten movements totaling six hours in duration, the sonata's large-scale symmetrical designs accommodate homages to Prokofiev, Ravel, Alkan, Godowsky, and Busoni while incorporating a mind-blowingly absurd virtuosity all Sorabji's own that predates the work of Art Tatum, Cecil Taylor, and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Tellef Johnson directs himself in a high-definition video film of his live, "work-in-progress" performance on a Fazioli F-308 grand piano, June 3, 2010."

[djealnla]

Unfortunately there seems to be little evidence (to me) of people taking interest in viewing the "Sorabji Soiree" with excerpts streamed on June 25. I hope far more people than is evident to me watched this show. Here's a press release for anyone who hasn't seen it.
-----
K. SORABJI - SONATA V "OPUS ARCHIMAGICUM" SAMPLER
https://vimeo.com/12829441

Actually, if you go to the bottom part of that link, you will see how many times the video has been played; it is, I should note, a depressingly low number.

[lontano]

Actually, if you go to the bottom part of that link, you will see how many times the video has been played; it is, I should note, a depressingly low number.

That is unfortunate. This was something I was really looking forward to this year but with that little apparent interest I fear the worst.

[djealnla]

Finally! I received this some 4 hours ago:

Greetings! We hope your summer has been excellent thus far.

We are writing to announce the Sorabji Soiree series's format and scheduled repertoire. All the Sorabji pieces to be performed by Tellef Johnson will fit into one of three overall categories: THE SYMPHONIC SORABJI, THE PEDAGOGICAL SORABJI and THE BAROQUE SORABJI, forming an overall triptych dubbed THE COMPLEAT SORABJI.

Various pieces will be streamed "live," some as soon as tomorrow, extending through the rest of the summer and onward. Some of the works include movements and/or excerpts from such unheard monoliths as the SECOND PIANO SYMPHONY (the most requested Sorabji work), TOCCATA NO. 4 and 100 TRANSCENDENTAL STUDIES, in addition to many more surprises on the way.

Please let anyone you know about this upcoming series in high-definition which can be accessed free as a member of the WWW.OPUSARCHIMAGICUM.COM mailing list.

All best,
THE TEAM AT WWW.OPUSARCHIMAGICUM.COM

I just hope "COMPLEAT" is a typo, for if not, it strikes me as a pretty scary mistake. Anyway, I'll take good playing over correct grammar in the case of a pianist performing Sorabji. 

[lontano]

Finally! I received this some 4 hours ago:

Greetings! We hope your summer has been excellent thus far.

We are writing to announce the Sorabji Soiree series's format and scheduled repertoire. All the Sorabji pieces to be performed by Tellef Johnson will fit into one of three overall categories: THE SYMPHONIC SORABJI, THE PEDAGOGICAL SORABJI and THE BAROQUE SORABJI, forming an overall triptych dubbed THE COMPLEAT SORABJI.

Various pieces will be streamed "live," some as soon as tomorrow, extending through the rest of the summer and onward. Some of the works include movements and/or excerpts from such unheard monoliths as the SECOND PIANO SYMPHONY (the most requested Sorabji work), TOCCATA NO. 4 and 100 TRANSCENDENTAL STUDIES, in addition to many more surprises on the way.

Please let anyone you know about this upcoming series in high-definition which can be accessed free as a member of the WWW.OPUSARCHIMAGICUM.COM mailing list.

All best,
THE TEAM AT WWW.OPUSARCHIMAGICUM.COM

I just hope "COMPLEAT" is a typo, for if not, it strikes me as a pretty scary mistake. Anyway, I'll take good playing over correct grammar in the case of a pianist performing Sorabji. 

In my experience as a librarian, etc "complete" is one of the more frequently misspelled words. Also, from what I've seen of Tellef Johnson's output I don't believe a spelling error would warrant worry in the final product. Now if we should see words or phrases spelled in reverse there might be something to keep an eye on... 

[djealnla]

Deleted

[djealnla]

For those of you who haven't yet subscribed, here is the newest episode:

https://vimeo.com/13865356

Password: [deleted] (Sorry, I forgot about that)

[gep]

For those of you who haven't yet subscribed, here is the newest episode:

https://vimeo.com/13865356

Password: sorabjisoiree50

I trust you either did not read or do not care for the sentence in Tellef's mail asking to keep this password private?

[retrouvailles]

I really hope that Tellef takes a bit more time to work on Opus Archimagicum, at least from when the sample recordings on the site were made. I was following along in the score and Tellef was missing a lot of notes. In his defense, though, it is a terribly difficult piece that far exceeds the OC, as far as I can tell from a brief look.

[gep]

I really hope that Tellef takes a bit more time to work on Opus Archimagicum, at least from when the sample recordings on the site were made. I was following along in the score and Tellef was missing a lot of notes. In his defense, though, it is a terribly difficult piece that far exceeds the OC, as far as I can tell from a brief look.

Please bear in mind that these videos are from a work in progress. They may have their shortcomings, but that may be expected in this stage, it is the final product that should be judged when that finally appears. I find these "getting there but not quite being there" clips and bits highly intriguing!
Kevin Bowyer's performances of the 2nd Organ Symphony may not have been perfect either (at least not to his standards!), but I loved every minute of his performance in Amsterdam (and mind you, there were well over 500 of those minutes!). Should he not have performed because he was not yet satisfied? Luckily he did perform! Likewise, I'm very happy with Tellef putting up those clips, even when they are not perfect yet, for they give a glimpse of the magnificence of the piece he's working on!

gep

[lostinidlewonder]

..... In his defense, though, it is a terribly difficult piece that far exceeds the OC, as far as I can tell from a brief look.

I would consider when we look at large scale works that difficulty of say OC compared to OA is negligible, there really is no difference because of the marathon. If this OA is harder than OC I would like to see examples of this, all of the snippets of OA I have seen do not come close to how difficult OC gets. OC imo also sounds a lot "nicer" than this OA. These short extracts of OA sounds quite uninteresting to my ears, compared to OC at least (I have listened to OC a lot more so there is probably bias). This OA is not really a masterpiece when I listen to it, maybe I have to listen to it more, the OC however I had to listen to it only a couple of times to appreciate it, this OA is somewhat very rambling and the developments are uninteresting to me (maybe other sections will sound better).

[djealnla]

I would consider when we look at large scale works that difficulty of say OC compared to OA is negligible, there really is no difference because of the marathon. If this OA is harder than OC I would like to see examples of this, all of the snippets of OA I have seen do not come close to how difficult OC gets. OC imo also sounds a lot "nicer" than this OA. These short extracts of OA sounds quite uninteresting to my ears, compared to OC at least (I have listened to OC a lot more so there is probably bias). This OA is not really a masterpiece when I listen to it, maybe I have to listen to it more, the OC however I had to listen to it only a couple of times to appreciate it, this OA is somewhat very rambling and the developments are uninteresting to me (maybe other sections will sound better).

Though I don't entirely agree with you, it's worth noting that at one point in his life Sorabji stated that he considers his greatest piano pieces to be the OC, the Sequentia Cyclica and Piano Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2. I'm not sure if he ever added anything into such a list later in his life, though.

[ahinton]

If we take a durational threshold of, say, 135 minutes as a guide, it is surely far too early to predict comparisons between Sorabji's various large-scale pieces in terms of their relative importance in his output and how they might be accepted by listeners when the only ones that have yet been performed in public are the first two organ symphonies, the fourth and fifth piano symphonies, the fourth piano sonata, Sequentia Cyclica and OC - just seven works of which only three have been released on CD and only three have received more than a single complete public performance in living memory. As to the comparative difficulty of performance, it is again premature to make pronouncements about this, not only because what may be "difficult" for one performer will inevitably be less so for another but also because so few players have actually performed these pieces to date; OC has had 5 performers, the fourth piano sonata only 2 and all the others only one each.

Best,

Alistair