the music of K.S. Sorabji

[ahinton]

Aha! This is excellent news indeed! I checked it yesterday but it must've been re-activated after that. Woohoo! Thanks Alistair for letting me know

You are very welcome!

Best,

Alistair

[sordel]

One of the interesting things to me about Sorabji's music, which I have been listening to for about twenty years, is that we are seeing it so gradually and patiently exposed to view, rather like the faces on Mount Rushmore.

When I started listening to Sorabji there was only really Ogdon's Opus Clavicembalisticum on CD, which is not a particularly good starting point for a new listener. There were some short works, including those Altarus "single-work" discs, and the Organ Symphony No. 1 (which, personally, I still find incomprehensible today) but it took years for it to become clear that there were depths of fine works in Sorabji's ouevre other than O. C.

The idea that we would need a full performance of O. C. in order to persuade a skeptic is now absurd. We have Toccata No. 1 or the Concerto Per Suonare Da Me Solo (both single-disc works), as examples of substantial works of moderate length. We also have short works; if a new listener cannot be persuaded to sit through more than three or four well-chosen examples of the Transcendental Studies, then perhaps Sorabji is not for that listener. The length of the works is therefore no longer an insurmountable obstacle to appreciating Sorabji. (It's also probably true that we should stop vaunting the length - or underperformed status - of Sorabji's works as though that were, in itself, a merit!)

I understand that some of hostility to Sorabji in this thread - and to Finnissy in the thread on the most difficult piano piece - is a knee-jerk reaction to the supposed elitism of these composers (or, more properly, the elitism of their fans) but surely we are at a point now where Sorabji can be considered objectively alongside other composers, rather than regarded as as some arcane extreme.

[ahinton]

One of the interesting things to me about Sorabji's music, which I have been listening to for about twenty years, is that we are seeing it so gradually and patiently exposed to view, rather like the faces on Mount Rushmore.

When I started listening to Sorabji there was only really Ogdon's Opus Clavicembalisticum on CD, which is not a particularly good starting point for a new listener. There were some short works, including those Altarus "single-work" discs, and the Organ Symphony No. 1 (which, personally, I still find incomprehensible today) but it took years for it to become clear that there were depths of fine works in Sorabji's ouevre other than O. C.

The idea that we would need a full performance of O. C. in order to persuade a skeptic is now absurd. We have Toccata No. 1 or the Concerto Per Suonare Da Me Solo (both single-disc works), as examples of substantial works of moderate length. We also have short works; if a new listener cannot be persuaded to sit through more than three or four well-chosen examples of the Transcendental Studies, then perhaps Sorabji is not for that listener. The length of the works is therefore no longer an insurmountable obstacle to appreciating Sorabji. (It's also probably true that we should stop vaunting the length - or underperformed status - of Sorabji's works as though that were, in itself, a merit!)

I understand that some of hostility to Sorabji in this thread - and to Finnissy in the thread on the most difficult piano piece - is a knee-jerk reaction to the supposed elitism of these composers (or, more properly, the elitism of their fans) but surely we are at a point now where Sorabji can be considered objectively alongside other composers, rather than regarded as as some arcane extreme.

Of course we are. To fill in a few other historical details - 35 years ago, there were almost no live performances, commercial recordings, broadcasts or new editions of Sorabji's scores, no published literature about him and his work, the very few published scores in existence were all of works dating from at least 45 years earlier and it was almost impossible to obtain any of his scores other than those publications; since those days, there have been performances and/or broadcasts of more than half of his 100+ pieces, from very short ones up to Sequentia Cyclica and Organ Symphony No. 2, in more than 20 countries, well over 30 recordings of his music have been issuewd, may of which remain available today, there are now quite a few new editions of his scores, most of them in typeset form and every known note that he wrote and every known item of his published literature is now available to all. So, whilst it would have been far more problematic to be able to consider him "objectively alongside other composers" up to the mid-1970s or thereabouts,, all that has happened since then has gradually made this possible. There's still a long way to go, to be sure, but Sorabji's reputation is already assured.

Best,

Alistair

[djealnla]

I'm sorry. I really didn't know where to put this query. I'm new to Piano Street but was a member of the Sorabji Archive forum before it got a virus and so I'm here instead now. A quick question (and perhaps you could answer this one for me Alistair): is there any way of sending a private message to Dr. Simon Abrahams, Sorabji editor extraordinaire? Perhaps he's a member of this forum, in which case could he make himself known in a PM? Many thanks

https://www.pianostreet.com/smf/index.php?action=profile;u=16487