SORABJI: So difficult? So expensive? Let's see!

[ahinton]

Much has been made of the length, difficulty, complexity and cost of Sorabji's piano works, yet since the days when we began to make it all available for purchase, more than two-thirds of them have been commercially recorded or broadcast or performed in public in at least two dozen countries.

Let's have a look at these in some more detail and expose the myths about all of this.


Difficulty of performance
Whilst few of Sorabji’s piano works lack any challenges for the performer, there are quite a few that do not necessarily require a super-virtuoso or vast amounts of preparation time.

The Fantaisie Espagnole has been mentioned in the Audition Room section of late and, whilst it’s hardly a walk in the park, it’s fair to say that any pianist capable of playing this could manage a fair number of Sorabji's other works, so let’s consider what's on the menu.


Difficulty is subjective, of course - and any attempt to "grade" Sorabji's works in terms of that will inevitably be pretty much a personal viewpoint but, in the most general terms, the easiest pieces, in chronological order of composition, are:

Quasi Habanera
Désir Éperdu
Two Pieces: In the Hothouse & Toccata
Trois Pastiches (no. 3)
Fragment (Prelude and Fugue)
Fragment (for Harold Rutland)
Some of the 100 Transcendental Studies
Fantasiettina
The three sets of Frammenti Aforistici (respectively, 20, 104 and 4)
Variazione Maliziosa e Perversa sopra La Morte d'Åse da Grieg
Passeggiata Variata
2 Sutras sul Nome dell'amico Alexis


On the next level of difficulty, there are :

Sonata No. "0"
Fantaisie Espagnole
Sonata No. 1
Prelude Interlude and Fugue
Trois Pastiches (nos. 1 & 2)
Le Jardin Parfumé
Valse-Fantaisie
Djami
Toccatinetta sopra C. G. F.
Pasticcio Capriccioso
Bach Chromatic Fantasia transcription
Quaere Reliqua Hujus Materiei inter Secretiora
St. Bertrand de Comminges
More of the 100 Transcendental Studies
Bach Prelude in E flat transcription
Passeggiata Arlecchinesca

All of the above adds up to at least 6½ hours’ worth of music and the pieces listed play from less than one minute up to not much more than 20 minutes.

Passeggiata Veneziana, Un Nido di Scatole and Rosario d’Arabeschi from the 1950s are not so much more difficult than the hardest of the above but do contain some purple passages, notably the Tarantella sections of the first two of these; add in yet more of the harder numbers from the 100 Transcendental Studies and the total duration tally rises closer to 9 hours.


Next up might be:

Sonata No. 2
Toccata No. 1
Fantasia Ispanica
Gulistān
Some more of the 100 Transcendental Studies
Villa Tasca
Opus Secretum

We’re at some 15 hours now. None of the works so far listed is too long to be played as one half of a conventional length recital.

I’ve left out the two Ravel Rapsodie Espagnole transcriptions from this survey as, whilst most of these are only of moderate difficulty, there are some passages in the final movement that are – most unusually for Sorabji – quite clearly impossible of execution at the speeds called for in Ravel's original.

That admittedly leaves the hardest of the 100 Transcendental Studies and 20 more works that really do call for the utmost in technical skill and mental and physical stamina, but there’s clearly plenty of music by Sorabji that doesn’t.


Cost of acquisition of scores

Now that every Sorabji score is available in .pdf format, all of those named in the above lists (i.e. excluding those last 20) can be obtained electronically for either £5 or £10 each, except individual numbers from the 100 Transcendental Studies which we’re not yet able to offer separately in .pdf format (although they can be supplied separately in paper format).


Summary

Clearly, the still widely perceived problems of difficulty and cost of acquisition are nothing like as great as some people seem to think is the case! I hope that the above clears up some misconceptions once and for all!

More information can be obtained from The Sorabji Archive website at www.sorabji-archive.co.uk and from us via email at sorabji-archive@lineone.net.

Best,

Alistair

[davidjosepha]

I was unaware Sorabji had pieces of only a minute in length. Suddenly, he is much more appealing. A few questions:

1. Is there any advantage to ordering the scores in print from the Sorabji Archive rather than ordering via pdf and printing them myself? Do you print them on better quality paper, for instance, or have a printer with crisper print than the average home printer? Any time I try to learn a piece from sheets I printed off the internet, I'm disappointed with the quality and find it distracting while playing.

2. I'm interested in "Fragment (Prelude and Fugue)". How much of a "fragment" is it? Is it something that could, in some form, be played as a piece, or is it incomplete enough that its only use is academic?

3. Do you have any recommendations (or "personal favorites") from the first category of difficulty you listed that are 3 minutes or under? I see "KSS93 Variazione Maliziosa e Perversa sopra La Morte d'Åse da Grieg" was dedicated to you, is that a good choice?

Thanks for doing this, quite informative and helpful.

[ahinton]

I was unaware Sorabji had pieces of only a minute in length. Suddenly, he is much more appealing. A few questions:

1. Is there any advantage to ordering the scores in print from the Sorabji Archive rather than ordering via pdf and printing them myself? Do you print them on better quality paper, for instance, or have a printer with crisper print than the average home printer? Any time I try to learn a piece from sheets I printed off the internet, I'm disappointed with the quality and find it distracting while playing.

2. I'm interested in "Fragment (Prelude and Fugue)". How much of a "fragment" is it? Is it something that could, in some form, be played as a piece, or is it incomplete enough that its only use is academic?

3. Do you have any recommendations (or "personal favorites") from the first category of difficulty you listed that are 3 minutes or under? I see "KSS93 Variazione Maliziosa e Perversa sopra La Morte d'Åse da Grieg" was dedicated to you, is that a good choice?

Thanks for doing this, quite informative and helpful.

We have always printed this material on a photocopier which is a multi-function scan/copy/print machine; the quality is pretty decent and we've had no complaints so far! The legibility of the copy mss. can sometimes be something of an issue, but that's not down to print quality. For those who wish to print off .pdf files that we send, much will depend on the quality of the printer used by the purchaser; however, if what you have isn't all that great, you could always copy the file onto a CD and take it to a print shop to have it done for you on a higher quality machine, although I appreciate that this might not be so convenient.

The piece about which you ask has recently been edited and typeset by Frazer Jarvis, one of the Sorabji Archive webmasters; if you care to send an email to me at sorabji-archive@lineone.net I can send you a copy of it for you to see how it comes out.

As to "personal favourites" among those pieces in the first list, I'm inclined to nominate Quasi Habanera, Désir Éperdu, In the Hothouse, Trois Pastiches (no. 3), Fragment (for Harold Rutland), Fantasiettina, 20 Frammenti Aforistici, Variazione Maliziosa e Perversa sopra La Morte d'Åse da Grieg and Passeggiata Variata as well as some of the studies (athough I don't have time right now to go through all 100 of these to pick some out for you!); these are all available in typeset editions as .pdf files except Fantasiettina which is published by Bardic Edition and available only as a hard copy publication. Of these, In the Hothouse, the third Pastiche and the 20 Frammenti Aforistici are a little more than just 3 minutes apiece but not much more than this.

Best,

Alistair

[davidjosepha]

you could always copy the file onto a CD and take it to a print shop to have it done for you on a higher quality machine, although I appreciate that this might not be so convenient.

This is actually a very good solution! There are a couple such shops in my city I could go to, and my college has some very nice printing equipment I'll have access to when I go back this fall with my job at the college.

The piece about which you ask has recently been edited and typeset by Frazer Jarvis, one of the Sorabji Archive webmasters; if you care to send an email to me at sorabji-archive@lineone.net I can send you a copy of it for you to see how it comes out.

As to "personal favourites" among those pieces in the first list, I'm inclined to nominate Quasi Habanera, Désir Éperdu, In the Hothouse, Trois Pastiches (no. 3), Fragment (for Harold Rutland), Fantasiettina, 20 Frammenti Aforistici, Variazione Maliziosa e Perversa sopra La Morte d'Åse da Grieg and Passeggiata Variata as well as some of the studies (athough I don't have time right now to go through all 100 of these to pick some out for you!); these are all available in typeset editions as .pdf files except Fantasiettina which is published by Bardic Edition and available only as a hard copy publication. Of these, In the Hothouse, the third Pastiche and the 20 Frammenti Aforistici are a little more than just 3 minutes apiece but not much more than this.

Thank you for the help. I've decided on the Two Piano Pieces KSS17.

[ahinton]

This is actually a very good solution! There are a couple such shops in my city I could go to, and my college has some very nice printing equipment I'll have access to when I go back this fall with my job at the college.

Thank you for the help. I've decided on the Two Piano Pieces KSS17.

You're welcome.

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Most informative, but if one wants to perform Sorabji in concert or post recordings on you tube, does one need your permission to do so??

Thal

[ahinton]

Most informative, but if one wants to perform Sorabji in concert or post recordings on you tube, does one need your permission to do so??

For public performances, no such permission is needed (one assumes that the venues in which such performances may take place will do what's expected of them); with regard to YouTube and such like, we prefer that permission is first sought and it will invariably be granted as long as what's posted there is (a) not part of a commercially available CD (unless the permission of the record company concerned has been obtained first) and (b) not an entire piece. We at The Sorabji Archive welcome extracts of items (scores and recordings) being put up on the internet, provided that our permission is first sought; it's only when entire pieces (either as scores or commercial recordings or both) are put up without our having first been asked and without any permission hs been sought from the relevant record companies that we raise objections; we are, after, here to promote and disseminate Sorabji's music, not to restrict access to it! The whole purpose of The Sorabji Archive and the reason for its foundation was to make the composer's music as easily available as possible though, now that it is so, we do not appreciate abuse of this availability, as I am sure that you and others will well understand; we can't do it all for nothing!

Best,

Alistair

[thalbergmad]

Thanks for that.

If I wanted to arrange Gulistan for 8 banjos, would I need your permission for that.

Thal

[ahinton]

Thanks for that.

If I wanted to arrange Gulistan for 8 banjos, would I need your permission for that.

No; you would only need my categorical written refusal - and you may take this post as such!

Don't worry; I did not think for one moment that you would or indeed could do this - and, in any case, the tally of 8 seems quite arbitrary...

Best,

Alistair

[vladimir_gouldowsky]

When will Sorabji's works enter the public domain in Canada?

[ahinton]

When will Sorabji's works enter the public domain in Canada?

I am no expert on Canada from the copyright standpoint (although SOCAN would surely be able to tell you about this should you ask) but, since the 70-year rule has over some years become considerably more widespread and looks set to continue to attract yet greater adherence, it might be as well to make the assumption that it will apply in Canada if it doesn't already (which for all I know it may do), in which case the answer to your question would be 1 January 2059.

Best,

Alistair

[JCarey]

Excellent thread Alistair! I think many people here will appreciate the fact that you ranked Sorabji's less-than-superhuman pieces into categorical levels of difficulty, and I completely agree with your decisions. I think quite a few pianists take a look at Sorabji's scores, maybe even attempt to sight-read them, and assume they are many times as difficult as they are. I have always found Sorabji's music to be much more logical and pianistic than I originally assumed they were (even the infamous works like OC). Having learned Fantaisie Espagnole and a good portion of the 1st sonata, I have found that the music really does "fit under the hands" in a way that a glance at the score would never indicate.

Thank you for the help. I've decided on the Two Piano Pieces KSS17.

Great choice! The first of these pieces, "In the Hothouse," is an absolutely wonderful introduction to Sorabji's "tropical nocturne" genre, and is very playable. I highly recommend playing this work in a competition, because the judges (who are not likely to be familiar with the piece) will look at the score and conclude that it is much harder than it is. The toccata, on the other hand, is in a different league of difficulty than "In the Hothouse," but it is a dazzling piece to perform and is also, despite being quite challenging, not as hard as it looks.