Sorabji Resource Site (SRS)

References to Photographs of People and Places Connected with Sorabji

This page gives references to publications (including booklets accompanying recordings) in which photographs of people who belonged to Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji’s entourage (dedicatees and friends, critics, performers of the pre-1976 era, writers, correspondents, etc.) can be found. The page is divided as follows:

See also the biographical notes.

Often only one photograph is available in print. In the case of well-known composers or writers, only one major source is usually given. Links to websites or archival sources are usually given only when no other photograph is known to have been published.

A separate list at the bottom of the page gives the names of people for whom no photograph has yet been found. The author would be very grateful to be informed of any serendipitous discoveries. Unfortunately, im most cases, the likelihood of locating a photograph is very low. Due to copyright restrictions, it is not possible to reproduce the photographs found in the sources listed on this site; links to photographs available on the internet are provided in some cases. Additional photos can be easily found with Google Images. Links to the relevant pages on the website of the National Portrait Gallery (London) are provided for the items in their possession.

Wikipedia has a list of composers depicted on film, mentioning films about Frederick Delius and Philip Heseltine (cited in the relevant entries below).

Frequently cited sources

  • OB: Sean Vaughn Owen, “Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji: An Oral Biography” (PhD diss., University of Southampton, 2006 [c2008]). A list of illustrations appears on p. 6.
  • SCC: Paul Rapoport, ed., Sorabji: A Critical Celebration (Aldershot, Hampshire: Scolar Press [later Farnham, Surrey: Ashgate], 1992, 1994; now Abindgon, Oxforshire, and New York: Routledge). A list of illustrations appears on pp. xi-xii.

Photographs of fourteen people associated with Sorabji can be found in Portraits of the World’s Best-Known Musicians: An Alphabetical Collection of Notable Musical Personalities of the World Covering the Entire History of Music, ed. Guy McCoy (Philadelphia: Theodore Presser, 1946). Individuals for whom there is a separate entry below are indicated by a bullet () at the end of the entry.

  • Carl Engel (43)
  • Dinh Gilly (61); see Wikipedia
  • Ursula Greville (67)
  • Leigh Vaughan Henry (79)
  • Philip Heseltine (80)•
  • Arthur Eaglefield Hull (88); see a picture at Bardon Music
  • Luisa Kirkby Lunn (130)
  • William McNaught (129)
  • E. J. Moeran (133); see Geoffrey Self, The Music of E. J. Moeran (Toccata Classics, 1986)
  • Egon Petri (152)•
  • Ebenezer Prout (159); see Wikipedia
  • Percy Scholes (183); see Kenneth Shenton, “Everyman and His Music Percy Scholes (1877-1958)”
  • Almon Kincaid Virgil (219)
  • Christopher à Becket Williams (231)•

Copies of the Virgil Practice Clavier can be found in the following collections (the pages linked to contain photographs):

Another source of photographs is Jürgen Schaarwächter, Two Centuries of British Symphonism: From the Beginning to 1945, 2 vols. (Hildesheim, Zurich, and New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2015). See the list in 2: 1143-46 (page numbers are not given). The names with a connection to Sorabji are (in the order in which they are listed, with the illustration number in parentheses; those from no. 52 onwards are in vol. 2):

  • Ebenezer Prout (23)
  • Cyril Scott (31)
  • Edmund Rubbra (41, 63)
  • Christian Darnton (42)
  • Arnold Bax (43)
  • E. J. Moeran (45)
  • Erik Chisholm (46)
  • Bernard van Dieren (54)
  • Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (55)
  • Alan Bush (67)

See also section “Illustrations” (pp. 28-36) in Brian Inglis and Barry Smith, eds., Kaikhosru Sorabji’s Letters to Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) (London: Routledge, 2019).

The Sorabji Resource Site offers further references for photographs:

Dedicatees

Becket, Williams, Christopher à

Best, Reginald Norman: OB, 329 (fig. 18).

Bowen, York

Bromage, Bernard

Busoni, Ferruccio

Chisholm, Erik

Cortot, Alfred: Wikipedia Commons.

Davies, E. Emlyn: Cyfaill. “Ein Cerddorion, Rhif 151: Mr. E. Emlyn Davies, F.R.C.O., Rhosllanerchrugog [place of birth]”. Y Cerddor (April 1911): 38-39; 39.

De Solis, Aldo Solito

Delius, Frederick

Derus, Kenneth: <http://www.michaelhabermann.com/photos/o.toronto800202.gif> (second from right).

Ellis, Havelock

Ewing, Cecil Cameron: Obituary by Edward Ewing, The BMJ [British Medical Journal] 332, no. 7552 (27 May 2006): 1278.

Garvelmann, Donald M.

Gentieu, Norman

Habermann, Michael

Heseltine, Philip (Peter Warlock)

Hinton, Alistair

Holliday, Frank: SCC, 320. Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji Collection, The William Ready Division of Archives and Research Collections, McMaster University (Hamilton, Ontario), box 8, folder 32; box 15, folders 5 and 6.

Ireland, John

MacDiarmid, Hugh (real name: Christopher Murray Grieve)

Marchesi, Blanche

Madge, Geoffrey Douglas

McArden, Joy

Morland, Harold

Peterkin, Norman

Petri, Egon

Rapoport, Paul

Rowley, Alec: Beryl Kington,Rowley Rediscovered: The Life and Music of Alec Rowley (London: Thames Publishing, 1993), between pp. 64 and 65.

Rutland, Harold:

Saurat, Denis

Scott, Francis George

Simpson, Robert: Robert Simpson: Composer — Essays, Interviews, Recollections, edited by Jürgen Schaarwächter, Studien und Materialen zur Musikwissenschaft, vol. 74 (Hildesheim, Zurich, and New York: Georg Olms Verlag, 2013), 6 (photograph by Peter Musgrave).

Sitwell, Sir Sacherevell, 6th Baronet

Solomon, Yonty

Stevenson, Ronald

Vicars, Denise: Sean Vaughn Owen’s Facebook page Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (entry for 27 April 2014). Owen, who is standing next to Vicars, is the author of the dissertation “Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji: An Oral Biography” (University of Southampton, 2006).

Vicars, Mervyn: Mervyn Vicars, 20th century composer – a musical biography (click on “Photo Gallery”).

Worthy, Madeline Matilda (the composer’s mother)

Other People

Allan, Maud: Felix Cherniavsky, The Salome Dancer: The Life and Times of Maud Allan (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1991), between pp. 128-29 (also of Holford House and the West Wing’s music room where Sorabji played to Busoni).

Aprahamian, Felix

Blom, Eric Walter

Brian, Havergal: <http://www.havergalbrian.org/>.

Bush, Alan

Byngham, Dion (Harry J.)

Chisholm, Alastair

Cobbett, Walter Wilson: Painting (ca. 1920; 84 × 61 cm) by an unknown artist in the collection of the Royal College of Music, accession no. PPHC000268.

Coburn, Alvin Langdon

Coomaraswamy, Ananda Kentish: Wikipedia Commons (photograph by Alvin Langdon Coburn).

Crowley, Aleister: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley>.

Darnton, Christian: Five portraits by Howard Coster in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

<http://www.darnton.net/christian-darnton>.

Davie, Cedric Thorpe: Cedric Thorpe Davie (1913-1983): Catalogue of Works and Index to Correspondence (St. Andrews: University Library, 1988), cover.

Dieren, Bernard van

Douglas, Norman

Ewing, Cecil

Gates, John: Harold C. Schonberg, “Music: Pianistic Exotica — John Gates Performs at Carnegie Hall”. The New York Times, 21 October 1966: 37. (The article can be downloaded for a fee on the newspaper’s website; it can also be downloaded by subscribers through ProQuest Historical Newspapers.)

Gervais, Terence White: Booklet for the Altarus AIR-CD-9063 (2) recording entitled “In Memoriam John Ogdon, 1937-1989” (with Ronald Stevenson and John Ogdon).

Godowsky, Leopold

Grace, Harvey

Gray, Cecil: Barry Smith, Peter Warlock: The Life of Philip Heseltine (London: Oxford University Press, 1994), between pp. 174 and 175 (pl. 19).

Hart House String Quartet: Mária Kresz and Péter Király, The Violinist and Pianist Géza de Kresz and Norah Drewett: Their Life and Music on Two Continents, Including Parts of Norah Drewett’s Memoirs (Toronto: Canadian Stage and Arts Publication, 1989), 71, 80, 81, 188, 189 (Norah Drewett); 112, 113 (Hart House String Quartet).

Howard, Paul

James, Montague Rhodes

Kindler, Frieda: Portait (charcoal) by Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959). Sold for £720 by Bonhams (London), 11 November 2009 (lot 124). The first name is given as “Freda” in the citation.

Mairet, Philippe Auguste

Medtner, Nicolas

Moeran, E. J.: Barry Smith, Peter Warlock: The Life of Philip Heseltine (London: Oxford University Press, 1994), between pp. 174 and 175 (pl. 23).

Newman, Ernest

Nichols, Robert Malise Bowyer

Ogdon, John

Orage, Alfred Richard

Ould, Barry Peter: SCC, 447.

Quilter, Roger

Rovaart, M. C. [Marinus Cornelis] van de: Portrait as a conductor on the website of the Gemeente Amsterdam Stadsarchief.

Rubbra, Edmund:

Sadero, Geni: poster (1917-18) in the Civica Raccolta delle Stampe Achille Bertarelli (Civico Museo Revotella, Trieste), no. A 295. The following may be relevant: Alba Noella Picotti, Geni Sadero e le canzoni nate dalla terra profonda: Conferenza-concerto (Programma di sala, Istituto giuliano di storia, cultura e documentazione, 1996), Civico Museo Teatrale Carlo Schmidl (Trieste), T 44012, SCH MC 3996.

Scholes, Percy Alfred

Selver, Percy Paul: Wikipedia.

Sitwell, Sir Francis Osbert Sacheverell

Slonimsky, Nicolas: Nicolas Slonimsky, Perfect Pitch: An Autobiography, ed. Electra Slonimsky Yourke (New York, London: Schirmer Trade Books, 2002), between pp. 120 and 121.

Solomon, Neil:Neil Solomon: Renowned Pianist, Composer and Teacher”, Sunday Times (South Africa), 1 February 2015.

Sorabji, Shapurji (the composer’s father)

Spare, Austin Osman: <https://fulgur.co.uk/austin-osman-spare/?v=3e8d115eb4b3>.

St Hill, Katherine: Anthony Writer, Jyotisha Bharati, and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Scientific Palmistry (Part IV)—​Ridge Patterns, Medical Palmistry, etc. (no publisher information; 2004, updated 2017), 28.

Thiman, Eric: Felix Aprahamian, Diaries and Selected Writings on Music, edited by Lewis and Susan Foreman (Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, 2015), pl. 25 (between pp. 174 and 175).

Tobin, John: The Music Teacher 15, no. 3 (March 1936): 187 (advertisement).

Toussaint, Franz: <http://ratatoulha.chez-alice.fr/francais/toussaintfranz.html>.

Viñes, Ricardo

Walton, William

Winstanley, Harry: Three photographs on two pages (1, 2) of the New International Godowsky Society’s website,

Places

Cathedral of Saint-Bertrand-de-Comminges {Google Maps}

Holford House: Holford House (destroyed in 1944) {Google Maps} was the palatial home in the “West Wing” of which the dancer Maud Allan (1883-1956) resided and where Busoni played for Ferruccio Busoni in November 1919. See also Felix Cherniavsky, The Salome Dancer: The Life and Times of Maud Allan (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1991), between pp. 128 and 129 (quoted in the entry for Maud Allan).

Old Saddlery: The Old Saddlery, located at 43 East Street, Corfe Castle {Google Maps}, was the shop of W. E. Ottaway, the local saddler whom Sorabji admired for his love of books and about whom he wrote an undated unpublished tribute (1960s?). The eighteenth-century rubble-stone walled house, formerly known as Ottaway’s Pottery Shop and Adjoining House is a Grade II listed building, is described on the Historic England website under number 1228974.

Sanatorium Groedel: Sorabji’s father underwent a number of cures at the then prestigious sanatorium in Bad Neuheim, then located in an Art Nouveau building on Terrassenstrasse 2-4 {Google Maps}. Photographs, especially on old postcards, can be found on Google Images.

Villa Tasca {Google Maps}

People for Whom No Photograph Is Known

Dedicatees

Ashworth, Edward Clarke
Brittain, Richard Henry
Burton-Page, Anthony
Cooper, H. James
Davey, Frank G.
Edroff-Smith, Emily
Gray-Fisk, Clinton
Jenkins, Theodore
Marrot, Harold Vincent
Nason, Edward
Procter, Robert William
Richards, George E.
Spencer-Bentley, Clive
Trew, Charles A. (Abraham)
Vicars, Adrian and Kevin {see also the entries for Mervyn and Denise}
Welsh, Henry

Other People

Branson, David
Browne, Arthur G.
Collins, A. J. (Alfred James)
Datch, (Frederick) George Bethell {Datch played the part of the Host of Southwark, Harry Bailly, in I racconti di Canterbury (1972), Pier Paolo Pasolini’s film based on Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. The relevant passages are found on the VHS tape released as Water Bearer Films ISP 8003 at 6:20-7:37, 01:26:00-01:32:34, and 01:39:00.}
Grew, Sydney
Guercio, Francis M. (Michael)
Hill, Ralph
Katz, Maurice
Lees, Aubrey
Lightly, Henry
Lorenz, Robert
Malloch, George Reston
Martine (née Boutte), Marthe
Osterreid, Ludmille
Ottaway, Walter E. {but see Places}
Ross, George Alexander
Woodhouse, George

Last modified: 2024-12-16
© Marc-André Roberge 2024
Sorabji Resource Site (SRS)
Faculté de musique, Université Laval, Québec

The contents of this website dedicated to the English composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji may be freely used for documentary purposes in a research context, provided that due credit is given, but may not be mirrored on any other server. Links to external or third-party websites are not guaranteed to be or remain valid or persistent and their content is not guaranteed to be or remain accurate or appropriate.

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