Contents of Around Music and Mi contra fa

Around Music

Publication data: London: The Unicorn Press, 1932; reprint, Westport, Conn.: Hyperion Press, 1979. 250 pp. A liquidator was appointed on 9 December 1938 according to the London Gazette fpr 9 December 1938; the name was removed from the Register on 18 July 1969, again according to the London Gazette for 18 July 1969. In the (now unavailable) reprint (published during the composer’s lifetime but without his permission or even knowledge), p. 85 is reproduced on the verso of p. 86, and p. 86 is missing. Hyperion Press no longer exists, and Hyperion Books (New York) is a different publisher, founded in 1991.

Dimensions: 250 × 163 mm (9 7/8″ × 6 13/32″) for the original edition; 217 × 143 mm (8 1/2″ × 5 5/8″) for the reprint.

Pagination: The first page with print on it (half-title) is p. [i] and the first page with a folio is p. vii (“Order of Contents”). The Roman numerals presumably continue until the beginning of the first essay (p. 17), where the numbering changes to Arabic.

Binding and spine: The original edition is bound in coarse-grained beige cloth with a gold-stamped Unicorn in the lower-right corner. The upper part of the spine has a darker brown vertical suedette rectangle surrounded by a gold rule with “AROUND MUSIC / [dash] / SORABJI / [star] / UNICORN PRESS” written across in gold letters. The reprint is bound in golden brown varnished cloth, with black lettering on the spine, reading vertically “[lyre] / AROUND MUSIC / Sorabji / [Hyperion Press logo]”. At the bottom of the title page there is another logo, showing the Titan in a chariot drawn by four horses.

Dust jacket: There is no dust jacket.

Annotated copies: The Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji Collection at McMaster University has a photocopy of the published book in brown paper wrapper with an inscription to the author by Alistair Hinton, dated [21 August] 1972, containing handwritten corrections and additions by the author. Hinton’s note reads: “Copy to KSS on that date, but the author’s handwritten corrections come not from it but from 2 originals — one presented by K to RNB [Reginald Norman Best] on 18 January 1964, the other acquired by K since I presented him with the photocopy and which K presented to me ‘As a commemoration of that supermemorable day[,] March 23, 1976’” (both copies now in the Archive).

Layout: The following table shows the detailed layout of the pages. Under “Initial Page”, the page number after the comma applies to the reprint.

Chapter Number	Previous Publ.	Title or Section	Initial Page	Final Page	Pages (N)
Chapter Number	Previous Publ.	Title or Section	Initial Page	Final Page	Pages (N)
		[Half-title]	i•	i•
		[Blank page]	ii•	ii•
		[Title page] AROUND MUSIC	iii•	iii•
		[Copyright page]	iv•	iv•
		[Dedication] {In the reprint, the dedication is reproduced on the new copyright page.} To my Friend / ROBERT LORENZ	v•	v•
		[Blank page]	vi•	vi•
		Order of Contents	vii•	viii•	2
		Foreword by A. R. Orage	ix•	xii•	3
		Praeludium Acknowledgements by the author, signed “Kaikhosru Sorabji”, who writes: “I desire to express my indebtedness to my very dear friend Bernard Bromage for his kindness in seeing this book through the press in my unavoidable absence.”	xiii•	xiii•
		[Blank page]	xiv•	xiv•
		Around Music Followed by a quotation of the passage “And what the people but a herd confused” ... “Of whom to be dispraised were no small praise” from chapter 3 of Paradise Regained (1671) by John Milton (1608-74)	xv•	xv•
		[Blank page]	xvi•	xvi•
I		Composers and the Recognition of Contemporaries	17	20	4
II	•	Busoni Originally published as “The Death of Busoni”, The New Age 35, no. 16 (14 August 1924): 189. Italian translation by Mara Luzzatto in Ferruccio Busoni e il pianoforte del Novecento: convegno internazionale di studi (Centro Studi Musicali Ferruccio Busoni, Empoli, Convento degli Agostiniani, 12-14 novembre 1999; Quaderni di Music/Realtà, no. 30), ed. Marco Vincenzi (Lucca: Libreria Musicale Italiana, 2001), 321-28. The section discussing the Fantasia contrappuntistica is quoted in Marco Vincenzi, “Fantasia contrappuntistica: Höhepunkt und Modell der polyphonen Klaviermusik vor und nach Busoni”, in Albrecht Riethmüller and Hyesu Shin, eds., Busoni in Berlin: Facetten eines kosmopolitischen Komponisten (Wiesbaden: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2004), 89-106; 101-2.	21	30	10
III	•	Opera in the Vernacular Preliminary version published in The New Age 35, no. 12 (17 July 1924): 140-41.	31	37	7
IV	•	Animadversions on Singing in General, with Remarks on the Misuse of the Term ‘Coloratura’ 1. Singing in General [pp. 38-46]. Originally published as “Some Animadversions on Singing in General and Operatic Singing in Particular”, MILO [Magazine of the Imperial League of Opera] 1, no. 1 (October 1929): 19-23. 2. On the Misuse of the Term ‘Coloratura’ [pp. 47-51]. For an earlier treatment of the topic of the second part, see “Music”, The New Age 36, no. 13 (22 January 1925): 150.	38	51	14
V		The Modern Piano Sonata	52	65	14
VI	•	The Modern Piano Concerto Preliminary version as “The Piano Concerto in Contemporary Music”, Musical News and Herald 48, no. 1733 (13 June 1925): 562-64.	66	77	12
VII	•	The Decline of the Public Concert with Some Reflections on the Concert Problem Preliminary version as “The Decline of the Public Concert”, The New Age 39, no. 10 (8 July 1926): 110; no. 11 (15 July 1926): 121-22.	78	91	14
VIII		The Voice in Contemporary Composition	92	98	7
IX	•	On Neglected Works Originally published in The Musical Times 65, no. 972 (1 February 1924): 127-29.	99	106	8
X		Attitudes of Mind Towards Music	107	111	5
XI		Musical Appreciation	112	114	2
XII	•	Of Simplicity Originally published as “Simplicity from Around Music: XII. — Of Simplicity”, The Scottish Musical Magazine 12, no. 2 (December 1930): 28-29 (in the same issue as Erik Chisholm’s programme notes for the first performance of Opus clavicembalisticum)	115	119	5
XIII		Towards an Ideal Opera House with Some Remarks on Opera	120	126	7
XIV		The Judgment of Posterity	127	128	2
XV		Fashions in Piano ‘Methods’ with Animadversions on ‘the beautiful tone’ Fetish	129	131	3
XVI	•	Medtner Reprinted as “The Greatness of Medtner”, in Nicolas Medtner (1879 [i.e. 1880]-1951): A Tribute to His Art and Personality, ed. Richard Holt (London: Dennis Dobson, 1955), 122-32.	132	137	7
XVII		Against Women Instrumentalists	138	141	4
XVIII		‘Although no longer in the fashion’, with Some Reflections on Modern French Music	142	146	5
XIX		Oriental Atmosphere	147	151	5
XX		An Enquiry into the Claim That the Public Taste in Music Has Improved	152	158	7
XXI		The Singing and Playing of Bach	159	163	5
XXII		The Contralto, the Gallon-Jug and Other Like Matters	164	166	3
XXIII		On the Value of Professional Criticism	167	171	6
XXIV		Gesture and Action in the Wagner Music Dramas	172	175	4
XXV		Pachmann and Chopin	176	177	2
XXVI	•	Notes of the Symphonies of Mahler Preliminary version as “Mahler and English Audiences”, Musical Mirror and Fanfare 12, no. 5 (May-June 1932): 124-25.	178	193	16
XXVII		The Opera Fantasies of Liszt	194	197	4
XXVIII		‘Performance’ versus ‘Celebration’	198	200	3
XXIX		Against Italian Opera Singers	201	205	5
XXX	•	Towards a New Keyboard Instrument of the Piano Type Preliminary version as “Towards a New Piano”, Musical News and Herald 47, no. 1694 (13 September 1924): 216-17. Reprinted as “Towards a New Piano” as part of Douglas R. Carrington, “The Klavins Piano”, The Organ 70, no. 278 (Autumn 1991): 199-204; 200-203.	206	212	7
XXXI		Charles Henri Victorin Morhange (Alkan) [recte Charles Valentin Alkan] Translated into French by François Luguenot, with an introduction and notes, in Bulletin de la Société Alkan, no. 44 (March 1999): 7-11. Reprinted in Alkan Society Bulletin, no. 87 (August 2012): 5-8.	213	219	7
XXXII		The Organ Works of Reger	220	226	7
XXXIII	•	Music and Sex Technically not previously published, but based on “A Short Paper on Music and Sex”, in The Fruits of Misanthropy, being The Animadversions of a Machiavellian, item no. 111 (orig. no. CXII); annotated edition by Marc-André Roberge of the manuscript in the Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji Collection, McMaster University (forthcoming). Sorabji also wrote an unpublished and undated essay entitled “Addition to the Chapter ‘Music and Sex’”, written after 1945, and most probably between 1953 and 1957; annotated edition by Marc-André Roberge of the manuscript in the Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji Collection, McMaster University (forthcoming).	227	231	5
XXXIV	•	The Operatic Situation Previously published in The New English Weekly 1, no. 4 (12 May 1932): 91-92; no. 5 (19 May 1932): 118-19.	232	242	11
		Postludium[:] ‘The Good, the Beautiful, the True’	243	244	2
		Index [half-title and blank verso]	245•	246•
		Index	247	250

Mi contra fa: The Immoralisings of a Machiavellian Musician

Publication data: London: Porcupine Press, 1947; reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1986. 247 pp. The original publisher’s address is given on p. [6] as well as on the back flap of the dust jacket, where it also reads: “Trade Distributors: Paul Elek Publishers Ltd / 38 Hatton Garden, E.C.1 / (Catalogue No. 500/9)”. A liquidator was appointed on 14 January 1953 according to the London Gazette of 27 January 1953. The address of the publisher of the reprint is given on the copyright page: Da Capo Press, Inc. [sold in 1999 to the Perseus Books Group, part of the Hachette Book Group since 2016], 233 Spring Street, New York, N.Y. 10013. This reprint is no longer available.

Dimensions: 224 × 147 mm (8 1/2″ × 5 1/2″), for both the original edition and the reprint.

Proof copy: A proof copy, now in a private collection, comes with light brown plain wrappers, of which the cover has a pasted whitish rectangle reading “MI CONTRA FA [horizontal line] THE PORCUPINE PRESS”. There are some corrections by the proofreader as well as vignettes loosely cut out and pasted at the end of the chapters (often not the same as those found in the published edition).

Binding and spine: The original edition is bound in pale green cloth, with “MI contra FA [horizontal gruppetto] Sorabji [horizontal gruppetto]” written horizontally in gold letters on the spine. The reprint is bound is navy blue cloth, with the title and author’s in gold letters as they appear on the title page. The text on the spine, written horizontally, reads “Sorabji / MI CONTRA FA / Da Capo” (the surrounding sections are written across).

Dust jacket: The dust jacket, which is light brown, green, and beige colours on the front side, shows a small circular pavilion with an onion-shaped dome inside which sits on a large chair an Indian man with a black beard wearing a thimble-shaped hat (partly black) and smoking a water pipe. On the floor, to the left, is an almost naked boy-servant offering food from a plate, and to the right, a woman with black hair playing a musical instrument with plucked strings. Birds, animals, and floral forms surround the pavilion. Above the dome is a banner with the main title of the book; on each side of the banner is a putto wearing an Indian headdress. The subtitle (in title capitalization) appears below the pavilion, followed by the author’s name in full caps (K. S. SORABJI). The publisher’s name (in full caps) appears at the bottom, under a row of grass, between two black porcupines facing each other. The artist’s signature, hardly decipherable (Brary?), appears in the lower-right corner.

The back of the dust jacket, which has a predominantly beige background, shows green leaves and brown flowers, and a brown bird on the left and a beige one on the right. Within an oval formed by stems is an Indian deity with four arms, in brown, blowing into a set of three ivory horns held by three hands, with the fourth one holding a flower.

The spine shows (1) a rectangular cartouche containing the title (in full caps) with the subtitle (in title capitalization) below, an ornament, and the author’s name as “ K. S. SORABJI”, (2) a flower, and (3) a black porcupine facing left below which one reads the publisher’s name (in full caps).

Contents of the dust jacket (publisher’s blurb on the front and back flaps):

MI CONTRA FA
The Immoralisings of a Machiavellian
Musician
By K. S. SORABJI

Not many, even among the musical cognoscenti, know of Kaikhosru Sorabji’s numerous musical compositions, though they are numerous, on the grand scale and of great technical virtuosity. Although he has lived and worked in England most of his life, Sorabji follows no school or contemporary fashion; and his music may be said to exhibit an essentially Oriental mind expressing itself in modern European musical technique. In putting forth this point of view, one discerning critic added that probably few minds, as yet, in either East or West were prepared for such a synthesis. Nevertheless, among the great musicians who have expressed themselves in superlative terms on Sorabji’s creative work are Busoni, Delius, Heseltine and Bernard van Dieren.

As a writer of acute musical appreciation and criticism, Sorabji has long held a unique position. In the New English Weekly, and before that in the New Age, his contributions have established a reputation for authoritative scholarship, integrity of purpose and a style at once vigorous, incisive and colourful. His first book, “Around Music,” appeared 14 years ago.

[Continued on back flap

Writing of Sorabji in his autobiography, Hugh MacDiarmid, the Scottish poet and littérat[e]ur, associates his name with Professor Denis Saurat, Francis George Scott and Dr. Oliver St. John Gogarty, and says : “I question if any other four men in Europe to-day are equally rich in intellectual and artistic gifts.” Of himself, Mr. Sorabji says that he combines in his person (“as Macaulay might have said”) by an ingenious device all the qualities perfectly calculated to make him persona ingratissima in all the “correct” musical circles.

{The quoted passage by Hugh MacDiarmid comes from his “Author’s Note”, in Lucky Poet: A Self-Study in Literature and Political Ideas, Being the Autobiography of Hugh MacDiarmid (Christopher Murray Grieve) (London: Methuen, 1943), ix. The reference to Sorabji is taken from the chapter “Portmanteau Words: or Those “British” Composers” in Mi contra fa (p. 78): “[...] having no official status at any institution, combining, as he is wont to say himself, by a quaint device every quality most perfectly calcultated to make him persona ingratissima with any musical circle [...]”. Macaulay is the British historian and Whig politician Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800-1859), to whom Sorabji refers in his essay “The Physiognomy of Musicians; or, Composers out of Countenance” when describing music critics: “[...] some of them whose hypertrophic globular bulk by an ingenious device, as Lord Macaulay would have said, indicated the immensity of the vacuity of their minds” (p. 245).}

Believing that both these statements may have some justification, the publishers present this new book of essays on a wide diversity of topics linking music and society, to interest and perhaps provoke all those who compose, perform or listen to music.

Capitalization: It is strongly recommended that the title be written “Mi contra fa” rather than “Mi contra Fa” or “Mi Contra Fa”.

Layout: The following table shows the detailed layout of the pages. Under “Initial Page”, the entries up to (but not including) “[Flyleaf]” apply to the reprint.

Chapter Number	Previous Publ.	Title or Section	Initial Page	Final Page	Pages (N)
Chapter Number	Previous Publ.	Title or Section	Initial Page	Final Page	Pages (N)
		Reprint only [Half-title] MI CONTRA FA
		Reprint only Da Capo Press Music Reprint Series
		Reprint only [Title page with black cartouche] MI CONTRA FA / The Immoralisings of a / Machiavellian Musician / by Kaikhosru Shapurji / Sorabji / Da Capo Press [bullet] New York [bullet] 1986
		Reprint only [Copyright page]
		Reprint only Introduction [3 unnumbered pages] Signed Donald Garvelmann, New York City, January 1986
		[Flyleaf, two sides]
		[Blank page]	1-2•
		[Half-title] Mi Contra Fa	3•
		by the same author / [star] / AROUND MUSIC	4•
		[Title page with red cartouche featuring at the top a violin and a music score wrapped with a ribbon] MI CONTRA FA / The Immoralisings of a Machiavellian Musician by Kaikhosru Shapurji / Sorabji / THE PORCUPINE PRESS / LONDON	5•
		[Publication data] First published mcmxlvii / by the Porcupine Press Limited / 26 Bloomsbury Way W.C.1 / Printed in Great Britain at / The Whitefriars Press Limited Tonbridge / All Rights Reserved	6•
		Dedication To my honoured and revered friend / PROFESSOR DENIS SAURAT	7•
		[Blank page]	8•
		Contents Note at the end: Title-page border adapted from an old Italian score, by courtesy of Mr Leonard Hyman. Decorations reproduced from woodcuts in William Caslon’s type book, 1793.	9•	10
		Entête Quotation (with some modifications) of the paragraph beginning with “Consider well your neighbour” from the chapter entitled “Rome” in Alone by Norman Douglas (London: Chapman and Hall, 1921), 136-37.	11		1
		“Mi contra Fa est Diabolus in Musica” (Mediæval monastic prohibition of the use of the Tritone.)	12•
I		Introito	13	16	4
II		When is a Concerto not a Concerto?	17		1
III		Music and Muddleheadedness The paragraph beginning with “Out with it, Dunciad!”, from the Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot (1734) by Alexander Pope (1688-1744), is used as epigraph.	18	40	23
IV		The Amateurs, or Thick Skins and Thicker Heads	41	46	6
V		Organic and Inorganic Form	47	52	6
VI		Sentimentality and Contemporaneity: with Especial Reference to Music	53	61	9
VII	•	Leopold Godowsky as Creative Transcriber Incorporates parts of “Godowsky”, The New English Weekly 17, no. 9 (20 June 1940): 109-10. Reprinted as “A Tribute to Godowsky” in After Midnight Thoughts on Godowsky, Etc. (ed. Paul Howard), no. 2 (undated; between 1936? and 1951): 7-8.	62	70	9
VIII		Yoga and the Composer	71	75	5
IX		Portmanteau Words: or Those “British” Composers	76	79	4
X		“La Trahison des Clercs”: Music and War-Mongering	80	88	9
XI	•	The Decline of Music and Musical Taste in England (With some Reflections upon the Future of Music) Pages 100-103 were first published as “Music”, The New English Weekly 9, no. 15 (23 July 1936): 293-94.	89	106	18
XII		The Way of the Virtuoso	107	113	7
XIII		Cant and the Classics	114	118	5
XIV		A Note on Ernest Chausson	119	124	6
XV		Beer and British Music	125	127	3
XVI	•	Modern Popular Music as part of a Plan of Progressive Besotment Pages 129 (third paragraph) to 131 (first complete paragraph) were first published as “Music”, The New English Weekly 21, no. 10 (25 June 1942): 86-87.	128	132	5
XVII		Blanche Marchesi	133	140	8
XVIII		“Il Gran Rifiuto” (i) Reasons for not going to Concerts [pp. 141-43] (ii) Reasons for having nothing to do with Musicians [pp. 143-45] (iii) Reasons for living in a Granite Tower [pp. 145-48]	141	148	8
XIX		Bernard van Dieren See the obituary entitled “Bernard van Dieren”, The New English Weekly 9, no. 45 (14 May 1936): 92-93.	149	157	9
XX		The Great French Song Writers	158	167	10
XXI		Petit Dialogue Philosophique; (With apologies to Chamfort)	168	169	2
XXII		Rachmaninoff and Rabies	170	177	8
XXIII		Karol Szymanowsky [recte Szymanowski]	178	187	10
XXIV		Open Letter to a Conductor	188	192	5
XXV		Metapsychic Motivation in Music	193	216	24
XXVI	•	The Songs of Francis George Scott Incorporates parts of “Music”, The New English Weekly 23, no. 12 (8 July 1943): 105. Reprinted from Scottish Arts & Letters 1 (1944): 22-23.	217	223	7
XXVII		Piano Design	224	228	5
XXVIII		Indian Music and Indian and Western Musical Criticism	229	234	6
XXIX		A Note on York Bowen See a related article, “Music”, The New English Weekly 25, no. 14 (20 July 1944): 123, which discusses Bowen’s Twenty-Four Preludes for Piano, dedicated to Sorabji.	235	239	5
XXX		The Physiognomy of Musicians; or, Composers out of Countenance	240	247	8

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