Titles of Works Grouped by Language

This page lists Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji’s works grouped by their language. The numbers and proportions are shown in the table below. For each language, the works are grouped under headings corresponding to as many as apply of the four creative periods of Sorabji’s compositional career.

1914-1918 (early works)
1919-1936 (from the meeting with Busoni to the end of his public career)
1937-1972 (from the beginning of his life as a recluse to the interruption in his compositional career)
1973-1988 (from his meeting with Alistair Hinton, when he resumed composition, to his death)

Click on a column heading to sort, then shift-click on other headings to sort on multiple columns.
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Language (Number per Period)	Works (N)	Works (%)
Language (Number per Period)	Works (N)	Works (%)
English (5, 27, 14, 1)	47	40.2
French (13, 10, 3, —)	26	22.2
German (—, —, 1, —)	1	0.9
Italian (6, 3, 13, 10)	32	27.4
Latin (—, 4, 3, 4)	11	9.4
Total	117	100.0

English

1914-1918

Transcription of “In a Summer Garden” (1914; 0 p.)
The Poplars (1915; 3 pp.)
The Reiterated Chord (1916; 0 p.)
Vocalise no. 2 (1916; 0 p.)
Sonata no. 0 (1917; 30 pp.)

1919-1936

I Was Not Sorrowful—Poem for Voice and Piano [Spleen] (between 1917 and 1919; 3 pp.)
Sonata no. 1 for Piano (1919; 42 pp.)
Music to “The Rider by Night” (1919; 54 pp.)
Quintet no. 1 for Piano and Quartet of Stringed Instruments (1919-20; 72 pp.)
Two Piano Pieces (1918, 1920; 20 pp.)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra [no. 5] [publ. as Concerto II] (1920; 144 pp.)
Sonata III for Piano (1922; 75 pp.)
Symphony [no. 1] for Piano, Large Orchestra, Chorus, and Organ (1921-22; 300 pp.)
Pastiche on the “Minute Waltz” by Chopin (1922; 7 pp.)
Pastiche on the Habanera from “Carmen” by Bizet (1922; 6 pp.)
Pastiche on the Hindu Merchant’s Song from “Sadko” by Rimsky-Korsakov (1922; 4 pp.)
Prelude, Interlude, and Fugue for Piano (1920, 1922; 17 pp.)
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra [no.] III [no. 6] (1922; 144 pp.)
Black Mass (1922; 0 p.)
Symphony [no. 1] for Organ (1924; 81 pp.)
Fragment: Prelude and Fugue on FxAxx DAxEx (1926; 3 pp.)
Concerto V for Piano and Large Orchestra [no. 8] (1927-28; 344 pp.)
Toccata [no. 1] for Piano (1928; 66 pp.)
Nocturne, “Jāmī” (1928; 28 pp.)
Sonata IV for Piano (1928-29; 111 pp.)
Introduction, Passacaglia, Cadenza, and Fugue (1929; completed Alexander Abercrombie, 2004; 79 pp.)
Music for “Faust” (ca. 1930; 0 p.)
Symphony no. 0 for Piano Solo (1930-31; 333 pp.)
Movement for Voice and Piano (1927, 1931; 9 pp.)
The Line (1932; 0 p.)
Second Symphony for Organ (1929-32; 350 pp.)
Quintet II for Piano and String Quartet (1932-33; 432 pp.)

1937-1972

Fragment Written for Harold Rutland (1926, 1928, 1937; 2 pp.)
Symphonic Variations for Piano (1935-37; 484 pp.)
Tāntrik Symphony for Piano Alone (1938-39; 284 pp.)
Transcription in the Light of Harpsichord Technique for the Modern Piano of the Chromatic Fantasia of J. S. Bach, Followed by a Fugue (1940; 15 pp.)
“Gulistān”—Nocturne for Piano (1940; 28 pp.)
St. Bertrand de Comminges: “He was laughing in the tower” (1941; 16 pp.)
Transcription of the Prelude in E-flat by Bach (1945; 4 pp.)
Symphony [no. 2], “Jāmī”, for Large Orchestra, Wordless Chorus, and Baritone Solo (1942-51; 826 pp.)
Third Organ Symphony (1949-53; 305 pp.)
Second Symphony for Piano (1954; 248 pp.)
Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (1935-37, 1953-56; 540 pp.)
Third Symphony for Piano Solo (1959-60; 144 pp.)
Suggested Bell-Chorale for St. Luke’s Carillon (1961; 1 p.)
Fourth Symphony for Piano Alone (1962-64; 240 pp.)

1973-1988

Symphonic Nocturne for Piano Alone (1977-78; 113 pp.)

French

1914-1918

Chrysilla (1915; 4 pp.)
Roses du soir (1915; 4 pp.)
L’heure exquise (1916; 2 pp.)
Vocalise pour soprano fioriturata (1916; 3 pp.)
Concerto [no. 1] pour piano et grand orchestre (1915-16; 177 pp.)
Apparition (1916; 5 pp.)
Hymne à Aphrodite (1916; 5 pp.)
Chaleur—Poème (1916-17; 32 pp.)
L’étang (1917; 2 pp.)
Désir éperdu — Fragment (1917; 1 p.)
Concerto II pour piano et grand orchestre (1916-17; 49 pp.)
Concerto pour piano et orchestra da camera [no. 3] (1918; 100 pp.)
Concerto pour piano et grand orchestre [no. 4] (1918; 100 pp.)

1919-1936

Le mauvais jardinier (1918 or 1919; compl. Chappell Kingsland, 2023; 5 pp.)
Trois fêtes galantes de Verlaine (ca. 1919; 11 pp.)
Fantaisie espagnole (1919; 23 pp.)
Trois poèmes pour chant et piano (1918, 1919; 9 pp.)
Arabesque (1920; 2 pp.)
Rapsodie espagnole de Maurice Ravel—Transcription de concert pour piano (first version, 1923; 16 pp.)
Le jardin parfumé—Poem for Piano Solo (1923; 16 pp.)
Valse-fantaisie for Piano (1925; 16 pp.)
Trois poèmes du “Gulistān” de Saʿdī (1926, rev. 1930; 16 pp.)
L’irrémediable (1927; 8 pp.)

1937-1972

Trois poèmes (1941; 13 pp.)
Études transcendantes (100) (1940-44; 456 pp.)
Rapsodie espagnole de Maurice Ravel—Transcription de concert pour piano (second version, 1945; 26 pp.)

German

1937-1972

Schlussszene aus “Salome” von Richard Strauss—Konzertmäßige Übertragung für Klavier zu zwei Händen (1947; 25 pp.)

Italian

1914-1918

Medea (1916; 0 p.)
Quasi habanera (1917; 6 pp.)
Sonata seconda for Piano (1920; 49 pp.)
Cinque sonetti di Michelagniolo Buonarroti (1923; 40 pp.)
Concerto per pianoforte e piccola orchestra, “Simorg-Anka” [no. 7] (1924; 100 pp.)
Toccatinetta sopra C.G.F. (1929; 8 pp.)

1919-1936

Fantasia ispanica (1933; 54 pp.)
Pasticcio capriccioso sopra l’op. 64, no 1 del Chopin (1933; 8 pp.)
Toccata seconda per pianoforte (1933-34; 111 pp.)

1937-1972

Concerto da suonare da me solo e senza orchestra, per divertirmi (1946; 70 pp.)
Le agonie (1951; 0 p.)
Un nido di scatole sopra il nome del grande e buon amico Harold Rutland (1954; 26 pp.)
Toccata terza (1955; 91 pp.)
Passeggiata veneziana sopra la Barcarola di Offenbach (1955-56; 24 pp.)
Rosario d’arabeschi (1956; 45 pp.)
Fantasiettina sul nome illustre dell’egregio poeta Christopher Grieve ossia Hugh M’Diarmid (1961; 10 pp.)
Messa grande sinfonica (1955-61; 1,001 pp.)
Frammenti aforistici (20) (1964; 9 pp.)
Frammenti aforistici (Sutras) (104) (1962-64; 37 pp.)
Toccata quarta (1964-67; 149 pp.)
Frammento cantato (1967; 1 p.)
Concertino non grosso for String Sextet with Piano Obbligato quasi continuo (1968; 48 pp.)

1973-1988

Benedizione di San Francesco d’Assisi (1973; 2 pp.)
Variazione maliziosa e perversa sopra “La morte d’Åse” da Grieg (1974; 2 pp.)
Frammenti aforistici (4) (1977; 1 p.)
“Il gallo d’oro” da Rimsky-Korsakov: Variazioni frivole con una fuga anarchica, eretica e perversa (1978-79; 93 pp.)
Il tessuto d’arabeschi (1979; 32 pp.)
Villa Tasca: Mezzogiorno siciliano—Evocazione nostalgica e memoria tanta cara e preziosa del giardino meraviglioso, splendido, tropicale (1979-80; 47 pp.)
Passeggiata variata sul nome del caro e gentile amico Clive Spencer-Bentley (1981; 3 pp.)
Fantasiettina atematica (1981; 2 pp.)
Passeggiata arlecchinesca sopra un frammento di Busoni (“Rondò arlecchinesco”) (1981-82; 16 pp.)
Due sutras sul nome dell’amico Alexis (1981, 1984; 2 pp.)

Latin

1919-1936

Opusculum for Orchestra (1923; 36 pp.)
Variazioni e fuga triplice sopra “Dies irae” per pianoforte (1923-26; 201 pp.)
Opus clavicembalisticum (1929-30; 253 pp.)
Sonata V (Opus archimagicum) (1934-35; 336 pp.)

1937-1972

“Quaere reliqua hujus materiei inter secretiora” (1940; 16 pp.)
Sequentia cyclica super “Dies irae” ex Missa pro defunctis (1948-49; 335 pp.)
Opus clavisymphonicum—Concerto for Piano and Large Orchestra for Piano and Large Orchestra (1957-59; 333 pp.)

1973-1988

Symphonia brevis for Piano (1973; 120 pp.)
Opusculum clavisymphonicum vel claviorchestrale (1973-75; 334 pp.)
Sixth Symphony for Piano (Symphonia claviensis) (1975-76; 270 pp.)
Opus secretum atque necromanticum (1980-81; 48 pp.)