This page gives an overview of the twenty-eight editions of works by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji and of the two bibliographical compilations of his writings produced between 1992 and 1994 and since 2004 by Marc-André Roberge and published on request by the Sorabji Archive.

Second impressions: The archive’s switch from photocopying from paper masters to photocopying from PDF files has led to an entirely new set of files from which copies for sale are now made. This move has given Roberge the opportunity to revise his files, which are now marked “Second impression, March 2009” on the copyright page (with the exception of the annotated indexes, which are actually a third impression).

The music for the older files, which had been set by the copyist André Garneau using Keith Hamel’s NoteWriter software (a purely graphic application for the Macintosh computer), had to be scanned from the paper originals, while the text part (introduction, critical report, back matter) was saved directly in PDF format, so no corrections could be made.

The newer files, which Roberge produced himself using Sibelius (Avid), could be saved directly as PDF files. Only the edition of Il tessuto d’arabeschi (1979; 32 pp.) underwent a substantial revision in 2009 in matters of beaming, with the new modifications listed in the critical report (there is now a second edition published in 2022). Very few errors were corrected in the score of the Concertino non grosso for String Sextet with Piano obbligato quasi continuo (1968; 48 pp.).

Short lists of corrections for the 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.) and the Transcription of the Prelude in E-flat by Bach (1945; 4 pp.) have been added at the end of the respective introductions to the second impressions. Their owners should enter said corrections by hand.

All text sections have been revised to remove typographical errors and other minor problems. As the printer drivers used to produce the older editions are no longer available, the files had to be reformatted, resulting in different line and page breaks, which, together with the use of a larger top margin throughout, explains why the number of pages is not the same in several cases. In addition, page numbering is now consistent, with “i” always corresponding to the title page rather than to the first page of the introduction.

Several missing years of birth and/or death for people mentioned in the annotated indexes to Sorabji’s two books of essays have been added, and various errors in the annotated bibliography (including some in the references themselves) have been corrected. Both compilations are now natively formatted for A4 rather than for letter-size paper.

The numbers of pages in the “Pages” columns are placed in brackets when the page numbers do not appear on the pages (drop folios). The precisions “1st” and “2nd” refer to the first and second impressions of the editions. There are two cases of third impressions mentioned directly in the table.

Second editions: Five works are now available in extensively revised second editions, the 2021 and 2022 editions was produced with the assistance of Chappell Kingsland, while the 2024 edition was produced with that of William A.P.M. [William Penafiel].

• Three Pastiches for Piano (1922; 17 pp.), consisting of a revision, published in 2014, of three separate editions (two published in 1992 and one in 1994);
• Trois poèmes (1941; 13 pp.) and Fantasiettina atematica (1981; 2 pp.), both published in 2021;
• Cinque sonetti di Michelagniolo Buonarroti (1923; 40 pp.) and Il tessuto d’arabeschi (1979; 32 pp.), both published in 2022.
• I Was Not Sorrowful—​Poem for Voice and Piano [Spleen] (between 1917 and 1919; 3 pp.); published in 2024.

Availability in libraries: Paper copies of these editions in libraries can be located through WorldCat. It is unlikely that these libraries will purchase and (given the cost of doing so) process paper copies of the new editions to replace the earlier ones, which should now to be considered obsolete and inadequate. It is therefore always preferable to contact the Sorabji Archive to obtain the newer editions, details of which are found by looking up the desired titles in its List of compositions.

Other edition: In addition to his Sorabji editions, Roberge has made available the Sibelius file from which Frazer Jarvis has produced an edition (credited to both) of Alistair Hinton’s Morceau d’anniversaire pour Kaikhosru Sorabji, op. 11 (1974, publ. 2020).