Sorabji Resource Site: Reproductions of Manuscripts in Printed Sources and Library Catalogues

Reproductions of Manuscripts in Printed Sources and Library Catalogues

This page lists, in chronological order of composition, the excerpts from Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji’s manuscripts that have been reproduced, usually for decorative or illustrative purposes, in printed sources (books, exhibition or auction catalogues, concert programmes, periodicals, newspapers) and online library catalogues.

Paper copies or PDF files of all of Sorabji’s manuscripts are available from the Sorabji Archive; sample images are provided for all works. Permalinks to images in public collections are given when applicable using the tag [image].

More information on some of the manuscripts (discoveries, auction sales) can be found on another page.

Title	Sources
Title	Sources
Chaleur—Poème (1916-17; 32 pp.)	Page 7 is reproduced in the catalogue of Sotheby’s sale L07408 of 4 December 2007 (lot 131 of 133) [image].
Concerto pour piano et grand orchestre [no. 4] (1918; 100 pp.)	Images of the entire work can be found in the catalogue of the Library of Northwestern University [citation and images], where it is housed.
Fragment Written for Harold Rutland (1926, 1928, 1937; 2 pp.)	The first page of the 1926 version is reproduced in Clinton Gray-Fisk, “Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji”, The Musical Times 101, no. 1406 (April 1960): 230-32; 231.
Trois poèmes du “Gulistān” de Saʿdī (1926, rev. 1930; 16 pp.)	The first page of the first song (“La lampe”) is reproduced on the cover page of a concert prospectus for March-June 1958 at the Faculty of Music at the University of Cape Town, where Erik Chisholm, the work’s dedicatee, was dean and director.
Introduction, Passacaglia, Cadenza, and Fugue (1929; compl. Alexander Abercrombie, 2004; 79 pp.)	The first page of the “Passacaglia” is reproduced in Music, Continental Manuscripts and Printed Books, Science and Medicine, including the Autograph Manuscript of Turgenev’s “Fathers and Sons”, London, Thursday 18th and Friday 19th May 1989, 254 (item 507). It is also reproduced in Felix Meyer, “Anmerkungen zu Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji”, Mitteilungen der Paul Sacher Stiftung, no. 5 (January 1992): 41-45; 42. The last page of the “Passacaglia” is reproduced in Felix Meyer, “Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (1892-1988): Passacaglia for Piano (1929). Fair copy in ink, part 2, pp. 36-37, ca. 24.5 x 33 cm each. Paul Sacher Collection”, in Settling New Scores: Music Manuscripts from the Paul Sacher Foundation [catalogue of the exhibition at the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York, 13 May-30 August 1998], ed. Felix Mayer (Basel: Paul Sacher Foundation; Mainz: Schott Musik International, 1998), 188.
Opus clavicembalisticum (1929-30; 253 pp.)	Page 15 is reproduced in Hartmut Lück, “Abendländische Polyphonie und orientalische Ornamentik: Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, der unbekannteste Komponist des 20. Jahrhunderts”, FonoForum, 1992, no. 9 (September): 34-36; 35. Pages 22 and 97 (top system and first staff of the second) are reproduced in Alistair Hinton, “Kaikhosru Sorabji and Erik Chisholm”, Jagger Journal (University of Cape Town Libraries), no. 10 (1989-90): 20-35; 25. Page 99 is reproduced in SCC, 408.
Second Symphony for Organ (1929-32; 350 pp.)	The first page is reproduced in Alistair Hinton, “Kaikhosru Sorabji and His First Organ Symphony”, International Congress of Organists 1987: Souvenir Booklet (1 p.) Pages 220 and 260 (second movement, final variation; third movement, toccata) are reproduced with the corresponding pages of Kevin Bowyer’s edition in Alistair Hinton, “Sorabji’s Second Organ Symphony Played at Last: Kevin Bowyer’s Nine-Hour Marathon”, The Organ 89, no. 353 (Summer 2010): 41-47; 42, 43, 44, 45. Page 260 is reproduced in the catalogue of Sotheby’s sale of Continental Printed Books, Manuscripts and Music, comprising Printed Books, Autograph Letters and Manuscripts..., 306 (3-4 December 1992, item 624).
Études transcendantes (100) (1940-44; 456 pp.)	Several examples from Etude no. 99 are reproduced in Maria Rosaria Margiotta, “Sorabji: A History of the First Publishers and an Edition (Transcendental Study no. 99)” (thesis, Master of Philosophy, City University [London], 1999), 1. Complete pages (393, 394, 395, 401 [two systems for this one only]) appear on pp. 58, 59, 61, 72. The first and last pages are reproduced in the booklet (pp. 4, 5) for the final installment of the complete recording by Fredrik Ullén on BIS-2433.
Sequentia cyclica super “Dies irae” ex Missa pro defunctis (1948-49; 335 pp.)	The final chord (followed by the composer’s sign-off) is reproduced as part of Alistair Hinton’s obituary of Sorabji published in The Guardian of 19 October 1988 as “Piano Genius Never Lost for a Chord”.
Third Symphony for Piano Solo (1959-60; 144 pp.)	The first page is reproduced in “The Music Manuscript Project”, footnotes (Northwestern University) 29, no. 1 (Winter 2004): 1-2; 1 (currently no access to the online text); see the citation for the item in the catalogue of the Library of Northwestern University, which owns it. The last page is reproduced in the catalogue of Sotheby’s sale of Continental Printed Books, Manuscripts and Music, comprising Printed Books, Autograph Letters and Manuscripts..., 306 (3-4 December 1992, item 623).
Fourth Symphony for Piano Alone (1962-64; 240 pp.)	Four full pages and three small detailed views are reproduced in Reinier van Houdt, (with René van Peer), “A Vast and Elusive Musical Architecture: Performing Sorabji’s Symphony no. 4 for Piano Alone”, Musicworks, no. 87 (Fall 2003): 38-43. They show how Van Houdt, who gave the first performance, redrew all the noteheads and stems to make them more legible.
Il tessuto d’arabeschi (1979; 32 pp.)	Page 1 of is reproduced in Brian A. Inglis, “Fruits of Sorabji’s Indian Summer: ‘Il tessuto d’arabeschi’ and ‘Fantasiettina atematica’”, Tempo 64, no. 254 (October 2010): 41-49; 44. Page 17 is reproduced in the catalogue for Sotheby’s sale (1 December 2010) of Music, Continental and Russian Books and Manuscripts (sale L10406, lot 85 of 140) [image].