List of compositions by Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

The following list includes all the known compositions of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji sorted by instrumentation. Within the individual sections, the pieces are arranged by genre and chronologically.

The list of works found here is based on the information provided by Marc-André Roberge's Sorabji Resource Site.^[1][2][3] Since Sorabji's piece titles tend to contain various problems, Roberge's site amends them when necessary.^[4]

Works for orchestra with voices

Symphonies

• No. 1 for Piano, Large Orchestra, Chorus, and Organ (1921–22)^{[n 1]}
• The second symphony was intended for piano, large orchestra, organ, chorus, and six solo voices; only the piano part (written 1930–31) was completed, yet it is one of Sorabji's longest piano compositions of all^[6] and has been described as self-sufficient.^[7] It was later renamed to Symphony No. 0 for Piano Solo (though not by Sorabji).^[8]
• No. 2, Jāmī, for Large Orchestra, Wordless Chorus, and Baritone Solo (1942–51)

Other

• Messa grande sinfonica (1955–61; 8 soloists, 2 choirs and orchestra)

Works for orchestra without voices

Piano concertos

Numbered:^{[n 2]}

• No. 1 (1915–16)
• No. 2 (1916–17; only two-piano version survives)
• No. 3 (1918)
• No. 4 (1918)
• No. 5 (1920)
• No. 6 (1922)
• No. 7, Simorg-Anka (1924)
• No. 8 (1927–28)

Unnumbered:

• Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (1935–37, 1953–56; Sorabji added an "Introitus" for orchestra alone and orchestrated the first volume of the three-book Symphonic Variations for Piano)
• Opus clavisymphonicum—Concerto for Piano and Large Orchestra (1957–59)
• Opusculum clavisymphonicum vel claviorchestrale (1973–75)

Other

• Chaleur—Poème (1916–17)
• Opusculum for Orchestra (1923)

Works for voice(s) and chamber ensemble

• Music to "The Rider by Night" (1919; libretto written by Robert Nichols; full score missing^{[n 3]})
• Cinque sonetti di Michelagniolo Buonarroti (1923; baritone)

Works for bells

• Suggested Bell-Chorale for St. Luke's Carillon (1961)^{[n 4]}

Works for voice and piano

• The Poplars (1915; Ducic, translated by Selver; 2 versions)
• Chrysilla (1915; de Régnier)
• Roses du soir (1915; Louÿs)
• L'heure exquise (1916; Verlaine)
• Vocalise pour soprano fioriturata (1916; 2 versions)
• Apparition (1916; Mallarmé)
• Hymne à Aphrodite (1916; Tailhade; 2 versions)
• L'étang (1917; Rollinat)
• I Was Not Sorrowful—Poem for Voice and Piano [Spleen] (between 1917 and 1919; Dowson)
• Trois poèmes pour chant et piano (1918, 1919; Baudelaire and Verlaine)
• Trois fêtes galantes de Verlaine (c. 1919)
• Le mauvais jardinier (1919; Gilkin; only the first page survives^[12])
• Arabesque (1920; Shamsuʾd-Dīn Ibrāhīm Mīrzā)
• Trois Poèmes du "Gulistān" de Saʿdī (1926; translated by Toussaint; 2 versions)
• L'irrémédiable (1927; Baudelaire)
• Movement for Voice and Piano (1927, 1931)
• Trois poèmes (1941; Verlaine and Baudelaire)
• Frammento cantato (1967; Harold Morland)

Chamber works

Piano quintets

• No. 1 (1919–20)
• No. 2 (1932–33; at 432 pages it is possibly the longest non-repetitive chamber work ever written)

Other

• Concertino non grosso for String Sextet with Piano obbligato quasi continuo (1968; 4 violins, viola and cello)
• Il tessuto d'arabeschi (1979; flute and string quartet)
• Fantasiettina atematica (1981; oboe, flute and clarinet)

Works for piano

Symphonies

• No. 0 (1930–31; piano part of the otherwise unfinished Symphony II for Piano, Large Orchestra, Organ, Final Chorus, and Six Solo Voices)
• No. 1 (Tāntrik) (1938–39)
• No. 2 (1954)
• No. 3 (1959–60)
• No. 4 (1962–64)
• No. 5 (Symphonia brevis) (1973)
• No. 6 (Symphonia claviensis) (1975–76)

Sonatas

• No. 0 (1917; discovered posthumously)
• No. 1 (1919)
• No. 2 (1920)
• No. 3 (1922)
• No. 4 (1928–29)
• No. 5 (Opus archimagicum) (1934–35)

Multi-movement toccatas

• No. 1 (1928)
• No. 2 (1933–34)
• No. 3 (lost; 1937?–38?)
• No. 4 (1964–67)

Variation sets

• Variazioni e fuga triplice sopra "Dies irae" per pianoforte (1923–26; 64 variations)
• Symphonic Variations for Piano (1935–37; 81 variations; in three books, of which the first was later orchestrated. This is arguably Sorabji's longest work, approx. 8–9 hours.)
• Sequentia cyclica super "Dies irae" ex Missa pro defunctis (1948–49; 27 variations)
• "Il gallo d'oro" da Rimsky-Korsakov: variazioni frivole con una fuga anarchica, eretica e perversa (1978–79; 53 variations)

Sets of aphoristic fragments

• Frammenti aforistici (Sutras) (104) (1962–64)
• Frammenti aforistici (20) (1964)
• Frammenti aforistici (4) (1977)

Transcriptions

• Pastiche on the "Minute Waltz" by Chopin (1922)
• Pastiche on the Habanera from "Carmen" by Bizet (1922)
• Pastiche on the Hindu Merchant's Song from "Sadko" by Rimsky-Korsakov (1922)
• Rapsodie espagnole de Maurice Ravel: transcription de concert pour piano (first version; 1923)
• Pasticcio capriccioso sopra l'op. 64, no 1 del Chopin (1933)^{[n 5]}
• Transcription in the Light of Harpsichord Technique for the Modern Piano of the Chromatic Fantasia of J. S. Bach, Followed by a Fugue (1940)
• Rapsodie espagnole de Maurice Ravel: transcription de concert pour piano (second version; 1945)
• Transcription of the Prelude in E-flat by Bach (1945)
• Schlussszene aus "Salome" von Richard Strauss—Konzertmäßige Übertragung für Klavier zu zwei Händen (1947; transcription of the finale of Strauss' opera Salome)

Other

• Quasi habanera (1917)
• Désir éperdu—Fragment (1917)
• Fantaisie espagnole (1919)
• Two Piano Pieces (In the Hothouse [1918] and Toccata [1920])
• Prelude, Interlude, and Fugue for Piano (1920, 1922)
• Le jardin parfumé: Poem for Piano Solo (1923)
• Valse-fantaisie for Piano (1925)
• Fragment: Prelude and Fugue on FxAxx DAxEx (1926)
• Fragment Written for Harold Rutland (1926, 1928, 1937)
• Nocturne, "Jāmī" (1928)
• Passacaglia (1929; unfinished)
• Introduction, Passacaglia, Cadenza and Fugue (2004; Alexander Abercrombie's completion of the unfinished 1929 Passacaglia)
• Toccatinetta sopra C.G.F. (1929)
• Opus clavicembalisticum (1929–30)^{[n 6]}
• Fantasia ispanica (1933)
• Quaere reliqua hujus materiei inter secretiora (1940; based on the story "Count Magnus" by M. R. James)
• "Gulistān"—Nocturne for Piano (1940; inspired by The Rose Garden by Saʿdī)
• St. Bertrand de Comminges: "He was laughing in the tower" (1941; based on the story "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" by M. R. James)
• Études transcendantes (100) (1940–44; these range from short virtuoso studies to expansive concert works)
• Concerto da suonare da me solo e senza orchestra, per divertirmi (1946)
• Un nido di scatole sopra il nome del grande e buon amico Harold Rutland (1954)^{[n 7]}
• Passeggiata veneziana sopra la Barcarola di Offenbach (1955–56; based on "Barcarolle" from Offenbach's Les Contes d'Hoffman)
• Rosario d'arabeschi (1956)
• Fantasiettina sul nome illustre dell'egregio poeta Christopher Grieve ossia Hugh M'Diarmid (1961)
• Variazione maliziosa e perversa sopra "La morte d'Åse" da Grieg (1974; based on "The Death of Åse" from Grieg's Peer Gynt)
• Symphonic Nocturne for Piano Alone (1977–78)
• Villa Tasca: mezzogiorno siciliano—evocazione nostalgica e memoria tanta cara e preziosa del giardino meraviglioso, splendido, tropicale (1979–80)
• Opus secretum atque necromanticum (1980–81)
• Passeggiata variata sul nome del caro e gentile amico Clive Spencer-Bentley (1981)
• Passeggiata arlecchinesca sopra un frammento di Busoni ("Rondò arlecchinesco") (1981–82; based on material from Busoni's Rondò Arlecchinesco)
• Due sutras sul nome dell'amico Alexis (1981, 1984)

Works for organ

Symphonies:

• No. 1 (1924)
• No. 2 (1929–32)
• No. 3 (1949–53)

Works for baritone and organ

• Benedizione di San Francesco d'Assisi (1973)

Lost works

• Transcription of "In a Summer Garden" (1914; piano transcription of Delius's piece of the same name)
• Vocalise No. 2 (1916)
• Medea (1916)
• The Reiterated Chord (1916; only sketches survive^[17])
• Black Mass (1922)
• Music for "Faust" (c. 1930)
• The Line (1932)
• Piano Toccata No. 3 (1937?–38?)
• Le agonie (1951)

Notes and references

Notes

References

Sources

• Abrahams, Simon John (2002). Le mauvais jardinier: A Reassessment of the Myths and Music of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji (Ph.D.). King's College London. 
• Roberge, Marc-André (1991). "The Busoni Network and the Art of Creative Transcription" (PDF). Canadian University Music Review. Ottawa: Société de musique des universités canadiennes. 11 (1): 68–88. Retrieved 28 July 2012.