Kaikhosru Sorabji's Sonata Opus VII (Unnumbered)

2003-10-06T17:38:00.000-07:00

FINISHED!!!! FOR REAL THIS TIME!!!!!

2003-10-01T17:16:00.000-07:00

First 141 measures fixed. Can you feel the excitement? I'm almost done!!

Oh, I got my 2nd rough draft of my essay back today. There were a many comments of the manner of "Need more examples" and another one that is rather exciting to find out a week and a half before the deadline:

Where's the thesis?

2003-09-29T16:11:00.000-07:00

First 71 measures fixed. Some took a long time to adjust, sort of makes me wonder what I was thinking when I did them the first time around.

2003-09-18T09:33:00.000-07:00

Took advantage of the lack of school due to Hurrace Isabel to start proofing the sonata. First 24 measures seem to have everything in order now.

2003-09-15T15:39:00.000-07:00

It has been suggested that I add a MIDI of the Sonata to this site. Well, here it is. It doesn't sound much like it should, I'm not exactly sure how to control the MIDI, if you want a real recording of the piece, you'd have to email Soheil Nasseri and ask his permission. If he agrees, I suppose I could mail you a copy.

Anyway, off to things that fascinate me. I have been learning over the past couple days that people read this blog. Thank you. I assure you I will post more interesting things now that I am so close to complete with this task. I actually have been with this site for about a year now (I received the manuscript at roughly 6:45pm on 8 September 2002 and finished the first draft at roughly 10:12am on 13 September 2003), and it's wonderful to see it come to fruition. In fact, a dear friend has noted an article to me in the Guardian Unlimited newspaper about Sorabji. The article is essentially about Jonathan Powell's up and coming performace of Opus clavicembalisticum. Anyone who has heard of this piece knows how impossible it is. Allow me a digression to include the dedication of this piece:

"To the everlasting glory of those Few
MEN -
Blessed and sanctified in the Curses and Execrations
of those MANY -
Whose Praise is Eternal Damnation.

That aside, something in the article struck me as most peculiar:

"Over the past decade there has been something of a growing cult around Sorabji, who died in 1988. More and more recordings are being made for the first time, and there is even an internet blog by an American music student detailing his year-long efforts to correct and transcribe the manuscript of the Sonata Opus VII for piano. Sorabji may have ended up writing mainly for himself and an imagined posterity, but the sun is gradually rising over the extraordinarily rich and complex worlds he created."

I am famous!! I will take being described as in a growing cult. I am famous!!

Thank you, dear readers, thank you.

2003-09-13T10:12:00.000-07:00

DONE!!!! With a few minor exceptions. First, in measure 209 there are two 11-tuplet runs and two 12-tuplet runs. Sibelius won't let me do EITHER!! Which frustrates me a lot. Secondly, I have to figure out how to make measures run between lines, because otherwise some measures (like 201 - see previous post) become entirely illegible. Which means, I still have a lot of work to do.

2003-09-12T17:13:00.000-07:00

I only have 7 measures left. I WILL finish tomorrow with the main transcription. But then I'm going to have to start making it more aesthetically pleasing and, essentially, legible. The most illegibile measure I have encountered to date is one that I did today, this one:

Clearly, this will have to be fixed. I don't know what it says and I have two other editions right in front of me!

2003-09-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

200 measures completed (94.3%). ONLY 12 TO GO!!!!

2003-09-10T18:13:00.000-07:00

195 measures completed (92.0%). Only 17 to go!!!!

2003-09-09T16:42:00.000-07:00

190 measures completed (89.6%). Only 22 to go!!

If you've noticed, I'm doing very good at keeping up my 5/day pace. At this rate, I will be done on Saturday September 13th.

2003-09-08T16:49:00.000-07:00

185 meaures completed (87.3%). Only 27 to go!!

2003-09-06T17:45:00.000-07:00

175 measures completed (82.5%). Only 37 to go.

2003-09-04T18:13:00.000-07:00

Another update. Over the summer, I was planning on doing it all. Did i? Unfortunately, the fact that it was summer caught up to me and I did very little. BUT... over the course of the last week, I wrote another 700 words of my EE (bringing it up to 3761 words) and, in addition, did another near-30 measures of the Sonata. I am doing 5 measures / day and I plan to keep up this pace until I finish.

165 measures completed (77.8%). Only 47 to go.

2003-06-18T20:03:00.000-07:00

Okay. Time for an update. I finished up the rough draft, just over 3000 words. Mr. Frezzo just gave it back to me today with comments, so I need to work on it. And today I got in the mail from Mr. Soheil Nasseri a recording of his playing the Sorabji Sonata!! Thank you so much Soheil!!!! And yes, I now realize why exactly I thought it would end up being like 9-10 minutes: he plays it far far slower than I thought. So, everything makes so much more sense now. Ok, so school ends tomorrow, and then I'll have enough time to work on this thing and hopefully finish it soon.

2003-05-11T17:26:00.000-07:00

I worked on the rough draft today, since I was not of mind to continue transcribing. I wrote 1,686 words so far, although I'm not entirely sure how I'm going to get to the 3,500 word minimum. I thought I had a lot to say, I guess not... I still have just under two weeks to get to the 2,500 word mark. Wish me luck?

2003-05-03T10:31:00.000-07:00

120 measures completed (i.e. 56.6%): 4 minutes 24 seconds: MIDI.

2003-04-28T16:38:00.000-07:00

Today, I suffered the scare of my life. I did 5 measures (included one that took me about half an hour just to figure out what it said and how it worked - #108) and then the program crashed before i could save it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Luckily, it recovered... but for those 2 minutes I couldn't breathe I was so anxious. Anyway, after it recovered, I did another measure and stopped. Too tense. Too much stress. Also, I just passed the 4:00 mark!!

112 measures completed (i.e. 52.8%): 4 minutes 2 seconds: MIDI.

2003-04-21T17:42:00.000-07:00

Alright, sorry to keep you waiting, I've had a lot of work to do (including writing the preliminary outline for my extended essay - which in its preliminary form covers over 1000 words, should be interesting for a 4000 max word paper). Anyway, I sat down today determined to do more work, and so I did. I have completed half of the sonata! That's right, 106 measures COMPLETED.

And so, with my 106 measures completed, the piece lasts 3 minutes 48 seconds: MIDI.

2003-03-17T16:20:00.000-08:00

I would like to update my introductory paragraph (which is, for those of you familiar with IB curriculum, due this Friday). Special thanks goes out to Simon who has helped me overcome my apparent lack of grammar, syntax, and other such technicalities of the English language.

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji is generally considered to be an enigma, having spent much of his life in relative isolation. An encyclopedic knowledge of contemporary musical issues, coupled with a resolutely independent artistic voice, resulted in the creation of works that are notable for their complexity of rhythm, harmony, and texture. As many of his works remain in manuscript form, written at great speed and with little regard for performance markings, the inherent complexity of the compositional language, coupled with the nature of the handwriting, often makes deciphering his scores a major undertaking. Sorabji’s Sonata Opus VII presents an early example of these difficulties that were to cause more serious problems in his mature compositions. However, it is clear, even from this manuscript work, that the originality of his writing transcends the problems of rhythm and legibility to produce a uniquely entrancing sound that has captured the imagination of many listeners.

2003-03-15T17:25:00.000-08:00

Actually, in reflection of what I have just posted... the 3rd movement of Beethoven's Pathétique Sonata has 210 measures (compared to Sorabji's 212), so I am led to believe that Sorabji's sonata (which appears to be in one movement only...) is actually not that long. I don't remember how long it took Soheil to play it, I was too enthralled with the piece at the time. Hmm.... perhaps in the end it will end up being 7-8 mintues in this MIDI .

2003-03-15T12:10:00.000-08:00

I have corrected the first 77 measures of the R-N edition, and made in total 93 corrections. You can view them here.

With 77 measures, just over 1/3rd of the work!! Counting by measures, that is... By time, these 77 measures add up to merely 2:40 of a piece that I believe is significantly longer than 7 minutes...

2003-03-14T19:54:00.000-08:00

Henceforth, ignore most of what I have previously posted. I am beginning anew. Soheil called me and we talked for about half an hour about the things I should do and the things I should be careful to avoid doing. So, right now, I'm going to run through the entire score and make all the necessary corrections to the Rycraft-Nasseri edition of the manuscript. Once that's done, I'm going to photocopy it, and mail the original back to Soheil since he does want it back. Once I mail it back, I'll have everything I need in very legible handwriting, and then I will type up my own edition - the Revzin edition - of the Sonata #0. When I get there, I will probably borrow (read: quote) Rycraft's introduction, although it does need to be updated. I will probably also make it more detailed and more specific as do what I did. All his notes in the back I will move to the music itself to make sure that any performers will know what's happening.

New goal: My edition will be exactly the same as the Sorabji manuscript, with Soheil's advised corrections parenthesized.

So far, I have corrected the first 33 measures of the R-N edition.

2003-03-14T15:20:00.000-08:00

Found another error, this time in the original manuscript:

Measure 72, last chord in the upper clef should read Eb Anatural Cnatural (not Db)
Measure 76: ?????? There has to be a mistake... There has to a pattern... hasn't there?

Up til this point: 76 measures completed, or 2:38 of the piece. MIDI.

2003-03-13T18:23:00.000-08:00

Found another error in the Rycraft-Nasseri addition:

Measure 59, the time signature should return to 3/8.

Up til this point: 59 measures completed, or 2:07 of the piece. MIDI.

2003-03-12T16:38:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Soheil Nasseri lent me the Rycraft edition of the Sorabji sonata with his own corrections, so it is now the Rycraft-Nasseri edition of the Sorabji #0 Sonata. Well, I myself have a few additions to this edition so far... namely:

Measure 8, 3rd beat, 2nd 8th note of the upper staff should contain an F#, i.e. B, C, F#, B.
Measure 21, final beat, last two notes of middle staff, the Db and F should be tied between the final two chords.
Measure 23, second beat, 2nd 4-dotted eighth of the upper staff, the upper octave note should also be Eb (not E natural).
Measure 25, 2nd beat, 3rd 16th of the sextuplet contains a flat accidental without a note to which it applies. Should there be a note? There is none in the manuscript.
Measure 31, in the upper staff the lower Eb is not tied, it moves to a G in the 2nd chord.

As for my own corrections to the original manuscript:

Measure 52, the 2nd triplet in the upper staff shuold be Db-C-Cb. The 2nd group is always a diminished 5th below the 1st group. In this case it is a perfect 5th below. However, the base note of the upper staff follows the correct pattern. Therefore, the soprano triplet must be lower.

And so, up til this point: 53 measures completed, or 1:59 of the piece. MIDI.

2003-03-07T17:06:00.000-08:00

Today, since I have yet to complete registering Sibelius, I got around to writing my preliminary thesis paragraph for my essay. E-mail any comments and/or suggestions to: sphere99991@hotmail.com.

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji is a little-known albeit incredibly prolific composer with tremendous musical virtuosity. His compositions include piano solos, orchestral works, piano and voice, string trios, quartets, and quintets, and virtually all other formats. Being a man of quick inspiration, he rarely went over his work to fix his mistakes, correct spelling errors, or improve the legibility of his writing. Limiting the discussion to his pieces for piano solo, to aid organization and clarity where rapid handwriting failed, Sorabji wrote his music on many more staves than is commonly accepted, using anywhere from three to seven where two should have been. Unfortunately, between Sorabji's prohibition of public performances of his works and the inherent illegibility of his pieces with their incredible complexity of rhythms and harmonies, not many students of music, much less the public, have had the ability to hear these works. To aid the spreading of awareness of Sorabji, many scholars have undertaken to transcribe his works from handwritten manuscripts to a printed format, each transcription requiring immense effort not only with the identification of notes but also the comprehension of Sorabji's own mistakes and habitual carelessness. An analysis of the manuscript of Sorabji's Sonata "#0" Opus VII reveals complex rhythmic patterns and harmonic progressions as well as many of the composer's own errors which must first be corrected in order to create the first publishable version of this immense work.

2003-02-14T16:41:00.000-08:00

On a more extended essay related note - I turned in the initial annotated bibliography today. I had in it two sources of Dr. Paul Rapoport's, one of Alistair Hinton's, five of Sorabji's, and three complete nonsense encyclopedias. Had to get ten, right?

On an entirely unrelated note - Happy Valentine's Day. I decided today that my friends are the sweetest people alive, they were all so happy, everyone got roses, other flowers, chocolates, teddy bears, and everything and more. And yet, I remain the one single guy.

2003-02-14T16:27:00.000-08:00

Today, my unregistered copy of Sibelius became useless. It's ok though, the copy that my dad bought should come in the mail in a few days. I can still use it, just can't save, which sort of defeats the purpose no? So until then...

Help given to me by Mr. Soheil Nasseri -

The chord in measure 31 (in which you cannot tell the notes) is: D nat, Eb, Ab, Cb, E#. He also said he opts to tie it even though the Eb moves to a G. Also the mysterious text in measure 32 which I thought said cresc. et accelerez, Soheil has now confirmed for me. The 8va which began in measure 34 that didn't end, according to Soheil it ends in measure 38, the whole part being 8va. He also announced that all my mistakes weren't actually mistakes, it was that to Sorabji, accidentals don't carry over for some reason. Additions of Soheil's:

Downbeat of measure 35, the chord in the upper octave should have an F#, and the 6th 6-tuplet therein should have an A#. Also, the first 6-tuplet on the third beat should have an E natural.

Which leads me to... when exactly do accidentals carry and when don't they?

2003-02-13T16:13:00.000-08:00

Today for me was a day of rest.
Work Completed: 45 measures, 1 minute 52 seconds. MIDI Scorch

Errors Found:
In measure 44, the time signature is 7/4. In the upper clef you have 8th rest, dotted quarter, dotted whole... i.e. 8 beats. Also, the last 3 notes in the 2nd voice of the top clef should be an octave up. Likewise with measure 45, the time signature is 7/4 but all the clefs have 8 beats.

As far as changes go, I had to somewhat alter measure 44 so that it sounds right. I did not change any of the notes, I merely wrote it so that Sibelius would understand it. You can do anything in a manuscript, doesn't work so well in a program.

2003-02-12T18:39:00.000-08:00

Work completed as of now: 40 measures, 1 minute 36 seconds. MIDI Scorch

2003-02-12T17:10:00.000-08:00

Errors Found:
In measure 33:

In the 2nd 6-tuplet in the upper clef, the root of the 5th chord should be D natural, not Db.
In the first 6-tuplet of the middle staff, the root of the 4th chord should be A natural, not A#.
In the second 6-tuplet of the middle staff, the upper voice of the 1st chord should be E natural.
In the second 6-tuplet of the middle staff, the 3rd of the 2nd chord should be A natural.

In measure 34, Sorabji puts in the 8va mark but doesn't show where it ends. It reappears in measure 35 (without ending again), so it has to end somewhere. It may be merely that both measures are always raised the octave. I'm not sure about where exactly this goes, and Soheil hasn't responded yet. Secondly, it seems that a few chords are misspelled. The time signature is 18/16, so the chords are separated into {16th rest - 2 32nd notes - 16th note} groups. It seems that there is a pattern that goes 2 minor chords in second inversion and then a minor triad superimposed over an augmented fourth. If you carry through each accidental forever, here are the groupings:

(1) D-G-Bb-D (Gm6/4), C#-F#-A-C# (F#m6/4), F-Bb-D-F# (if the B was natural, Bm/F --> A4)
(2) Eb-Ab-Cb-Eb (Abm6/4), D-G-Bb-D (Gm6/4), F#-C-Eb-G (Cm/F# --> A4)
(3) G-C-Eb-G (Cm6/4), F#-B-D-F# (Bm6/4), Bb-E-G-B (Em/Bb --> A4)
(4) E-A-C-E (Am6/4), D#-G#-B-D# (G#m6/4), Fx-C#-E-G# (C#m/Fx --> A4)
(5) F-Bb-Db-F (Bbm6/4), E-A-C-E (Am6/4), G#-Db-F-A (if the Db was natural, Dm/G# --> d5)
(6) A-D-F-A (Dm6/4), G#-C#-E-G# (C#m6/4), C-F#-A-C# (F#m/C --> A4)

That is how I found the mistakes in measure 34, although this one was trickier. I'm pretty sure I'm right though I still don't know where the down octave signs go... Also, all the stuff that is tripleted (or 6-tupled) in the middle staff shouldn't be, since 18/16 is a compound time signature already (thanks Mr. Frezzo!!)

2003-02-11T16:11:00.000-08:00

Alright. I'm back again with 1 minute, 17 seconds of the sonata or 31 measures. Whichever you prefer. I think I'm getting more adept at this since I'm doing it faster. Already 3/30 pages done!! Or maybe that's just my imagination. Again, if you wish to hear the first 77 seconds of the sonata, click here. I also found something that I believe is remarkably interesting... Sibelius allows you to create web page in Scorch format... that is, I can let you see the music without letting you edit it. Of course, you have to download the applet first. But if you have the time (I don't think it's very big), I will put the sheet music of the (so far) first 31 measures click here.

2003-02-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

Continued working on the sonata today. In two hours I typed up 7 more measures. Oh boy this will probably take a long time. Two full pages (of Sorabji's) done, or 4 and a half of my own. I'm keeping it down to 3 lines per page to make it easy (read: easier) to see. I'm up to 43 seconds of the Sonata, which if you want to listen, is here.

Errors Found:
In measure 15, the time signature should be 6/4 and there should be a treble clef beginning the second beat.

2003-02-09T18:48:00.000-08:00

I went on a binge today and typeset the entire first page of the Opus VII Sonata. Well, I should say his entire first page, because typed it comes out to two pages even. I also figured out how to do dynamics, although the comma after measure 4 I still can't figure out. It'll come, it'll come in due time. If only 11 measures took as long to typeset as these did, I am getting worried as to how long the rest of the pages will take. For now, I am skipping the parts he crossed out but I will eventually return to them in the end and add them as referendums. The great thing about Sibelius is that it lets you output scores into MIDI files. If you want to hear the first 11 measures (26 seconds) of the Opus VII Sonata, click here.

As a final note: I love Sibelius.

Errors Found:
Since Sorabji crossed out the last beat of measure 11, the time signature should be 4/4.

2003-02-07T17:51:00.000-08:00

For those of you who don't think I'm doing any work, I am. Today, I downloaded a demo of Sibelius. This software is amazing. It can handle anything that Sorabji writes. So far, anyway. Using this software, I typed up the first page of the Opus VII Sonata, pictured below. The first page is presented without any dynamic marks because, well... I haven't figured out how to put them in yet. At least I'm well on my way. It's very difficult to do, but Sibelius makes it so much easier than ever expected. Also, Sibelius lets you make midi and wav files from the scores you make. Sadly, this requires the save feature. Even more sadly, the save feature is not present in the demo, so all my work with this page is lost.

2003-02-05T16:26:00.000-08:00

On an interesting note, if you search for "Kaikhosru Sorabji" on google.com, this site is the #4 hit from the top. The top site is not suprisingly, the very same Sorabji Archive that I have visited forever. The #2 site is in Italian, and the #3 site is in German. So, if you're looking for English sites, I have the #2 hit!!

Perhaps then I should start putting pertinent info about Sorabji on this site and not merely documenting my progress. He was born August 14th, his original name was Leon Dudley Sorabji. The year of his birth is unknown, it was either 1892 or 1895. The encyclopedias I have viewed contain both years and the Hinton biography does not give a year. Evidently, Sorabji - later changing his name to Kaikhosru Shapurji to reflect his Parsi heritage - did not wish anything to be known about him. Well, if you want more, I suppose you will just have to read my Extended Essay (depending on what it is actually about) when I get about to writing it and figuring out the topic.

2003-02-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

And so the process begins...

The annotated bibliography will be due on February 14th. Naturally, it will be quite difficult for me to find ten sources being that I only have 6 and it is quite difficult to find anything remotely realted to him anyway. Well, after Sorabji: A Critical Celebration, Mi contra fa, Around Music, The Sonata No. 0, and the Sorabji Archive website, I'm essentially stuck. At least for the two primary books, being that they are collections of essays, I can use each as several sources. Hopefully, that is the case... I'll find out soon won't I. I hope Mr. Frezzo will be generous, after all... he does know how difficult it is to find anything about him... being that all 3 biographies that I have found were written by the same man: Alistair Hinton.

In other news, that same man who has inspired me to being this incredible project once again returned to my school to perform his Carnegie Hall Works. That man, of course, is Soheil Nasseri. He played four works, Beethoven's Appassionata - already my favorite work for piano solo (if you wish to know... favorite concerto: Rachmoninoff No. 3 in dm; favorite orchestral work: Moussorgsky's Night on Bald Mountain) has now become even more beautiful in his capable fingers. Interestingly, the school bell rang in the middle of the 3rd movement... matching exactly the 3rd of the chord being arpeggiated at the time. Curious. He then played an Elegy of Richard Danielpour's which was entirely entrancing. Very beautiful, a wonderful work for an elegy. Next was a piece that I am in love with... a piece by Washingtonian composer Haskell Small - Three Etudes In Sound. The first and third were essentially paralleled augment 4th-based chords... it was more disonant than any given Thelonius Monk solo, and yet so beautiful and so satisfying. I was so entranced by the work that I could have cried when it ended. The final work seemed one that he did not wish to play as he kept delaying it indefinitely was a Schumann piece entitled Davidsbundlertanze (if you want a rough idea of how this piece sounds, although this file is NOTHING compared to Soheil playing it, click here) - a work Soheil called "the most beautiful piano piece of the romantic period." Now, I am entitled to agree. It really was. I could feel Schumann as he played it, and feel the love. It was entrancing beauty and romance... a wonderful piece by any standards. Clearly, he will make quite a show in Carnegie next Tuesday. Good luck, Soheil!!

Returning to Sorabji, which each essay of his that I read I become more and more entranced with him. Even if half the school makes of fun of (rightly so, I imagine) and Soheil himself undoubtedly does to, I really do like this guy. I just need to buy Sibelius so I can do something with it. Typesetting music requires something to typese it with, no?

2003-01-05T14:06:00.000-08:00

Cool article (or at least some of it) from Mi Contra Fa:

"That great artist and singer Dinh Gilly, whose so wise and witty lectures upon singing were a joy to those fortunate enough to hear them many years ago at the old Steinway Hall, used to give a mocking and sarcastic explanation of that intellectual light-headedness with which singers are generally regarded as being peculiarly afflicted to a degree over and above other musicians. The vibrations of their voices, Gilly used to say, resounding up and away in their heads had an unsettling and disturbing effect upon their wits; hence the whimsies, tantrums, temperaments, eccentricities and extravagances of behaviour – musical and other – to which they are so notoriously given. Dinh Gilly, an artist of genius, could speak feelingly of the incompetences and imbecilities of the various types of vocal practitioners he was wont to parody so deliciously, and by frankly recognizing the silliness of some of his colleagues, was careful to avoid an imputation of professional partiality by insufficiently weighting the scales; but the wearing of the coiffure of straws is far indeed from being an oddity peculiar to the singers.
For copiousness and fatuity, the balderdash the musicians and the professional writers on music have uttered, and go on uttering, about music is surpassed (if equaled) by no other, though any Chancellor of the Exchequer’s replies to any intelligent and searching parliamentary questions upon Bank loans run it pretty close. The abject state of writing upon musical topics has for long been a matter for humiliation to the intelligent and thoughtful musicians and music-lovers of this country; it prompted the founding some years ago of that excellent periodical Music and Letters which sought – and with some success so far as concerned itself – to introduce intellectual standards into writings connected with music. One would have thought that such an admirable example could not fail to have had some ameliorative effect upon the generality of writing in the so-called “musical” press of this country. (In parenthesis it may be here remarked that Busoni plays havoc with that epithet “musical,” and the loose way – the way I fear I am myself guilty of using it here – in which it is used. As he rightly points out, for a thing accurately to be described as “musical” it would have, of its own accord, to give forth music like a musical box or a musical chair, one of those that, instead of the more normal creak, greets the impact of a posterior with a stream of steely arachnidean music.) But not a bit of it; everything here – in England – remains semper eadem, and, if anything, tends to worsen. Perhaps one should not be surprised at this, since many – indeed most – of the better-known “musical” periodicals are merely the appanages of some commercial publishing house, existing chiefly for the purpose of advertising its wares, just in the same way as the daily press is of some magnate or Big Interest. One or two periodicals exist outside this charmed strait-waistcoat, but are they, for that reason, any better? Let us see.
One of these, well known and old established, had an article a while since about what it called Reality and Beauty in Music, an effusion that for muddled and confused thinking, flatulent hot-air and grotesque assumptions would have been a disgrace anywhere, let alone in a periodical given over to the serious consideration of music. The writer used as a text for his sermon a quotation from the late Sir Walford Davies, a passage of typical ineptitude. Sir Walford Davies was a shining example of the way in which a fabulous reputation can be made – in England – out of very little. By dint of a charmingly, artlessly informing prattle about music carefully drawing your attention to that which, if not a congenital idiot or stone deaf, or both, you could hear for yourself, plus a little drawing-roomy refined and ladylike tinkling of one or two passages, without ever venturing upon an entire work, Sir Walford Davies succeeded in imposing himself as the Eddystone Lighthouse of guidance through the dark and uncharted seas, the incomprehensible and tortuous enigmas of Haydn and Mozart. To return, however, to the text Sir Walford provides for the very lay (and even flatter) sermon we are about to consider. It includes the following cultured-pearl of great size and scant value:–
“Music, in association with other arts, was finding its power to depict human life in all its bewildering variety. So there grew the demand, more and more urgent, for music to become an interpreter of life, to be true to life whether beautiful or not.”
Before dealing with the edifice of flatulence, the Château en Espagne of the sermon reared upon it, let us enquire a little into the text and into some general considerations as to the power of music – if any – to “express” precise verbal concepts and ideas. Music is, we are always being told – wrongly of course (the wrong things are the only things anyone always tells everybody) – a universal language that all can understand, that appeals to all hearts, and so on and so on, ad infinitum, languorem et nauseam. But is it; Does it? The answer is that it is and does nothing of the sort. There will be very little difference of opinion about the connotation of a poem, whether in English of Péhlevi, in praise of the beauty of the night, of a rose, of the song of the Bulbul. The sentiments are explicit and clear in each case, but who can lay down the laws as to the translation or transference of the verbal-conceptual into music or vice versa? Who can say in words what this piece of music “means”? How do you know, how does anybody known, how can anybody know? What melodic contour is recognized and accepted as symbolizing, as meaning any of the things you pretend the music “expresses”? If words have any precise meaning, and if music “means” in the same way as and what words mean (and the pretence is that it does and can); if Sir Walford’s words mean anything, you must be able to point to the actual passages in the music wherein these meanings are enshrined and expressed. But, of course, you can do nothing of the sort; you personally may get that impression from the music, from a train of thought, conscious or unconscious, in your own mind, when hearing the music, which may have the remotest connect, or none at all, with what was passing in the composer’s mind when he wrote the particular passage, assuming him to be able to tell – a violently unlikely contingency."

For those of you that read that, e-mail me your views on this article - I'm interested to hear responses: sphere99991@hotmail.com

2002-12-18T15:25:00.000-08:00

Today all three books finally arrived in the mail. My excitement is incomparable. I feel giddy. Yes, giddy. Time to begin reading them, and they're massive. I was just flipping through and I found a chapter in "Around Music" concerning Chopin, should be an interesting read. Also, in "Sorabji: A Critical Celebration", some of it is written by Mr. Alistair Hinton, the very same man who I bought these books from. Very interesting. Very. I'm gonna go read something now. I think I'll start with the non-Sorabji book. Hehe, did I mention that I was really excited?

2002-12-16T18:00:00.000-08:00

Well, forget orchestration. I don't have the mental capacity to do this. So back to my ORIGINAL idea - simple annotation and publication. Well, today I decided to take this a bit further and actually learn as much as possible about Sorabji. I went back to the Sorabji Archive and I found three books that are highly interesting - "Mi contra fa" and "Around Music" by Sorabji as well as a work entitled "Sorabji: A Critical Celebration" by Dr. Rapoport. Now, considering as all three books together from this site cost me about the same as one book used from the only other place I found it, I think I'm in good shape. I can't wait until the books come in. I'm SO anxious right now. Anyone who wishes to do research on Mr. Sorabji should go to the Archive first!!! The curator, Mr. Alistair Hinton, knows more about him than anyone else that you may have access to. He's also incredibly polite and will answer any questions you pose. He has helped me SO much already. I don't know where I would be without him.

2002-11-21T18:17:00.000-08:00

After extended research, I have found a few things out. First, the only place I can get research is at the Library of Congress. Second, I can't check anything out of it DAMN. Isn't that great? Basically, I have 2 days in class every week and how much can I do? NOTHING. Why not? Because I have no way of getting anything to research. On the one hand... I could bring in my laptop every Thursday-Friday and commence the typing of the Sorabji Sonata, but that would be bulky. A different idea would be to annotate it in class. A third idea... one that seems quite exciting... is to ORCHESTRATE it. This is where my "creativity" comes into play... why merely type and annotate a song already written when I can create a new version of it... an orchestration!? Or maybe I should type it first, and then orchestrate it. If I do orchestrate it, I'll probably do it the symphonic way, that is:

Piccolo
2 Flutes
2 Oboes
2 Bassoons
2 Horns
2 Trumpets
Alto Trombone
Tenor Trombone
Bass Trombone
Timpani
Violin Is
Violin IIs
Violas
Cellos
Contrabasses

Only 19 parts to write in total. I can pull it off... write? On the one hand I have 19 parts, on the other I have 1 (or 3 depending on which way you look at it.) Ideas? Email me at sphere99991@hotmail.com

2002-11-10T20:00:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Alex Volfofsky, I have found something of use. The Libary of Congress Online Catalog. Here, I have found that they have BOTH Around Music AND Mi Contra Fa. I'm on such a high right now, I cannot begin to tell you. I'll have to make a visit there someday that I have lots of time. Maybe the day after Thanksgiving.

Thanks Volfie!!

2002-11-10T18:06:00.000-08:00

Well, I have a used copy of Mi Contra Fa!!! That was the good news anyway. The bad news is nothing that I wouldn't have expected. Well, it is in two parts. First, there are two copies that I have found. Both are in the United Kingdom (which makes sense considering how Sorabji spent most of his time in England). That's the bad news. The worse news is the price. The one in poorer condition is $124.32 and the one in finer condition is $135.30. Does someone else think that's excessive? I found them here, if you don't believe me. If any of you can find a copy of this book (or Around Music for that matter) feel free to let me know. Otherwise, I'll be forced to spend over $120 on a single book for my extended essay. Well, actually, it won't be my money anyway. Maybe I should just buy it from the UK...

2002-11-10T13:11:00.000-08:00

Well, I finally started my research on Sorabji in the RM Media Center today. Surprisingly (and lemme tell you... it was really surprising), I found some information about him. So far, I have 3 sources: The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia, the Larousse Biographical Dictionary, and The New Grove DIctionary of Music and Musicians, Vol. 17. The first two have a total of ONE paragraph about Sorabji, and are suspiciously identical. Very suspiciously identical. The latter actually has a WHOLE COLUMN about Sorabji.

What have I discovered? Sorabji was actually a critic for Musical Times, New Age, and The New English Weekly. And he actually wrote critiques of composers that are quite known: Szymanowski, Alkan, and most famous of all... Mahler. Now all I have to do is get myself a copy of the critics he wrote. The New Grow actually said he was known for his biting criticism, flashing wit, and praise of composer who became fashionable decades later. Interesting eh? And as far as conflicting information goes... this takes the cake: Both the Larousse and Cambridge (being mostly identical) stated that his piece Opus clavicembalisticum was 4 hours long, in 3 parts, with 12 subdivisions, written in 3-4 staves throughout. The New Grove stated that this piece was 3 hours long. And as far as interesting information, the New Grove stated that Sorabji wrote a piano song in SEVEN STAVES. That's RIDICULOUS! This I gotta see... Additionally, the New Grove stated that Sorabji wrote one song - the 'Jami' Symphony - that was excessively long... Any guesses on it's length? How about ONE THOUSAND PAGES. I love this guy. I really do.

Sorabji's critiques were compiled into two books: Around Music (1932) and Mi Contra Fa: The Immortalings of a Machavellian Musician (1947). These would be great firsthand sources on Sorabji's psyche. As for progress on Sonata #0? None to speak of.

2002-09-28T07:50:00.000-07:00

Since my last post, all I have succeeded in doing was deciphering all the markings of the sonata throughout the piece. I have yet to being typesetting it, although I have decided that I will use Sibelius in doing so. I heard it was a very high-class software, and I hope it will be. Well, being as I still haven't really accomplished much, I wanted to post the New York Times review of Soheil Nasseri's Carnegie Hall performance. Being as this archive is dedicated solely to Sorabji, I will merely post those sections dedicated to this composer:

"A Young Pianist with a Big Appetite"
By ALLAN KOZINN

Counterbalancing the Schubert, at the end of the recital, was Sorabji's Sonata
No. 0 (composed for the work published as Sonata No. 1), a big work composed in
1917 but listed as a world premiere. That is possible: Sorabji was a prolific
composer of huge piano works, but until the mid-1970's he prohibited public
performances of his works in the belief that pianists could not do them
justice. The Sonata No. 0 looks monstrous in manuscript: it is written on three
staves, with dense chordal figures that leave no finger free for long. Mr.
Nasseri summoned the power demanded by the work's grander proclamations, but he
showed that there is a great deal more subtlety in the work; indeed, the most
compelling passages were those in which Sorabji's thick textures were spun out
more delicately.

If you wish to read the complete review, go to the New York Times Website.

2002-09-18T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today was the first time I brought the score of this sonata to school. I was the object of immediate fame and popularity. This I will never understand. How is a person who is not a musician, has never read sheet music, and does not even know how to, able to look at a score and think him or herself intelligent by saying "this looks so hard" ? That was one thing that struck me as interesting. The second was the large amount of people that asked me whether or not I planned to play this Sonata eventually after a) I told them only one person in the world was capable of doing so, Mr. Soheil Nasseri and b) I told them I wasn't planning on playing it. Can't people just take me for my word?

Anyway, I brought it to school with intentions (can you believe it?) that differ from the rising popularity and fame of "Carrier of the big ugly white score that doesn't fit on a shelf". My initial reason was to show my music theory teacher, and who will become my extended essay adviser, Mr. Ronald Frezzo, this score and to see if he could advice me in the ways of how exactly I should go about doing this job. There are of course two primary music notation tools: Sibelius and Finale. I have not yet decided which it would be recommended for me to use. This has yet to be soon. My second reason, that upon thinking is equally important, was to present this score to my french teacher, Mme Christiane Nugent, and to see if between the two of us we could extract meaning from the notes throughout the sonata. Albeit I must give credit to Sorabji for his fabulous handwriting on the music itself, his notes are a bit slacking in legibility. In fact, we hasseled for nearly 10 minutes trying to decipher two words:

If you know what this says, you are a literary genius. I'll give you a hint though, its in French. Between the two of us, we have realized the wording of the first half of the sonata, the second half remains for another day. All in all, this project is going quite well.

Now all I need to do is begin. I need music notation software, and as specified in my previous entry, NoteWorthy Composer doesn't quite cut it for me. The following are the requirements for this software:

* Note values ranging from whole to 128th notes (yes, this piece covers the entire range).
* Dotting. Albeit all software should allow the notation of a dotted quarter, occasionally a double dotted quarter, there are many locations in this piece requiring a quadruple dotted eigth note. (This goes along with the 128th note, as a quadruple dotted 8th + 128th = 1 quarter note).
* Capability of doing triplets, pentuplets, hexuplets, etc. The largest I've seen so far through browsing is 14, which does not even begin to compare to Chopin's 35 in his Nocturne in C#minor. In any case, this is absolute necessity. If a notation program does not have the capability to make, say, a pentuplet, it is poor.
* Capability of making a triplet constist of a triplet. See the previous entry's "convluted rhythm"
* Capability of making ANY time signature, not just the common ones.
* Essentially, complete control.

I hope Sibelius does the trick, as then i could work on this project in school and not have to spend the, approx, $600 necessary to buy this software. As it stands, I have an unbelievably large headstart over my peers. If successful, which is as of now possibility only, not even probable yet, I have a minor chance of getting this work published and finally recognized properly.

2002-09-14T20:59:00.000-07:00

Before, I begin, if you wish to learn more about Kaikhusru Shapurji Sorabji, go here: http://www.music.mcgill.ca/~jwapnick/sorabji/sorabji.html. It contains a link to the Sorabji Archives near London, from whom I purchased the manuscript.

Today, I begin my great quest. At approximately 6:45pm, my mom came into my room and delivered my package: my own photocopy of the manuscript to Sorabji's 1917 Sonata, named "#0". It is named thus because he later, in 1919, wrote his Sonata No. 1. My goal - To create a typed version of this manuscript, and possibly publish it in the process. This is a monumental task, considering that there are 30 pages, roughly 5 lines of music per page, each line containing 3 staves instead of the normal 2. In the words of Soheil Nasseri, the only pianist capable of playing this song, this guy is "an asshole." Why am I doing this you might ask? IB Extended Essay.

I began trying to type this thing not long ago, around 9:00pm. I had a few months earlier downloaded an eval. copy of a software called NoteWorthy Composer for free and it is, quite put, terrible. Don't download it. It's free, but there are much better ones out there. Well, it began fairly easily, I got the title and composer down with no trouble at all. I decided to skip the text and write it in later (did I mention that it is in french, script, and very small?). Well, so I began in measure one with my 3 staves of music. Now, you might ask yourselves... what is the time signature of this monster? 4/4? 2/4? 3/8? No, it is not that simple. Haha. The piece begins in 7/4. Yes... 7/4. And proceeds to change time signatures EVERY MEASURE for the first page... I have decided not to look further yet so as to avoid scaring myself to death.

The first measure is was quite easy, as were the next three. The introductory, pre-melodic portion of the piece is now typed. Interesting notes: he trills A-Bb in the 1st measure and C-Db in the 3rd. Nice minor 9th disonance. And in between in the upper staff, we have major 7ths. Very disonant. This guy knew what he was doing. Measure 5 presents the first difficulty. I have decided that playing this piece physically on a real piano would prove much easier then typing it. Who knows, maybe I'll live that assertion eventually. Now, in laymans terms, the right and left hands provide voicing, generally in similar motion, up and down the keyboard (twice) during this measure while the left hand provides additional auxilliary base chords. Can you guess what the first base chord is? C-G-Db - our minor 9th friend. Melodic Rhythm scheme for this measure: 4 8ths, then 6 tripleted 8ths, then 2 8ths, then 6 tripleted 8ths. Interesting rhythmic effect. Another thing, more interesting, is his rampant use of the P4/A4 superimposition, a very common jazz tool that I don't believe had actually existed in 1917. In fact, this superposition is very common. As is a chord which he uses twice in this measure: G-Bb-Db-F#. I don't exactly understand what this chord is... ? Maybe someone reading this can enlighten me beyond: Gdim maj7. Well, even measure 5 with its convolusion could not have prepared me for...

Measure 6. Beginning of course with a time signature change (to 5/4???), this follows contrary melodic motion -> the right moving down and the left moving up, in various degrees of convoluted rhythms. Yet, there is one figure at the end of this measure which is completely beyond the powers of NoteWorthy. Here it is...

Interesting figure? I thought so too. The left hand has a similar figure. As a pianist, I know how to play this. But NoteWorthy is doomed. Sorry. You just suck.

So, amidst nearly 3 hours of toil, I have completed the first 5 measures of this piece. Sorabji didn't number his measures, so I can't tell you how many there are total. But there are probably several more then 5. I'll call it a day, I'll take it up again when I find a better music notation software... perhaps Finale, I hear its pretty good. Well, I'm out.