Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji, né Leon Dudley Sorabji, était un compositeur, pianiste classique et critique musical britannique, né le 14 août 1892 à Epping (Essex), mort le 15 octobre 1988.
Son ascendance mêlait diverses origines : indienne de confession pârsî du côté paternel et un mélange hispano-sicilien du côté maternel. Il changea son état civil (comme cela est autorisé dans de nombreux pays anglo-saxons) pour revendiquer son adhésion à son héritage culturel pârsî.
Sa musique est influencée par Scriabine, Alkan, Reger, Szymanowski, Delius et surtout Busoni, auquel il a dédié sa 2e Sonate pour piano.
Peu de choses sont connues de sa biographie car il fuyait les interviews et vivait reclus. À point tel qu’il a été surnommé le « Howard Hugues de la musique ».
Il a écrit principalement pour le piano et l’orgue.
Oeuvres :
Orchestre
Poem, Chaleur, a short piece for orchestra (1917)
Symphony No. 1 for piano, organ, chorus and large orchestra (1921–1922)
Opusculum, a fairly short piece for orchestra (1923)
Symphony No. 3 "Jāmī" for baritone solo, wordless chorus, and large orchestra (including piano and organ) (1942–1951)
(The second symphony, 1930–1931, was intended for piano, large orchestra, organ, a final chorus, and six solo voices; only the piano part was completed, though this is, in number of pages, itself longer than the Opus Clavicembalisticum and seems to be a self-sufficient work.)
Messa alta sinfonica (Symphonic High Mass) (8 soloists, 2 choirs and orchestra.) (1955–1961)
Piano et orchestre
Eight Piano Concertos (no. 1, 1915–1916 to no. 8, 1927–1928, some unpublished, full score of no. 2 missing. The numbering used by Rapoport et al. is based on rediscoveries and reconstructed chronology, not on the numbers given in contemporary publications or even on the manuscript (eg. "Concerto V" written 1927–1928 seems to have been the eighth in order of composition.)
Symphonic Variations for Piano and Orchestra (orchestrated in 1953–1956 from the first book of the three-book piano work written in 1935–1937)
Opus clavisymphonicum—Concerto for Piano and Large Orchestra (1957–1959)
Opusculum clavisymphonicum vel claviorchestrale (Little Work for Keyboard and Orchestra) (1973–1975)
Voix et orchestre
Music to "The Rider by the Night" (text, Robert Nichols), only exists in full score
Cinque Sonetti di Michelangelo Buonarroti (baritone and chamber orchestra) (1923)
Cloches
Suggested Bell-Chorale for St. Luke’s Carillon (St. Luke's Church, Germantown, Philadelphia)
Songs
The Poplars (Ducic, translated Selver) (2 versions) (1915)
Chrysilla (de Régnier)
Roses du Soir (Louÿs)
l’Heure Exquise (Verlaine) (1916)
Vocalise (2 versions) (1916)
Apparition (Mallarmé) (1916)
Hymne à Aphrodité (Tailhade) (2 versions) (1916)
l’Étang (Rollinat) (1917)
I was not Sorrowful (Dowson) (1917)
Le Mauvais Jardinier (Gilkin) (incomplete) (1917)
Trois Poèmes (Baudelaire and Verlaine)
Arabesque (Shamsu’d-Dīn)
Trois Fêtes Galantes (Verlaine) (1924)
Trois Poèmes du “Gulistān” de Sa‘dī (translated Toussaint) (2 versions) (1926)
l’Irrémédiable (Baudelaire) (1918)
Vocalise “Movement” (1928)
Three Songs (Baudelaire and Verlaine) (1941)
Frammento Cantato
Musique de chambre
Primary among these are the two piano quintets, written 1919–1920 and 1932–1933 (a lengthy work at 432 pages, challenging Morton Feldman's String Quartet II for longest chamber work status). New typeset editions of all of the chamber works are available from the Sorabji Archive.
Concertino non grosso (4 violins, viola, and cello) (1968)
Il Tessuto d’Arabeschi - La Fabrique d'Arabesques (flute and string quartet) (1979)
Fantasiettina Atematica (oboe, flute, and clarinet)
Piano
Five sonatas (sonatas 1–5, 1919 — 1934–1935. Also sonata '0', 1917, rediscovered posthumously, premiered 2002 by Soheil Nasseri)
Six piano symphonies (Tantrik Symphony, 1938–39, Second Symphony, 1954, Third Symphony, 1959–1960, Fourth Symphony, 1962–1964, Symphonia brevis, 1973, Symphonia claviensis, 1975–1976)
Four numbered toccatas (Toccata, 1928; Toccata seconda, 1933–1934; Toccata terza (lost); Toccata quarta, 1964–1967. Also Toccata from two piano pieces, 1920 and Toccatinetta sopra C.G.F, 1929)
Opus Clavicembalisticum (1929–1930)
Symphonic Variations (1935–1937) (in three books, of which the first was later orchestrated. Despite the name they are not sketches but complete piano pieces. This is arguably Sorabji's longest work, approx. 7–9 hours)
100 Études transcendantes (1940–1944) (in four volumes) (These range from short virtuoso studies to expansive concert works, such as no.75 'Passacaglia')
Concerto da suonare da me solo e senza orchestra, per divertirsi (1946)
Sequentia cyclica super "Dies iræ" ex Missa pro defunctis (1948–1949)
Quasi Habanera (1917) (Not to be confused with the Quasi-Habanera movement of the Fantasia Ispanica)
Désir éperdu (1917)
Two Pieces (In the hothouse, and Toccata) (1918, 1920)
Fantaisie Espagnole (1919)
Prelude, Interlude, and Fugue (1920/22)
Trois Pastiches (Pastiches of Chopin, Bizet, and Rimsky-Korsakoff) (1922)
Rapsodie Espagnole (Transcription of the Ravel orchestral work)
Le Jardin Parfumé (1923)
Valse-Fantaisie (Hommage à Johann Strauss) (1925)
Variations and Fugue on “Dies Iræ” (1923–1926)
Fragment (Prelude and Fugue) (1926)
Fragment for Harold Rutland (1926/28/37)
Toccata No. 1 (1928)
Djami (1928)
Passacaglia (unfinished) (1929)
Introduction, Passacaglia, Cadenza, and Fugue (completion by Abercrombie of unfinished 1929 Passacaglia)
Toccatinetta sopra C.F.G. (1929)
Symphony (unnumbered solo piano work intended for piano, orchestra, chorus, and soli) (1930–1931)
Fantasia Ispanica (1933)
Pasticcio Capriccioso (Chopin Pastiche) (1933)
Toccata No. 2 (1933–34)
Quaere Reliqua Hujus Materiei inter Secretiora (based on the story "Count Magnus" by M. R. James) (1940)
Gulistān (“The Rose Garden” [Sa‘di]) (1940)
St. Bertrand de Comminges: "He was Laughing in the Tower" (based on the story "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book" by M. R. James) (1941)
Prelude in E flat (J.S. Bach transcription)
Schlußszene aus “Salome” (Strauss concert paraphrase)
Un Nido di Scatole (1950)
Toccata No. 3 (1939, lost)
Passeggiata Veneziana (based on “Barcarolle” from “Les Contes d’Hoffman” [Offenbach]) (1956)
Rosario d’Arabeschi (1950)
Fantasiettina sul nome illustre dell’egregio poeta Christopher Grieve ossia Hugh M’Diarmid (1961)
20 Frammenti Aforistici (1962)
Toccata No. 4 (1964)
104 Frammenti Aforistici (Sutras)
Variazione Maliziosa e Perversa sopra “la Morte d’Åse” da Grieg (1974)
4 Frammenti Aforistici (1977)
Symphonic Nocturne (A large work for solo piano still in manuscript form) (1978)
Il Grido del Gallino d’Oro (variations and fugue on a theme from “Le Coq d’Or” [Rimsky-Korsakov])
Villa Tasca
Opus Secretum
Passeggiata Variata
2 Sutras sul Nome dell’amico Alexis
Passeggiata Arlecchinesca (based on material from “Rondò Arlecchinesco” [Busoni]) (1982)
Trascription in the Light of Harpsichord Technique for the Modern Piano of the Chromatic Fantasia of J.S. Bach Followed by a Fugue, as well as a number of other transcriptions (1940)
Orgue
Three organ symphonies (1924, 1929–1932, 1949–1953)
Carillon pour l'église Saint Luc de Philadelphie (1961)
Voice and organ
Benedizione di San Francesco d’Assisi (baritone) (1973)
Accueil 
