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Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji was a pianist, music journalist and composer of Spanish‐Sicilian and Parsi descent, who was born in and lived in Britain. (18921988).

He identified however, with his Parsi heritage (referring to the Parsi community and not the Zoroastrian religion,) emphatically not with his British birth.

His works were influenced by Alkan, Busoni (to whom his second piano sonata is dedicated,) Godowsky and Delius. He was friends with Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) and became a music journalist in part because of their friendship.

His work for solo piano, Opus Clavicembalisticum (1930) is about 4 hours in length (depending on the performer!), and consists of three sections each divided into several movements. Characteristic is his use, inspired by Busoni, of baroque forms — chorale prelude and fugue — with harmonies and approaches that are not neoclassical as usually understood.

Book

External links

Sorabji Archive