This event wil be livestreamed (be sure to press the “play” button)
Collin Miller, M.M.A. ’24, will perform Kaikhosru Sorabji’s Organ Symphony no. 1 on Woolsey Hall’s Newberry organ, the first time any single organist other than Kevin Bowyer, who co-premiered the work in 1987, has performed the piece in its entirety.
Program:
Kaikhosru Sorabji: Organ Symphony no. 1
British composer Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji’s Organ Symphony no. 1 was a work without parallel in the organ repertoire when it was composed 100 years ago in 1924. Though only a fraction of the length of Sorabji’s later Second and Third Organ Symphonies, the nearly two hours of the First Organ Symphony draw the listener through intricate and varied explorations of several themes which accumulate through the work’s three movements, ultimately leading to a climactic apotheosis of the B-A-C-H motif, previously hidden in the contrapuntal texture. The symphony is a major milestone in Sorabji’s output, pulling together strands from composers such as Ferrucio Busoni and Max Reger alongside already developing trends within Sorabji’s music. A modernist harmonic language incorporating polytonal sonorities and added-tone chords is utilized alongside Baroque forms such as passacaglia and fugue for the first time in Sorabji’s large scale works. The vast resources of the Newberry Memorial Organ at Woolsey Hall highlight the work’s range of color, from dense, stridently dissonant counterpoint to passages of arabesque-like melodies and oscillating chords reminiscent of the composer’s piano nocturnes.
-Program note by Collin Miller