Two extraordinary personalities, and one remarkable friendship, are reflected in the unique corpus of letters from Anglo-Parsi composer-critic Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892-1988) to Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) (1894-1930): a fascinating primary source for the period 1913-1922 available in a complete critical edition for the first time.
Two extraordinary personalities, and one remarkable friendship, are reflected in the unique corpus of letters from Anglo-Parsi composer-critic Kaikhosru Sorabji (1892-1988) to Philip Heseltine (Peter Warlock) (1894-1930): a fascinating primary source for the period 1913-1922 available in a complete scholarly edition for the first time. The volume also provides a new contextual, critical and interpretative framework, incorporating a myriad of perspectives: identities, social geographies, style construction, and mutual interests and influences. Pertinent period documents, including evidence of Heseltine's reactions, enhance the sense of narrative and expand on aesthetic discussions. Through the letters' entertaining and perceptive lens, Sorabji's early life and compositions are vividly illuminated and Heseltine's own intriguing life and work recontextualised. What emerges takes us beyond tropes of otherness and eccentricity to reveal a persona and a narrative with great relevance to modern-day debates on canonicity and identity, especially the nexus of ethnicity, queer identities and Western art music. Scholars, performers and admirers of early twentieth-century music in Britain, and beyond, will find this a valuable addition to the literature. The book will appeal to those studying or interested in early musical modernism and its reception; cultural life in London around and after the First World War; music, nationality and race; Commonwealth studies; and music and sexuality.
"This collection provides an invaluable insight into Sorabji and Warlock's early musical careers, but also a fascinating account of their wider socio-cultural world which is so very different to today's new music world. In the course of the correspondence Sorabji begins composing and performing for the first time and it is thrilling to hear his thoughts on the works which began his long career. Works which seem to have arrived from nowhere but which formed the basis for much that followed. This is invaluable reading."
Paul Jackson - British Music Society
'This paperback is an object-lesson in how to present a correspondence when only one side of the exchange survives in the archive. Unfortunately, Sorabji failed to preserve the letters written to him by Philip Heseltine, so we only have his side of the correspondence, but one of the triumphs of this collection is that the letters are placed in context by a remarkably thorough scholarly infrastructure documenting Heseltine's activities at the time and deducing what he might have contributed. Sorabji writes at some length and, despite his sometimes wayward views, it is a vivid and compelling picture of the musical life of their circle at the time.'
Delius Society Journal 170, Autumn 2021
