With a wracking head and literally my whole body shaking as with ague I write this and tell you I have just this afternoon early finished Clavicembalisticum... The closing 4 pages are so cataclysmic and catastrophic as anything I've ever done — the harmony bites like nitric acid — the counterpoint grinds like the mills of God...


Letter to his friend the Scots composer Erik Chisholm (1904-65) upon completion of Opus clavicembalisticum, 1930; quoted by pianist John Ogdon.

Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji Quotes

With a wracking head and literally my whole body shaking as with ague I write this and tell you I have just this afternoon early finished...

With a wracking head and literally my whole body shaking as with ague I write this and tell you I have just this afternoon early finished...

With a wracking head and literally my whole body shaking as with ague I write this and tell you I have just this afternoon early finished...

With a wracking head and literally my whole body shaking as with ague I write this and tell you I have just this afternoon early finished...