Dr. Justin Henry Rubin: Thematic Metamorphosis and Perception in the Symphony [No. 1] for Organ of Kaikhosru Sorabji (6/7)

Ex.23. – mov. III, page 67, system 1–2

Ex.23. – mov. III, page 67, system 1–2

Ex.23. The ascending diminished triad now becomes infused within a longer line, repeated at irregular intervals, then blended into a statement of the FS1 before taking on a new trajectory. What is important is the manner in which the materials are becoming fused without any demarcation. The fugue subject does not function as it originally did to provide a point of imitation, but solely as part of the overall fabric.


Ex.24. – mov. III, page 69, system 1

Ex.24. – mov. III, page 69, system 1

Ex.25. – mov. III, page 67, system 2

Ex.25. – mov. III, page 67, system 2

Ex.24. and 25 This manual cadenza exhibits a hidden interior motive (an intervallically compressed transformation of the PT incipit) that appears as suddenly as it subsides into an improvised flourish. All the while, the underlying pedal creates a rhythmically irregular chain of rising diminished triads.


Ex.26. – mov. III, page 74, system 1

Ex.26. – mov. III, page 74, system 1

Ex.26. Another transformation and sequence of the PT incipit is juxtaposed with the FS2/R. The fugal theme maintains the rhythm and directionality of the original statement from the second movement, but its intervallic content is severely compressed.


Ex.27. – mov. III, page 74, system 2

Ex.27. – mov. III, page 74, system 2

Ex.27. FS2/I undergoes a similar sequence-transformation wherein the interval content is altered within each succeeding statement. In addition, the line is placed amidst an ongoing ornamental line, and therefore does not have a distinct entrance as such.


Ex.28. – mov. III, page 75, system 3

Ex.28. – mov. III, page 75, system 3

Ex.28. In this pedal line, the FS1/R incipit is placed within a larger melodic contour, its profile distinguished perhaps only by the fact that its note values are augmented.