This general dedication (a particular one to Hugh MacDiarmid precedes it) stands at the front of Kaikhosru Shapurji Sorabji's
Opus clavicembalisticum
as gates of warning to mere ordinary minds not to enter the edifice beyond.
O.C.
(for short) is a chiefly contrapuntal creation for piano solo, 248 large pages of music lasting nearly 3 hours, whose length is matched by its great difficulty, complexity, and intricacy of detail. Sorabji probably began it in 1929, with partial stimulus from Egon Petri's performances of Busoni's
Fantasia contrappuntistica
. That work seems to have been a structural model for
O.C.
, although
O.C.
is no imitation of the Busoni, but a transcendent creative response to it.