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Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russia Russia

Russia , also the Russian Federation , is a country [i] that stretches over a vast expanse of Eurasia [i] ... 

n composer and pianist Pianist

A pianist is a person who plays the piano [i]. ... 

.

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Timeline

1872   Born


Quotations

I am God.

Scriabin wrote this in one of his secret philosophical journals.

Skryabin comes so close to the twelve-note system that it seems probable he would have taken it as the next logical step.

Ellon Carpenter, quoted in Faubion Bowers (1973), The New Scriabin, p.171. New York: St. Martin's Press.

       More Quotes >>


Encyclopedia

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was a Russia Russia

Russia , also the Russian Federation , is a country [i] that stretches over a vast expanse of Eurasia [i] ... 

n composer and pianist Pianist

A pianist is a person who plays the piano [i]. ... 

.


Biography

Scriabin was born into an aristocratic family in Moscow Moscow

Moscow is the capital [i] of Russia [i] and the country's principal political, economic, financial, edu ... 

 on Christmas day in the Julian Calendar Julian calendar

The Julian calendar was introduced in 46 BC [i] by Julius Caesar [i] and took force in 45 BC [i] . ... 

. When he was only a year old, his mother, a concert pianist, died of tuberculosis Tuberculosis

Tuberculosis is an infectious disease [i] caused by the bacterium [i] Mycobacterium tuberculosis [i]'... 

. Scriabin's father left for Turkey Turkey

Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a Eurasia [i]n country that stretches across the Anatolia [i] ... 

, leaving the young infant with his doting grandmother and great aunt. He studied the piano Piano

piano or pianoforte is a musical instrument [i] classified as a keyboard [i], ... 

 from an early age, taking lessons with famed teacher Nikolay Zverev, a strict disciplinarian, who was teaching Sergei Rachmaninov Sergei Rachmaninoff

Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian [i] composer [i], pianist [i], and conductor [i] ... 

 and a number of other prodigies at the same time. His home was a place where famous musicians of the day, such as Tchaikovsky, would be the audience for his pupils' performances, usually of their own compositions. Zverev was demanding and strict; he even threw Rachmaninov out when he asked for his own room in order to compose without disturbance from noise.

Scriabin later studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Anton Arensky, Sergei Taneyev Sergei Taneyev

Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev, a pupil of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky [i], was a Russian [i] composer [i] ... 

, and Vasily Ilyich Safonov. He became a noted pianist despite his small hands with a span of barely over an octave. Feeling challenged by Rachmaninov, who had exceptionally large hands, he seriously damaged his right hand while practicing Liszt Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian virtuoso [i] pianist [i] and composer [i]. ... 

's Don Juan. His doctor said he would never recover, and he wrote his first large-scale masterpiece, the f minor sonata, as a "cry against God, against fate". Unmoved by the requirement to write several pieces in forms that didn't interest him, Scriabin failed his composition class and didn't graduate. Ironically, the one requirement he did complete, an e minor fugue, became required learning for decades at the Conservatory. He was awarded the Little Gold Medal, and Rachmaninov was awarded the Great Gold Medal for his one-act opera Opera

Opera is a dramatic [i] art [i] form, originating in Italy [i], in which the emotional content or... 

, Aleko Aleko

The Aleko is a Russian car [i] that was presented to the public in 1986 and was being manufac ... 

.
A comparison of the creative trajectories of Rachmaninov and Scriabin has fueled psychoanalytic speculation on the distinction between .

Scriabin married a pianist, Vera Ivanova Isakovich, after graduation and had several children, but he eventually left his wife and teaching position for a young pupil, Tatiana Fyodorovna Schloeze, who he had a son with named Julian. That son was also a prodigy, who composed several sophisticated pieces before drowning in a boating accident at age 11. He also painted and wrote poetry.

Scriabin, previously interested in Friedrich Nietzsche Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche , a Prussia [i]n-born philologist [i] and philosopher [i], produced critique ... 

's übermensch Übermensch

The bermensch German: "superhuman person", English: "overman" or "superman" is the philosophical c... 

 theory, also became interested in theosophy Theosophy

Theosophy, literally "knowledge of the divine", is a body of ideas which holds that all religion [i]s ar ... 

, and both would influence his music and musical thought. In 1909-10 he lived in Brussels Brussels

Brussels is the capital [i] of Belgium [i], the French Community of Belgium [i], the Flemish Community [i]... 

, becoming interested in Delville Jean Delville

Jean Delville was a Belgian [i] symbolist painter [i], writer, and occultist [i]. ... 

's Theosophist movement and continuing his reading of Hélène Blavatsky Madame Blavatsky

Helena Petrovna Hahn - May 8 [i], 1891 [i] London [i]), better known as Helena Blavatsky or Mad ... 

 . Theosophist and composer Dane Rudhyar Dane Rudhyar

Dane Rudhyar, n Daniel Chennevire, was a modernist composer [i] and humanistic astrologer [i]. ... 

 wrote that Scriabin was "the one great pioneer of the new music of a reborn Western civilization, the father of the future musician," and an antidote to "the Latin reactionaries and their apostle, Stravinsky Igor Stravinsky

Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky was a Russian [i]-born composer [i].
... 

" and the "rule-ordained" music of "Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg

Arnold Franz Walter Schoenberg , was an Austria [i]n and later American [i] composer [i]. ... 

's group." .

Scriabin was a hypochondriac his entire life. He died in Moscow from septicemia, contracted as a result of a shaving cut or a boil on his lip. For some time before his death he had planned a multi-media work to be performed in the Himalayas, that would bring about the armageddon, "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would herald the birth of a new world" . This piece, Mysterium Mysterium

Mysterium is a yearly convention of fans of the Myst franchise [i] of computer game [i]s, which was ... 

, was never realized.

He was possibly the uncle of Vyacheslav Molotov Vyacheslav Molotov

Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Soviet [i] politician [i] and diplomat [i], was ... 

, the Russian politician and eponym of the Molotov cocktail Molotov cocktail

Molotov cocktail, named after Vyacheslav Molotov [i] also known as petrol bomb, benzine torch ... 

. Molotov's original surname was Scriabin. Simon Montefiore in his biography of Stalin, states that despite the shared family name, Molotov was not in any way related to the composer. Scriabin wrote poetry, which was generally tied to his compositions, and it is not taken seriously by itself.

Pianists who have performed Scriabin to critical acclaim include Vladimir Sofronitsky, Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Horowitz

Vladimir Samoylovych Horowitz October 1 [i], 1903 [i] – November 5 [i], 1989 [i]) was a Ukrainian- ... 

 and Sviatoslav Richter. Horowitz performed for Scriabin, in his home as a youth, and Scriabin had an enthusiastic reaction, but cautioned that he needed further training. Horowitz remarked, as an elderly man, that Scriabin was obviously crazy, because he had ticks and couldn't sit still. Despite Horowitz' assessment, Scriabin held the rapt attention of the musical world in Russia while he was alive.

Music


Style and influences

Many of Scriabin's works are written for the piano. The earliest pieces resemble Frédéric Chopin Frédéric Chopin

Frdric Franois Chopin , was a Polish [i] pianist [i] and composer [i]. ... 

 and include music in many forms that Chopin himself employed, such as the etude, the prelude and the mazurka. Scriabin's music gradually evolved during the course of his life, although the evolution was very rapid and especially long when compared to most composers. Aside from his earliest pieces, his works are strikingly original, the mid and late-period pieces employing very unusual harmonies and textures. The development of Scriabin's voice or style can be followed in his ten piano sonatas: the earliest are in a fairly conventional late-Romantic idiom and show the influence of Chopin and Franz Liszt Franz Liszt

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian virtuoso [i] pianist [i] and composer [i]. ... 

, but the later ones move into new territory, the last five being written with no key signature Key signature

In musical notation [i], a key signature is a series of sharp [i] symbols or flat [i] symbols pla ... 

. Many passages in them can be said to be atonal, though from 1903 through 1908, "tonal unity was almost imperceptibly replaced by harmonic unity." See: synthetic chord Synthetic chord

rce
  • Samson, Jim. Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920.... 

    .


Aaron Copland Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American [i] composer [i] of concert and film music.... 

 praised Scriabin's thematic material as "truly individual, truly inspired", but criticized Scriabin for putting "this really new body of feeling into the strait-jacket of the old classical sonata-form, recapitulation and all" calling this "one of the most extraordinary mistakes in all music." According to Samson the sonata-form of Sonata No. 5 has some meaning to the work's tonal structure, but in Sonata No. 6 and Sonata No. 7 formal tensions are created by the absence of harmonic contrast and "between the cumulative momentum of the music, usually achieved by textural rather than harmonic means, and the formal constraints of the tripartite mould." He also argues that the Poem of Ecstasy and Vers la flamme "find a much happier co-operation of 'form' and 'content'" and that later Sonatas such as Sonata No. 9 employ a much more flexible sonata-form.

Influence of color


Though these works are often considered to be influenced by Scriabin's synesthesia Synesthesia

Synesthesia -- from the Greek syn- meaning union and aesthesis meaning sensation -- is ... 

, a condition wherein one experiences sensation in one sense in response to stimulus in another, it is most likely Alexander Scriabin did not actually experience this
. His color system, unlike most synesthetic experience, lines up with the circle of fifths Circle of fifths

In music theory [i], the circle of fifths is a geometrical space that depicts relationships among the 12 ... 

: it was a thought-out system based on Sir Isaac Newton Isaac Newton

[i] [[[Old Style and New Style dates|OS]] [i]: [[25 December]] [i] [[1642]] [i]... 

's Optics. Indeed, influenced also by his theosophical beliefs, he developed it towards what would have been a pioneering multimedia performance: his unrealized magnum opus Mysterium Mysterium

Mysterium is a yearly convention of fans of the Myst franchise [i] of computer game [i]s, which was ... 

was to have been a grand week-long performance including music, scent, dance, and light in the foothills of the Himalaya Himalayas

The Himalayas are a mountain range [i] in Asia [i], separating the Indian subcontinent [i] from the Tibetan Plateau [i] ... 

s that was to bring about the dissolution of the world in bliss.

While Scriabin wrote only a small number of orchestra Orchestra

An orchestra is a musical ensemble [i] used most often in classical music [i]. ... 

l works, they are among his most famous, and some are frequently performed. They include three symphonies, a piano concerto , The Poem of Ecstasy  and , which includes a part for a "clavier à lumières Clavier à lumières

The clavier a lumieres, or tastira per luce, as it appears in the score, was a [[musical instrument]... 

", also known as the Luxe, - which was a color organ designed specifically for the performance of Scriabin's symphony. It was played like a piano, but projected colored light Light

Light is electromagnetic radiation [i] with a wavelength [i] that is visible to the eye [i] or, in a technical [i] ... 

 on a screen in the concert hall rather than sound. Most performances of the piece have not included this light element, although a performance in New York City New York City

[i] in the [[United States]... 

 in 1915 projected colours onto a screen. It has erroneously been claimed that this performance used the colour-organ invented by English painter A. Wallace Rimington when in fact it was a novel construction personally supervised and built in New York specifically for the performance by Preston S. Miller, the president of the Illuminating Engineering Society.

Scriabin's original colour keyboard, with its associated turntable of coloured lamps, is preserved in his apartment near the Arbat Arbat Street

The Old Arbat is a picturesque pedestrian street within the Garden Ring [i] of Moscow [i]. ... 

 in Moscow, which is now a museum dedicated to his life and works.

External links

  • by Lia Tomás
  • by B. Galeyev & I. Vanechkina
  • by Mutopia Project

References



  • Harry Plummer, "Color Music-A New Art Created with the Aid of Science, The Color Organ Used in Scriabin's Symphony Prometheus". [Scientific American, April 10, 1915]


  • Garcia, E.E.: . Psychoanalytic Review, 91:423-442.