Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Scriabin was born on Christmas Day 1871 in Moscow into a Russian noble family. His father Nikolai worked as a military attaché and later became an honorary consul in Lausanne. Alexander's mother Lyubov died of tuberculosis when he was only one year old. After her death, his father left the infant with relatives including his grandmother and aunt. The young boy grew up surrounded by piano playing from his aunt who documented his early life. He began building pianos himself after becoming fascinated with their internal mechanisms. Sometimes he gave houseguests pianos that he had constructed. Despite being small and weak among other boys at school, he won approval during a concert where he performed on the piano. He studied piano under Nikolai Zverev who taught many famous prodigies like Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Before 1903 Scriabin composed music heavily influenced by Frédéric Chopin in a relatively tonal late-Romantic style. His earliest works include études preludes nocturnes and mazurkas similar to those used by Chopin. By 1903 his harmonic language shifted dramatically toward dissonance without becoming fully atonal. The development can be traced through his ten piano sonatas where the first few follow conventional rules while the last five lack key signatures entirely. During this transition period dominant chords were extended and treated differently than before. Added tones became frozen solidified into color-like effects rather than resolving conventionally. From 1903 through 1908 tonal unity was almost imperceptibly replaced by harmonic unity. Most of his late music is built on acoustic and octatonic scales combined into nine-note structures.
Scriabin engaged deeply with philosophies from German authors including Schopenhauer Wagner and Nietzsche. He also showed interest in theosophy and the writings of Helena Blavatsky making contact with figures such as Jean Delville. His notebooks contain the declaration I am God which scholars interpret as extreme humility within Eastern and Western mystic traditions rather than megalomania. Recent scholarship places him within early Russian cosmism originating from Nikolai Fyodorov's ideas about uniting humanity through cosmic evolution. Scriabin believed music held a central transformative power to achieve these cosmist goals unlike other thinkers who focused on technology or religion alone. His works reflect themes of art cosmos monism destination and common tasks for humanity. These philosophical ideas emphasize unity between man God and nature within the context of early Russian cosmism.
Scriabin planned a multimedia work called Mysterium intended to last seven days and involve all means of expression including humanity itself. The goal was to regenerate mankind and transform the world by dissolving it into bliss. He left only sketches for this piece though a preliminary part known as L'acte préalable eventually became performable. Vladimir Ashkenazy later recorded an entire two-and-a-half-hour completion with the Deutsches Symphonischer Orchester Berlin. Several late pieces published during his lifetime are believed to have been intended for Mysterium such as the Two Dances Opus 73. The project would take place in a temple in India located in the foothills of the Himalayas. Ideas of unity transcendence synthesis of arts and transformation pervade every aspect of this unfinished masterpiece.
Scriabin developed a conceptual system linking specific musical keys to colors inspired partly by Sir Isaac Newton's Opticks. Unlike typical synesthetic experiences his color-tonal analogies were associative psychological rather than literal co-sensations. His colour-coded circle of fifths accorded with theosophical ideas he had encountered. In 1910 he composed Prometheus: The Poem of Fire which included a part for a machine called clavier à lumières or Luce. This device projected colored light onto a screen instead of producing sound. A performance in New York City that same year projected colors using a novel construction built specifically for the event by Preston S. Miller. On the 22nd of November 1969 the work was fully realized using laser technology loaned from Yale University's Physics Department. Scriabin's original color keyboard remains preserved today in his Moscow apartment museum near the Arbat.
Scriabin's importance in the Russian and international musical scene drastically declined after his death until the early Soviet era. During the 1930s his work was greatly disparaged in the West with Sir Adrian Boult calling it evil music and banning it from BBC broadcasts. Gerald Abraham described him as a sad pathological case yet pianist Edward Mitchell championed his recitals regarding him as the greatest composer since Beethoven. Since the 1970s his musical aesthetics have been reevaluated and his ten published sonatas increasingly championed garnering significant acclaim. In 2009 Roger Scruton called him one of the greatest modern composers while a bust was placed in Moscow Conservatory's Small Hall in 2020. Composers like Nikolai Roslavets and Sergei Prokofiev drew direct inspiration from his innovative extension of musical language before Stalinist politics quelled such experimentation.
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Common questions
When was Alexander Scriabin born and where did he grow up?
Alexander Scriabin was born on Christmas Day 1871 in Moscow into a Russian noble family. He grew up surrounded by piano playing from his aunt after his mother died of tuberculosis when he was only one year old.
How did the musical style of Alexander Scriabin change between 1903 and 1908?
The harmonic language of Alexander Scriabin shifted dramatically toward dissonance without becoming fully atonal during this period. Tonal unity was almost imperceptibly replaced by harmonic unity as most of his late music became built on acoustic and octatonic scales combined into nine-note structures.
What philosophical ideas influenced the work of Alexander Scriabin?
Alexander Scriabin engaged deeply with philosophies from German authors including Schopenhauer Wagner and Nietzsche while showing interest in theosophy and the writings of Helena Blavatsky. Recent scholarship places him within early Russian cosmism originating from Nikolai Fyodorov's ideas about uniting humanity through cosmic evolution.
Where was the planned performance location for the Mysterium by Alexander Scriabin?
The project intended to take place in a temple in India located in the foothills of the Himalayas. This multimedia work called Mysterium was meant to last seven days and involve all means of expression including humanity itself.
When was the Prometheus: The Poem of Fire by Alexander Scriabin fully realized using laser technology?
On the 22nd of November 1969 the work was fully realized using laser technology loaned from Yale University's Physics Department. A performance in New York City that same year projected colors using a novel construction built specifically for the event by Preston S. Miller.