Alexander Scriabin Research Paper

Alexander Scriabin was a Russian post-romantic composer known for his ever-evolving compositional style. He composed mostly piano works, 177 piano pieces in all (including 10 piano sonatas, as well as many mazurkas, études, nocturnes, préludes, poèmes and more), however he did not shy away from orchestral works, composing 5 symphonies, a piano concerto, a symphonic poem in D minor, and the prefatory act to a work called “Mysterium”. Although his works were considered controversial for the time, Scriabin undoubtedly possessed a creative mind which could see the direction that modern music was taking.

Alexander Scriabin (or Aleksandr Skrjabin in the Russian spelling) was born on January 6th, 1872 in Moscow to a family of military nobility. His …show more content…
Scriabin’s Early Period roughly began around the 1880s and concluded around 1903 (Opp. 1-29). This period was highly romantic in style as Scriabin was heavily inspired by the works of Frédéric Chopin. These works were highly tonal and were composed in genres common for that time. Representative works from this time include his Piano Sonatas Nos. 1-3, Fantaisie in B minor, 12 Preludes Op. 8 (including No. 12 in D# minor), Symphonies 1-2, and 24 Preludes Op. 11. His Middle Period took place for around 4 years, 1903 to 1907 (Opp. 30-58) and was transitional in nature. In this time, one can observe the dissonances and hints of atonality start to make their way into Scriabin’s compositional style, although Scriabin still somewhat adheres to tonality. Representative works from this time include Enigma, Piano Sonatas 4-5, Divine Poem (Symphony 3), Poème de l’ecstase (Symphony 4), and Poème Fantastique. Finally, there is his final musical period, lasting from 1907 until 1914 (Opp. 59-74). This was filled with many more dissonances, becoming much more atonal (although completely separately from Schoenberg’s atonality). It is speculated that if Scriabin had lived longer, he would have fully embraced atonality. During this time, Scriabin loosely used what is called the “Mystic Chord” (or the “Prometheus Chord” as it is used in his Symphony by …show more content…
11 No. 12 in G# minor. The piece is in the time signature of 9/8 and is played Andante. Rhythmically, it mostly sticks to the typical 1-2-3-2-2-3-3-2-3 rhythm found in 9/8, with a few exceptions (for example quadruplets in mm. 12-13, and dotted eighth patterns in mm. 9, 11, 14 (in the left hand), 18 (in the left hand)). It’s form is an irregular ternary (A-B-C, as opposed to A-B-A). It is played at a pianissimo dynamic throughout except for a small crescendo at m. 10, and crescs-decrescs. at mm. 12-14., before again returning to the initial pp dynamic. The melody is very flowy, like waves. It sits mostly in the upper register, except for the final 4 bars of the piece. The piece’s timbre is soft, mellow, and romantic (which makes sense as it is a piece from Scriabin’s early period). The piece combines both homophonic and polyphonic textures as both the left and right hand have points where the rhythms are the same thus creating a homophonic texture, but also moments where the rhythms contrast - due to chords in the right hand and arpeggiations in left. Despite the clearly tonal nature of the piece, the harmony is deceptive and includes many interesting chords that add an air of mystery to the piece (such as VI6/♭5 and ♭VII7/ii°). Perhaps this had something to do with Scriabin’s perception of the key of G# minor as this prelude is part of a set, with preludes in each major and minor