Scriabin
The history of western music is riddled with the eccentric personalities of composer and performer alike. None, however, are quite so extraordinary as Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915). A composer of massively ambitious works who is nonetheless best regarded for his piano miniatures and sonatas, Scriabin embodied many contradictions. He was at once avant-garde and conservative, worldly and naive. Faubion Bowers, Scriabin's principal biographer, asks and answers, "Who was he, this central Scriabin? A composer, pianist, poet, mystic, solipsist, and semi-, theo-philosopher." Scriabin was indeed all of these things, but only two of these hats fit him well. He was a pianist of remarkable ability, and equally adept as a composer, while his mysticism has served only to trivialize his music. In spite of the high quality of his compositions, Scriabin is by no means a household name. Though he has long been a favorite of many pianists, comparatively few people outside of his native country of Russia would know much about him or his music. Nevertheless, Scriabin was an innovator of great importance in Russia, even if his influence was more muted in the West. As his compositional idiom developed, during Scriabin's final
One can also sense the influence of the Viennese in Scriabin's works, especially in the last few opus numbers before he died. It is difficult to say if Messiaen was influenced by Scriabin, although he did know the Russian composer's music well. Above this chord he could and often would impose yet another dominant chord, either a tritone or minor third away. Martin's Press: New York, 1973. Scriabin's language was built upon 7th and 9th chords, and, "any composer who built his harmonic language on seventh chords of all descriptions looked to Chopin for a model. (Accessed February 2004) Common topics in this essay:
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