ly his own. Hugh MacDonald writes that "His transformation from a late nineteenth-century romantic, wedded to a sophisticated piano idiom, into a composer of the avant-garde who was regarded all over Europe, together with Strauss, as the spearhead of modernism...took place in little more than twenty years." This might be overstating the case, for Scriabin was never as highly regarded in Europe as Strauss, but it illustrates the gradual and total transformation of his music during a relatively short period of time.
             Despite this change of style, the seeds of Scriabin's last pieces were already sown with his first few opuses. As many Scriabin scholars have noted, "Chopin and Liszt had more to do with the formation of his musical style, especially Chopin. His music was Skryabin's bible. His rhythms, titles, figurations, and ornamental phrases all permeate the early works: preludes, studies, impromptus, and mazurkas were his favourite format." Scriabin would continue writing preludes and etudes all his life, right up to his last work, the five preludes of Op. 74, although he would abandon the other forms early on in his development. As Scriabin matured as a musician, the similarities with Chopin decreased, but never fully disappeared. 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." Thus, even with the endlessly altered dominant chords of Scriabin's later language, Chopin was still very much present in the music.
             Deducing the influence of Scriabin's contemporaries in his music is more problematic. Scriabin never performed anyone's music other than his own, and rarely had a kind word to say about any other composers, or their work. He existed almost entirely in his own world, and the music of others did not concern him. There are, however, some scant influences that ca...