An innovative contribution to Scriabin studies, covering aspects of
Scriabin's life, personality, beliefs, training, creative output, and
interaction with contemporary Russian culture.
This book is an innovative contribution to Alexander Scriabin
(1872-1915) studies, covering aspects of Scriabin's life, personality,
beliefs, training, creative output, as well as his interaction with
contemporary Russian culture. It offers new and original research from
leading and upcoming Russian music scholars. Key Scriabin topics such as
mysticism, philosophy, music theory, contemporary aesthetics, and
composition processes are covered. Musical coverage spans the composer's
early, middle and late period. All main repertoire is being discussed:
the piano miniatures and sonatas as well as the symphonies. In more
detail, chapters consider: Scriabin's part in early twentieth-century
Russia's cultural climate; how Scriabin moved from early pastiche to a
style much more original; the influence of music theory on Scriabin's
idiosyncratic style; the changing contexts of Scriabin performances; new
aspects of reception studies. Further chapters offer: a critical
understanding of how Scriabin's writings sit within the traditions of
Mysticism as well as French and Russian Symbolism; a new investigation
into his creative compositional process; miniaturism and its wider
context; a new reading of the composer's mysticism and synaesthesia.
Analytical chapters reach out of the score to offer an interpretative
framework; accepting new approaches from disability studies;
investigating the complex interaction of rhythm and metre and modal
interactions, the latent diatonic 'tonal function' of Scriabin's late
works, as well as self-regulating structures in the composer's music.
