Alexander Scriabin   

Alexander Scriabin was the most influential Russian composer and performer of Symbolism.  He was somewhat eccentric, with a broad and proud moustache and a mystical idea about his own purpose and the ‘new’ future of humankind.  He was born on January 6^th, Christmas day according to the Gregorian calendar, and he believed that his role in the world was to show humanity the new way into enlightenment.  In his life time, and since, his music was so unique it was either loved or hated.  It was brilliant and purposeful, using new sounds and harmonies that inspired many subsequent composers. 

     Alexander Scriabin was born into an aristocratic, wealthy, military, influential family in Moscow.  His mother was a concert pianist.  Sadly, she died when Scriabin was only a year old.  His father then moved to Turkey, working as a diplomat and leaving the infant to the care of his grandmother.  In this situation, Scriabin was exposed to much music and piano playing.  He frequently asked his aunt to play for him.  He was fascinated by how the piano worked and made models of the mechanisms.

     Scriabin started lessons and became a young prodigy under the tutorage of the very strict Nikolai Zverev, who was teaching Sergei Rachmaninoff at the same time.  He then studied at the Moscow Conservatory where he completed a performance degree, but was unsuccessful in passing his composition subjects because of his non-conformist style of writing.

     Scriabin was a very promising young pianist, even with a hand-span of a ninth.  He also had a long, successful performance career despite an injured right hand.  He damaged his hand by over-practicing an extremely demanding Fantasia  by Liszt.  While his hand was recovering, he composed some of the most famous left-hand solo pieces ever written – including Nocturne, and Prelude Op. 9.  He continued to write more than perform, although he often played his own compositions and had very positive journalist reviews.  He was angered at fate by the loss of ability in his right hand, believing that the injury stole from him the opportunity for “fame and glory”.  Reactively, he wrote a sonata with the sound of a funeral march, angered and despairing at what seemed like his first ever failure.

     Chopin was Scriabin’s idol.  Scriabin sought to imitate Chopin’s inventive and philosophical ways.  Like Chopin, Scriabin wrote almost exclusively for piano.  His early compositions imitated these, using forms and harmonies developed by Chopin.  The pieces included Nocturnes, Etudes, Preludes and Mazurkas.  He similarly adopted the belief that music can only speak when it comes from the inner-most parts, when it captures the imagination and says what cannot be said with words.

     As Scriabin’s compositions matured, they reflected intensely the state of his feelings about the world and his views about humanity, or specifically himself, and the nature of reality and ‘god’.  They became progressively unique, original and revolutionary in form, texture and harmonies.  Many of his later works abandon any sense of tonality or key.  They have no key signature and disregard traditional rules about the progression of sound.  The feeling of anticipation and resolution that normally comes from harmony is developed by texture and tempo.  Intense textures and speeds build and subside.  He believed that he was the determiner of his own reality, seeking to bring down any perception of rules he did not wish to embrace freely.  He sought to find ultimate bliss beyond the physical senses.  His works try to grasp this and are either intensely dark or intensely light.

     Scriabin associated the keys of the piano with specific colours – an atmosphere or feeling they generated.  He created a special organ that he used in some concerts, projecting colours onto a screen rather than producing sounds.  Some people have a strong sense of colour with sound.  Scriabin’s perceptions are of interest.  The keyboard below is coloured according to Scriabin's sense.

     Scriabin’s music influenced many composers of the 20^th century.  However, he died at 43 years of age as a result of his own obsession with his state of being.  He showed signs of high anxiety and restlessness.  He was perhaps too much of a brilliant mind, yet too self-obsessed. 

Last modified: April 13, 2009