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Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin[n 1] (6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed in a relatively tonal, late-Romantic idiom. Later, and independently of his influential contemporary Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a much more dissonant musical language that had transcended usual tonality but was not atonal,[3] which accorded with his personal brand of metaphysics. Scriabin found significant appeal in the concept of Gesamtkunstwerk as well as synesthesia, and associated colours with the various harmonic tones of his scale, while his colour-coded circle of fifths was also inspired by theosophy. He is often considered the main Russian Symbolist composer and a major representative of the Russian Silver Age.[3]

In this name that follows Eastern Slavic naming customs, the patronymic is Nikolayevich and the family name is Scriabin.

Alexander Scriabin

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin

6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871]
Moscow, Russian Empire

27 April [O.S. 14 April] 1915 (aged 43)

Moscow, Russian Empire
  • Composer
  • pianist

List of compositions

Scriabin was an innovator as well as one of the most controversial composer-pianists of the early 20th century. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia said of him, "no composer has had more scorn heaped on him or greater love bestowed." Leo Tolstoy described Scriabin's music as "a sincere expression of genius."[4] Scriabin's oeuvre exerted a salient influence on the music world over time, and inspired composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev,[5] and Karol Szymanowski. But Scriabin's importance in the Russian (subsequently Soviet) musical scene, and internationally, drastically declined after his death. According to his biographer Faubion Bowers, "No one was more famous during their lifetime, and few were more quickly ignored after death."[6] Nevertheless, his musical aesthetics have been reevaluated since the 1970s, and his ten published sonatas for piano and other works have been increasingly championed, garnering significant acclaim in recent years.[7]

Ballard, Lincoln; Bengtson, Matthew; Bell Young, John (2017). The Alexander Scriabin Companion: History, Performance, and Lore. Lanham, MD A: Rowman & Littlefield.  978-1-4422-3262-4.

ISBN

(1996). Scriabin, a Biography. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN 978-0-486-28897-0. OCLC 33405309. Archived from the original on 19 March 2021. Retrieved 24 July 2018.

Bowers, Faubion

Downes, Stephen (2010). . Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76757-6.

Music and Decadence in European Modernism: The Case of Central and Eastern Europe

(1978). Skryabin. Oxford studies of composers (15). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-315438-4.

Macdonald, Hugh

Rimm, Robert (2002). . Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press. ISBN 978-1-57467-072-1.

The Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and The Eight

Sabbagh, Peter (2003). . Universal-Publishers. ISBN 978-1-58112-595-5.

The Development of Harmony in Scriabin's Works

UK Scriabin Association

at the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP)

Free scores by Alexander Scriabin

The has compositions by Alexander Scriabin

Mutopia Project

Recordings