Scriabin's scribbling

Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915) was an innovative Russian composer and pianist. While in the later years of his life he developed an increasingly atonal musical language that preceded twelve-tone composition; his earlier compositions emulated more of a late-romantic idiom. In his later periods, Scriabin was driven by his spiritual mysticism. He developed synthetic chords like the Prometheus/mystic chord; he also claimed to have synesthesia and although he didn’t differentiate between major and minor tonalities, he developed a color wheel based on the circle of fifths, which assigned colors to different key areas. Heavily influenced by the polish composer Fredrick Chopin, Scriabin’s earlier work is very different from the complex harmonies and textures that later came to characterize his compositions. In these years he wrote in the Romantic musical idiom and also composed in forms frequently used by Chopin (preludes, nocturnes, etudes, mazurkas).

Scriabin’s Prelude Op. 9 for the left hand is a beautiful example of one of his earlier pieces. After injuring his hand at the age of 20, supposedly practicing Liszt’s Don Juan Fantasie, Scriabin wrote this Prelude and the Nocturne that follows it so he could play music with only his left hand. The piece begins with a two bar melodic motif that is then transposed directly down a half step in the consecutive phrase (m3-4). Because the piece is written to be played with a single hand, the melodic range is small, for the most part staying within an octave. For this same reason, the melody is mostly scalar with step-wise motion and very few leaps.



You would think with such a limited range the prelude could sound simple and boring, but Scriabin’s composition is far from either of those descriptions. The use of Neapolitan chords, diminished seventh chords, and even a French augmented six chord makes the harmonic texture mirror the common language of the romantic era and highlights the influence Chopin had on Scriabin’s music, but it also provides a strong and interesting harmonic background for the melody. Also, the use of rhythmic augmentation (ex. m9) allows for more variation while still implying the rhythmic motifs and frequent use of the dotted figure throughout the piece. The use of the pedal 5 (g#) in m10-16 complemented by the use of the physical pedal of the piano also allows for a fuller sound and a constant harmonic texture while the single hand bounces around completing the melody and doing its best to adorn it in the process.

The prelude stays in the key of c # minor throughout the entire piece but it ends in the last measure with a piccardi 3rd (raised 3 making the c # minor i chord a C # major I). While the use of this piccardi 3rd is considered mode mixture and not modulation it suggests a completely different tone and shifts the mood of the piece. I also find the ending to be somewhat ironic considering the fact that in his color wheel Scriabin didn’t differentiate between major and minor tonalities.

Scriabin was an eccentric character who was heavily influenced by his spiritual mysticism and developed new ways of approaching and thinking about composition; but he was also heavily influenced by Chopin and the romantic era and his Prelude OP 9 is a beautiful example of this earlier type of work.