Alexander Scriabin 1

Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin[1] (English pronunciation: /skriˈɑːbɪn/;
Russian: Алекса́ндр Никола́евич Скря́бин, Russian
pronunciation: [ɐlʲɪˈksandr nʲɪkəˈlaɪvʲɪtɕ ˈskrʲæbʲɪn]Wikipedia:Citation
needed; 6 January 1872 [O.S. 25 December 1871] – 27 April [O.S. 14
[2]
April] 1915) was a Russian composer and pianist. Scriabin's early
work is characterised by a lyrical and idiosyncratic tonal language
influenced by Frédéric Chopin. Later in his career, independently of
Arnold Schoenberg, Scriabin developed a substantially atonal and
much more dissonant musical system, which he accorded with his
personal brand of mysticism. Scriabin was influenced by synesthesia,
and associated colors with the various harmonic tones of his atonal
scale, while his color-coded circle of fifths was also influenced by
theosophy. He is considered by some to be the main Russian Symbolist
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin
composer.

Scriabin was one of the most innovative and most controversial of early modern composers. The Great Soviet
Encyclopedia said of Scriabin that, "No composer has had more scorn heaped or greater love bestowed..." Leo
Tolstoy once described Scriabin's music as "a sincere expression of genius".[3] Scriabin had a major impact on the
music world over time, and influenced composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Prokofiev, and Nikolai Roslavets.
Scriabin's importance in the Soviet musical scene, and internationally, drastically declined. According to his
biographer, "No one was more famous during their lifetime, and few were more quickly ignored after death."
Nevertheless, his musical aesthetics have been reevaluated, and his ten published sonatas, which arguably provided
the most consistent contribution to the genre since the time of Beethoven's set, have been increasingly championed.
Alexander Scriabin 2

Biography

Childhood and education (1872–1893)

Scriabin was born into an aristocratic family in Moscow on Christmas
Day 1871, according to the Julian Calendar (this translates to 6 January
1872 in the Gregorian Calendar). His father and all of his uncles had
military careers. When he was only a year old, his mother—herself a
concert pianist and former pupil of Theodor Leschetizky—died of
tuberculosis. After her death, Scriabin's father completed tuition in the
Turkish language in St. Petersburg, subsequently becoming a diplomat
and finally leaving for Turkey, leaving the infant Sasha (as he was
known) with his grandmother, great aunt, and aunt. Scriabin's father
would later remarry, giving Scriabin a number of half-brothers and
sisters. His aunt Lyubov (his father's unmarried sister) was an amateur
pianist who documented Sasha's early life until the time he met his first
wife. As a child, Scriabin was frequently exposed to piano playing, and
anecdotal references describe him demanding his aunt play for him.

Apparently precocious, Scriabin began building pianos after being

fascinated with piano mechanisms. He sometimes gave away pianos he
built to house guests. Lyubov portrays Scriabin as very shy and
unsociable with his peers, but appreciative of adult attention. Another A young Alexander Scriabin (late 1870s)

anecdote tells of Scriabin trying to conduct an orchestra composed of

local children, an attempt that ended in frustration and tears. He would perform his own immature plays and operas
with puppets to willing audiences. He studied the piano from an early age, taking lessons with Nikolai Zverev, a
strict disciplinarian, who was teaching Sergei Rachmaninoff and a number of other prodigies at the same time,
though Scriabin was not a pensionaire like Rachmaninoff.

In 1882 he enlisted in the Second Moscow Cadet Corps. As a student,

he became friends with the actor Leonid Limontov, although in his
memoirs Limontov recalls his reluctance to become friends with
Scriabin, who was the smallest and weakest among all the boys and
was sometimes teased because of this. However, Scriabin won his
peers' approval at a concert in which he played the piano. He ranked
generally first of his class in academics, but was exempt from drilling
due to his physique and was given time each day to practice at the
piano.
Scriabin later studied at the Moscow Conservatory with Anton
Zverev's students in the late 1880s. Scriabin, with
military attire, is the second on the left.
Arensky, Sergei Taneyev, and Vasily Safonov. He became a noted
Rachmaninoff is the fourth from the right.
pianist despite his small hands, which could barely grasp a ninth.
Feeling challenged by Josef Lhévinne, he damaged his right hand
while practicing Franz Liszt's Réminiscences de Don Juan and Mily Balakirev's Islamey.[4] His doctor said he would
never recover, and he wrote his first large-scale masterpiece, his Piano Sonata No. 1 in F minor, as a "cry against
God, against fate". It was his third sonata to be written, but the first to which he gave an opus number (his second
was condensed and released as the Allegro Appassionato, Op. 4). He eventually regained the use of his hand.

In 1892, he graduated with the Little Gold Medal in piano performance, but did not complete a composition degree
because of strong differences in personality and musical opinion with Arensky (whose faculty signature is the only
Alexander Scriabin 3

one absent from Scriabin's graduation certificate) and an unwillingness to compose pieces in forms that did not
interest him.

Early career (1894–1903)

In 1894, Scriabin made his debut as a pianist in St. Petersburg, performing his own works to positive reviews.
During the same year, Mitrofan Belyayev agreed to pay Scriabin to compose for his publishing company (he
published works by notable composers such as Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Alexander Glazunov). In August
1897, Scriabin married the young pianist Vera Ivanovna Isakovich, and then toured in Russia and abroad,
culminating in a successful 1898 concert in Paris. That year he became a teacher at the Moscow Conservatory, and
began attempting to establish his reputation as a composer. During this period he composed his cycle of études, Op.
8, several sets of preludes, his first three piano sonatas, and his only piano concerto, among other works, mostly for
piano.
For a period of five years, Scriabin was based in Moscow, during which time the first two of his symphonies were
conducted by his old teacher Safonov.
According to later reports, between 1901 and 1903 Scriabin envisioned writing an opera. He talked a lot about it and
expounded its ideas in the course of normal conversation. The work would center around a nameless hero, a
philosopher-musician-poet. Among other things, he would declare: I am the apotheosis of world creation. I am the
aim of aims, the end of ends. The Poem Op. 32 No. 2 and the Poème Tragique Op. 34 were originally conceived as
arias of the opera.

Leaving Russia (1903–09)

By the winter of 1904, Scriabin and his wife had relocated to Switzerland, where he began work on the composition
of his Symphony No. 3. While living in Switzerland, Scriabin was separated legally from his wife. The work was
performed in Paris during 1905, where Scriabin was now accompanied by Tatiana Fyodorovna Schloezer—a former
pupil and the niece of Paul de Schlözer. With Schloezer, he had other children, including a son named Julian
Scriabin, who composed several musical works before drowning in the Dnieper River at Kiev in 1919 at the age of
11 years old.[5]
With the financial assistance of a wealthy sponsor, he spent several
years traveling in Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium and United
States, working on more orchestral pieces, including several
symphonies. He was also beginning to compose "poems" for the piano,
a form with which he is particularly associated. While in New York
City in 1907 he became acquainted with Canadian composer Alfred La
Liberté, who went on to become a personal friend and disciple.

In 1907 he settled in Paris with his family and was involved with a
Scriabin (sitting on the left of the table) as a guest
series of concerts organized by the impresario Sergei Diaghilev, who at Wladimir Metzl's home in Berlin, 1910
was actively promoting Russian music in the West at the time. He
relocated subsequently to Brussels (rue de la Réforme 45) with his family.

Return to Russia (1909–14)

In 1909 he returned to Russia permanently, where he continued to compose, working on increasingly grandiose
projects. For some time before his death he had planned a multi-media work to be performed in the Himalaya
Mountains, that would cause a so-called "armageddon", "a grandiose religious synthesis of all arts which would
herald the birth of a new world". Scriabin left only sketches for this piece, Mysterium, although a preliminary part,
named L'acte préalable ("Preparatory Action") was eventually made into a performable version by Alexander
Alexander Scriabin 4

Nemtin. Part of that unfinished composition was performed with the title 'Prefatory Action' by Vladimir Ashkenazy
in Berlin with Aleksei Lyubimov at the piano. Several late pieces published during the composer's lifetime are
believed to have been intended for Mysterium, like the Two Dances Op. 73.[6]
Scriabin was small and reportedly frail throughout his life. In 1915 at the age of 43, he died in Moscow from
septicemia as a result of a sore on his upper lip. He had mentioned the sore as early as 1914, while in London.

Music
See also: List of compositions by Alexander Scriabin and Category:Compositions by Alexander Scriabin

The beginning of Scriabin's Étude, Op. 8, No. 12

"Étude Op. 8 No. 12"

Awadagin Pratt performs Alexander Scriabin's Étude, Op. 8, No. 12 at the White House Classical Music Student Workshop
Concert. (2009-11-04)

Étude Op. 8 No. 12

Étude, Op. 8, No. 12. played by Domenico Stigliani

Problems playing these files? See media help.

Rather than seeking musical versatility, Scriabin was happy to write almost exclusively for solo piano and for
orchestra.[7] His earliest piano pieces resemble Frédéric Chopin's and include music in many genres that Chopin
himself employed, such as the étude, the prelude, the nocturne, and the mazurka. Scriabin's music progressively
evolved over the course of his life, although the evolution was very rapid and especially brief when compared to
most composers. Aside from his earliest pieces, the mid- and late-period pieces use very unusual harmonies and
textures. The development of Scriabin's style can be traced in his ten piano sonatas: the earliest are composed in a
fairly conventional late-Romantic manner and reveal the influence of Chopin and sometimes Franz Liszt, but the
later ones are very different, the last five being written without a key signature. Many passages in them can be said to
be atonal, though from 1903 through 1908, "tonal unity was almost imperceptibly replaced by harmonic unity."
Alexander Scriabin 5

First period (1880s–1903)

Scriabin's first period is usually described as going from his earliest pieces up to his Second Symphony Op. 29. The
works from the first period adhere to the romantic tradition, thus employing the common practice period harmonic
language. However, Scriabin's voice is present from the very beginning, in this case by his fondness of the dominant
function and added tone chords.

Common spellings of the dominant chord and its extensions during the common practice period. From left to right: dominant seventh,
dominant ninth, dominant thirteenth, dominant seventh with raised fifth, dominant seventh with a rising chromatic appoggiatura on the
fifth, and dominant seventh flattened fifth.

Scriabin's early harmonic language was specially fond of the thirteenth dominant chord, usually with the 7th, 3rd,
and 13th spelled in fourths.[8] This voicing can also be seen in several of Chopin's works.[8] According to Peter
Sabbagh, this voicing would be the main generating source of the later Mystic chord. More importantly, Scriabin
was fond of simultaneously combining two or more of the different dominant seventh enhancings, like 9ths, altered
5ths, and raised 11ths. However, despite these tendencies, slightly more dissonant than usual for the time, all these
dominant chords were treated according to the traditional rules: the added tones resolved to the corresponding
adjacent notes, and the whole chord was treated as a dominant, fitting inside tonality and diatonic, functional
harmony.

[9]
Examples of enhanced dominant chords in Scriabin's early work. Extracted from the Mazurkas Op. 3 (1888–1890): No. 1, mm. 19–20, 68; No. 4,
mm. 65–67.

Second period (1903–07)

This period begins with Scriabin's Fourth Piano Sonata Op. 30, and ends around his Fifth Sonata Op. 53 and the
Poem of Ecstasy Op. 54, which are considered transitional works.Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to
watch#Unsupported attributions During this period, Scriabin's music becomes more chromatic and dissonant, yet still
mostly adhering to traditional functional tonality. As dominant chords are more and more extended, they gradually
lose their dominant function. Scriabin wanted his music to have a radiant, shining feeling to it, and achieved this by
Alexander Scriabin 6

raising a greater number of chord tones. During this time, complex forms like the mystic chord are hinted, but still
show their roots as Chopin-like harmony.
At first, the added dissonances are resolved conventionally according to voice leading, but the focus slowly shifts
towards a system in which chord coloring is most important. Later on, fewer dissonances on the dominant chords are
resolved. According to Sabbanagh, "the dissonances are frozen, solidified in a color-like effect in the chord"; the
added notes become part of it.

Third period (1907–15)

I decided that the more higher tones there are in harmony, it would turn out to be more radiant, sharper and more brilliant. But it was
necessary to organize the notes giving them a logical arrangement. Therefore, I took the usual thirteenth-chord, which is arranged in
thirds. But it is not that important to accumulate high tones. To make it shining, conveying the idea of light, a greater number of
tones had to be raised in the chord. And, therefore, I raise the tones: At first I take the shining major third, then I also raise the fifth,
[10][11]
and the eleventh—thus forming my chord—which is raised completely and, therefore, really shining.

[About the Mystic chord:] "This is not a dominant chord, but a basic chord, a consonance. It is true—it sounds soft, like a
[12][13]
consonance."

"In former times the chords were arranged by thirds or, which is the same, by sixths. But I decided to construct them by fourths or,
[14]
which is the same, by fifths."

After those transitional works, Scriabin's third period is consideredWikipedia:Manual of Style/Words to

watch#Unsupported attributions to begin with either the Album Leaf Op. 58 or the Two Poems Op. 55.
According to Samson, while the sonata-form of Scriabin's Sonata No. 5 has some meaning to the work's tonal
structure, in his Sonata No. 6 and Sonata No. 7 formal tensions are created by the absence of harmonic contrast and
"between the cumulative momentum of the music, usually achieved by textural rather than harmonic means, and the
formal constraints of the tripartite mould". He also argues that the Poem of Ecstasy and Vers la flamme "find a much
happier co-operation of 'form' and 'content'" and that later sonatas, such as No. 9, employ a more flexible
sonata-form.
According to Claude Herdon, in Scriabin's late music "tonality has been attenuated to the point of virtual extinction,
although dominant sevenths, which are among the strongest indicators of tonality, preponderate. The progression of
their roots in minor thirds or diminished fifths [...] dissipate the suggested tonality."
Varvara Dernova argues that "The tonic continued to exist, and, if
necessary, the composer could employ it [...] but in the great majority
of cases, he preferred the concept of a tonic in distant prespective, so to
speak, rather than the actually sounding tonic [...] The relationship of
the tonic and dominant functions in Scriabin's work is changed
radically; for the dominant actually appears and has a varied structure,
while the tonic exists only as if in the imagination of the composer, the
performer, and the listener."
The acoustic and octatonic scales, and their
Most of the music of this period is built on the acoustic and octatonic
combination
scales, as well as the nine-note scale resulting from their combination.
Alexander Scriabin 7

Philosophical influences and influence of colour

Scriabin was interested in Friedrich Nietzsche's Übermensch theory, and later became interested in theosophy. Both
would influence his music and musical thought. During 1909–10 he lived in Brussels, becoming interested in Jean
Delville's Theosophist philosophy and continuing his reading of Helena Blavatsky.
Theosophist and composer Dane Rudhyar wrote that Scriabin was "the one great pioneer of the new music of a
reborn Western civilization, the father of the future musician", and an antidote to "the Latin reactionaries and their
apostle, Stravinsky" and the "rule-ordained" music of "Schoenberg's group."Wikipedia:Citation needed Scriabin
developed his own very personal and abstract mysticism based on the role of the artist in relation to perception and
life affirmation. His ideas on reality seem similar to Platonic and Aristotelian theory though much less coherent. The
main sources of his philosophy can be found in his numerous unpublished notebooks, one in which he famously
wrote "I am God". As well as jottings there are complex and technical diagrams explaining his metaphysics. Scriabin
also used poetry as a means in which to express his philosophical notions, though arguably much of his philosophical
thought was translated into music, the most recognizable example being the Ninth Sonata ("the Black Mass").
Though Scriabin's late works are often considered to be influenced by
synesthesia, a condition wherein one experiences sensation in one
sense in response to stimulus in another, it is doubted that Scriabin
actually experienced this.[15][16] His colour system, unlike most
synesthetic experience, accords with the circle of fifths: it was a
thought-out system based on Sir Isaac Newton's
Opticks.Wikipedia:Please clarify Note that Scriabin did not, for his
theory, recognize a difference between a major and a minor tonality of
the same name (for example: c-minor and C-Major).Wikipedia:Please
clarify Indeed, influenced also by the doctrines of theosophy, he
developed his system of synesthesia toward what would have been a
Keys arranged in a circle of fifths in order to
pioneering multimedia performance: his unrealized magnum opus
show the spectral relationshipWikipedia:Please
Mysterium was to have been a grand week-long performance including clarify
music, scent, dance, and light in the foothills of the Himalayas
Mountains that was somehow to bring about the dissolution of the world in bliss.

In his autobiographical Recollections, Sergei Rachmaninoff recorded a conversation he had had with Scriabin and
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov about Scriabin's association of colour and music. Rachmaninoff was surprised to find that
Rimsky-Korsakov agreed with Scriabin on associations of musical keys with colors; himself skeptical,
Rachmaninoff made the obvious objection that the two composers did not always agree on the colours involved.
Both maintained that the key of D major was golden-brown; but Scriabin linked E-flat major with red-purple, while
Rimsky-Korsakov favored blue. However, Rimsky-Korsakov protested that a passage in Rachmaninoff's opera The
Miserly Knight accorded with their claim: the scene in which the Old Baron opens treasure chests to reveal gold and
jewels glittering in torchlight is written in D major. Scriabin told Rachmaninoff that "your intuition has
unconsciously followed the laws whose very existence you have tried to deny."

While Scriabin wrote only a small number of orchestral works, they are among his most famous, and some are
performed frequently. They include a piano concerto (1896), and five symphonic works, including three numbered
symphonies as well as The Poem of Ecstasy (1908) and Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (1910), which includes a part
for a machine known as a "clavier à lumières", known also as a Luce (Italian for "Light"), which was a colour organ
designed specifically for the performance of Scriabin's tone poem. It was played like a piano, but projected coloured
light on a screen in the concert hall rather than sound. Most performances of the piece (including the premiere) have
not included this light element, although a performance in New York City in 1915 projected colours onto a screen. It
has been claimed erroneously that this performance used the colour-organ invented by English painter A. Wallace
Alexander Scriabin 8

Rimington when in fact it was a novel construction supervised personally and built in New York specifically for the
performance by Preston S. Miller, the president of the Illuminating Engineering Society. It was also performed at
Yale University’s Woolsey Hall, New Haven, Connecticut, both in 1969 and again in 2010 (as conceived by Anna
M. Gawboy [17] on YouTube, who, with Justin Townsend, has published ‘Scriabin and the Possible’).[18]
Scriabin's original colour keyboard, with its associated turntable of coloured lamps, is preserved in his apartment
near the Arbat in Moscow, which is now a museum dedicated to his life and works.

Recordings and performers

Scriabin himself made recordings of 19 of his own works, using 20 piano rolls, six for the Welte-Mignon, and 14 for
Ludwig Hupfeld of Leipzig. The Welte rolls were recorded during early February 1910, in Moscow, and have been
replayed and published on CD. Those recorded for Hupfeld include the piano sonatas Opp. 19 and 23. While this
indirect evidence of Scriabin's pianism prompted a mixed critical reception, close analysis of the recordings within
the context of the limitations of the particular piano roll technology can shed light on the free style that he favoured
for the performance his own works, characterized by extemporary variations in tempo, rhythm, articulation,
dynamics, and sometimes even the notes themselves.
Pianists who have performed Scriabin to particular critical acclaim include Vladimir Sofronitsky, Vladimir Horowitz
and Sviatoslav Richter. Sofronitsky never met the composer, as his parents forbade him to attend a concert due to
illness. The pianist said he never forgave them; but he did marry Scriabin's daughter Elena. According to Horowitz,
when he played for the composer as an 11-year-old child, Scriabin responded enthusiastically and encouraged him to
pursue a full musical and artistic education. When Sergei Rachmaninoff performed Scriabin's music his playing style
was criticized by the composer and his admirers as being earthbound.[19][20]
Surveys of the solo piano works have been recorded by Gordon Fergus-Thompson, Maria Lettberg, and Michael
Ponti. The complete published sonatas have also been recorded by, among others, Dmitri Alexeev, Vladimir
Ashkenazy, Håkon Austbø, Boris Berman, Bernd Glemser, Marc-André Hamelin, Yakov Kasman, Ruth Laredo,
John Ogdon, Roberto Szidon, Robert Taub, Anatol Ugorski, Mikhail Voskresensky, and Igor Zhukov.
Other prominent performers of his piano music include Nikolai Demidenko, Marta Deyanova, Sergio Fiorentino,
Andrei Gavrilov, Emil Gilels, Glenn Gould, Andrej Hoteev, Evgeny Kissin, Anton Kuerti, Piers Lane, Eric Le Van,
Alexander Melnikov, Stanislav Neuhaus, Artur Pizarro, Mikhail Pletnev, Jonathan Powell, Burkard Schliessmann,
Grigory Sokolov, Yevgeny Sudbin, Matthijs Verschoor, Arcadi Volodos, Roger Woodward and Evgeny Zarafiants.

Reception and influence

Scriabin's funeral was attended by such numbers that tickets had to be issued. Rachmaninoff went on tour, playing
only Scriabin's music. Sergei Prokofiev admired the composer, and his Visions fugitives bears great likeness to
Scriabin's tone and style. Another admirer was the British-Parsi composer Kaikhosru Sorabji who strenuously
collected the obscure works of Scriabin while living in Essex as a youth. Sorabji promoted Scriabin even during the
years when Scriabin's popularity had decreased greatly. Aaron Copland praised Scriabin's thematic material as "truly
individual, truly inspired", but criticized Scriabin for putting "this really new body of feeling into the strait-jacket of
the old classical sonata-form, recapitulation and all", calling this "one of the most extraordinary mistakes in all
music."
Alexander Scriabin 9

Prélude Op. 11, No. 1

(728 kB)

Prélude Op. 11, No. 2

(1492 kB)

Mazurka Op. 40, No. 2

(677 kB)

Prelude No. 1, Op. 67

[21]
Performed by Jennifer Castellano. Courtesy of Musopen , 1.87 mB

Problems playing these files? See media help.

The work of Nikolai Roslavets, unlike that of Prokofiev and Stravinsky, is often seen as a direct extension of
Scriabin's. Unlike Scriabin's, however, Roslavets' music was not explained with mysticism and eventually was given
theoretical explication by the composer. Roslavets was not alone in his innovative extension of Scriabin's musical
language, however, as quite a few Soviet composers and pianists such as Samuil Feinberg, Sergei Protopopov,
Nikolai Myaskovsky, and Alexander Mosolov followed this legacy until Stalinist politics quelled it in favor of
Socialist Realism.
Scriabin's music was greatly disparaged in the West during the 1930s. Sir Adrian Boult refused to play the Scriabin
selections chosen by the BBC progammer Edward Clark, calling it "evil music", and even issued a ban on Scriabin's
music from broadcasts in the 1930s. In 1935, Gerald Abraham described Scriabin as a "sad pathological case, erotic
and egotistic to the point of mania". Scriabin has since undergone a total rehabilitation.
In 2009, Roger Scruton described Scriabin as "one of the greatest of modern composers".

Relatives
Scriabin's second wife Tatiana Fyodorovna Schlözer was the niece of
the pianist and possible composer Paul de Schlözer. Her brother was
the music critic Boris de Schlözer.
Scriabin was the uncle of Metropolitan Anthony Bloom of Sourozh, a
renowned bishop of the Russian Orthodox Church who directed the
Russian Orthodox diocese in Great Britain between 1957 and 2003.
Scriabin had seven children in total: from his first marriage Rimma,
Scriabin with Tatiana Elena, Maria and Lev, and from his second Ariadna, Julian and
Marina.
Rimma died in 1905 from intestinal issues at the age of seven.
Elena Scriabina married the pianist Vladimir Sofronitsky (after the composer's death, hence Sofronitsky never met
his father-in-law). Their daughter is the Canadian pianist Viviana Sofronitsky.
Maria Skryabina (1901–1989) was an actress at the Second Moscow Art Theatre and the wife of director Vladimir
Tatarinov.
Lev also died at the age of seven, in 1910. At this point, relations with Scriabin's first wife had significantly
deteriorated, and Scriabin did not meet her at the funeral.
Alexander Scriabin 10

Tatiana's children: Julian, Marina and Ariadna c.

1913

Scriabin's daughter Ariadna (Ariane) (1906–1944) was born in Italy, converted to Judaism (taking the name Sarah),
and married the Russian poet and Jewish WWII Resistance fighter David Knut. She was responsible for
communications between the command in Toulouse and the partisan forces in the Tarn district and for taking
weapons to the partisans, which resulted in her death when she was ambushed by the French Militia. Scriabin's
great-great-grandson, via Ariadna, Elisha Abas is a concert pianist who divides his time between New York and
Israel.
Julian Scriabin was a composer and pianist in his own right, but died by drowning at age eleven in Ukraine.

References
[1] Scientific transliteration: Aleksandr Nikolajevič Skrjabin; also transliterated variously as Skriabin, Skryabin, and (in French) Scriabine.
[2] The British historian Simon Sebag Montefiore, in footnote 62, page 39 of his book Stalin: The Court of the Red Tsar (2003) takes issue with
the common claim of Scriabin being a "cousin" or a "relative" of Vyacheslav Molotov, born Vyacheslav Mikhailovitch Skryabin. (Translated
from a note of this article on the French WP.)
[3] E.E. Garcia (2004): Rachmaninoff and Scriabin: Creativity and Suffering in Talent and Genius (http:/ / fdelius. free. fr/ RachScriabinPsaRev.
pdf). Psychoanalytic Review, 91: 423–42.
[4] ISBN is for January 2001 edition.
[5] The Concise Edition of Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, 8th ed. Revised by Nicolas Slonimsky. New York, Schirmer Books,
1993. p. 921 ISBN 0-02-872416-X
[6] Bowers & 1969 2:264.
[7] MacDonald, p. 7
[8] Sabbagh 2003, p. 16.
[9] Sabbagh 2003, pp. 17-18.
[10] Sabbagh 2003, p. 24.
[11] Taken from Music-Konzepte Nos. 32–33, a.a.,O.p.8.
[12] Sabbagh 2003, p. 40.
[13] Leonid Sabaneev, Vospominanija o Skrjabine, Moscow 1925, p.47. quoted in Music-Konzepte 32/33,a.a.O., p.8.
[14] Leonid Sabaneev, Vospominanija o Skrjabine, Moscow 1925, p.220. quoted in Music-Konzepte 32/33,a.a.O., p.8.
[15] *Harrison, John (2001). Synaesthesia: The Strangest Thing, ISBN 0-19-263245-0: "In fact, there is considerable doubt about the legitimacy
of Scriabin's claim, or rather the claims made on his behalf, as we shall discuss in Chapter 5." (pp. 31–32).
[16] B. M. Galeyev and I. L. Vanechkina (August 2001). "Was Scriabin a Synesthete?" (http:/ / prometheus. kai. ru/ skriab_e. htm), Leonardo
(http:/ / www. google. com/ search?q=cache:DXJTemCsONQJ:mitpress. mit. edu/ catalog/ item/ default. asp?ttype=6& tid=7762+ scriabin+
synesthete& hl=en& gl=us& ct=clnk& cd=1), Vol. 34, Issue 4, pp. 357 – 362: "authors conclude that the nature of Scriabin's 'color-tonal'
analogies was associative, i.e. psychological; accordingly, the existing belief that Scriabin was a distinctive, unique 'synesthete' who really saw
the sounds of music—that is, literally had an ability for 'co-sensations'—is placed in doubt."
[17] https:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=V3B7uQ5K0IU
[18] http:/ / mtosmt. org/ issues/ mto. 12. 18. 2/ mto. 12. 18. 2. gawboy_townsend. php
[19] Rimm, p. 145
[20] Downes, p. 99
[21] http:/ / www. musopen. com

Sources
Alexander Scriabin 11

• Downes, Stephen (2010). Music and Decadence in European Modernism: The Case of Central and Eastern
Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-76757-6.
• Macdonald, Hugh (1978). Skryabin. Oxford studies of composers (15). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
ISBN 0-19-315438-2.
• Rimm, Robert (2002). The Composer-pianists: Hamelin and The Eight. Portland, Oregon: Amadeus Press.
ISBN 978-1-57467-072-1.
• Sabbagh, Peter (2003). The Development of Harmony in Scriabin's Works (http://books.google.com/
books?id=U2hXblbkyX0C&printsec=frontcover). Universal-Publishers. ISBN 1-58112-595-X.

External links
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Alexander Scriabin

Wikisource has the text of a 1922 Encyclopædia Britannica article about Alexander Scriabin.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Alexander Scriabin.

• Scriabin Society of America (http://www.scriabinsociety.com/)

• Brief biography and sound files on Ubuweb (http://www.ubu.com/aspen/aspen2/scriabin.html)
• Alexander Scriabin (http://musicbrainz.org/artist/a4eba7b5-aceb-4acf-b297-3c0a3cd42757) discography at
MusicBrainz
• Works by or about Alexander Scriabin (http://worldcat.org/identities/lccn-n80-86161) in libraries (WorldCat
catalog)
• Scriabin Liner Notes (http://www.yevgenysudbin.com/artist.php?view=essays&rid=456) Russian-born
pianist Yevgeny Sudbin discusses Scriabin's work and life.
Scores
• Free scores by Alexander Scriabin at the International Music Score Library Project
• Scriabin's Sheet Music (http://www.mutopiaproject.org/cgibin/make-table.cgi?Composer=ScriabinA&
preview=1) by Mutopia Project
• www.kreusch-sheet-music.net (http://kreusch-sheet-music.net/eng/?page=search&komp=Skrjabin&
show_box=true&search=true) — Free Scores by Alexander Scriabin
Recordings
• Scriabin's own recording of the third and fourth Movements from his Piano Sonata, no. 3, Op. 23 (http://www.
pianolist.org/music/scriabin_sonata3_2.mp3) ( The Pianola Institute (http://www.pianola.org/reproducing/
reproducing_dea.cfm))*
• Piano Rolls (http://www.rprf.org/Rollography.html) ( The Reproducing Piano Roll Foundation (http://www.
rprf.org/))
Article Sources and Contributors 12

Article Sources and Contributors

Alexander Scriabin  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=620742412  Contributors: "alyosha", 123Apropos, 4meter4, Adam Carr, Aeusoes1, Afaber012, Alegreen, Alfietucker,
Alma Pater, Alois.Daniel, Alton, Antandrus, Anthology51, Arbor to SJ, Arch dude, Argotrof, Atavi, Auntclara2009, Avisalon, BachChopinFavorite, Basemetal, Bbsrock, Beetstra, Bemoeial, Ben
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Zerblatt, 315 anonymous edits

Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

File:Skrjabin Alexander.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Skrjabin_Alexander.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Patstuart, Zac Allan, Ö
Image:Scriabin-young.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Scriabin-young.jpg  License: unknown  Contributors: Russian photographer (Life time: 1870s)
Image:Zveref and students.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Zveref_and_students.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Alton
Image:Metzl, Tatiana & Alexandr Scriabine, Nikisch, Shalapine, Kusevitsky, Berlin 14mar1910.jpg  Source:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Metzl,_Tatiana_&_Alexandr_Scriabine,_Nikisch,_Shalapine,_Kusevitsky,_Berlin_14mar1910.jpg  License: Public Domain  Contributors:
User:Финитор
Image:Scriabin op.8 no.12.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Scriabin_op.8_no.12.svg  License: Creative Commons Zero  Contributors: User:Horndude77
File:Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Gnome-mime-sound-openclipart.svg  License: unknown  Contributors: User:Eubulides
File:Dominant chords in common practice period.png  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Dominant_chords_in_common_practice_period.png  License: Creative Commons
Attribution-Sharealike 3.0  Contributors: Fauban
File:Scriabin Harmony Examples 1 (Mazurkas Op3).png  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Scriabin_Harmony_Examples_1_(Mazurkas_Op3).png  License: unknown
 Contributors: Scriabin (Life time: died in 1915)
File:Acoustic and Octatonic scales in Scriabin.png  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Acoustic_and_Octatonic_scales_in_Scriabin.png  License: Creative Commons
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Image:Scriabin-Circle.svg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Scriabin-Circle.svg  License: Public Domain  Contributors: Mouagip
File:Alexander Scriabin and Tatiana Schloezer, 1909.jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Alexander_Scriabin_and_Tatiana_Schloezer,_1909.jpg  License: Public
Domain  Contributors: Dmitry Rozhkov, Ӛ
File:Scriabin's children (Ariadna, Marina, Yulian).jpg  Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Scriabin's_children_(Ariadna,_Marina,_Yulian).jpg  License: Public Domain
 Contributors: Dmitry Rozhkov, Ӛ
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