M. Kaykov: Three Etudes Op. 65: Alexander Scriabin’s Late Period Harmonic Innovations
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Michael Kaykov
Three Etudes Op. 65: Alexander Scriabin’s Late Period Harmonic Innovations
1. Background on Scriabin’s Late Period Compositions The Silver Age in Russia lasted roughly from 1890 through 1914, coinciding with the start of Alexander Scriabin’s career as a composer and ending around the time of his last completed work.1 Anatole Leikin, renowned Scriabin researcher, writes: That era was... the beginning of the Russian symbolist movement based on religious and philosophical ideas that supposedly, could be fully comprehensible only to those who had been initiated into the mysterious kingdom of symbols. The artists of the Silver Age showed a keen interest in the synthesis of the arts, in mystic revelations and in attempting to understand the great mysteries of the universe.2
1
Scriabin did not publish or complete any works after the Preludes Op. 74 (1914) and died on April 14, 1915. 2 Anatole LEIKIN, The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin, Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2011, 2.
31 Nagle Avenue, Apt. #4K, New York City, NY, 10040 U.S.A. Email: MK5861@msmnyc.edu UDC: 78.02 781.4Skrjabin, A Original Scholarly Paper Izvorni znanstveni rad Received: 3 September 2020 Primljeno: 3. rujna 2020. Accepted: 15 September 2020 Prihvaćeno: 15. rujna 2020.
Abstract – Résumé Throughout his life, Scriabin’s harmonic language underwent an evolution. His late period style featured a radical break from traditional harmony. This article examines the innovations to be found in Scriabin’s Etudes Op. 65, composed in 1912. The author outlines which mystic concepts (taken from Solovyov, Blavatsky, and others), found their way into Scriabin’s own philosophical writings. General principles of harmony in Scriabin’s late-period works are also explained. A detailed analysis of his Etude Op. 65, No. 3 pinpoints the unique features of his late style (with a focus on harmony) and attempts to link certain compositional procedures found late period works after Op. 60, to general mystic ideas. Keywords: Alexander Scriabin • Mysticism • Helena Petrovna Blavatsky • 3 Etudes Op. 65 • Late Period · Harmony • Analysis
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However, it was only in his late period compositions,3 featuring a completely new approach to harmony (one which rejected diatonicism), that Scriabin’s music fell in line with the ideas of the Russian symbolist movement.4 Many Russian creative artists of that era felt that a knowledge of theosophy and mysticism enhanced the quality of their works. This included modernist painters Nikolai Roerich, Vasily Kandinsky, poets Konstantin Bal’mont, and Andrei Belyi, as well as philosophers Vladimir Solovyov and Nikolai Berdiaev. Faubion Bowers describes the social activities of the last years of his life: »Scriabin’s apartment became a Mecca for an outer circle of foreign visitors – Gordon, Coates, Casals, Busoni. Symbolist, imagist, futurist poets paid visits. Scriabin’s heart was closest to the symbolist poets, and the whole literary temperament of Russia evolved around symbolists«.5 Scriabin’s late period compositions (starting from 1910), based on his new system of harmony, were the fruits of his desire to express mystic ideas through music. Walter Terence Stace (1886-1967), an English-born philosopher who taught at Princeton, wrote several books on mysticism and is often cited when the subject is discussed. He described mysticism in his 1960 book The Teachings of the Mystics: The most important, the central characteristic in which all fully developed mystical experiences agree... is that they involve the apprehension of an ultimate nonsensuous unity in all things, a oneness or a One to which neither the senses nor the reason can penetrate.6
An examination of Scriabin’s philosophical writings preserved in his notebooks (published in 2018 in an English translation by Simon Nicholls and Michael Pushkin) reveal that he was fascinated with mystic concepts years before they were expressed in his music. Several extracts from Scriabin’s notebooks (c. 19041905) are reproduced below: Creation is the act of distinguishing. Only a multiplicity can be created. Space and time are forms of creation, sensations are its content… States of consciousness coexist… Space and time is not separable from sensation. It, together with sensation, is one single creative act… And so I wish to create... to bring into being a multiplicity, a multiplicity within a multiplicity and a oneness within a multiplicity.7 3 Scriabin’s Prometheus, Op. 60 (1910) was the first work in which he used the new harmonic system. 4 Scriabin became interested in mysticism through his association with Prince Sergei Trubetskoy c. 1900. Aside from his chair as reader in philosophy at Moscow University, Trubetskoy was also president of the Moscow Philosophical Society, whose meetings Scriabin regularly attended. See S. NICHOLLS, Notebooks of Alexander Skryabin, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018, 14. 5 Faubion BOWERS, Scriabin, a Biography, New York: Dover, 1996, 2:239. 6 Walter T. STACE, The Teachings of the Mystics, New York: New American Library, 1960, 14. 7 Simon NICHOLLS, The Notebooks, 75-76.
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This relates to Schloezer’s descriptions of Scriabin’s method of composition: Scriabin always progressed from the general to the particular, from oneness to individual moments. From this whole he deduced its constituent parts. When he composed… his work progressed simultaneously in all directions, developing from different points of departure according to a plan worked out in the most minute details.8
The evolution of Scriabin’s harmonic thought rapidly accelerated during the last decade of his life, spurred by his growing interest in theosophy and mysticism. In a letter addressed to his lover Tatiana de Schloezer, dated May 5 (O.S. April 22) 1905, Scriabin wrote: »La Clef de la Theosophie [The Key to Theosophy by Blavatsky] is a remarkable book. You would be astonished how much it has in common with me.«9 However, as Mitchell writes, »his adoption of theosophy, like his adoption of other philosophical systems, was partial at best... [mirroring] the eclecticism that was typical of popular occult practices in Russia at the time.«10 Schloezer, who knew Scriabin intimately,11 also confirmed this: At our early meetings I had an impression that Scriabin’s philosophical knowledge was quite extensive. Later on, however, I realized that was rather scant and that his knowledge of history and exact sciences was also superficial.12
Scriabin’s own notebooks reveal which mystic concepts (from Blavatsky13 and others) he ended up absorbing as his own. The principal elements of Scriabin’s thoughts, as distilled from his notebooks, are summarized below: 1. The arts should combine (or recombine). 2. Art should reconnect with its mystical origins and unite mankind in a spiritual sense. 3. The world was on the brink of a new era, and art (Scriabin’s art in particular) had a crucial role to play in bringing that era into being. 4. The basis of artistic creation and of meaningful insight was ecstatic inspiration. 5. The higher self is identical with the divine principle, and the artists’ work is equivalent to the creation of the universe.14
8 Boris de SCHLOEZER, Scriabin: Artist and Mystic, transl. from Russian by Nicolas Slonimsky, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987, 87. 9 Scriabin was reading a French translation of the first edition. See S. NICHOLLS, Notebooks, 19. 10 Rebecca MITCHELL, Nietzsche’s Orphans: Music, Metaphysics, and the Twilight of the Russian Empire, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016, 78. 11 B. de Schloezer’s sister (Tatiana), was Scriabin’s mistress. 12 B. de SCHLOEZER, Scriabin, 70. 13 Helena Petrovna BLAVATSKY’s Secret Doctrine was a mammoth work compiled from over a thousand sources, focusing on theosophy, human evolution, as well as science, religion, and mythology. 14 S. NICHOLLS, Notebooks, 4.
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Scriabin’s fascination with mysticism during the last decade of his life inspired his unfinished Mysterium (Prefatory Act). The surviving sketches of this magnum opus indicate a progression in towards clarity (and even simplicity) of musical texture and harmonic structures, as do all the works of his late period (starting from the Prometheus, Op. 60). In a letter to a friend, Scriabin wrote: The Mysterium will have enormous simplification. Everybody thinks that I make everything more and more complex. I do, but in order to surmount complexity, to move away from it. I must attain the summit of complexity in order to become simple. The Preparatory Act I [of the Mysterium] will have two-note harmonies and unisons.15
Scriabin’s Mysterium was envisioned as a rite lasting seven days in India, during which the audience would participate in the all-encompassing event, including music, dance, speech as well as an incorporation of projected colors and even perfumes. »The public would not only experience this art work but actively participate in it, using dance as the medium to enter a state of trance, of ecstatic bliss that would lead to the dematerialization of all things and the fusion with the Oneness, hence bringing forth the Apocalypse.«16 This ties in to the overall ideas of mysticism discussed earlier. Most of the experimental sonorities in the Mysterium sketches can also be found in many other works from Scriabin’s late period, notably, chords built by stacking perfect fourths, fifths and tritones (see example 1 below).
Ex. 1. 12-note and 8-note chords from the sketches of the unfinished Mysterium.17
15 Simon MORRISON, Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002, 229. 16 Nuno CERNADAS, Alexander Scriabin: Aesthetic Development through Selected Piano Works, Master’s Thesis, Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, 2013, 76. 17 Reproduced from the surviving 15-page manuscript of Scriabin’s Mysterium: Prefatory Act.
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2. The 3 Etudes Op. 65: a Background The 3 Etudes Op. 65, written in 1912, feature highly restrictive intervallic techniques, to a degree not found elsewhere in Scriabin’s output. Each etude in the opus is focused on one specific interval in the right hand: major ninths in the Op. 65, No. 1, major sevenths in No. 2 and perfect fifths in No. 3. These etudes, along with all his late period works, are written in using his new, non-diatonic harmonic system. In 1905 (the year he read Blavatsky’s La Clef de la Theosophie), Scriabin asked a question, which he then answered in a radical manner: How can you express mysticism with major and minor? How can you convey the dissolution of matter, or luminosity? Above all, minor keys must disappear from music. Minor is an undertone. I deal with overtones. Oh, how I want to break down the walls of these tempered tones.18
By 1910, Scriabin developed a new system of harmony which, arguably, accomplished exactly that. The Deux Morceaux, Op. 59 were his first piano works to use this new principle of tonal organization.19 As can most strikingly be observed in them, Scriabin had completely gotten rid of the traditional harmonic bass motion by perfect fifth at cadences and replaced it with motion by tritone. He has also abandoned key signatures. The ending of the Prelude Op. 59, No. 2 (Ex. 2) reveals Scriabin’s new approach to harmony.
Ex. 2. Scriabin Prelude Op. 59, No. 2, mm. 56-61 The most important new characteristics (first observed in the Op. 59, No. 2) are: the bass motion by tritone, the use of the acoustic scale as the underlying mode, and chords stacked in fourths. In the last seven measures of the prelude, every pitch (except the D-flat in the final chord) is derived from the overtone series, particularly its upper partials containing the acoustic scale. 18
F. BOWERS, Biography, 107. Scriabin’s orchestral work Prometheus Op. 60 (1910), was his first published work to use his new system of harmony. The Deux Morceaux Op. 59 for piano solo were composed at the same time, but not published until 1912. 19
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Ex. 3. The acoustic scale is derived from the upper partials of the overtone series The D-flat in the final chord is derived from the octatonic scale rising from the same note: C. It has been generally observed that Scriabin used the acoustic scale—with the addition of two »foreign« notes derived from the octatonic scale built up from the identical initial pitch—is the central mode of pitch organization to be found in the works of his late period.
Ex. 4. The »Mystic Chord«, also known as the »Prometheus Chord«, »Synthetic Chord« and »Chord of the Pleroma« Lana Forman notes that the composer clearly explained the significance of his Mystic Chord:20 »Scriabin himself called it the ‘chord of the pleroma’ apparently referring to the Gnostic meaning of the word (pleroma as the spiritual universe, the abode of God and of the totality of the divine powers and emanations).«21 Creating a harmonic structure from a linear progression, and thereby gradually breaking down the distinction between melody and harmony, was an historically notably achievement of Scriabin, with far-ranging reverberations in the procedures of several of the 20th century’s most noted musical radicals, such as Arnold Schoenberg. The analysis of the Etude Op. 65/ 3 will reveal how Scriabin incorporated pitches from the octatonic collection at key structural moments in lieu of what otherwise would have functioned at such points: traditional cadences. Scriabin’s writing in his late period, moreover, acquired greater transparency through the use of compositional techniques restricting the choice of modes and intervals. It 20 21
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A term coined by Arthur Eaglefield Hull in 1916. L. FORMAN, The Positivistic Mysticism, 9.
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was only in the late period, with the employment of his »Mystic Chord«, that Scriabin realized his goal: breaking free of »conventional« major and minor chord constructions. Scriabin himself wrote about his innovative approach to harmony in the late works: Why were harmony and melody separated in Classical music? Because there was a polarity between tonic and dominant: the dominant harmony gravitated towards the tonic. My polarity is not that of [the] tonic and dominant, but rather of these two chords separated by a diminished fifth. It is completely analogous to the tonic-dominant progression, the cadence in the Classical system, only on a different level, one ‘storey’ higher.22
Sabaneyev believed that this polarity was connected to Scriabin’s philosophical beliefs. Bowers quotes Sabaneyev: He theorized that the spirit of evil plays a sad role in Christian theodicy, but for Scriabin it was not something wicked at all. He was sympathetic to it and called it the creative spirit.23
That is in fact a clear reference to Madame H.P. Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine, a book which Scriabin read closely in 1905.24 The concept of the polarity, specifically the tritone relationship (along with the static nature of the harmony) can be observed in Scriabin’s 3 Etudes Op. 65. After a Russian tour, the famous conductor Willem Mengelberg engaged Scriabin for three concerts in Holland in October 1912, and one in Germany the following month.25 In June, Scriabin vacationed in Beatenberg, Switzerland and later that month, Scriabin wrote to Sabaneyev: I now inform you something pleasant for me, perhaps of indifference to you, and quite painful for all defenders of the classical faith: A composer whom you know had written three etudes. In fifths (horrors!), in ninths (how depraved!) and…. in major sevenths (the last fall from Grace!?) What will the world say?26
Scriabin was referring to his Three Etudes, Op. 65.
22
Leonid SABANEYEV, Vospominaniya o Skryabine [Reminiscences of Scriabin], Moscow: Muzykal’nyi sector gosudarstvennogo izdatel’stva, 1925, 260. 23 F. BOWERS, Biography, 2:232. 24 Scriabin generally admired the writings which were already aligned with his way of thinking. He read Blavatsky’s The Secret Doctrine many times, marking in pencil the most significant passages. See L. SABANEYEV, Vospominaniya, 71. 25 F. BOWERS, Biography, 2:235. 26 Ibid., 2:232.
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3. The Three Etudes Op. 65: Their Place in Scriabin’s Output As mentioned previously, what truly set the works starting from the Prometheus, Op. 60 apart was the replacement of the traditional V-I relationship with a bass motion by tritone. With the Mystic Chord, Scriabin redefined the function of an inherently unstable sonority based around a dominant seventh chord, into a stable element needing no resolution. Even as late as 1908, in his Deux Morceaux, Op. 57 (Ex. 5), Scriabin could not avoid the traditional V-I cadence, something which is entirely absent in his works starting from Op. 60.27
Ex. 5. Ending of Op. 57/ 1 Désir
Op. 57/ 2 Caresse Dansé
In the 3 Etudes Op. 65, written 1911-1912, certain new traits of Scriabin’s late style emerged. New ways of harmonic thought created a need for a clearer—and even minimalist—piano texture. The sonorities have become more complex, yet the unfolding of the harmonic motion has become far slower. In her Master’s Thesis, Lana Forman attempted to link the restrictive intervallic techniques found in Scriabin’s Etudes Op. 65 with Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine, which was a mammoth work compiled from over a thousand sources, focusing on theosophy, human evolution, as well as science, religion, and mythology. Forman writes: In [a] letter to Sabaneyev, Scriabin talks about the études in fifths, ninths and sevenths, in that order. In the first printed edition... the order of the études is different, however: the first one is in ninths, the second one is in sevenths, and the last one is in fifths. Could it be a certain ‘hidden’ message imbedded in the sequence of numbers nine, seven and five, discussed in The Secret Doctrine, which, according to Sabaneyev, Scriabin kept on his bedside table for nearly ten years?28
Forman goes on: It appears that in these three études the one world is created with the ’cosmic’ trinity. The numbers nine, seven and five are the ‘triple deity’ ending the preceding cycle; the 27 The Etude Op. 56 (1907), Deux Morceaux, Op. 57 (1908), and Feuillet d’album, Op. 58 (1908) are his last works employing the bass motion by fifth. See Lincoln BALLARD, The Alexander Scriabin Companion; History, Performance, and Lore, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017, 18. 28 L. FORMAN, The Positivistic Mysticism, 67.
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‘Eternal’, expressing the connection of the macro and the micro, and the Microcosm of a ‘conscious’ man manifesting his creative will.29
Looking at the relevant chapter in the Secret Doctrine discussing numbers, one can find several generalized statements which may have influenced Scriabin’s choice of intervals in his Op. 65. Blavatsky writes: »The odd numbers are divine, the even numbers are terrestrial, devilish, and unlucky. The Pythagoreans hated the binary. With them it was the origin of differentiation, hence of contrasts, discord, or matter, the beginning of evil.«30 Perhaps Scriabin’s choice of limiting the right hand intervals to the ninth, seventh and fifth (odd numbers 9, 7, 5) in his Etudes Op. 65 was related to that idea. Blavatsky continues: With the early Pythagoreans, however, the Duad was that imperfect state into which the first manifested being fell when it got detached from the Monad. It was the point from which the two roads – the Good and the Evil – bifurcated. All that which was double-faced or false was called by them ‘binary.’ One was alone Good, and Harmony, because no disharmony can proceed from one alone.31
It is possible that Scriabin’s concept of »polarity« is related to these general mystic ideas, summarized in Blavatsky’s Secret Doctrine. Examining the tonal scheme of the Etudes Op. 65 set, one can discover a connection between the tonal centers of each etude: Op. 65/1: Tonal centers E and B-flat Op. 65/ 2: C-sharp/D-flat and G Op. 65/3: G and C-sharp/D-flat When mapped out on a musical staff (below), it becomes clear that the tonal centers of each etude (there are always two because of the aforementioned tritone-link) belong to the same diminished seventh chord: G, B-flat, C-sharp, E.
Op: 65/1
65/2
65/3
Thus, the Op. 65 is evidently Scriabin’s only set of etudes with a discernible overarching method of tonal organization between works. His idea of limiting the right hand intervals entirely to 9ths, 7ths and 5ths created the need to make the 29
Ibid., 72. Helena Petrovna BLAVATSKY, The Secret Doctrine, Chicago: Theosophical Publishing House, 1897, 2:575. 31 Ibid., 576. 30
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top two voices the primary governing principle in most of the sonorities. As the analysis of the Etude Op. 65/3 will reveal, the bottom note in the right hand is often non-harmonic. His extensive use of non-harmonic notes in the Op. 65 (due to the restrictive techniques used), results in a sound-world which is more dissonant than virtually all his other late period works. 4. Analysis of the Etude Op. 65, No. 3: Form The Etude Op. 65/3 can be divided into the following sections: Section A: Vivace. Tonal center: G/D-flat (mm. 1-16) 16 measures Section B: Impérieux. Tonal Center: C-sharp/G (mm. 17-38) 22 measures (**2 measures missing due to incomplete sequence) Section B-1: Impérieux. Transposed to F-sharp/C (mm. 39-62) 24 measures, with interpolated elements from the A section. Section A: Prestissimo. G/D-flat (mm. 63-78) 16 measures. Modified return of the Vivace material. Section B: Meno Vivo. C-sharp/G (mm. 79-102) 24 measures. Return of the Impérieux plus a coda. Scriabin himself stated: »I need to be exact [count the measures precisely] as to make the form crystal clear«.32 Scriabin’s exceedingly clear phrase-writing, along with his sense of structure and symmetry in his works, was necessary in order to make the complex musical material accessible to the listener.33 Examining the overall structure, the incomplete phrase in mm. 37-38 is an irregularity which results in the first »section B« being only 22 measures in length. As the previous sections were all 16 or 24 measures long (which allowed for neat 4 and 8-bar phrases), the incomplete 2-measure phrase is therefore quite noticeable. Scriabin further emphasizes it by placing it immediately before the shift in the texture (and tempo) in m. 39, and even adds the poco accelerando to sharpen the contrast between the sections (see Ex. 6). Aside from that subtle irregularity of phrase structure, the rest of the etude is mostly symmetrical in design. Note that Section A (G/D-flat tonal center) and Section B (C-sharp/G tonal center) are inversions of one another. The central F-sharp/C (section B-1 in the chart above) is in fact a half-step away from the main 32
F. BOWERS, Biography, 1:332. Scriabin was criticized by some for his adherence to traditional forms. According to the celebrated American composer Aaron Copland, »Scriabin’s idea of attempting to put a really new body of feeling into the straight-jacket of the sonata form was one of the most extraordinary mistakes in music«. See L. BALLARD, Companion, 37. 33
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tonal area. However, Scriabin skillfully avoids any implication of the leading tone, as the harmonic analysis will reveal.
Ex. 6. Op. 65/ 3 mm. 37-40.
5. Harmonic Analysis of the Etude Op. 65, No. 3 Examining the Etude Op. 65, No. 3 one can notice that the slower-moving harmonic motion is the result of the limited number of possible sonorities which can be generated while the right hand throughout this etude is restricted to perfect fifths. The harmony (G-F-E-A-B) can easily be extracted from the figuration and is kept consistent throughout. 34 This sonority is transposed and sequenced over the ascending bass notes: G, A, B in mm. 1-8 (Ex. 7), and that whole section is transposed in the next eight-measure phrase (with the main bass notes E-flat, F, G) which cycles back to the initial »tonic«.
Ex. 7. Harmonic reduction of mm. 1-8 (repetitions eliminated for clarity) G is established as the tonal center at the end of that section. Note the presence of the pitch A in the right hand, belonging to the acoustic mode built from G (Ex. 8).
34 This chord could be understood as a non-functional dominant seventh chord G-B-F with an added sixth (E) and ninth (A). Scriabin’s use of this sonority, however, removes all implication of a dominant (V) function.
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Ex. 8. Op. 65, No. 3, mm. 15-16 In mm. 5-8, Scriabin introduces one new pitch in the left hand (the E-sharp), and makes it prominent with a new rhythmic figuration in m. 8 (left hand, see Ex. 9).
Ex. 9. Op. 65, No. 3, mm. 7-9 In the reduction of the harmony which the added E-sharp creates (Ex. 10), the right hand is also shown in closed position for easier comparison to the beginning of the work:
Ex. 10. Op. 65, No. 3, reduction of m. 8 (closed position on the right) This new chord serves as a link to the next eight-measure phrase, which is a transposition of the first phrase to E-flat. The E-sharp and B in the left hand of m. 8 expand out by a whole tone, creating a connection between the phrases (see Ex. 9). The prominent tritone featured in the B, E-sharp, A chord in the left hand (m. 8) was actually hinted at in the first seven measures of the piece, if one (wisely) takes pedaling into account when examining the harmony. Playing the first measure on one pedal produces the G, D-flat, F, B chord in the left hand:
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Ex. 11: Op. 65, No. 3, main harmony in m. 1 It is clear that Scriabin treats the tritone in m. 8 (and elsewhere) as a free »added note«, as one might use the fifth scale degree in a diatonic mode. This is a subtle way in which Scriabin uses the tritone relationship in place of the traditional I-V motion in his late works. If one takes all the notes present in m. 1 and stacks them in fourths, a seven-note chord will be produced. This is most likely how Scriabin generated the main harmony of the piece (see Ex. 12).
Ex. 12. Op. 65/ 3. The pitches in m. 1 (except E-flat) neatly fit into a structure stacked by fourths. One should note that the »tritone link« is also an important motivic element in the work. It connects the Molto vivace (»Section A«, mm. 1-16) to the Impérieux (»Section B« starting in m. 17), as the bass line in mm. 1-2: G, D-flat, G; becomes C-sharp, G, C-sharp in mm. 17-19. These are the same pitches, spelled enharmonically and inverted. The continuous triplet rhythm established by the right hand in the first section is now present in the left hand figuration starting from m. 17, which also helps to link the two sections (Ex. 13).
Ex. 13. Op. 65/ 3, mm 1-2 and mm. 17-19. 235
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The Impérieux35 (from m. 17) is the first time that a recognizably melodic element (in the right hand) is introduced in the piece. Scriabin emphasizes the contrast in texture and dynamics with a slower tempo marking (Ex. 14).
Ex. 14. Op. 65/ 3, mm. 17-20, right hand melody. The Etude Op. 65/ 3 reveals an increasingly minimalist approach to harmony and texture. While the sonorities have become more dissonant, there is less contrapuntal activity and the music is strikingly less melodic. Returning to the Impérieux (m. 17), notice that all of the added-note dissonances are in the right hand (in this section), above the alternating left hand seventh chords a tritone apart.
Ex. 16. A reduction of mm. 17-22. The top note of the right hand is treated as a melody, with the lower note in the right hand (along with the left hand harmonies) tailored to it. As mentioned previously, the lower notes in the right hand inevitably tend to create an abundance of non-harmonic notes because the right hand is restricted to playing perfect fifths throughout this etude, with no exceptions. This explains why the E-flat in the right hand in the first measure of the piece does not belong to any mode over the bass G. The E-flat would have belonged to the acoustic scale mode above the preceding C-sharp/D-flat bass, which also confirms how Scriabin used both the acoustic and octatonic scale interchangeably to add seemingly foreign 35
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This may be translated as »magistral«, »authoritative« and even »pompous«.
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harmonic notes. In m. 1, the E-flat is in a rhythmically weak position and is best understood as being »non-harmonic«, precisely because of Scriabin’s selfimposed restriction of the fifth. Scriabin must have been acutely aware of it, as he also uses the »non-harmonic« E-flat in a similar fashion in the Impérieux section (Ex. 17). This is yet another connection between the two seemingly contrasting sections, relating to Scriabin’s ideas of Unity and Multiplicity.
Ex. 17. Op. 65/ 3: m. 1 and mm. 17-18. The harmony is static from measure 17 through 30 until the bass note changes to an E in measure 31. Note that due to the »tritone link« between the bass notes C-sharp and G in this section, these bass notes are essentially interchangeable. The harmony produced is identical to the first Vivace section (mm. 1-16), only inverted (Ex. 18). This also connects to Scriabin’s mystic ideas of Unity and Multiplicity. Significantly, it also confirms that the »tritone-link« is based on the properties of the French augmented sixth chord (see pp. 234-235).
Ex. 18. The main harmonies of the Vivace and Imperieux sections use the same pitches, and intervallic structure Measures 29-32 are important to examine in order to understand how transitions between »tonal areas« are accomplished in this late-period work (Ex. 19). While there is no defined »key« in the diatonic sense in late Scriabin, the bass-line nevertheless establishes clear tonal centers.
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Ex. 19. Op. 65, No. 3, mm. 29-32. Examining the reduction of mm. 29-32 (Ex. 20), the progression is based on a voice exchange: the bass G natural is picked up by the top voice in the next measure. Scriabin once again uses the tritone link between seventh chords freely. The underlying bass motion is best understood as an ascent by minor third from D-flat/C-sharp to E. Examining the Impérieux section (from m. 17) one can discern that it is structured in four-measure phrases, heard in sets of two: mm. 17-20 and 21-24 plus 25-28 and 29-32. Starting from mm. 33 however, the phrases are shortened to two measures in length, as Scriabin starts interpolating material from the first Vivace section (mm. 1-16, see Ex. 20).
Ex. 20. Op. 65/3 mm. 33-40. Interpolating of material from the Vivace (mm. 1-16). This may also relate to Scriabin’s ideas of polarity, as he is now rapidly switching between the two contrasting textures based on the Vivace and the 238
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Impérieux material. Note that Scriabin now uses a whole-tone element in the material derived from the Vivace, instead of the chromatic element heard in m. 1 (Ex. 21). The whole-tone element generates a harmony which was not heard previously in the work (Ex. 22). m. 1:
mm. 33-34:
Ex. 21. Op 65/ 3, m. 1 compared with the modified material in m. 33 The initial harmony in m. 1:
m. 33:
m. 33 transposed to the initial tonal area for comparison:
Ex. 22. Op. 65/ 3. The m. 1 harmony compared with the modified m. 33 material. It is easier to understand the harmony in m. 33 when it is transposed to the G/D-flat tonal area of m. 1 (the tonal center of the piece). Examining the transposed version of m. 33 (Ex. 22), the pitches E-flat and A-flat in that transposition now produce a new harmony of four notes stacked in fourths: F, B-flat, E-flat and A-flat, which is related to the initial harmony of the work. The harmony in mm. 33 is related to the opening harmony, transposed down a minor third (from G/D-flat to the tonal center of E/B-flat). Measures 35-36 are a fragmented repeat of the phrase in mm. 29-32, and mm. 37-38 serve as a transition from the bass E to a new F-sharp bass note in m. 39, a progression which moves by ascending whole-step: E/B-flat—F-sharp/C (Ex. 23). Note that mm. 37-38 is the material from mm. 3-4, transposed down a minor third. This is another example of the overarching integration of material in this work. The section marked subito meno vivo (m. 39, see Ex. 24) is in fact the Impérieux material heard previously, transposed up a perfect fourth, from C-sharp/G to F-sharp/C. 239
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Ex. 23. mm. 37-39, note the underlying bass motion by whole step, E—F-sharp. Scriabin pairs each bass note with its »inversion« a tritone away. mm. 17-18
mm. 39-40
Ex. 24. Scriabin Op. 65 No. 3. The section starting in m. 39 is a transposition of the Impérieux in m. 17.
Examining the overall structure and tonal scheme again (see p. 232), it is possible to understand this entire subito meno vivo section starting in m. 39 as being related to the development section of a sonata form.36 The transposed statement of the Impérieux material provides a fresh new tonal area in work otherwise centered around two main bass notes, namely: G and C-sharp/D-flat. In mm. 57-62, at the end of this entire Subito meno vivo section, Scriabin uses a harmonic progression which was not heard previously in the work (Ex. 25). It serves as a transition to the modified return of the A-section, in the G/D-flat »tonic« area.
36 The juxtaposition of material from the Impérieux and Vivace sections also relate to typical devices to be found in the development section of a sonata form.
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By m. 62, Scriabin returns to the initial harmony of the work:
Ex. 25. Op. 65, No. 3, mm-57-62, reduction Note that the bass is moving down a major third from B to G, a progression which makes sense to the listener because of the B common-tone present in both harmonies. The right hand material at that point features an ascending sequence by whole step. Measures 63-78 are the return of the »A section«.37 The only difference is the increased tempo (Prestissimo), and the rhythm.
Ex. 26. The rhythm of the Vivace (m. 1) and the Prestissimo »recapitulation« (m. 63) Interestingly, in the first measure of the etude (see Ex. 26), Scriabin notates the two-note motive in the left hand as two sixteenth notes, and not as an incomplete triplet. In performance, this rhythmic subtlety is not meant to be audible at 37
Related to the recapitulation in a sonata form.
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all. However, this rhythmic figuration becomes prominent in the frenzied return of the opening material in m. 16. This is yet another detail which suggests Scriabin’s meticulous attention to the overall unity of all the various components within his compositions. Besides the rhythmic change, the Prestissimo recapitulation is an exact repeat of measures 1-16. Likewise, the next section in mm. 79-86 is an exact repeat of mm. 17-24.38 The final 16-measure phrase (starting in m. 87) serves as a coda to the etude. It starts out as a continuation of the Impérieux material, and finishes with an eight-measure reference to the opening of the Etude Op. 65, No. 1, confirming that the Three Etudes Op. 65 were indeed envisioned as a cycle by Scriabin (Ex. 27). The ending of Op. 65, No. 3:
The beginning of Op. 65, No. 1:
Ex. 27. The ending of the Op. 65/1 is related thematically to the opening of the Op. 65/3 . 38 Presenting the Vivace and the contrasting Impérieux material as a pair, again, also suggests that the overall structure of the etude relates to a sonata form.
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Examining ex. 27, note that while the right hand in the ending passage of the Op. 65, No. 3 is composed of perfect fifths with a bottom octave added, it is nevertheless a clear reference to the beginning of the Op. 65, No. 1. The top line of the right hand in the Op. 65, No. 3 now spans two octaves and is transposed up a half-step. The left hand bass notes, however, are the same exact pitches in both etudes. In the Op. 65, No. 3 ending, the main bass notes expand a full octave down, outlining the diminished chord: C-sharp, A-sharp, G, E. In the opening of the Etude Op. 65, No. 1, the main bass notes (E, C-sharp, A-sharp, G) belong to the same collection. Tonal Centers of The Etudes Op. 65
Op. 65, No. 1
Op. 65, No. 2 Op. 65, No 3
The same collection is outlined by the main tonal centers of the three etudes in the cycle. This is Scriabin’s only set of etudes with an apparent overarching plan of tonal organization. 6. Implications for Further Research The analysis of the Etude Op. 65 No. 3 explored the various innovations of Scriabin’s late period style. One possibility for further research is determining if Scriabin’s last completed work, Five Preludes, Op. 74, which feature a higher level of dissonance than his preceding works, employ any new compositional techniques not found previously in his output. Chia-Lun Chang’s dissertation on the Preludes Op. 74 presented an in-depth analysis of each prelude but did not venture into a comparison with earlier works. Another important topic for further research is Scriabin’s treatment of thematic material in his late period Sonatas. The progression towards the simplification of thematic material has been observed to some extent in the Etudes Op. 65. This topic is covered in far greater detail in my DMA dissertation The Evolution of Alexander Scriabin’s Harmonic Language and Piano Textures Across his Etudes Op. 8, 42 and 65. Undoubtedly, Scriabin’s themeconstructions within larger scale forms evolved along with his harmonic language. Lastly, the surviving Mystery sketches certainly are in need of detailed study.
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Bibliography (Works Cited)
BALLARD, Lincoln. The Alexander Scriabin Companion: History, Performance, and Lore, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2017. BOWERS, Faubion. Scriabin, a Biography, New York: Dover, 1996. BLAVATSKY, Helena Petrovna. The Secret Doctrine, Chicago: Theosophical Publishing House, 1897. CERNADAS, Nuno. Alexander Scriabin: Aesthetic Development through Selected Piano Works. Master’s Thesis, Hochschule für Musik Freiburg, 2013. FORMAN, Lana. The Positivistic Mysticism of Alexander Scriabin. Master’s Thesis, York University, Toronto, 2017. LEIKIN, Anatole. The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin. Burlington: Ashgate Publishing, 2011. MITCHELL, Rebecca. Nietzsche’s Orphans: Music, Metaphysics, and the Twilight of the Russian Empire, New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016. MORRISON, Simon. Russian Opera and the Symbolist Movement, Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002. NICHOLLS, Simon. The Notebooks of Alexander Skryabin, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. SABANEYEV, Leonid. Vospominaniya o Skryabine [Reminiscences of Scriabin], Moscow: Muzykal’nyi sector gosudarstvennogo izdatel’stva, 1925. SCHLOEZER, Boris de. Scriabin: Artist and Mystic, translated from Russian by Nicolas Slonimsky, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1987. STACE, Walter T. The Teachings of the Mystics, New York: New American Library, 1960.
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Sažetak Tri etide op. 65: harmonijske inovacije u kasnom razdoblju Aleksandra Skrjabina Skrjabinov je harmonijski jezik tijekom cijeloga njegovog života doživljavao evoluciju. Njegova najranija djela nadahnuta su Chopinovim skladbama, osobito obilnom upotrebom dominantnih septakorda s dodanim disonancama. Međutim, njegov je stil u kasnoj fazi djelovanja sadržavao radikalan prekid s tradicionalnom harmonijom. Ovaj članak ispituje inovacije koje je moguće pronaći u Skrjabinovim etidama op. 65, skladanima 1912., tri godine prije njegove smrti u 43. godini života. Skrjabinove bilježnice, nedavno objavljene 2018. godine u engleskom prijevodu Simona Nichollsa i Michaela Pushkina, pružaju dragocjen uvid u njegov stvaralački proces. Nadalje, u njima pronađeni Skrjabinovi filozofski spisi potvrđuju da je napredak u harmonijskom jeziku tijekom njegova kasnog razdoblja bio izravno nadahnut njegovom izloženošću idejama misticizma. Autor ocrtava mistične pojmove preuzete od Vladimira Solovjova, Helene Petrovne Blavatsky (i drugih) koji su se našli u Skrjabinovim vlastitim filozofskim spisima. Također se objašnjavaju i opća načela harmonije u Skrjabinovim kasnim djelima. Detaljna analiza njegove etide op. 65, br. 3 upućuje na jedinstvene značajke njegova kasnog stila (s naglaskom na harmoniju) i pokušava povezati određene kompozicijske postupke pronađene u djelima iz kasnog razdoblja nakon opusa 60 s općim idejama misticizma.
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