Search

To a modern observer of Western culture, Romanticism might appear conflicted about size. On the one hand, the likes of Chopin and Scriabin best expressed themselves through small-scale compositions, while, on the other, there were those who, like Wagner and Mahler, produced colossal works. The aim of the present article is to explore the phenomenon of miniaturization in Western culture and to examine how miniature works (e.g., literary fragments, preludes) competed with their much larger counterparts. My central claims are threefold: (1) that miniaturization, contrary to common belief, is not a contemporary phenomenon; (2) that the attitude of Romanticism to size was not paradoxical but rather an attempt to harmonize the fragment and the colossal; and (3) that in contemporary culture, the fragment and the colossal are no longer in harmony with each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how Kodály, his student Antal Molnár and his colleague Imre Molnár, and their adversary Emil Haraszti saw Scriabin’s music throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Audiences were responsive, as seen by the continuous performance of his works by Hungarian and international musicians beginning in 1906. There was a great deal of curiosity in his orchestral pieces, but only four of them were played ten times throughout the course of a century. Rêverie and Le Poème Divin debuted in Budapest in 1910, followed by Le Poème de l’extase in 1919, although Prometheus did not make its appearance until 2001. Kodály found his music peculiar and disinteresting, judging it to be a poorer disciple of Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. However, following the composer’s death, his pupils discovered new values in him, characterizing him as mythical (like A. Molnár A.) and mystical (like I. Molnár). And Haraszti thought it was excellent music. A different interpretation referred to Scriabin as the "Russian Bartók." He was regarded as "one of the most inventive experimenters of his time," which was a mixed acclaim. After 1945, newspapers mostly complimented his piano pieces and symphony conductors. Marxist aesthetes after 1949 saw his work as a failure due to his spiritual goals, which A. Molnár regarded as a distinctive value. Two pioneering conductors, who considered Kodály their distant teacher, Z. Kocsis and A. Ertüngealp, gave the first performances of his hitherto unperformed pieces after 1990.

The harmonic language of Alexander Scriabin's Preludes Op. 11 offers a vivid look into the composer's early stylistic approach, marked by extended tonal frameworks and inventive choices. This study focuses on three preludes - C Major, A Minor, and E Minor - exploring Scriabin's unique harmonic structures, sequencing techniques, and influences from Chopin. Each prelude embodies different facets of Scriabin's harmonic thought, from the use of pentachords and non-tertian structures in the C Major Prelude to sequential modulation and tonal shifts in the A Minor Prelude. The E Minor Prelude showcases Scriabin's innovative textural sequencing and vertical harmonies. Through these analyses, the study aims to demonstrate the complexities and nuances of Scriabin's early harmonic language, ultimately shedding light on his contributions to late Romantic music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how Kodály, his student Antal Molnár and his colleague Imre Molnár, and their adversary Emil Haraszti saw Scriabin’s music throughout the first half of the twentieth century. Audiences were responsive, as seen by the continuous performance of his works by Hungarian and international musicians beginning in 1906. There was a great deal of curiosity in his orchestral pieces, but only four of them were played ten times throughout the course of a century. Rêverie and Le Poème Divin debuted in Budapest in 1910, followed by Le Poème de l’extase in 1919, although Prometheus did not make its appearance until 2001. Kodály found his music peculiar and disinteresting, judging it to be a poorer disciple of Richard Strauss and Claude Debussy. However, following the composer’s death, his pupils discovered new values in him, characterizing him as mythical (like A. Molnár A.) and mystical (like I. Molnár). And Haraszti thought it was excellent music. A different interpretation referred to Scriabin as the "Russian Bartók." He was regarded as "one of the most inventive experimenters of his time," which was a mixed acclaim. After 1945, newspapers mostly complimented his pianopieces and symphony conductors. Marxist aesthetes after 1949 saw his work as a failure due to his spiritual goals, which A. Molnár regarded as a distinctive value. Two pioneering conductors, who considered Kodály their distant teacher, Z. Kocsis and A. Ertüngealp, gave the first performances of his hitherto unperformed pieces after 1990. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, I explore the life and work of three outstanding pianists and composers in the late 19th and early 20th century: Medtner, Rachmaninoff, and Scriabin, who were not only contemporaries and colleagues but also supportive friends to each other. All three were largely influenced by their years at the Moscow Conservatory, where they became prominent pianists and first showed promise as composers. They received similar impulses and could learn from the same teachers. As a defining common element in their lives, they explored and strived to combine Russian musical traditions and Western classical music. At the same time, their different personalities are apparent from their music, so despite their common roots, their individual musical language is unmistakable. Even at the beginning of their careers, it was clear that despite the commonalities, their lives and careers took a different direction. All three tried their luck abroad, but only Scriabin returned home for the rest of his short life. In addition to their distinct life paths and musical language, their recognition is quite different. Scriabin's name sounds familiar to many, but he does not belong to the most popular composers of our time. Rachmaninoff's widespread popularity can be observed among professional musicians as well as the public. In contrast, it is not impossible to meet a professional for whom Medtner's music is unknown. This is not necessarily explained by disparities in talent and abilities but rather by differences in circumstances, opportunities, and personalities. In this study, I attempt to shed light on the reasons for the three composers' contrasting popularity from the perspective of their life and work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a fragment of the PhD thesis Philosophical and Aesthetic Principles of Tragedy in Calderon and Racine (Department of the History of Foreign Literature, Moscow State University, 1988). In her dissertation, the author examined Racine’s presence in Mandelstam’s poetry against the theory of the tragic. Written in the essayistic form, the article examines the following basic images and key concepts of this general theme: (1) cascading shawls as emblematizing heaviness / lightness; (2) a word-confession as expression of pure and redemptive suffering; (3) death by word followed up by redemption. It pays particular attention to the image of the “black sun” and the “tainted day” in Racine’s Phaedra. According to Mandelstam, this image has different connotations and “does not evoke a ready-made meaning” (“Conversation about Dante”). In Racine, Sun is a sacred symbol, it is “the Hidden God”, or Deus absconditus of Jansenism. Phaedra’s sin stains the Sun and darkens it. Phaedra’s last words confirm the redemptive effect of her death. In the article “Pushkin and Scriabin,” Mandelstam writes about the tragic meaning of the artist’s death and compares it with Phaedra’s deed. The study of Racine’s presence in Mandelstam, taking into account the studies of such scholars as Barthes, Goldmann, Poulet and others, allows us to point out explicit and implicit allusions to Racine in Mandelstam’s poetry. It also helps to understand Mandelstam’s idea of the tragedy and the tragic as it developed from 1914 through 1920 when the poet was translating the great French tragedian and at the same time was trying to comprehend the tragic events he witnessed.

The article is the third part of the text devoted to the profile and piano works of Alexander Scriabin. The composer had an extraordinary piano talent and the ability of coloured hearing. He worked out an innovative musical language based on a unique harmonic style. He was an unprecedented visionary of art, he had knowledge on philosophical topics, he was also a mystic who wanted to save the mankind thanks to his creative output. The article's author asks questions about the reasons of this radical evolution of Scriabin's musical language, the reflection of his personality and creative views and the connections of music with mystical experiences. As he believes, finding a way to a possibly authentic explanation of these issues may contribute to a better understanding of the composer's creative intentions in the context of the artistic interpretation of his piano works. The third part of the cycle presents the interpretation of Scriabin's mysticism in aesthetic aspect. The author of the article shows three perspectives of this phenomenon, i.e.: presentation of mystical topics in the programme of a piece, treating a music piece as a transcendent being and using a composition as a carrier of mystical experiences. An important element of this description is the reference to psychological findings of Abraham Maslov concerning the special perception accompanying such experiences (peak experience). The article concludes with a few reflections of a general performance-related character. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Статья посвящена Дине Леонидовне Шевчук, творчеству этого выдающегося новосибирского музыканта - педагога и пианиста. Обращение автора к данной теме обусловлено не только желанием осветить деятельность одного из ведущих специалистов Новосибирской государственной консерватории, внесшего вклад в развитие фортепианной педагогики и исполнительства новосибирской школы. Главным образом рассматривается и анализируется огромный пласт творчества Шевчук -исполнение произведений Скрябина, как одно из основных устремлений в ее репертуаре. Творчество Скрябина по праву считается новаторским, в симфонических и фортепианных творениях композитор воплотил свой звуковой мир, свою систему образов и выразительных средств. Характерная для Скрябина утонченность, нервная эмоциональность, а вместе с этим страстная патетика его музыки привлекали к ней интерес большого количества пианистов. К их числу можно отнести Д. Л. Шевчук. Подобная репертуарная направленность, а также искренняя увлеченность творчеством композитора, получившая начало еще в годы учебы в консерватории в классе E. М. Зингера определили дальнейшую работу Дины Леонидовны над большим количеством сыгранных ею произведений Скрябина, что позволяет говорить о ней как об одном из ведущих скрябинистов в Сибири.

This article focuses on the interpretation of the fundamental bass in terms of structural modes. The aim is to develop an analytical interpretation that relates tonality and tonal form to the fundamental bass. The approach is anchored in the Ramellian tradition by considering the fundamental bass as an autonomous level of analysis. A contiguity principle is governed by the modes of the musical tetractys, or structural modes: P4-M2-P4 (first mode), M2-P4-P4 (second mode), and P4-P4-M2 (third mode). These modes consist of three-scale degrees, which are labeled tonic, subdominant, or dominant, respectively, thus creating a conceptual bridge between scale theory and functional harmony. The dialogue between fundamental bass and real bass reflects a broader dialogue between a structural approach to fundamental bass and elements from thoroughbass and partimento traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article is the second part of the text devoted to the profile and piano works of Alexander Scriabin. The composer had an extraordinary piano talent and the ability of coloured hearing. He worked out an innovative musical language based on a unique harmonic style. He was an unprecedented visionary of art, he had knowledge on philosophical topics, he was also a mystic who wanted to save the mankind thanks to his creative output. Throughout the period of around 20 years, Scriabin's musical language transformed drastically, which is most fully shown in his piano pieces, especially miniatures and sonatas. The second part of the article presents a general characterisation of Scriabin's piano compositions and musical language in subsequent stages of his creative work. The analysis refers to style and form-related topics, melodics and harmony he used, texture and timbre phenomena and the connections between piano and symphonic pieces. The author of the article reflects on the essence of Scriabin's artistic orientation and the fact whether the change of his musical language can be called an "evolution" as such. An important element of the article is the presentation of the structure of each piano sonata. The included characterisation of the change of his musical language is an addition to the first part of the cycle, enabling the reference to the stages of the composer's life juxtaposed there with the description of the transformation of his artistic views. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An integral feature in many of Scriabin's late musical narratives is the presence of an atonal problem--a musical event that threatens a harmony which the piece is based on. I offer a new interpretation of Scriabin's late music, in which the idea of an atonal problem becomes a defining feature of his style (after op. 58). This atonal problem is defined as a non-chord tone, which disrupts the balance of the collection (octatonic, whole-tone, or Mystic) which the work is based on. Drawing from Schoenberg's concept of a tonal problem and from Straus's expansion of this concept in Disability Studies in music, I use Scriabin's piano miniatures to show that, within each work, a single pitch class always stands out registrally, dynamically, and/or rhythmically, and becomes an important staple of Scriabin's late style. Thus, the accommodation of this "wrong" note no longer represents that pitch class as a disruptive note, but rather it adds to the unique aspect of that work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper dwells on one musical miniature of great value of all time that A. Scriabin, a post-romantic composer, wrote for the piano. Starting from a Russian folk song, he dedicates to his instrument a piece full of lyricism, reflecting his spiritual unrest. From the structural point of view, the nocturne (as a part of his Chopinian series of works) is like a tripartite lied followed by a Coda. We distinguish between two sections with ample sound changes mirroring the composer's search for developing the specific possibilities of the piano and for multiplying its colouristic resources. By the end of the first section, it becomes much broader in the sound area. In this piece for the left hand we find more or less classical proportions. It is not just an extremely interesting and expressive one, but also difficult in terms of piano virtuosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Amaltea. Revista de Mitocrítica is the property of Universidad Complutense de Madrid and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The belief that painting could emulate music and the reverse, that music could emulate painting, inspired a part of the most progressive visual arts of the 20th century. The artists who made use of synaesthesia created an astounding correspondence between colour and sound, colour and idea, drawing varied and unexpected analogies to convey sensations, intimations and emotions. The aim of this research is to present some of the trends resulted from these correlations between music and painting of the beginning of the 20th century, a period when the artists aimed to create an impersonal and conventional music in an attempt to reach the objectivity, rationalism and constructivism, focusing on the works of Wassily Kandinsky and Alexandr Scriabin. For many of the artists of the beginning of the past century, music represented the new idea of transposition into visual arts. It was no longer the content to reproduce the visible world, but, for a change, the painters strived to put into their canvasses the emotional intensity, the structural integrity and the aesthetic purity generally attributed to music. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The similarity between psychotic symptoms and aspects of mystical experiences is well known. It has long been recognized that there are similarities between mystical and spiritual and psychotic experiences. The content of an experience alone usually does not determine whether an individual is psychotic. The Russian composer Scriabin (1872–1915) was among the most famous artists of his time. Scriabin infused his music with mysticism, evolving a modernistic idiom through which he created a musical counterpart to the Symbolist literature of that period. In this paper, we discuss the question that arises from perusing Scriabin’s life is whether the composer was a mystic genius or whether he suffered from affective psychopathology with psychotic features. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores competing nationalist and internationalist influences on the music of Frank Bridge. Bridge was a performer and composer of some initial success, and later a significant figure in British modernism. This study investigates the relationship between form, nationalism, and criticism in Summer, Two Poems, and Enter Spring. It begins by identifying nationalist and internationalist themes within these works, and their impact on reception. Bridge’s treatment is shown to be increasingly incongruous, with conflicting popular and personal impulses. Summer and the first Poem show a subtly outward treatment of the nationalist genre of English Pastoralism. They hint at a more explicit internationalism that Bridge would later espouse - if not always consistently. In the more complex Enter Spring, Bridge sought to re - engage with English Pastoralism, having in recent modernist works abandoned its conventional use. Reviews were unconvinced, however, and his correspondence exposes conflicting motivations. Two conclusions are drawn: first, an irreconcilability between Bridge’s internationalism and wider British musical culture. Bridge’s attempts to satisfy both, increasingly idiosyncratic, met with little success. Secondly, a diminished accessibility resulting from these attempts. It is argued that this inaccessibility derives from the idiosyncratic combinations arising from these works' conflict between nationalism, internationalism, and modernism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Synesthesia is a syndrome or better said a psychological state that became manifest in music, art and literature. Mainly in the 20th century it takes a different shape as a result of scientific progress and especially of the effects it has generated. Synesthesia in music is recognized due to the effects created by Alexander Scriabin in Prometheus – The Poem of Fire as well as ”the painting” on the score of Hartmann’s pictures in his famous work Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. At the opposite pole we come across synesthetic episodes in pop-rock music or in disco dance music. The Avant-garde is a decisive factor of synesthetic development due to the synergy between music and visual art. The appearance and diversification of synesthesia creates new effects that influence all the people who interact with music and colours directly or indirectly.

Synesthesia is a syndrome or better said a psychological state that became manifest in music, art and literature. Mainly in the 20th century it takes a different shape as a result of scientific progress and especially of the effects it has generated. Synesthesia in music is recognized due to the effects created by Alexander Scriabin in Prometheus - The Poem of Fire as well as "the painting" on the score of Hartmann's pictures in his famous work Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. At the opposite pole we come across synesthetic episodes in pop-rock music or in disco dance music. The Avant-garde is a decisive factor of synesthetic development due to the synergy between music and visual art. The appearance and diversification of synesthesia creates new effects that influence all the people who interact with music and colours directly or indirectly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alexander Scriabin imagined his Prometheus: Poem of Fire, op. 60, as a spectacular "dual symphony" of light and sound. For much of the work's history, however, the light part remained enigmatic and technological ly unper formable , contributing to a vicious cycle between performance and analysis. An incomplete understanding of the function of the lights resulted in a disregard for Scriabin's lighting notation in performances, while the unavailability of accurate, convincing performances has inhibited curiosity regarding the lights' full analytical potential. This paper reassesses the relationship between music and lights in Prometheus, drawing upon new research regarding the nature of Scriabin's vision. We explore the potential of the lights to perform a real-time visual analysis of the music using video excerpts from our 2010 performance with the Yale Symphony Orchestra. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nietzsche's The Birth of Tragedy, and early 20th century Russians' interpretations and embellishments of it, informed Losev's theories of music and myth and his studies of the religions of Apollo and Dionysus. His complex musical aesthetic includes the idea that music is the expression of a fundamentally Dionysian reality structured by Apollonian elements. In The Dialectic of Myth, he argued that myth is a dialectical necessity (not just a necessity), attacked the secular mythologies of the Enlightenment and Marxism, and upheld "Christian mythology" (his term). In The Mythologies of the Greeks and Romans, he traced the religions of Zeus, Apollo, and Dionysus from paleolithic Crete to the end of the Roman Empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]