Return to search

The ten piano sonatas of Alexander Scriabin

The importance of Scriabin in the present day is found in his underlying contribution to the direction of the use of the piano in this century. Scriabin's special performance practices at the keyboard are concurrent with those of such musical giants as Debussy, Rachmaninov and Schoenberg.It appears that one must evaluate not only the piano sonatas but all of Scriabin's works in a new light because in the face of present day multi-media they become experimental works. The piano sonatas in particular are advanced technical works experimenting with "color" and special effects derived from a conventional instrument. With proper performance and understanding, Scriabin's works become unique, not because of outstanding compositional achievement, but because of the beginning of a new concept in the synthesis of the arts. Also, Scriabin's harmonic innovations developed a system of tonality incorporating a new chord construction and concept of sound at the keyboard, so characteristic of the composer that they came to be labeled as the inimitable "Scriabin style."In the last decade, music scholars have finally begun to place Scriabin in a perspective of our modern music and have found him to be a "progenitor" of our present combination of psychedelic color effects with music as well as music's interrelation with mystic-religious influences. / School of Music

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/181009
Date January 1975
CreatorsMurray, Dorothy L.
ContributorsKorf, William E.
Source SetsBall State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Formatv, 168 leaves : ill., music ; 28 cm.
SourceVirtual Press

Page generated in 0.0019 seconds