Mystical creations of Scriabin
On April 14, 1915, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin died suddenly in Moscow. The composer was in his 44th year, his music was heard all over the world. One of the first to respond to the death of Scriabin was Konstantin Balmont: He felt symphonies of light, he called to merge into one floating temple - touches, sounds, incense and processions, where dancing is a sign...
A close friend of Scriabin, Balmont knew about the plans of the mystical musician, who was going to carry out a synthesis unprecedented in the history of art. Components Scriabin's "Mystery" were to become not only traditional arts(music, poetry, painting, architecture, dance), but also not yet existing, fantastic.
Biographer of Scriabin L.L. Sabaneev reproduced in his book “Memories of Scriabin” (Moscow, 1925) the composer’s words about how he imagined his music.
Symphony of light. “I want there to be symphonies of lights... The whole hall will be in alternating lights. Here they flare up, these are tongues of fire, you see, just like there are fires here in music... Light should fill all the air, penetrate it to the atoms. All music and everything in general should be immersed in light waves, bathed in them.”
A symphony of smells. “Everything is there, a symphony of light, and a symphony of aromas, because these will be not only pillars of light, but also aromas.”
Symphony of taste. “I will also have taste sensations in “Action.”
A symphony of touches. “By the end of the mystery, we will no longer be people, but we will become weasels ourselves.”
A symphony of views. “We need to fix not only the line of gestures, but also the gaze. These are the gliding glances, how to record them? This is a very special feeling if, for example, the gaze follows one’s own gesture, as if caressing it.”
A symphony of mental images. “I want to bring into Mystery such imaginary sounds that will not sound in reality, but which must be imagined.”
The involvement of all organs of human perception was, of course, not an end in itself, but only part of Scriabin’s grandiose plan to transform the Universe. In his opinion, our civilization is on the disastrous path of technotronic self-destruction: humanity can perish without awakening the divine energies sleeping within itself - psychic forces.
The composer decides to build and implement an alternative path of evolution. According to his plan, in distant India, on the shore of an enchanted lake, a temple should be built from precious stones, incense and sunset colors to perform the “Mystery”. He, Scriabin, will give only the first impetus to the inclusion of fantastic cause-and-effect chains. Mystical bells will ring in the sky over the Himalayas, and in response to their call, all the peoples inhabiting the Earth will go to India to take part in the performance of the majestic symphony of the Transfiguration. On the seventh day of the grandiose synthetic action, the combined power of the mental field of the peoples was supposed to break through the screen of the world Illusion. In artistic ecstasy, humanity would break free from the snares of matter.
The idea of “Mystery” came to Scriabin back in 1903 and finally crystallized two years later, after becoming acquainted with the works of Helena Blavatsky. From that time on, all his work became preparation for the world holiday of the Reunion of Spirit and Matter. Absorbed by his idea, the composer willingly told his friends about it, made detailed plans and wrote a large number of sketches of a future magical act (in essence, all of Scriabin’s later works are sketches for it). The last full-scale sketch of the “Mystery” was supposed to be the “Preliminary Action”, about which the composer said:
“It will not be a “Mystery” yet, but in this spirit, and in it there will be a synthesis of arts, and it will already be esoteric.. It’s still piece of art, although it will be completely different, there will be a lot of real magic... It will have mysticism diluted with some symbolism, and this will precisely determine the possibility of repeated performance.”
Scriabin began work on “Preliminary Action” in the winter of 1913, two years before his death, but no one except his closest friends ever heard this mysterious opus. Music died with him - this is not an isolated incident in the musical world, but in the fate of Scriabin it acquires symbolic significance.
It seemed that all the circumstances of Scriabin’s life prevented him from completing the magical score. In recent years, the composer has been deprived of the support of patrons of the arts and is forced to often and for a long time go on tour with solo concerts. But the reason for the death of Scriabin’s main work was not financial difficulties or cargo family problems. Three days after the funeral, the composer’s student Mark Meichik wrote:
“He did not die, he was taken from people when he began to implement his plan; it is not for nothing that there is a saying that in heaven they make sure that trees do not grow into the sky. Through music, Scriabin saw a lot of things that are not given to man to know, and he wanted to introduce people to this much... He boldly wanted to introduce people into the very kingdom of the gods and therefore had to die!
Indeed, many events of the composer’s earthly life in the context of his plans acquire a transcendental connotation, and not in the realm of legends, but as real events.
Scriabin repeatedly demonstrated the ability to clairvoyance in space and time: he could find a person in a crowd without knowing his face, he talked about the history of long-lost civilizations. I could look at the sun at its zenith without blinking, and then easily read the small print. He had the ability to put his listeners into a hallucinatory state and could change the structure of sound in space, which is why many wrote about the “fantastic, non-piano” timbres of the works he performed. Rental contract last apartment he concluded on April 14, 1912 for a period of three years - exactly the day of his death. The mystical beginning manifested itself even in the dates of Scriabin’s life. He was born on Christmas Day (December 25, 1871, old style), and died on the second day of Easter.
“Music is the path of revelation,” said Scriabin. “You cannot imagine what a powerful method of knowledge this is.” Everything that I think and say now, I know all this through my creativity.” In their latest works he transforms musical structures into magical symbols. He describes his piano miniatures as “living organisms” (energy-informational structures endowed with a “blind thirst for life,” that is, independent existence) and sees in them the “habitat” of creatures from parallel worlds. The composer argued that “music enchants time and can stop it altogether.”
Sabaneev, one of the few who was lucky enough to hear “Preliminary Action” from the author in a piano version, recalls:
“These were mysterious, full of some kind of unearthly sweetness and sharpness, slow harmonies... A delicate, fragile sound fabric, in which some kind of sharp, painfully sultry mood sounded... It seemed that I was in some kind of enchantment, a sacred kingdom where sounds and lights somehow merged into one fragile and fantastic chord. And in all this there was a flavor of some kind of ghostliness, unreality, sleepiness - such a mood, as if you were seeing a sound dream.”
Neither during the composer’s lifetime, nor in the many years that have passed since his death, has his musical world been resurrected in its original form. Until now, Scriabin's ideas were perceived superficially and were reduced mainly to attempts at a light and music production of Prometheus (his only score with a fixed light line). Unfortunately, the author's instructions were minimal, and almost all experiments were limited to the play of colored rays on one or several screens of various configurations. Meanwhile, Scriabin himself needed “moving forms, so that the incense would form these forms and so that the light would illuminate them.” In the score of "Prometheus", stored in the Paris national library, Scriabin’s hand includes descriptions of the visual images of the “Poem of Fire”: “lightning”, “stars”, “swell of light”, “sparkles and circles on the water”, “luminous figures”, “streams of light”, “cascades of lights and sparks”, “acute forms”, etc.
Today it is obvious that the composer was trying to embody in his art other “ways of measuring” reality, accessible only to a few people with paranormal abilities. Scriabin believed that these talents are hidden in every person and his music is the key to their awakening. “In general,” he said, “we do not know many of our hidden capabilities. These are dormant forces, and they need to be brought to life... And music, which contains innumerable rhythmic possibilities, is thereby the strongest, most effective magic, only refined, refined magic, which does not lead to such crude results as sleep or hypnosis, but to the construction of certain refined states of the psyche, which can be very diverse.”
The author of the “Poem of Fire” believed that people create the surrounding physical reality with their ideas about it. It is obvious that, freed from the burden of negative emotions that destroy the psyche, a person will gain the strength to see new worlds, other ways of being in himself and the world around him.
In Scriabin's philosophical notes one can find predictions of many scientific discoveries and technologies of the twentieth century, and computer science occupies not the last place here.
(1872-1915) Russian composer
Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin was not only a brilliant composer, but also a deep thinker. Until the end of his days he remained faithful to high humanistic ideals and worthily continued the traditions of Russian musical classics, enriching it with new discoveries. At the heart of Scriabin's worldview lay a firm, unshakable belief that art can transform people, and he worked for this idea. His works forever entered the spiritual culture of mankind.
Alexander Scriabin was a descendant of the ancient noble family. His father decided to continue the family tradition and, after graduating from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, entered a very elite educational institution - the Institute oriental languages, in which he was helped by Prince A. M. Gorchakov, Pushkin’s lyceum friend. After graduating from college, Alexander Scriabin served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In his spare time he was interested in music and played the piano, but did not rise above the level of an amateur. Also in student years he married Lyubov Petrovna Shchetinina, the daughter of the director of a porcelain factory, a student of the famous pianist T. Leshetitsky, in whose class she brilliantly graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory. Her extraordinary talent attracted the attention of Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, who, however, in a conversation with friends sadly spoke about the fragility of the build and the sickly appearance of Leshetitsky’s favorite.
Soon after graduating from the conservatory and her first performances in St. Petersburg, Lyubov Petrovna began to successfully give concerts in other cities, already under her husband’s name. After the birth of her son, on the advice of doctors, she went for treatment to the Austrian Tyrol, where she died of tuberculosis a few months later.
From his father, the future composer inherited an insatiable thirst for knowledge, an inquisitive mind and a strong will, but first of all, his versatile artistic talent manifested itself. The boy learned to read and write early, and then began to compose poetry and short dramatic works, enthusiastically reciting all the roles and at the same time skillfully changing the timbre of his voice and pitch. Shurinka, as he was called at home, read a lot, and he turned some stories and short stories that made a particularly strong impression on him into theatrical performances and made the scenery for them himself. For example, he dramatized and performed Gogol’s “The Nose” in his home circle. Alexander drew no less willingly with colored pencils, sawed out various items and even once built a baby grand piano. So the child lived a rich spiritual life unusual for his age, in which curiosity was combined with the desire to create. Scriabin's innate artistry was evident in everything until the end of his days. Even his manuscripts of the most complex scores were distinguished by elegant graphic design, which he did himself.
His father’s sister, Lyubov Alexandrovna, was involved in raising the boy. She devoted herself entirely to caring for the child and believed in his genius, which was not surprising, since already at the age of three Shurinka discovered a real passion for music. The boy played melodies first with one finger, then with several. And some time later, still not knowing the notes, he began to improvise, using both hands and creating not only melodies, but also harmonic combinations. Gradually these improvisations became more complex and lengthy. In addition, the boy had a phenomenal musical memory: it was enough for him to hear a piece once - and he would accurately play it by heart.
At the age of ten, Alexander Scriabin began studying piano with a conservatory teacher and at the same time passed the competitive exam for the Second Moscow Cadet Corps, confidently taking first place among applicants. However, he did not live in the boarding school of this closed educational institution, as was customary, but in the spacious apartment of his uncle Vladimir, located in the building where he served as a teacher.
Scriabin's musical talent more than once attracted the attention of others. One day his father came to Moscow, who had been in prison for many years. diplomatic service in Turkey. By that time, he had married a second time to Olga Fernandets. A young woman once played Bach’s gavotte and Mendelssohn’s “The Gondolier’s Song” in Sasha’s presence. The boy immediately sat down at the instrument and repeated both pieces, memorizing them by ear. Scriabin's father told his brother Vladimir about this, and Sasha was offered to play these plays at an open concert in the hall of the building, where musical and literary evenings were periodically held.
IN creative development Alexander Scriabin as a pianist is very big role played by N. S. Zverev, who was distinguished by his absolutely extraordinary teaching talent. He himself was an excellent musician, and as a teacher he attached great importance not only to vocational training their students, but also theirs general education and education. Many musicians who later became famous lived and studied at Zverev’s boarding house, including Sergei Rachmaninov, K. Igumnov and others. Scriabin came to Zverev for classes three times a week. He played the pieces he had learned, listened to other students play, and received new assignments. Scriabin was recommended to Zverev by S.I. Taneyev, who in those years was already famous composer and enjoyed unquestioned authority. He himself taught the “cadet” classes in composition theory. Taneyev not only appreciated the boy’s abilities, but also sincerely fell in love with him.
At the beginning of 1888, Alexander entered the Moscow Conservatory, remaining a student of Taneyev. In the piano class he studied with Professor V.I. Safonov. Classes with him enriched the arsenal of performing means of expression, which Scriabin brilliantly developed in his work.
In 1892 he graduated from the conservatory in piano with a gold medal. He was offered to continue his education in the composition department, but he refused. By that time, Alexander Scriabin was already the author of numerous works. Gradually he began to give preference to symphonic and piano music.
But during the same period young composer suffered a difficult ordeal: his painful condition of his “outplayed” right hand worsened. Moreover, some doctors considered this disease incurable, and yet Scriabin did everything to restore lost sensitivity. In June 1893, he travels to Samara, undergoes a course of kumiss treatment, then goes to the Crimea in the hope of strengthening his strength by sea bathing and is happy to see that all these measures are beneficial to him.
In 1894, something happened in the life of Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin an important event: one of the largest Russian timber merchants, M. P. Belyaev, became interested in his work. He allocated large amounts of money to organizing publishing houses and organizing concerts, compiling programs from the works of Russian composers. Belyaev sent Scriabin to Germany for treatment. This was the first foreign trip composer.
Alexander Scriabin visited many cities in Germany, visited Switzerland and Italy. When he returned to Moscow, he received a beautiful Becker grand piano from Belyaev as a gift. After some time, the philanthropist organized Scriabin’s second trip abroad, which helped the composer take his mind off other experiences not related to the disease.
At the end of 1891, Alexander Scriabin fell in love with Natalia Sekerina, the daughter of a wealthy landowner. The girl was fifteen years old when she met the composer, and for a long time their relationship developed mainly in letters that they wrote to each other. After some time, the Sekerin family finally decided that Scriabin was an “inappropriate match” for their beautiful, talented Natasha. She did not go against her family, but until some time Scriabin knew nothing about his “sentence.” The real reason The refusal was that he was a sickly young man, his future also seemed unclear, especially since he never hid from his beloved girl that his hand was injured. Of course, Alexander Scriabin took this breakup very hard.
At the end of 1895, he went on his first concert tour of Europe. The musician's success was so amazing that it exceeded his wildest expectations. His personal life also improved. Scriabin fell in love again, and this time he was reciprocated. The young people got married. His wife, Vera Isakovich, graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1897 with a gold medal. In January 1898, Scriabin's original concert took place in Paris, at which the composer played with her.
For the last fifteen years of his life, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin developed in his works the ideas laid down by him in the First Symphony, which the conservatory professor Safonov called the “new Bible”. Scriabin created new type symphonism. His words: “I am going to tell people that they are strong and powerful” were not just a spectacular declaration. He wrote truly heroic music.
The composer's family gradually grew. Following daughter Rimma, born in 1898, Elena was born, followed by Maria, and in the summer of 1902, son Lev. To support his family, Alexander Scriabin worked a lot at the conservatory, which took time away from creativity.
While working on “The Poem of Ecstasy,” Scriabin became interested in one of his students, Tatyana Shletser, for whom he even left his family. From this civil marriage he also had children.
Financial difficulties forced him to return to performing. He gave concerts in Geneva, Brussels, Liege and Amsterdam. Judging by the press reviews, the concerts were a great success. At the end of 1906, Scriabin went on tour to the USA. He played in great hall New York Carnegie Hall, as well as in Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago. However, the concerts had to be urgently interrupted, since the composer’s “illegal” marriage threatened to cause a scandal in the press.
Last years The musician's life was very fruitful. He created the “Poem of Fire” - “Prometheus”, five sonatas, several poems, etudes, preludes and other works for piano.
On April 15, 1915, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin gave his last concert in St. Petersburg. He felt unwell and noticed that an inflammation had begun on his upper lip, in the same place as during the trip to England. Urgent medical attention was needed, but the doctors were powerless, the disease was developing rapidly. General blood poisoning began, from which Scriabin died on April 27. The funeral took place the next day at the Novodevichy Convent cemetery. After some time, a large oak cross was placed on the grave, which was soon replaced with a crystal one, but it was subsequently stolen. Currently, there is a stone monument at the grave of Alexander Scriabin.
“I would like to be born as a thought, to fly around the whole world and fill the entire Universe with myself. I wish I had been born into a wonderful dream of a young life, a movement of holy inspiration, a rush of passionate feeling...”
Alexander Scriabin entered Russian music in the late 1890s and immediately declared himself as an exceptional, brightly gifted personality. A brave innovator, “a brilliant seeker of new ways,” according to N. Myaskovsky,
“with the help of a completely new, unprecedented language, he opens up before us such extraordinary... emotional perspectives, such heights spiritual enlightenment, which grows in our eyes to a phenomenon of worldwide significance.”
Alexander Scriabin was born on January 6, 1872 into a family of Moscow intelligentsia. The parents did not have the chance to play a noticeable role in the life and upbringing of their son: three months after Sashenka’s birth, his mother died of tuberculosis, and his father, a lawyer, soon left for Constantinople. Care about little Sasha Nya relied entirely on his grandmothers and aunt, Lyubov Aleksandrovna Scriabin, who became his first music teacher.
Sasha’s ear for music and memory amazed those around him. From an early age, he easily reproduced a melody he heard once by ear, and picked it up on the piano or other instruments. Even without knowing sheet music, at the age of three he spent many hours at the piano, even to the point of rubbing the soles of his shoes with the pedals. “That’s how the soles burn, that’s how the soles burn,” lamented the aunt. The boy treated the piano like a living creature - before going to bed, little Sasha kissed the instrument. Anton Grigorievich Rubinstein, who once taught Scriabin's mother, who, by the way, was a brilliant pianist, was amazed by his musical abilities.
By family tradition, 10-year-old nobleman Scriabin was sent to the 2nd Moscow Cadet Corps in Lefortovo. About a year later, Sasha’s first concert performance took place there, and his first experiences as a composer occurred at the same time. The choice of genre – piano miniatures – revealed a deep passion for Chopin’s work (the young cadet put Chopin’s notes under his pillow).
Continuing his studies in the corps, Scriabin began to study privately with the prominent Moscow teacher Nikolai Sergeevich Zverev and in music theory with Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev. In January 1888, at the age of 16, Scriabin entered the Moscow Conservatory. Here Vasily Safonov, director of the conservatory, pianist and conductor, became his teacher.
Vasily Ilyich recalled that Scriabin had
“a special variety of timbre and sound, special, unusually subtle pedaling; he had a rare, exceptional gift - his piano “breathed”...
“Don't look at his hands, look at his feet!”
- said Safonov. Very soon, Scriabin and his classmate Seryozha Rachmaninov took the position of the conservatory “stars” who showed the greatest promise.
Scriabin composed a lot during these years. In his own list of his compositions for the years 1885-1889, more than 50 different plays are named.
Due to a creative conflict with the harmony teacher, Anton Stepanovich Arensky, Scriabin was left without a composer's diploma, graduating from the Moscow Conservatory in May 1892 with a small gold medal in piano class from Vasily Ilyich Safonov.
In February 1894, he performed for the first time in St. Petersburg as a performing pianist own works. This concert, which took place mainly thanks to the efforts of Vasily Safonov, became fateful for Scriabin. Here he met the famous musical figure Mitrofan Belyaev, this acquaintance played an important role in initial period creative path composer.
Mitrofan Petrovich took upon himself the task of “showing Scriabin to people” - he published his works, provided financial support for many years, and in the summer of 1895 organized a large concert tour of Europe. Through Belyaev, Scriabin began relationships with Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Lyadov and other St. Petersburg composers.
First trip abroad - Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, Genoa, then Paris. The first reviews from French critics about the Russian composer are positive and even enthusiastic.
“He is all the impulse and the sacred flame,”
“He reveals in his playing the elusive and peculiar charm of the Slavs - the first pianists in the world,”
- write French newspapers. His individuality, exceptional subtlety, and special, “purely Slavic” charm were noted.
In subsequent years, Scriabin visited Paris several times. At the beginning of 1898 there was big concert of Scriabin's works, in some respects unusual: the composer performed together with his pianist wife Vera Ivanovna Scriabin (née Isakovich), whom he had married shortly before. Of the five sections, Scriabin himself played in three, and Vera Ivanovna played in the other two. The concert was a huge success.
In the fall of 1898, at the age of 26, Alexander Scriabin accepted an offer from the Moscow Conservatory and became one of its professors, taking over the leadership of the piano class.
At the end of the 1890s, new creative challenges forced the composer to turn to the orchestra - in the summer of 1899, Scriabin began composing the First Symphony. At the end of the century, Scriabin became a member of the Moscow philosophical society. Communication along with the study of special philosophical literature determined general direction his views.
The 19th century was ending, and with it the old way of life. Many, like the genius of that era, Alexander Blok, foresaw “unheard-of changes, unprecedented revolts” - social storms and historical upheavals that the 20th century would bring.
The advent of the Silver Age caused a feverish search for new paths and forms in art: Acmeism and Futurism in literature; cubism, abstractionism and primitivism - in painting. Some focused on teachings brought to Russia from the East, others on mysticism, others on symbolism, and others on revolutionary romanticism... It seems that never before in one generation have so many different movements in art been born. Scriabin remained true to himself:
“Art should be festive, it should uplift, it should enchant...”
He comprehends the worldview of the Symbolists, becoming more and more firmly convinced of the magical power of music designed to save the world, and is also interested in the philosophy of Helena Blavatsky. These sentiments led him to the idea of “Mystery,” which from now on became for him the main work of his life.
“Mystery” was presented to Scriabin as a grandiose work that would unite all types of art - music, poetry, dance, architecture. However, according to his idea, this should have been not a purely artistic work, but a very special collective “great cathedral action”, in which all of humanity would take part - no more, no less.
In seven days, the period during which God created the earthly world, as a result of this action, people will have to be reincarnated into some new joyful essence, attached to eternal beauty. In this process there will be no division between performers and listeners-spectators.
Scriabin dreamed of a new synthetic genre, where “not only sounds and colors would merge, but aromas, dance movements, poetry, sunset rays and the twinkling of stars.” The idea amazed even the author himself with its grandeur. Afraid to approach him, he continued to create “ordinary” musical works.
At the end of 1901, Alexander Scriabin completed the Second Symphony. His music turned out to be so new and unusual, so daring, that the performance of the symphony in Moscow on March 21, 1903 turned into a scandal. The public's opinions were divided: one half of the hall whistled, hissed and stomped, while the other, standing near the stage, applauded loudly. “Cacophony” was the caustic word the master and teacher Anton Arensky used to describe the symphony. And other musicians found “extraordinarily wild harmonies” in the symphony.
“Well, a symphony... the devil knows what it is! Scriabin can safely shake hands with Richard Strauss. Lord, where did the music go?..”,
– Anatoly Lyadov wrote ironically in a letter to Belyaev. But having studied the music of the symphony more closely, he was able to appreciate it.
However, Scriabin was not at all embarrassed. He already felt like a messiah, a herald of a new religion. Art was such a religion for him. He believed in its transformative power, he believed in creative personality, capable of creating a new, wonderful world:
“I’m going to tell them that they... don’t expect anything from life except what they can create on their own... I’m going to tell them that there is nothing to grieve about, that there is no loss. So that they are not afraid of despair, which alone can give rise to real triumph. Strong and mighty is the one who has experienced despair and overcome it.”
Less than a year after finishing the Second Symphony, in 1903 Scriabin began composing the Third. The symphony, called “The Divine Poem,” describes the evolution of the human spirit. It was written for a huge orchestra and consists of three parts: “Struggle”, “Pleasure” and “Divine Play”. For the first time, the composer embodies the full picture of his “magical universe” in the sounds of this symphony.
Over the course of several summer months of the same 1903, Alexander Scriabin created more than 35 piano works, including his famous Fourth Piano Sonata, which conveyed the state of an uncontrollable flight to an alluring star, pouring out streams of light - so great was the experience he experienced during this time for creative upsurge.
In February 1904, Scriabin left his teaching job and went abroad for almost five years. He spent the following years in Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, and also toured America.
In November 1904, Scriabin completed his Third Symphony. At the same time, he reads a lot of books on philosophy and psychology, his worldview leans towards solipsism - a theory when the whole world is seen as a product of one’s own consciousness.
“I am the desire to become the truth, to identify with it. Around this central figure everything else has been built..."
An important event in his personal life dates back to this time: he separated from his wife Vera Ivanovna. The final decision to leave Vera Ivanovna was made by Scriabin in January 1905, by which time they already had four children.
Scriabin's second wife was Tatyana Fedorovna Shletser, the niece of a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Tatyana Fedorovna had musical education, at one time she even studied composition (her acquaintance with Scriabin began on the basis of classes with him in music theory).
In the summer of 1095, Scriabin and Tatyana Fedorovna moved to Italian city Bogliasco. At the same time, two close people of Alexander Nikolaevich die - the eldest daughter Rimma and friend Mitrofan Petrovich Belyaev. Despite the difficult moral state, lack of livelihood and debts, Scriabin writes his “Poem of Ecstasy,” a hymn to the all-conquering will of man:
“And the universe announced
With a joyful cry:
I am!"
His faith in the limitless possibilities of man as a creator reached extreme forms.
Scriabin composes a lot, it is published and performed, but still he lives on the brink of poverty. The desire to improve his material affairs again and again drives him around the cities - he tours in the USA, Paris and Brussels.
In 1909, Scriabin returned to Russia, where he finally received real glory. His works are performed on the leading stages of both capitals. The composer goes on a concert tour of the Volga cities, while at the same time he continues his musical searches, moving further and further away from accepted traditions.
In 1911, Scriabin completed one of the most brilliant works, which challenged all musical history – symphonic poem"Prometheus". Its premiere on March 15, 1911 became the biggest event both in the life of the composer and in musical life Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The famous Sergei Koussevitzky conducted, and the author himself was at the piano. To perform his musical extravaganza, the composer needed to expand the composition of the orchestra, include in the score a piano, a choir and a musical line indicating the color accompaniment, for which he came up with a special keyboard... It took nine rehearsals instead of the usual three. The famous “Promethean chord,” according to contemporaries, “sounded like a real voice of chaos, like some kind of single sound born from the depths.”
“Prometheus” gave rise, as contemporaries put it, “fierce disputes, ecstatic delight of some, mockery of others, and for the most part - misunderstanding and bewilderment.” In the end, however, it was a huge success: the composer was showered with flowers, and for half an hour the audience did not leave, calling the author and conductor. A week later, “Prometheus” was repeated in St. Petersburg, and then sounded in Berlin, Amsterdam, London, and New York.
Light music - that was the name of Scriabin's invention - fascinated many, new light-projection devices were designed, promising new horizons for synthetic sound-color art. But many were skeptical about Scriabin’s innovations, the same Rachmaninov, who once, while dissecting Prometheus at the piano in Scriabin’s presence, asked, not without irony, “what color is this?” Scriabin was offended...
The last two years of his life, Scriabin’s thoughts were occupied by the work “Preliminary Action”. It was supposed, based on the name, to be something like a “dress rehearsal” of “Mystery”, its, so to speak, “light” version. In the summer of 1914 the First War broke out World War- in that historical event Scriabin saw first of all the beginning of processes that were supposed to bring the “Mystery” closer.
“But how terribly great the work is, how terribly great it is!”
– he exclaimed with concern. Perhaps he was standing on a threshold that no one had ever been able to cross...
In the first months of 1915, Scriabin gave many concerts. In February, two of his performances took place in Petrograd, which were very successful. In this regard, an additional third concert was scheduled for April 15. This concert was destined to be the last.
Returning to Moscow, Scriabin felt unwell a few days later. He developed a carbuncle on his lip. The abscess turned out to be malignant, causing general blood poisoning. The temperature has risen. Early in the morning of April 27, Alexander Nikolaevich passed away...
“How can we explain that death overtook the composer precisely at the moment when he was ready to write down the score of the “Preliminary Act” on music paper?
He did not die, he was taken from people when he began to implement his plan... Through music, Scriabin saw a lot of things that are not given to a person to know... and therefore he had to die...”
Scriabin’s student Mark Meichik wrote three days after the funeral.
“I couldn’t believe it when the news came about Scriabin’s death, it was so ridiculous, so unacceptable. Promethean fire went out again. How many times has something evil and fatal stopped the wings that had already unfolded?
But Scriabin’s “Ecstasy” will remain among the victorious achievements.”
- Nicholas Roerich.
“Scriabin, in a frenzied creative outburst, was not looking for new art, not new Culture, but a new earth and a new sky. He had a feeling of the end of the entire old world, and he wanted to create a new Cosmos.
Scriabin's musical genius is so great that in music he was able to adequately express his new, catastrophic worldview, to extract from the dark depths of existence sounds that old music had rejected. But he was not content with music and wanted to go beyond it...”
- Nikolai Berdyaev.
“He was out of this world, both as a person and as a musician. Only in moments did he see his tragedy of isolation, and when he saw it, he did not want to believe in it,”
- Leonid Sabaneev.
“There are geniuses who are genius not only in their artistic achievements, but brilliant in every step they take, in their smile, in their gait, in all their personal imprint. You look at such a person - this is a spirit, this is a being of a special face, a special dimension...”
- Konstantin Balmont.
Composer, pianist, teacher.
Was born in noble family. Father - Nikolai Aleksandrovich Scriabin - served as a diplomat in Turkey. Mother - Lyubov Petrovna (nee Shchetinina) - was an outstanding pianist, graduated from the St. Petersburg Conservatory under T. Leshetitsky (her talent was highly valued by A.G. Rubinstein, A.P. Borodin, P.I. Tchaikovsky).
At the age of 5, Scriabin easily reproduced the music he heard on the piano, improvised, and at the age of 8 he tried to compose the opera “Liza”, imitating classic designs. Having noticed an extraordinary musical talent young musician, S.I. Taneyev began studying with him (essentially, he laid the foundations of Scriabin’s compositional technique). Later he sent Scriabin to G. E. Konyus for additional classes on harmony, who noted: “Everything needed for a musician... lived a natural life in Scriabin, prepared by nature itself. I was left, for the most part, to attach theoretical labels (names, terms, etc.) to what was innately already acquired by them” (Engel Yu. A. N. Scriabin. Biographical sketch. pp. 21-22). At the age of 11, according to family tradition, he entered the Second Moscow Cadet Corps, where in his first year of study he performed in concert as a pianist. After home lessons under the guidance of his father’s sister Lyubov Alexandrovna, in 1885 he began piano lessons with N. S. Zverev. In 1888, a year before graduating from the cadet corps, he entered the Moscow Conservatory with two specialties: piano and free essay" In 1892 he graduated from the conservatory with a small gold medal in the class of V.I. Safonov, receiving a grade of “five plus” on the final exam (Scriabin’s name is included on the marble plaque of outstanding graduates of the Moscow Conservatory). He also studied with Taneyev (strict style counterpoint) and A. S. Arensky (fugue, free composition). Relations with Arensky, however, did not work out (he gave the student a “three” mark for re-examining the “canon and fugue” disciplines). He also did not fit into the conservatory program for training composers, which irritated Arensky even more: “Unable to take into account the individuality of the student, he did not recognize the maturing great artist in Scriabin” (Ossovsky A.V. Memoirs. Research. P. 327). As a result, Scriabin did not receive permission to take the exam to receive a diploma as a composer, although by the time he entered the Moscow Conservatory he was the author of over 70 works, including mazurkas op. 3, prelude op. eleven.
After graduating from the Moscow Conservatory, due to an exacerbation of the disease of his right hand, which he overplayed during his studies, he went through a difficult period in his life, from which the famous St. Petersburg philanthropist M. P. Belyaev helped him recover (until the end of his days he was a publisher and promoter of the composer’s music) , sending Scriabin on a tour of Europe. On the 2nd tour, which Safonov also organized, Scriabin performed a series of concerts, winning recognition as an excellent composer and pianist. Played almost exclusively own compositions, captivating listeners with romantic sophistication and spirituality of pianistic style.
In 1898, Safonov, bypassing a number of formalities and the dissatisfaction of some teachers, invited Scriabin to teach special piano at the Moscow Conservatory. According to reviews, he was an outstanding teacher: “Scriabin invited me to his class to listen to his students,” the professor wrote Vienna Conservatory P. Kon, - and I spent 4 hours with great pleasure, making sure that he is a respectable teacher and conducts his business with great knowledge and love. I’m almost sure that he is the best professor at the Moscow Conservatory” (Quoted from: Scriabin A.N. Letters. M., 1965. P. 217). Scriabin was one of the first to break the tradition of training young pianists primarily using instructional and pedagogical material. Depending on technical capabilities, he selected a highly artistic repertoire for students. According to the memoirs of M. S. Nemenova-Lunts, at the same time he set before them “such tough, inexorable technical requirements that sometimes they seemed positively impossible to fulfill. The focus of his attention was “sound,” which he himself mastered as a magician and wizard” (Nemenova-Lunts M.S. Scriabin - teacher // Soviet music. 1948. No. 5. P. 59). He invented special technical exercises, but also cared about the creative development of the student. There were often conversations in class, primarily about the “title of Artist,” which Scriabin considered very high and responsible (Ibid.). In a short period of work (until 1904), he trained such excellent pianists as Nemenova-Lunts, E. Bekman-Shcherbina and others.
Scriabin combined his teaching activities with intensive composing. He was interested in the works of symbolist poets. He attended philosophical circles (Scriabin was particularly influenced by the philosophy of V. S. Solovyov, he was also a friend of the philosopher S. N. Trubetskoy) and literary debates, which led to the birth of his own philosophical and artistic concept of the “creative spirit” (Third Symphony “Divine Poem” , 1903-04; “Poem of Ecstasy”, 1905-07; “Prometheus”, 1911), piano works. Later, having become acquainted with the book “The Secret Doctrine” by H. P. Blavatsky, he became interested in Eastern religious teachings and came to the idea of a synthesis of music and other types of art, reviving the genre of ancient mystery.
In 1904-09 he lived abroad. He gave concerts in America with an orchestra conducted by A. Nikisch, met S. A. Koussevitzky. In 1909 he performed in Moscow with triumphant success. In 1910 he finally returned to his homeland. The last years of his life he devoted mainly piano works. Then he formed a new system musical thinking, which was developed in the art of the twentieth century (the complication of the harmonic vertical, removing the need to resolve dissonance, the emergence of dissonant tonic, the expansion of tonality, covering all 12 steps, the formation of new modal structures, the emergence of “harmonic melody” - the so-called Promethean chord, in which the harmonic complex becomes collapsed in a vertical scale). In 1910, the young S. S. Prokofiev dedicated the symphonic poem “Dreams” to Scriabin.
Scriabin's death occurred due to sudden blood poisoning and caused big shock in Russian society.
His first wife is V.I. Skryabina (née Isakovich). His second wife is Tatyana Fedorovna Scryabina (née Schlozer), niece of P. Yu. Schlozer; their son, Julian Scriabin (1908-1919), studied at the Kyiv Conservatory in the composition class of R. M. Glier, despite his young age, was a promising composer; died tragically (drowned).
Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin is a Russian composer, a unique person, whose work was a great success. Scriabin was admired; he really was a good composer.
Alexander Nikolaevich was born in December 1871, in Moscow. His father was a lawyer and later worked as a Russian consul in Turkey.
Grandfather was a military man. The composer's mother was an outstanding pianist, but she died a year after the birth of her son. His father, who served as a diplomat in Turkey, far from Moscow, rarely saw Sasha.
The boy's upbringing was mainly done by his paternal grandmother Elizaveta Ivanovna. Grandmother, like all normal grandmothers, doted on little Sasha. She really loved her grandson.
By leaving, Elizaveta Ivanovna managed to protect Scriabin from adversity that could have affected Alexander for the worse.
From an early age, Alexander showed a love for music. Beloved musical instrument the little boy had a piano. They say that Sasha became interested in the piano at the age of four.
At five he was already playing it, even trying to compose something, “fantasizing music.” Another childhood hobby of Alexander Scriabin was theater.
He had a folding one children's theater, playing which he loved to spend free time. In this theater, he staged various sketches.
At the age of 11 he was sent to study at Cadet Corps. Military education taught Alexander Nikolaevich to discipline and order.
While studying, he did not forget about his musical hobbies. After graduating from the cadet school, he entered the Conservatory. He graduated from it in 1892, and six years later, he taught “piano playing” at the conservatory, with the rank of professor.
Scriabin's early works were distinguished by a certain sophistication, harmony and melody. Although many experts note that these very first works of his were marked by imitation of Chopin. Alexander Nikolaevich managed to overcome the influence of Chopin on his work with the help of the works of Wagner and Liszt. After some time, he will create his own unique and incomparable musical style.
With the beginning of the twentieth century, Scriabin conceived new works. Creates the “First Symphony”, then the second. After some time, he left the Moscow Conservatory, because he could not combine teaching with his creative activity.
In 1904, with the money of patrons, he went abroad to Switzerland. Here Alexander Nikolaevich creates the “Divine Poem” (Third Symphony) and the “Poem of Ecstasy”. It was new stage in creativity. He has now finally gotten rid of influences musical geniuses, and showed his true personality.
In 1910, Scriabin wrote “The Poem of Fire.” It was absolutely new experience, not only new sounds, but also the use of color music. His music is perceived in a very contrasting way. The work of the Russian composer is love, which was reflected in his music.
Scriabin’s personality intertwined many thoughts and experiences that are so characteristic of a Russian person. On April 14, 1915, the Great Russian composer Alexander Scriabin passed away.