Together with Sergei Rachmaninoff. He graduated from the Moscow Conservatory, where he studied with Anton Arensky and Sergei Taneyev.
In 1894, he met the well-known patron and publisher M. P. Belyaev, who began to publish the works of Scriabin, and since then the composer's symphonic works have been heard in the programs of Russian symphony concerts. In 1896 he married the pianist Vera Ivanovna Isakovich, with whom, on a trip abroad in 1897/98, she performed with her husband in concert programs, playing his works. That same year, Skribyan began teaching piano at the Moscow Conservatory. During 1900-1904 Scriabin became the author of three symphonies.
In 1904-1910 Scriabin lived mainly abroad. There he became interested in Tatyana Fedorovna Shletser, from whom a daughter was born to him in 1905, while his legal wife was forced to return with her children to Moscow, without giving the man consent to a divorce. In 1908, due to dissatisfaction with low fees, Scriabin broke with Belyaev's publishing house, but no other publishing house agreed to publish Scriabin's works, through which the composer was forced to earn exclusively by concert activities. During this period, Scriabin wrote the symphonic poems "The Poem of Ecstasy" and "Prometheus".
In 1910-1914, the composer lived in Moscow, where a circle of admirers grouped around him, who later created Scriabin's societies. In 1914, the composer fell seriously ill with sepsis resulting from a carbuncle and caused his death in 1915. Buried at Novodevichy cemetery.
2. Creativity
The representatives of the Russian religious and philosophical renaissance, especially V. Solovyov and V. Ivanov, had the most important influence on the formation of Scriabin. Symbolism, with its central idea of theurgy, painted in mystical, even apocalyptic tones, met with a warm response from the refined artist, who sought to avoid any routine. Participating in the circle of the Russian philosopher S. Trubetskoy, the composer simultaneously got acquainted with the works of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, studied the materials of the Philosophical Congress in Geneva. In addition, he was interested in Eastern religious teachings and modern theosophical literature, in particular the "Secret Doctrine" of H. P. Blavatsky. His extensive knowledge, representing a special kind of philosophical eclecticism, where the most important was the experience of synthesis of various teachings and worldview positions, gave the composer a reason to reflect on his chosenness, present himself as the center and source of a "new teaching", which can transform the world, bring it to a new round. development. Scriabin believed that the artist, as a microcosm, can influence the macrocosm of the state and even the entire universe.
Piano and symphonic genres are represented in Scriabin's work. In the 1990s, preludes, mazurkas, etudes, impromptu, piano sonatas 1-3, a concerto for piano and orchestra were created, in the 1900s - 3 symphonies, 4-10 sonatas and poems for piano (in including "Tragic", "Satanic", "To the Flame"), as well as such symphonic works such as "The Poem of Ecstasy" (1907), "Prometheus" (1910) - a milestone work of the late period of creativity. Scriabin's music reflected the rebellious spirit of his time, a premonition of revolutionary change. It combines strong-willed impulse, intense dynamic expression, heroic jubilation, special flight and refined spiritualized lyrics.
Scriabin's works, which embodied the idea of ecstasy, a bold impulse, aspiring to unknown cosmic spheres, the idea of the transforming power of art (the crown of such creations, according to Scriabin, was to be "Mystery", which combines all types of art - music, poetry, dance, architecture , as well as light), differ in a large degree artistic generalization, the power of emotional impact.
Scriabin's work uniquely combines the late Romantic tradition (the embodiment of images of an ideal dream, the ardent, agitated nature of the utterance, the inclination towards the synthesis of the arts, the preference for the genres of prelude and poem) with the phenomena of musical impressionism (subtle sound coloring), symbolism (images-symbols: the themes of "will" , "self-affirmation", "struggle", "languor", "dreams"), as well as expressionism. Scriabin is a bright innovator in the field of musical expressiveness and genres; in his later works, the dominant harmony becomes the basis of harmonic organization (the most characteristic type of chord is N. Prometheevsky chord). For the first time in musical practice, he introduced a special part of light into a symphonic score (the poem "Prometheus"), which is associated with an appeal to color hearing.
3. Recordings
|
||||||||||||||||||||
In January 1910, Scriabin played 9 of his works for Welte-Mignon in Moscow and his playing was recorded on piano roll. These are the entries:
Today Scriabin's discography is extremely wide. In the Soviet Union, Scriabin's piano work was most fully represented in the recordings of V. Sofronitsky, orchestral music- in the notes of E. Svetlanov. In the late 1980s, a large number of piano and orchestral works were recorded by Vladimir Ashkenazy.
4. List of works
For symphony orchestra
for piano and orchestra
4.1. for piano
|
|
“Scriabin's music is an unstoppable, deeply human desire for freedom, for joy, for the enjoyment of life. ... She continues to exist as a living witness to the best aspirations of her era, in which she was an “explosive”, exciting and restless element of culture.”
B. Asafiev
“I would like to be born as a thought, fly around the whole world and fill the entire Universe with myself.
I would like to be born a wonderful dream of a young life, a movement of holy inspiration, an outburst of passionate feeling ... "
Scriabin entered Russian music at the end of the 1890s and immediately declared himself as an exceptional, brightly gifted person. A bold innovator, "a brilliant seeker of new ways", according to N. Myaskovsky,
“with the help of a completely new, unprecedented language, he opens before us such extraordinary ... emotional perspectives, such heights of spiritual enlightenment, that it grows in our eyes to a phenomenon of worldwide significance.”
Alexander Scriabin was born on January 6, 1872 in the family of the Moscow intelligentsia. Parents did not have a chance to play a significant role in the life and upbringing of their son: three months after the birth of Sashenka, his mother died of tuberculosis, and his father, a lawyer, soon left for Constantinople. The care of little Sasha fell entirely on his grandmothers and aunt, Lyubov Alexandrovna Skryabina, who became his first music teacher.
Sasha's musical ear and memory amazed those around him. FROM early years by ear, he easily reproduced a melody he heard once, picked it up on the piano or on other instruments. Even without knowing the notes, already at the age of three he spent many hours at the piano, to the point that he wiped the soles of his shoes with the pedals. “So they burn, so the soles burn,” lamented the aunt. The boy treated the piano like a living being - before going to bed, little Sasha kissed the instrument. Anton Grigorievich Rubinstein, who once taught Scriabin's mother, by the way, a brilliant pianist, was amazed by his musical abilities.
According to family tradition, the 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 the first composing experiments also took place at the same time. The choice of genre - piano miniatures - betrayed a deep passion for Chopin's work (the young cadet put Chopin's notes under his pillow).
Continuing his studies in the building, 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, a special, unusually fine pedalization; he possessed a rare, exceptional gift - his piano “breathed” ...
"Don't look at his hands, look at his feet!"
Safonov spoke. Very soon, Scriabin and his classmate Seryozha Rachmaninov took the position of the conservative "stars" who showed the greatest promise.
Scriabin composed a lot during these years. In his own list of his own compositions for 1885-1889, more than 50 different plays are named.
Due to a creative conflict with the teacher of harmony, 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 from Vasil
iya Ilyich Safonov.
In February 1894, he made his first appearance in St. Petersburg as a pianist performing his own works. This concert, which took place mainly due 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 the beginning of the composer's career.
Mitrofan Petrovich took on the task of “showing Scriabin to people” - he published his compositions, provided financial support for many years, and in the summer of 1895 organized a large concert tour of Europe. Through Belyaev, Scriabin began relations with Rimsky-Korsakov, Glazunov, Lyadov and other Petersburg composers.
Scriabin's first trip abroad - Berlin, Dresden, Lucerne, Genoa, Paris. First reviews French critics- positive and even enthusiastic.
"He is all impulse and sacred flame"
“He reveals in his playing the elusive and peculiar charm of the Slavs - the first pianists in the world”,- French newspapers wrote. Individuality, exceptional subtlety, a special, "purely Slavic" charm of Alexander Scriabin's performance were noted.
In subsequent years, Scriabin visited Paris several times. At the beginning of 1898, a large concert of Scriabin's works took place, which in some respects was not quite ordinary: the composer performed together with his pianist wife Vera Ivanovna Scriabina (née Isakovich), whom he had married shortly before. Of the five departments, Scriabin himself played in three, and Vera Ivanovna played in the other two. The concert was a huge success.
In the autumn of 1898, at the age of 26, Alexander Scriabin accepted the offer of 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 tasks 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, together with the study of special philosophical literature, determined the general direction of his views.
The 19th century was coming to an end, 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 with it.
The onset of the Silver Age caused a feverish search for new ways and forms in art: acmeism and futurism - in literature; cubism, abstractionism and primitivism - in painting. Some hit the teachings brought to Russia from the East, others - mysticism, others - symbolism, fourth - revolutionary romanticism ... It seems that never before in one generation have so many very different directions in art been born. Scriabin remained true to himself:
“Art should be festive, should uplift, enchant…”
Scriabin comprehends the worldview of the Symbolists, becoming more and more assertive in the thought of the magical power of music, designed to save the world, and also takes a great interest in the philosophy of Helena Blavatsky. These sentiments led him to the idea of the "Mystery", which became for him the main business of life.
"Mystery" was presented to Scriabin as a grandiose work, which will unite all kinds of arts - music, poetry, dance, architecture. However, according to his idea, it was supposed to be not a purely artistic work, but a very special collective “great conciliar action”, in which all of humanity would take part - no more, no less.
In seven days, the period for 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 into performers and listeners-spectators.
Scriabin dreamed of a new synthetic genre, where “not only sounds and colors will merge, but aromas, dance plasticity, poems, sunset rays and twinkling stars.” The idea struck with its grandiosity even the author himself. Afraid to approach him, he continued to create "ordinary" pieces of music.
At the end of 1901, Alexander Scriabin finished the Second Symphony. His music turned out to be so new and unusual, so bold that the performance of the symphony in Moscow on March 21, 1903 turned into a formal scandal. The opinions of the audience were divided: one half of the hall whistled, hissed and stomped, and the other, standing near the stage, applauded vigorously. "Cacophony" - the master and teacher Anton Arensky called the symphony such a caustic word. And other musicians found "extraordinarily wild harmonies" in the symphony.
“Well, a symphony… what the hell is that! Scriabin can safely lend a hand to 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. That religion for him was art. He believed in its transformative power, he believed in a creative person capable of creating a new, beautiful world:
“I’m going to tell them that they… do not expect anything from life, except for what they themselves can create…
I go 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 he 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", "Enjoyment" and "Divine Play". Alexander Scriabin for the first time embodies the full picture of the “magical universe” in the sounds of this symphony.
During several summer months of 1903, Scriabin created more than 35 piano works, including the famous Fourth Piano Sonata, in which the state of an unstoppable flight to an alluring star pouring out streams of light was conveyed - great was the creative upsurge that he experienced.
In February 1904, Scriabin left his teaching job and went abroad for almost five years: Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, tours in America.
In November 1904, Scriabin completed the Third Symphony. Parallel
but he reads many books on philosophy and psychology, his worldview tends to solipsism - the theory when the whole world is seen as a product of his own consciousness.
“I am the desire to become the truth, to identify with it. Everything else is built around this central figure…”
By this time he had divorced 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.
The second wife of Scriabin was Tatyana Fedorovna Shletser,a professor at the Moscow Conservatory. Tatyana Fedorovna had musical education, at one time even studied composition (her acquaintance with Scriabin began on the basis of classes with him in music theory).
In the summer of 1095, Scriabin, together with Tatyana Feodorovna, moved to the Italian city of Bogliasco. At the same time, two close people of Alexander Nikolayevich die - the eldest daughter Rimma and friend Mitrofan Petrovich Belyaev. Despite the difficult morale, lack of livelihood and debts, Scriabin writes his "Poem of Ecstasy", a hymn to the all-conquering will of man:
And the universe resounded
Joyful cry:
I am!"
His faith in the limitless possibilities of the human creator reached extreme forms.
Scriabin composes a lot, he is published, performed, but still he lives on the verge of need. The desire to improve 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, finally, real fame came to him. His works are performed on the leading stages of both capitals. The composer goes on a concert tour of the Volga cities, 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 the entire musical history- symphonic poem "Prometheus". Its premiere on March 15, 1911 became the biggest event in the life of the composer and in musical life Moscow and St. Petersburg.
The famous Sergei Koussevitsky conducted, the author himself was at the piano. To perform his musical extravaganza, the composer needed to expand the composition of the orchestra, to include a piano, a choir and a musical line denoting color accompaniment in the score, for which he came up with a special keyboard ... It took nine rehearsals instead of the usual three. The famous “Prometheus chord”, according to contemporaries, “sounded like a real voice of chaos, like a single sound born from the bowels”.
"Prometheus" gave rise, in the words of contemporaries, "fierce disputes, ecstatic delight of some, mockery of others, for the most part - misunderstanding, bewilderment." In the end, however, the success was huge: the composer was showered with flowers, and for half an hour the audience did not disperse, calling the author and conductor. A week later, "Prometheus" was repeated in St. Petersburg, and then sounded in Berlin, Amsterdam, London, 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, sorting out Prometheus at the piano in the presence of Scriabin, asked, not without irony, “what color is it?” Scriabin was offended...
The last two years of Scriabin's life were occupied by the work "Preliminary Action". It was supposed, based on the name, to be something like a "dress rehearsal" of the "Mystery", its, so to speak, "lightweight" version. In the summer of 1914, the First World War- in this 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, how terribly great it is!”
He exclaimed with concern. Perhaps he stood on the threshold, which no one has yet been able to cross ...
During the first months of 1915, Scriabin gave many concerts. In February, two of his speeches took place in Petrograd, which had a very great success. 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 after a few days. He had a carbuncle on his lip. The abscess turned out to be malignant, causing a general infection of the blood. The temperature has risen. Early morning On April 27, Alexander Nikolayevich passed away ...
“How can one 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 set about implementing 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..”
- wrote Scriabin's student Mark Meichik three days after the funeral.
“I couldn’t believe it when the news of Scriabin’s death came, so ridiculous, so unacceptable. The Promethean fire has gone out again. How many times something evil, fatal has stopped the already unfolded wings.
But Scriabin’s “Ecstasy” will remain among the victorious achievements.”
Nicholas Roerich.
“Scriabin, in a frenzied creative impulse, was looking not for a new art, not for a new Culture, but for a new earth and a new sky. He had a sense 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 managed to adequately express his new, catastrophic worldview, to extract from the dark depths of being the sounds that the old music swept aside. But he was not content with music and wanted to go beyond it…”
Nikolay 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 brilliant not only in their artistic achievements, but brilliant in every step, in a smile, in a gait, in all their personal imprinting. You look at such a person - this is a spirit, this is a creature of a special face, a special dimension ... "
Konstantin Balmont.
The secret of Alexander Scriabin has not yet been revealed ...
ClassicalMusicNews.Ru
Home > LectureLecture number 2. The life and work of A.N. Scriabin
January 2012 marks one hundred and forty years since the birth of the brilliant Russian composer Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin. His work is one of the most remarkable phenomena of music of the beginning of the 20th century. A bold and innovative artist, he created a whole world of new, deeply original images. To implement them, he found an exceptionally bright, original musical language that expanded the expressive possibilities. musical art.Scriabin's music captivates and captivates the listener with the passion of the utterance, the heroic-strong-willed pathos, and the enormous intensity of the feelings expressed by it. When we have to talk about some of the musical images that are especially characteristic of Scriabin, such definitions as “dazzling”, “radiant”, “fiery” involuntarily arise ... And it is no coincidence that one of his central creations is called “Prometheus. Poem of Fire. In the ancient myth about the titan Prometheus, who dared to steal heavenly fire from the gods for the sake of people, the idea of a heroic feat-daring was embodied. With the "Promethean" beginning, Scriabin associated the idea of a relentless striving for vigorous activity, the struggle against inertia, stagnation, to overcome obstacles. This desire permeated his entire creative life. In the history of music, Scriabin occupies in some respects a special, in its own way, unique place. Being a brilliant musician, however, he was not satisfied with his appointment to be only a musician - composer and pianist. Scriabin sought to subordinate his creativity to the implementation of grandiose tasks that went beyond the limits of musical art. A passionate romantic dreamer, he lived on the utopian idea of addressing all mankind through music, inseparably merged with other arts, in order to contribute to the onset of some fantastic world upheaval by means of artistic creativity.
Biography
Scriabin was born into the family of a student who later became a diplomat and a real state councilor, Nikolai Aleksandrovich Scriabin (1849-1914). In the house of the city estate of the Lopukhins - Volkonskys - Kiryakovs - the profitable property of the Bunins (mid-18th century - early 19th century) - Main house - tenement house (mid-18th century, 1878, 1900) (object of cultural heritage of federal significance (Decree of the Council of Ministers of the RSFSR No. 624 of 04.12.1974) in Khitrovsky lane 3/1. He was baptized in the Church of the Three Hierarchs, which in Kulishki. ten years later, together with his son Alexander, he is entered in the genealogy book of the nobles of the St. The origin of the composer's mother - L.P. Shchetinina (that she was the "daughter of the director of a porcelain factory") is also not confirmed by documents. was a talented pianist who studied with Theodor Leshetitsky. After her early death, the father of the future great composer remarried an Italian woman (Fernandez O.I.), who became the mother of: Nikolai, Vladimir, Xenia, Andrey, Kirill Skryabin. Little Sasha Scriabin was brought up by his aunt and grandmother, his father's mother, since his father could not devote enough time to his son while serving as an ambassador to Persia. Only occasionally did the father come to visit his son from his first wife. His grandfather Alexander Ivanovich Skryabin, who was an educated and cultured person, also took an active part in the initial upbringing of the future composer. Already at the age of five, Scriabin knew how to play the piano, later he showed interest in composition, but according to family tradition (the family of the composer Scriabin has been known since the beginning of the 19th century and consisted of a large number of military men) was given to the cadet corps. Deciding to devote himself to music, Scriabin began taking private lessons from Georgy Eduardovich Konyus, then from Nikolai Sergeevich Zverev (piano) and Sergei Ivanovich Taneyev (music theory). Arensky. Classes with Arensky did not bring results, and in 1891 Scriabin was expelled from the composition class for poor progress, nevertheless, he brilliantly completed the piano course a year later with a small gold medal (Sergei Vasilyevich Rachmaninov, who graduated from the conservatory in the same year, received a large medal , as he also completed a composition course with honors). After graduating from the conservatory, Scriabin wanted to connect his life with a career as a concert pianist, but in 1894 he outplayed his right hand and for some time could not perform. In August 1897, in the Varvara Church in Nizhny Novgorod, Scriabin married a young talented pianist Vera Ivanovna Isakovich. Having restored the working capacity of his hand, Scriabin and his wife went abroad, where he earned a living, performing mainly his own compositions. The Scriabins returned to Russia in 1898, in July of the same year their first daughter Rimma was born (she would die at the age of seven from intestinal volvulus). In 1900, a daughter, Elena, was born, who later became the wife of the outstanding Soviet pianist Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky. Later, daughter Maria (1901) and son Lev (1902) appeared in the family of Alexander Nikolayevich and Vera Ivanovna. teaching activities, as she greatly distracted him from his own work. At the end of 1902, Scriabin met his second wife (they were not officially painted) Tatyana Fedorovna Schlozer, the niece of Paul de Schlozer, a professor at the Moscow Conservatory (whose class the composer's official wife also studied). The very next year, Scriabin asks his wife for consent to a divorce, but does not receive it. Until 1910, Scriabin again spends more time abroad (mainly in France, later in Brussels, where he lived at rue de la Réforme, 45), acting as a pianist and conductor. Returning to Moscow, the composer continues his concert activity, without ceasing to compose. Latest concerts Scriabin took place in early 1915. The composer died of sepsis resulting from a carbuncle. He was buried at the Novodevichy Cemetery. In recent years, he lived with his civil family in Moscow at 11 Bolshoy Nikolopeskovsky Lane. Now the State memorial museum A.N. Scriabin.
Creation
Scriabin's music is very original. Nervousness, impulsiveness, anxious searches, not alien to mysticism, are clearly felt in it. From the point of view of composing technique, Scriabin's music is close to the work of composers of the New Viennese school (Schoenberg, Berg and Webern), but solved from a different angle - through the complication of harmonic means within the limits of tonality. At the same time, the form in his music is almost always clear and complete. The composer was attracted by images associated with fire: fire, flame, light, etc. are often mentioned in the titles of his compositions. This is due to his search for the possibilities of combining sound and light. In his early compositions, Scriabin, a subtle and sensitive pianist, consciously followed Chopin, and even created works in the same genres as that one: etudes, waltzes, mazurkas, sonatas, nocturnes, impromptu, polonaise, although already at that period of his creative development, the composer's own style appeared. However, subsequently Scriabin turned to the genre of the poem, both piano and orchestral. His largest works for orchestra are three symphonies (the First was written in 1900, the Second - in 1902, the Third - in 1904, the Poem of Ecstasy (1907), "Prometheus" (1910). Scriabin included the part in the score of the symphonic poem "Prometheus" light keyboard, thus becoming the first composer in history to use color music. At the end of the 20th century, composer Alexander Nemtin, based on sketches and poems by Scriabin, created a complete musical version of its initial part - “Preliminary Action”, however, excluding the main part of the text from it. that he saw his own creativity not as a goal and result, but as a means to achieve a much larger cosmic task. of the main work, which was to be called "Mystery", A. N. Scriabin was going to complete the current cycle of the existence of the world, to unite the World Spirit with inert Matter in some kind of cosmic erotic act and thus destroy the current Universe, clearing the place for the creation of the next world. Purely musical innovation, which was especially bold and vividly manifested after the Swiss and Italian period of Scriabin's life (1903-1909), he always considered secondary, derivative and designed to serve the fulfillment of the main goal. Strictly speaking, the main and brightest works of Scriabin - "The Poem of Ecstasy" and "Prometheus" - are nothing more than a preface ("Preliminary Action") or a description by means of musical language, exactly how everything will happen during the accomplishment of the Mystery and the union of the world Spirit with Matter.
Conclusion
In just two years, Scriabin did not live to see the greatest historical milestone, which brought fundamental changes in the life and consciousness of people both in his homeland and beyond. The era that gave birth to his art has gone far into the past, and the past passionate disputes around him have also gone. The fact that at one time, even at the dawn of the first Russian revolution, allowed progressive layers of listeners, especially young people, to feel in Scriabin's music something close to their moods and aspirations , turned out to be even more in tune with the new wide audience that came to concert halls after October. With great success passed in the first Soviet years cycles of symphonic concerts from the works of Scriabin in Petrograd and Moscow. During these years, the first People's Commissar of Education A. V. Lunacharsky acted as an ardent propagandist of the composer's work. When in 1918, at the direction of V. I. Lenin, a list was compiled of the most prominent figures of world revolutionary thought, science, culture and art, whose memory should be immortalized with monuments, the name of Scriabin was also on this list. In 1922, a museum was organized in the premises of the composer's last apartment, where the atmosphere in which he lived and worked was carefully preserved. Today, the museum is the main repository of documents on the life and work of Scriabin, the most important base for studying his heritage. The post-October period brought forward numerous performers of Scriabin's music. A Soviet school of pianists gradually took shape, in whose repertoire Scriabin's works took a prominent place. Having inherited some traditions of the author's performance, Soviet pianists, at the same time, read his music in a new way. Among them are representatives of the oldest generation, the peers of Scriabin himself - A. Goldenweiser, K. Igumnov, E. Beckman-Shcherbina; G. Neuhaus, S. Feinberg, V. Sofronitsky, who came forward a little later, are among the most penetrating interpreters of Scriabin's music, S. Richter, who also belongs to the number of remarkable performers of Scriabin's piano heritage, and a number of talented pianists of the younger generation. Names need to be mentioned Soviet conductors- sensitive performers of Scriabin's symphonic works, including N. Golovanov, E. Mravinsky, E. Svetlanov and others. Students of musical educational institutions are brought up on the works of Scriabin. The popularization of his heritage is also promoted by radio and gramophone records, on which both Scriabin's symphonic compositions and a significant part of the piano works performed by the largest pianists are recorded. using several piano pieces of the last period. A large amount of musicological literature is devoted to Scriabin's work. The facts of his biography are replenished and clarified, aesthetic and philosophical views are studied and musical style composer (especially from the side of harmony). The first place here belongs, naturally, to domestic researchers, but in recent decades interest in Scriabin has also increased in the West: we note, in particular, the symposium in Graz (Austria) specially dedicated to him in 1978. There is another area where recently it is no coincidence that the name of Scriabin is often mentioned. This area is connected with the idea of synthesis of music and light, which he planned to apply in his Prometheus. satisfactory results. Such attempts continue to this day, however, now relying on the enormous opportunities provided by the achievements of modern scientific and technical thought. One can even talk about the emergence of a whole movement in the direction of searching for the unification of music and color light, based on the commonwealth of science and aesthetics. Such searches are being conducted in various cities of our country - in Moscow, Kazan, Kyiv. Various experimental devices were created - "Color Music" by K. Leontiev, a light and music synthesizer by E. Murzin, named after Scriabin with his initials "ANS" and installed in the studio at the composer's museum. Since the 1960s, "Prometheus" has been repeatedly performed with light accompaniment in different cities. The idea of light music also has a broader perspective. The light-colour element is also being introduced into scores by some Soviet composers, for example, R. Shchedrin in his Poetoria. Light music finds application in theater, cinema, interior design, etc. Special conferences are devoted to the problem of light and music synthesis. In I. Efremov's well-known science fiction story "The Andromeda Nebula", in the cockpit of astronauts flying to yet unexplored distant worlds, music sounds, accompanied by a light-color "symphony". Much of what, during the life of Scriabin, seemed only beautiful, fascinating, but really not feasible dream, today it turns out to be feasible in principle. In some of his bold dreams, the composer, as it were, prophetically foresaw what became possible in our era of the mighty development of radio electronics. The existing diverse electronic musical instruments allow you to get those new, unprecedented instrumental timbres that the composer dreamed of. The “thunderlike” sound of a human voice, which Scriabin needed in “Preliminary Action”, can be easily achieved today with the help of an ordinary microphone, the effect of sounding bells “from the sky” can be achieved using modern stereophonic equipment - and so on. Similarly, a number of purely musical ideas of Scriabin, such as, for example, the idea of the unity of the musical "horizontal" (melody) and "vertical" (harmony), the use of untempered sounds, the effect of choral whispering as a special expressive means, and some others that did not yet exist at that time. the techniques were realized in the music of the subsequent period. No matter how contradictory were Scriabin's philosophical and aesthetic views, in his work he was far from any purely formal experiments. Everything that he did and conceived was invariably connected with the desire for genuine content, for expanding the means and boundaries of his art, for enriching it with the expression of such aspects of reality, such experiences that no one had touched before him. The fiery art of the creator of the Pathetic Etude, the Divine Poem, Ecstasy and Prometheus, who enriched Russian and world music with wonderful artistic values, will delight and delight progressive mankind for a long time to come.
MAIN WORKS OF A. N. SKRYABIN
Symphonic Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, F-sharp minor, Op. 20 (1896-1897). "Dreams", in E minor, Op. 24 (1898). First Symphony, E major, Op. 26 (1899-1900). Second Symphony, in C minor, Op. 29 (1901). Third Symphony (Divine Poem), in C minor, Op. 43 (1902-1904). Poem of Ecstasy, C major, Op. 54 (1904-1907). Prometheus (Poem of Fire), op. 60 (1909-1910). 10 Piano Sonatas: No. 1 in F minor, Op. 6 (1893); No. 2 (sonata-fantasy), in G-sharp minor, Op. 19 (1892-1897); No. 3 in F sharp minor, Op. 23 (1897-1898); No. 4, F sharp major, Op. 30 (1903); No. 5, Op. 53 (1907); No. 6, Op. 62 (1911-1912); No. 7, Op. 64 (1911-1912); No. 8, Op. 66 (1912-1913); No. 9, Op. 68 (1911-1913): No. 10, Op. 70 (1913).91 Preludes: Op. 2 No. 2 (1889), Op. 9 No. 1 (for the left hand, 1894), 24 Preludes, Op. 11 (1888-1896), 6 preludes, Op. 13 (1895), 5 preludes, Op. 15 (1895-1896), 5 preludes, Op. 16 (1894-1895), 7 preludes, Op. 17 (1895-1896), Prelude in F-sharp Major (1896), 4 Preludes, Op. 22 (1897-1898), 2 preludes, Op. 27 (1900), 4 preludes, Op. 31 (1903), 4 preludes, Op. 33 (1903), 3 preludes, Op. 35 (1903), 4 preludes, Op. 37 (1903), 4 preludes, Op. 39 (1903), prelude, Op. 45 No. 3 (1905), 4 preludes, Op. 48 (1905), prelude, Op. 49 No. 2 (1905), prelude, Op. 51 No. 2 (1906), prelude, Op. 56 No. 1 (1908), prelude, Op. 59 "No. 2 (1910), 2 preludes, op. 67 (1912-1913), 5 preludes, op. 74 (1914). 26 studies: study, op. 2 No. 1 (1887), 12 studies, op. 8 (1894-1895), 8 studies, Op.42 (1903), Etude, Op.49 No. 1 (1905), Etude, Op.56 No. 4 (1908), 3 Etudes, Op.65 (1912).21 mazurka : 10 Mazurkas, Op.3 (1888-1890), 9 Mazurkas, Op.25 (1899), 2 Mazurkas, Op.40 (1903).20 Poems: 2 Poems, Op.32 (1903), Tragic Poem, Op. 34 (1903), Satanic Poem, Op.36 (1903), Poem, Op.41 (1903), 2 Poems, Op.44 (1904-1905), Fanciful Poem, Op.45 No. 2 (1905), " Inspired Poem", Op. 51 No. 3 (1906), Poem, Op. 52 No. 1 (1907), Poem of Longing, Op. 52 No. 3 (1905), Poem, Op. 59 No. 1 (1910), Poem -nocturne, op.61 (1911-1912), 2 poems: "Mask", "Strangeness", op.63 (1912), 2 poems, op.69 (1913), 2 poems, op.71 (1914); poem "To the Flame", Op.72 (1914).11 impromptu: Impromptu in the form of a mazurka, Op.2 No.3 (1889), 2 impromptu in the form of a mazurka, Op.7 (1891), 2 impromptu, Op.10 ( 1894), 2 impromptu, Op.12 (1895), 2 Impromptu, Op. 14 (1895).3 nocturnes: 2 nocturnes, Op. 5 (1890), nocturne, Op. 9 No. 2 for the left hand (1894).3 dances: "Dance of Yearning", Op. 51 No. 4 (1906), 2 dances: "Garlands", "Gloomy Flames", Op. 73 (1914).2 Waltzes: Op. 1 (1885-1886), op. 38 (1903). "Like a Waltz" ("Quasi valse"), Op. 47 (1905).2 Album Leaf: Op. 45 No. 1 (1905), Op. 58 (1910) "Allegro Appassionato", Op. 4 (1887-1894). Concert Allegro, Op. 18 (1895-1896). Fantasy, Op. 28 (1900-1901). Polonaise, Op. 21 (1897-1898). Scherzo, Op. 46 (1905). Dreams, Op. 49 No. 3 (1905). Fragility, Op. 51 No. 1 (1906). "Riddle", op. 52 No. 2 (1907). "Irony", "Nuances", Op. 56 No. 2 and 3 (1908). "Desire", "Weasel in the Dance" - 2 pieces, Op. 57 (1908).
A.N. Scriabin. (6.01.1872-14.04.1915)
"Once again wants Infinity
Finally identify yourself."
A. Scriabin
A.N. Scriabin is a composer, prophet, pianist, philosopher, poet. He is called the great mystic among musicians and the greatest musician among mystics. The life and work of Scriabin is shrouded in a veil of inexplicable mystery.
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was born in Moscow on January 6, 1872. In the date of his birth (Christmas Eve), the composer saw the first mystical sign in his life. Such signs will accompany all his life.
Already with three years of age Shurinka reached out to the piano, and when they put him on the pillow to the instrument, he fingered the keys with his finger, as if he were playing something. He has been improvising on the piano since the age of five. From childhood, his creative talent manifested itself in many areas: he drew, wrote poetry and plays, skillfully made woodwork; and he did it all with amazing ease.
In the photo: N. S. Zverev with his students Sitting (from left to right):
A. Scriabin, N. Zverev, N. Chernyaev, M. Presman;
Standing (from left to right): S. Samuelson, L. Maksimov,
S. Rachmaninov, F. Keneman
Since the age of 7, Sasha has been composing music, playing the piano a lot and complains that even at night the music does not leave him. By the age of 9 they have already written a lot musical works. From the age of 10, Scriabin has been studying in the cadet corps, as well as systematically and for a long time studying music. At the age of 16, he entered the Moscow Conservatory, and also constantly performs with piano recitals.
He graduated from the conservatory with a small gold medal. Scriabin's name is carved in gold letters on a marble plaque at the entrance to the small hall of the Moscow Conservatory. The Scriabin Museum keeps a music notebook, which contains a list of works written by him at the age of 14-18. The total number of early works is more than 70. But the demanding author did not include all the works in the lists.
After graduating from the conservatory, Scriabin continues to compose music and perform many concerts. From overwork, he often experiences headaches, nervous breakdowns. In addition, sometimes the disease of the right hand resumes, which he beat for the first time while studying at the conservatory.
Since 1896, Scriabin has also given concerts abroad: in Paris, Brussels, Berlin, Cologne.
Scriabin would like to engage only in writing and concert activities, but at the age of 25 he is already a family man, and the family is growing, so he is forced to continue teaching as a professor at the conservatory.
Vera and Alexander Scriabin.
During this period, Scriabin met the outstanding philosopher Sergei Nikolayevich Trubetskoy (1862-1905). Under his influence, Scriabin learns Latin, Greek, English, and attends philosophical, literary and artistic societies. He had refined thinking and dialectical abilities. He was a skilled debater, in disputes he was a dangerous opponent, erudite and resourceful.
Scriabin writes down his philosophical thoughts in his diary. The composer formulates his ideals precisely and definitely. It serves the beloved art, the purpose of which is to make people's lives happy. Love and beauty will make people happy, but there should be no spiritual impotence. Life is a continuation of resistance. "I want to act and win" Scriabin writes in his diary. There is also this entry: “I’m going to tell people that they shouldn’t expect anything from life except what they can create for themselves ... I’m going to say that people are strong and powerful, that there’s 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 he who has experienced despair and conquered it.”
A.N. Scriabin. 1901
Proud challenge and mighty will emanates from Scriabin's words, which he, as it were, denotes his mission on this earth, the mission of helping people overcome despair, troubles and victory over them.
Scriabin believed that a person is half asleep, unaware of the true appearance of the world and his place in it. “In general, we do not know many of our hidden capabilities. These are dormant forces and they must be called to life., the composer writes.
Religions affectionate deceit
Doesn't make me sleepy anymore
And my mind does not lull
Their gentle glittering mist.
My mind is always free
It claims to me: you are alone;
You are a slave to cold chance
You are the ruler of the entire universe,
Why do you hand over to the gods
Your fate, oh miserable mortal.
You can and you must
Victory glorious seal
Wear on a radiant face
The composer's reflections on the role of man in the universe, on the great possibilities hidden in man, on the role of experienced suffering in the cognition of the truth, echo the Teaching of the Living Ethics and the Secret Doctrine with surprising accuracy.
In 1905, in Paris, Scriabin got acquainted with Theosophy, read the Secret Doctrine, which became his reference book. He constantly subscribes to the journal Theosophy Bulletin, and also reads books by A. Besant, becomes a full member of the Belgian section of the Theosophical Society. Now, in conversations, he constantly used theosophical terms: he spoke about the Plans of the Cosmos, about the seven Root Races, Manvataras, etc., as about something taken for granted, quite understandable and irrefutable. He ardently defended theosophical truths, rebelling against all doubts.
Scriabin did not stop admiring E.P. until the end of his life. Blavatsky, her courage, breadth and depth of views. When Blavatsky was declared a liar, Scriabin defended her by saying that "all truly great people had to go through accusations of this kind of dishonor." Later, having become better acquainted with some Theosophists and their writings, he realized that many of them were mistaken in understanding the Truth, and that “in essence, they have only one Blavatsky, the rest are not worth very much” he said.
It is important that Scriabin found confirmation and explanation of many of his sensations, visions, conjectures in books on theosophy. He is convinced that the pictures of the past he sees had a real existence. He is convinced that a person as a unit of individual consciousness is an integral part of the Unified consciousness of the entire Cosmos. Scriabin says: “On the one hand, the world is given to me as my unified consciousness, from the sphere of which I cannot leave. On the other hand, it is obvious to me that my individual consciousness does not exhaust being.”
At some point in his composer's evolution, Scriabin realizes that he managed to touch the great secret of art. He realized that music is a magical active energy that can change the consciousness of a person, and, consequently, the entire material world.
He believed that only music could free the mind from the cover of illusion. "Music, Scriabin writes, hypnosis, trance, and ecstasy can be induced. Music is a sound spell. There is a great magical power hidden in harmonies.”
Many spoke about the hypnotic effect of his solo performances, when the listeners had auditory and visual hallucinations. The music performed by Scriabin acquired the meaning of a magical act, a sacrament. K. Balmont recalls unusual sensations during Scriabin's concert: “He was small, fragile, this ringing elf ... There was some kind of light horror in it. And when he began to play, a light seemed to be emitted from him, an air of witchcraft surrounded him, and on his pale face his wide eyes became larger and larger. It seemed that this was not a man, even if it was a genius, but a forest spirit, who found himself in a strange human hall for him, where he, moving in a different environment and according to different laws, was both awkward and uncomfortable ... Is it possible to tell the music and find out how played the one who played incomparably? .. He ... wanted to embrace the whole world with music.
At first the fairies played with moonlight,
Male sharp and female flat.
Depicted a kiss and pain.
Small ideas murmured on the right,
Sounds-sorcerers broke through from the left,
Will sang with an exclamation of merged wills.
And the light elf, king of consonances,
Sculpted from the sounds of subtle cameos.
He swirled the faces in the sound current.
They glowed with gold and steel
Replaced joy with extreme sadness,
And there were crowds. And there was a melodious thunder
And God was a double to man -
So I saw Scriabin at the piano.
6.05. 1925. K. Balmont
At the concerts of the brilliant composer-pianist, reality subtly changes, revealing its other faces - majestic, formidable, seductive; sound visions, pulsation. Exorbitant, inescapable longing for something unearthly, unattainable, Higher.
Scriabin's biographer Sabaneev wrote about the composer: “He was out of this world both as a person and as a musician. Only in moments did he see his isolation, and when he saw it, he did not want to believe in it.
Scriabin the composer began as a follower of F. Chopin, F. Liszt and Wagner, but at the age of 18 he described the features of his mature style, synthesizing harmony and melody, to which he would come in two decades.
Musicologist Abraham writes: “It is hard to believe that in just 13 years a composer can go from a graceful, elegant, quite Chopin concerto to a work that was considered an example of extreme avant-gardism in his time. Here the musicologist means the greatest creation of Scriabin "Prometheus". But before Prometheus, the composer wrote the Divine Poem symphony, which is one of the highest achievements of Russian musical classics.
Tatyana Fedorovna Shlozer
During these years, the composer had a very difficult period in his personal life. Since 1903 to 1905 acquaintance with T.F. Schlozer, infatuation with her, break with his first wife, loss of his eldest daughter, loss of Trubetskoy, second marriage. Despite difficult family situations and tragic losses, Scriabin completes another brilliant work - "The Poem of Ecstasy", a hymn to the all-conquering power of the human spirit.
Ecstasy in Scriabin's poem is the highest tension of human forces, a single spiritual impulse capable of reviving the spiritual principle, that force that elevates a person to the steps of purifying the soul and expanding the horizons of consciousness. Scriabin wrote: “What is in your mind is not in yourself, you drew it ... You, knowledge, are the first ray of light of my knowledge, illuminating hitherto blind wandering (impulses) and thereby creating it.”
Scriabin defines his state at the moment of creativity as a flight in a state of ecstasy. He divided his consciousness into earthly (i.e. lower “I”) and Consciousness of the Observer (i.e. Higher Self, Spirit). And in the process of creativity, the vibrations of the lower “I” and the Higher interacted, which caused a state of mystical insight and ecstasy. ON THE. Berdyaev spoke of Scriabin: "I don't know in the latest art no one in whom there would be such a frenzied creative impulse ... "
In Agni Yoga, The High Path it is said: “Aspiring spirits can be in creative ecstasy” (v. 2, p. 219).
In 1910, the monumental symphony “Prometheus. Poem of Fire. In the poem, the principles of cosmogenesis received a vivid artistic embodiment of the Secret Doctrine. The composer emphasized that this symphony had no direct connection with the myth of Prometheus. Scriabin sang a majestic hymn to a man who realized that he holds his fate in his own hands.
In the poem given and symbolic image Fire, as Light, as the Sun, as a cleansing force. The poet Balmont called Scriabin "The Spirit of Prometheus". The poem reflects a conflict on a cosmic scale, the core of which is the idea of the activity of the human mind, the idea of a creative and transforming will.
In accordance with the volume and diversity of the work, the composer chooses an unusual composition of performers:
Big Symphony Orchestra,
piano,
A color keyboard that accompanies the music with a change of color waves illuminating the hall.
The introduction of a part from the light was supposed to enhance the impression of the music. The technology at that time was not perfect. It did not give the proper effect of powerful waves and pillars of light, which the composer dreamed of. The intuition of Scriabin, who foresaw the effects and expressive means of synthetic laser devices in the future, is amazing. In addition to the visual impression, the color-light was for the composer part of the music itself, because. he saw music in color: "Sounds glow with colors."
A. Scriabin. "Divine Poem" (Conductor A. Feldman)
It is known that every sound produces a corresponding flash of light, which takes specific color. AT musical octave seven basic sounds, the same number of colors in the spectrum of sunlight. Aristotle wrote in his treatise on the soul: “Colors, by the pleasantness of their harmony, can relate to each other like musical harmonies and be mutually proportional.”
E.I. Roerich writes: “Sound is only the reaction of light. Sound turns into light and sound becomes sound. In-depth knowledge of light will reveal its sound…”. Reflecting music in lighting effects, Scriabin tried to immerse listeners in the perception of subtle invisible worlds, tried to create a musical sound of his works that was visible to listeners. The finale of the poem "Prometheus" is a luminiferous major sound, which symbolizes the creative merging of man with the Universe.
"The Universe is a unity, a connection of processes coexisting in it"- wrote Scriabin.
"In this rise, in this explosion,
In this lightning rush
In his fire breath
The whole poem of the Universe ", - claimed the composer-philosopher-poet.
Beginning in 1905, the idea of a grandiose synthetic work of art, the Mystery, was gradually born in the composer's imagination, which was supposed to accelerate the awakening of the divine energies dormant in man. The composer decides to “force things”, thus speeding up the evolution. Humanity, which was to happen in the process of accomplishing the Mystery. He called it a mystery main goal existence of the entire earthly civilization. Scriabin, with his grandiose action, should have given only the first impulse to turn on fantastic causal chains.
“I am doomed to accomplish the Mystery,” the composer asserted, sometimes hinting that the idea of the Mystery was “revealed” to him by something (or someone) external. He always shied away from detailed explanations.
The dream of the Mystery came to Scriabin when he discovered the property of music to change the course of time. When the composer finished work on a new piece of music, he experienced a state close to mystical ecstasy. The birth of a new sound world brought Scriabin to such a psycho-spiritual state, when he seemed to penetrate into a different (subtle) world, with a different spatio-temporal structure.
In a moment of artistic insight, Scriabin, like W. A. Mozart, was able to see a fairly extended work (for example, the fifth sonata in its entirety, as if “rolled up in time.” Scriabin’s philosophy of time arose from a superconscious feeling of the parallel real existence of music at its subtle level .
The composer writes that a piece of music comes from the future, where it exists in its entirety. And this is quite consistent with the philosophy of the Secret Doctrine, which says that everything present, past and future always exists in a single world Consciousness - the Consciousness of the Absolute or God.
In a moment of creative ecstasy, identical to timelessness, the composer's consciousness was able to enter the stream of the United World Consciousness, and new sound measures "entered" Scriabin's consciousness from the gates of the Future. In verse, he describes it like this:
From the darkness of the next moment
Consonances of the new system is heard.
He's all game rapture
With his divine play.
And since the composer was able to penetrate into the world of the future, he could feel both the reverse course of time and its complete stop, and hence the “folding in time” of the whole musical work. Playing one of his preludes (Op. 74 No. 2), he explained: “... such an impression, as if it lasts for centuries, as if it sounds for millions of years. Don't you think that music can enchant time, can stop it altogether?
Scriabin uses sensations of compression or acceleration of time as a means of penetrating into other historical epochs. He contemplates the distant future and past: "The depths of the past can only be measured from the height of discriminating consciousness."
Tens of millions of years of cosmic history flash before Scriabin's gaze, which he perceives as the history of the evolution of the Spirit, now embodied in him. “Of course, his spirit knew…”, says the book “The High Way” (Part 1, p. 642).
How did the incarnation of the Mystery in action appear?
India was chosen as the place for the realization of the Mystery. In the sky above the Himalayas, mystical bells will ring out in a cosmic divine hymn.
All peoples inhabiting the earth will take part in the execution of the majestic action. On the shore of the enchanted lake, a spherical Temple of “fluid architecture” should be built, smoothly changing shape, with columns of illuminated incense. Processions, dances, recitation of sacred texts, combined with the magic of light and sound, would be made in the Temple. In the sphere of the Temple, as models of the Universe, the planets should rotate, the stars should twinkle in the same rhythm with light music.
At the call of the mystical bells, all people will go to India to take part in the majestic symphony of the Transfiguration of the World. In a grandiose synthesis, sound, color, colors, aromas, mental images, a single rhythm of dances, twinkling of stars will merge.
According to Scriabin, seven days of magical action would have encompassed millions of years of comic evolution, at the end of which the combined power of the mental energy of all people - participants in the Mystery - had to break through the physical field, the dense worlds, wrest the consciousness of humanity from the snares of illusion and transfer it to the Higher worlds. . Driven by the impulse of a single ecstasy, humanity would shoot up “into the sky” in a radiant whirlwind, indestructible, immortal radiant energy.
Let's be born into a whirlwind!
Let's wake up in the sky!
Let's mix feelings in a single wave!
And in luxurious splendor
The heyday of the last
Appearing to each other
In the beauty of naked sparkling souls,
Disappear...
Let's melt...
The Temple of the Mysteries would be a tunnel for the transition to the Higher, Divine world. And again, the composer-prophet, as it were, foresaw the creation by the Teachers in 1898 of the “Temple of Humanity”, which could become a kind of tunnel, a single entrance through which everyone could take their evolutionary step, but not in the instant ascension of the Spirit under the influence of the mystical action of the Mystery, but in the process of going through all the thorns of life and realizing oneself as a particle of the Cosmos.
Scriabin speaks of the transformation of man "into a radiant whirlwind of indestructible thinking energy."
K.E. also spoke about the “radiant humanity” of the future. Tsiolkovsky, and A.L. Chizhevsky; V.I. Vernadsky wrote about the noosphere - the “sphere of Reason”. And the great composer-prophet - A.N. Scriabin also had an insight into the distant future and reflected it in his grandiose musical act, the Mystery, but, more precisely, so far only in draft recordings.
Scriabin's mystery was not the end cosmic evolution, but only by the termination of the habitual earthly existence and the beginning of a new life on other planes, with a different level of consciousness, the beginning of the true divine being of man.
To overcome the eons of years that separated the 20th century and the ultimate goal of mankind, the composer intended with the help of the cosmic forces of the psychoacoustic structures discovered by him.
"Time, he explains, will begin to gradually accelerate, because it was slowed down by the process of materialization, it seemed to make it heavier, materialized by itself ... And when the path to dematerialization already begins, time itself will dematerialize first ... After all, I will have seven days in the Mystery, but these are not simple days ... as in the creation of the world, seven days meant huge epochs, whole lives of races... But they will be days at the same time. Time itself will speed up and in these days we will live for billions of years.”
The mystery was created by the composer in two versions - musical and literary. In the musical version, Scriabin apparently managed to reveal the secrets of "sound magic": the interaction of the sound field of music with the physical, as well as subtle fields of the universe. Scriabin's friends, to whom he played large sound fragments of the grandiose sketch of the Mystery called "Preliminary Action", experienced the sensations of a fantastic "sound dream". But the music of the "Preliminary Action" went into oblivion along with its creator, because. he failed to write it down.
The literary part was written down by Scriabin, and after his departure it was published in the almanac Russian Propylaea in 1919. If in the poem “Prometheus” the composer embodied the foundations of Cosmogenesis, then in the text of the “Preliminary Action” of the Mystery, the scheme of the evolution of the seven Root Races of Humanity is reflected, i.e. Anthropogenesis. A detailed analysis of the text of the "Preliminary Action", set out in five notebooks of Scriabin's sketches, is given in his works by the researcher of the life and work of the composer A.I. Bandura.
Later, when professionals began to study Scriabin's work, they discovered that the composer created such combinations of tonalities that aroused in the listeners both delight, awe, and flights of the Spirit! But the most surprising thing is that the combinations of keys in Scriabin's works exactly correspond to the combinations of keys in the ancient Chinese system of 12 lui at the end of the 2nd millennium BC. This correspondence is described in detail in the article by N. Gavrilova.
According to the legends, the 12 lu system had a transformative effect on nature, since through each semitone there was a breakthrough into a system of a different order. To such a breakthrough, a breakthrough through the eons of years of the future, Scriabin aspired with the power of his music. Music carries such a powerful flow of energy that it becomes one of the forms of comprehension and transformation of the world. When we listen to music, the usual flow of time stops, time can turn into the past or the future, speed up or slow down its course, which is what Scriabin wrote about.
A.I. Bandura writes that “in the first fifty measures of the “poem of fire”… the mysterious hum of the “promethean chord”… of the “Great Breath” is replaced by seven (!) works of a “rotating” motif (analogous to the Lyle centers)”. This chord is built by the composer according to the Pythagorean ideas about the world, and it is the musical embodiment of the formula of evolution.
But what in our physical world was a chord of a complex structure, in the Subtle World, perhaps, could produce an effect. nuclear explosion? In January 1914, Scriabin had a meeting with Inayat Khan, the most prominent representative of Sufism. The sages say: "A Sufi is one who keeps his heart pure."
Two musicians, two composers, East and West, met in Moscow, and they are unanimous in their opinion that music opens the heart to beauty, kindness, Love. Inayat Khan said about Scriabin: "I found in him not only a great artist, but also a thinker and a mystic."
Inayat Khan
Helena Ivanovna Roerich Scriabin was close and dear for his theosophical worldview and love in H.P. Blavatsky, for the fiery themes of his major musical works. N.K. Roerich was very fond of and often listened to the "Poem of Ecstasy" and "The Poem of Fire-Prometheus." N.K. Roerich has a painting "Ecstasy". December 15, 1940 in the "Diary Sheets" N.K. Roerich wrote: “I couldn’t believe it when the news of Scriabin’s death came… The Prometheus Fire went out again. How many times something evil, fatal stopped the unfolding wings. But Scriabin's "Ecstasy" will remain among the most victorious achievements ... ".
Belief in ecstasy, as the highest tension of human forces, as a single spiritual impulse, is capable of reviving a bright beginning, when a person finds in himself that power that “lifts him to the levels of knowledge and beauty.” N.K. believed in this. Roerich, Scriabin also believed in this, saying:
“The deadlines will be fulfilled, the age will light up,
Whose beam shines on the rapids of centuries,
And a free man will become firmly
Before the face of the sky on your planet.
Was the untimely and strange death of the composer the result of unsafe experiments with time?
Perhaps it was no coincidence that Scriabin's death overtook him when he was ready to put the score of the Mystery on music paper? And the music of the Mystery left with the author.
A friend and relative of the composer B.F. Schlozer wrote: “In the winter of 1914-1915, he played us excerpts from the Preliminary Action. I felt as if only a part of his being was among us, but that his true essence was already approaching another life.
He felt symphonies of light.
He called to merge into one floating temple -
- Touches, sounds, incense
And processions where dancing is a sign
. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Wake up in the sky, dreaming on the ground.
Scattering whirlwinds of sparks in the pierced haze,
In the burning of the victim he was unrelenting.
And so he twisted in a fiery vent,
That in death he woke up with a shine on his forehead.
Crazy elf, call, ringing Scriabin.
1. Unfortunately, such an action of the Temple ended with the death of its founder, Francia LaDue, who was the only one of all the leaders of the Temple who had a connection with Teacher Hilarion. You can read more about everything in the article http://www..htm THE TEMPLE SECTOR OR "HOLY ARMY" FROM THE USA. (Editor's note)
Literature
1. Bandura A.I. Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin. Bulletin of Theosophy, No. 1-2, 1994.
2. Bandura A.I. Tale of the Seven Races. Delphis, No. 3 (11), 1997.
3. Bandura A.I. Prophet composers. Spiritual Contemplation, No. 1-2, 1998.
4.Belza I. A.N. Scriabin. M.: Music, 1982.
5. Balmont K.D. Favorites. Poems; Translations; Articles. M.: Art. lit., 1980.
6.Gavrilova N."The whole nerve and the sacred flame ...". Delphis No. 3 (11). 1997.
7. Agni Yoga. High Way. Part 1.2. M.: Sfera, 2001.
8. Teaching of the Temple. Minsk.: IP "Lotats", 2001.
Contemporaries called Alexander Scriabin a composer-philosopher. He was the first in the world to come up with the concept of light-color-sound: he visualized the melody with the help of color. In the last years of his life, the composer dreamed of bringing to life an extraordinary action from all kinds of arts - music, dance, singing, architecture, painting. The so-called "Mystery" was supposed to begin the countdown of the new ideal world. But Alexander Scriabin did not have time to implement his idea.
Young musician and composer
Alexander Scriabin was born in 1872 into a noble family. His father served as a diplomat in Constantinople, so he rarely saw his son. The mother died when the child was one year old. Alexander Scriabin was raised by his grandmother and aunt, who became his first music teacher. Already at the age of five, the boy performed simple pieces on the piano and picked up the melodies he once heard, and at eight he began to compose his own music. The aunt took the nephew to the famous pianist Anton Rubinstein. He was so amazed by Scriabin's musical talent that he asked his relatives not to force the boy to either play or compose when he had no desire to do so.
In 1882, following a family tradition, the young nobleman Scriabin was sent to study at the Second Moscow Cadet Corps in Lefortovo. It was there that the first public performance of the 11-year-old musician took place. At the same time, his debut composing experiments also took place - mainly piano miniatures. At that time, Scriabin's work was influenced by his passion for Chopin, he even slept with the notes of the famous composer under his pillow.
Alexander Scriabin. Photo: radioswissclassic.ch
Nikolai Zverev and students (from left to right): S. Samuelson, L. Maksimov, S. Rachmaninov, F. Keneman, A. Skryabin, N. Chernyaev, M. Presman. Photo: scriabin.ru
In 1888, a year before graduating from the cadet corps, Alexander Scriabin became a student at the Moscow Conservatory in composition and piano. By the time he entered the Conservatory, he had written more than 70 musical compositions. The young musician was noticed by director Vasily Safonov. According to his memoirs, the young man had "a special variety of sound", he "possessed a rare and exceptional gift: his instrument breathed." Scriabin was distinguished by a special manner of using the pedals: by clamping them, he continued the sound of previous notes, which were superimposed on subsequent ones. Safonov said: "Don't look at his hands, look at his feet!".
Alexander Scriabin strove for performance excellence, so he rehearsed a lot. Once he "outplayed" his right hand. The disease turned out to be so serious that the then-famous doctor Grigory Zakharyin told the young man that the muscles of his arm had failed forever. Vasily Safonov, having learned about the illness of his student, sent him to his dacha in Kislovodsk, where he was cured.
Professor of harmony and counterpoint Anton Arensky taught the senior courses of free composition; lyrical chamber music was close to him. His student, Scriabin, on the contrary, did not like strict composer canons and created strange, in Arensky's opinion, works. During the years 1885-1889 Scriabin wrote more than 50 different plays - most of them did not survive or remained unfinished. The creativity of the young musician already then began to break out of the narrow framework of the academic program.
Due to a creative conflict with a teacher of harmony, Scriabin was left without a diploma in composition. In 1892 he graduated from the Moscow Conservatory only as a pianist in Safonov's class. Scriabin received Malaya gold medal, and his name was entered on the marble plaque of honor at the entrance to the Small Hall of the Moscow Conservatory.
Composer of the Silver Age
Alexander Scriabin. Photo: classicalmusicnews.ru
Alexander Scriabin. Photo: scriabin.ru
The young pianist played a lot. And soon after graduating from the conservatory, the disease of his right hand worsened. In order to continue performing, Alexander Scriabin wrote works for the left hand - “Prelude” and “Nocturne. Opus 9". However, the disease affected his mental balance. It was then that he began to reflect in his diary on philosophical topics.
The first major failure in my life. First serious reflection: the beginning of the analysis. Doubt about the possibility of recovery, but the most gloomy mood. The first reflection on the value of life, on religion, on God.
At this time, the composer wrote the First Sonata, which also reflected personal experiences. In his diary, he compared "composing the 1st sonata to a funeral march". However, Scriabin did not give in to despondency: he began to follow all the recommendations of the doctors and developed his own exercises that developed the injured hand. He managed to restore the mobility of the hand, but the former virtuosity was lost. Then the pianist began to pay attention to nuance - the ability to emphasize the subtlest fleeting sounds.
In 1893, some of Scriabin's early works were published by the well-known Moscow publisher Pyotr Jurgenson. Most of the works were musical miniatures - preludes, etudes, impromptu, nocturnes, as well as dance pieces - waltzes, mazurkas. These genres were characteristic of Chopin's work, which Scriabin admired. In the early 1890s, the composer also wrote the First and Second Sonatas.
In 1894, Vasily Safonov helped the 22-year-old Scriabin organize an author's concert in Saint Petersburg. Here the musician met the famous Russian timber merchant Mitrofan Belyaev. The entrepreneur was fond of music: he created the music publishing house “M.P. Belyaev”, established and financed the annual Glinka Prizes, organized concerts. Belyaev soon released the works of the young composer in his publishing house. Among them were sketches, impromptu, mazurkas, but mostly preludes, in total about 50 of them were written during this period.
Since then, Belyaev has supported the musician for many years and helped him financially. The philanthropist organized Scriabin's big tour of Europe. About the musician in the West they wrote: “an exceptional personality, a composer as excellent as a pianist, as high an intellect as a philosopher; all - impulse and sacred flame. In 1898, Scriabin returned to Moscow and completed the Third Sonata, which he began writing while still in Paris.
In the same year, Alexander Skryabin took up teaching: he needed a stable source of income to support his family. At the age of 26, he became a piano professor at the Moscow Conservatory.
I don't understand how you can write "just music" now. After all, it is so uninteresting... After all, music acquires meaning and meaning when it is a link in one, unified plan, in the wholeness of the worldview.
Despite being busy at the conservatory, Scriabin continued to write music: in 1900 he graduated great work for the orchestra. The composer neglected musical traditions: in the First Symphony, there are not four, as usual, but six movements, and in the latter soloists sing with a choir. Following the First, he completed the Second Symphony, even more innovative than his past works. Its premiere received mixed reactions from the music community. Composer Anatoly Lyadov wrote: “Well, the symphony… Scriabin can boldly lend a hand to Richard Strauss… Lord, where did the music go… From all over, from all the cracks, decadents are climbing”. The symbolist and mystical works of Scriabin became a reflection of the ideas of the Silver Age in music.
"Fiery tongues" music by Alexander Scriabin
Alexander Golovin. Portrait of Alexander Scriabin. 1915. Museum musical culture named after M. I. Glinka
Alexander Scriabin. Photo: belcanto.ru
Alexander Pirogov. Portrait of Alexander Scriabin. 20th century Russian Academy of Sculpture, Painting and Architecture named after I.S. Glazunov
In 1903, Scriabin began working on the score of the Third Symphony for a huge orchestra. It revealed the skill of Scriabin as a playwright. The symphony, called the "Divine Poem", described the development of the human spirit and consisted of three parts: "Struggle", "Enjoyment", "Divine Play". The premiere of the "Divine Poem" took place in Paris in 1905, a year later - in St. Petersburg.
God, what was that music! The symphony was constantly collapsing and collapsing like a city under artillery fire, and everything was built and grew from debris and destruction. She was overwhelmed with content madly elaborated and new… The tragic power of what she was composing solemnly stuck out her tongue at everything that was decrepit and majestically stupid, and was bold to the point of madness, to the point of childishness, playfully elemental and free, like a fallen angel.
Boris Pasternak
Russian musicologist Alexander Ossovsky recalled that Scriabin's symphony "produced a stunning, grandiose effect." It seemed to the listeners that the composer with this work "heralds a new era in art."
In 1905, the patron of Alexander Scriabin, Mitrofan Belyaev, died, and the composer found himself in a difficult financial situation. However, this did not prevent him from working: at this time he began to write the Poem of Ecstasy. The author himself said that the music was inspired by the revolution and its ideals, so he chose the call "Get up, get up, working people!" as the epigraph of the poem.
At this time, Scriabin gave many concerts and in 1906 went on tour to America for six months. The trip turned out to be successful: the concerts were held with great success. And in France in 1907, some of Scriabin's works were performed in Sergei Diaghilev's Russian Seasons cycle. At the same time, the composer completed the Poem of Ecstasy.
In 1909, Alexander Scriabin returned to Russia, where real fame came to him. His works were played on the best venues Moscow and St. Petersburg, the composer himself went on a concert tour of the Volga cities. At the same time, he continued his musical search, moving further and further away from tradition. He dreamed of creating a work that would unite all types of art, and began writing the Mystery symphony, which he conceived back in the early 1900s.
In 1911, Scriabin wrote one of his most famous works, the symphonic poem Prometheus. The composer had a color ear, which gives a sense of color during the performance of music. He decided to translate his visual perception into a poem.
I will have light in Prometheus. I want there to be symphonies of lights. The entire hall will be in variable lights. Here they flare up, these are fiery tongues, you see how the lights are here in the music. After all, each sound corresponds to a color. Or rather, not the sound, but the tonality.
Composer designed color circle and used it in the performance of the poem, and wrote the party of light in the score in a separate line - “Luce”. At that time, it was technically impossible to implement a light-color-symphony, so the premiere took place without a light party. The production of the poem required nine rehearsals instead of the usual three. According to the memoirs of contemporaries, the famous "Prometheus chord" sounded like the voice of chaos, born from the depths. Everyone was excited about this start. Sergei Rachmaninoff asked: “How does that sound to you? It's just orchestrated." To which Scriabin replied: “Yes, you put something on the very harmony. Harmony sounds ". Prometheus was the first draft of the Mystery to use a synthesis of the arts.
Scriabin was more and more fascinated by the idea of the future Mystery. The composer built its contours for more than 10 years. He planned to present the mystery of the orchestra, light, fragrance, colors, moving architecture, poems and a choir of 7000 voices in a temple on the banks of the Ganges. According to Scriabin's idea, the work was supposed to unite all of humanity, give people a sense of great brotherhood and begin the countdown for a renewed world.
The composer did not succeed in staging "Mystery". Scriabin had to give concerts in order to earn a living. He traveled to many cities in Russia, performed abroad more than once. At the beginning of World War I, Scriabin gave charity concerts to help the Red Cross and families affected by the war.
In 1915 Alexander Scriabin died in Moscow. The composer was buried at the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent.