Product Description
Alexander Scriabin Op. 11 No. 2. Score: 8 pages, solo part: 2 pages, piano part: 2 pages. Duration: 3:10. An introspective and meditative work with a lot of dynamic and phrasing nuance. Works well for church meditations or recital encores.
Background
Op.11/2 Alto Clarinet version. First of all, Scriabin composed mostly for
the solo piano and also the orchestra. This is probably because he was a gifted
pianist and therefore certainly appreciated the piano. Scriabin grew up in the
late Romantic period, consequently, he was fond of the great piano masters of
the time. As a result, he wrote his first noteworthy compositions in the manner
of Chopin and Liszt.
Forms
Likewise, Scriabin used many of the same forms as Chopin. These certainly
include the étude, prelude, nocturne, and even the mazurka. In contrast, as he
developed his own sense of style his music became more and more unusual. So,
the last five of his Piano Sonatas do not have a key signature and therefore
lean towards atonality.
Philosophy
Scriabin also developed a keen interest in philosophy and likewise poetry.
He was above all particularly fascinated by Nietzsche, Delville, and Blavatsky.
Consequently, he finally established his own ideas about metaphysics and
certainly mysticism. Scriabin consequently advanced theories about the
relationship between color and musical keys.
Synesthesia
He also may have experienced a condition called "synesthesia" where he could
probably sense a response created from a different stimulus. Therefore, it was almost
as if he could see music and hear colors. Scriabin, therefore, arranged the
colors in a circle similar to the circle-of-fifths and assigned each key area a
color. Finally, he assigned the key of C to the color red, while the key of G
was orange. Similarly, he assigned D to yellow, A to green, and so forth.
Strangely, he did not differentiate between major and minor key colors.
Multimedia
Hence, his ability to translate colors into music certainly gave Scriabin a
most noteworthy interest in creating multimedia events. Furthermore, He
designed his biggest work, the Mysterium, to last an entire week. Even more,
Scriabin made plans not only for music, but also colored lights, incense, and
dancing. He designed the performance to occur in the foothills of the Himalaya
mountains. The Mysterium was never performed, and only sketches of the work
remain.
Modern Performances
In modern times, we often experience performances of Scriabins most famous
completed works accompanied by colored laser lights and incense. These are the
Poem of Ecstasy (completed in 1908) and the Poem of Fire (completed in 1910).
The lighting effects for these early performances were accomplished by the
clavier à lumiéres. It was a keyboard instrument that projected colored light
onto a screen.
This product was created by a member of ArrangeMe, Hal Leonard's global self-publishing community of independent composers, arrangers, and songwriters. ArrangeMe allows for the publication of unique arrangements of both popular titles and original compositions from a wide variety of voices and backgrounds.