Scriabin portrait of the composer. Alexander Scriabin: biography, interesting facts, creativity

Skryabin A. N.

Alexander Nikolaevich (25 XII 1871 (6 I 1872), Moscow - 14 (27) IV 1915, ibid) - Russian. composer and pianist. The composer's father, Nikolai Aleksandrovich S., was a diplomat in Turkey; mother Lyubov Petrovna (nee Shchetinina) was an outstanding pianist. Pampered, impressionable, sickly, S. from childhood showed perseverance in the implementation of any business. Muses. S.'s talent was discovered very early: in the fifth year he easily reproduced on the piano. heard music, improvised; at the age of 8 he tried to compose his own. opera ("Lisa"), imitating the classic. samples. According to family tradition, at the age of 11 he entered the 2nd Moscow. cadet corps, where already in the first year of study he performed in concert as a pianist. After home music. hands-on activities. aunt Lyubov Alexandrovna S. by his teachers in piano. were first G. E. Konyus, then N. S. Zverev, in the music. S. V. Rakhmaninov, L. A. Maksimov, M. L. Presman and P. P. Keneman were brought up at the boarding school to-rogo at the same time. According to the music-theoretical. subjects S. took private lessons from S. I. Taneev and G. E. Konyus. In 1892 he graduated from Moscow. conservatory with a gold medal in piano class. V. I. Safonov; he also studied with Taneyev (counterpoint of a strict style) and A. S. Arensky (fugue, free composition). With Arensky, S. did not have a relationship and he stopped classes, refusing a composer's diploma. In 1898-1903 he taught the class of FP. in Moscow. conservatory. Among the students are M. S. Nemenova-Lunts, E. A. Beckman-Shcherbina.

S. was outstanding pianist, all his life he gave concerts, but already in his youth he was an artist. interests have focused almost exclusively on the interpretation of properties. compositions. Spirituality, romanticism. elation, a subtle feeling will express. details - all these and other features of S.'s performing art corresponded to the spirit of his music. Writing a lot from the 2nd floor. In the 1980s, S. relatively quickly passed the stage of imitation and search for his own. way. Some of the first creative experiments testify to his early aspirations and tastes (study for piano cis-moll, op. 2, No 1). To the beginning 90s include the first editions and performances of his fp. plays. They bring success to the author. A number of prominent composers and muses. figures, in particular V. V. Stasov, A. K. Lyadov, become his adherents. An important role in the life of young S. was played by the support provided to him by the well-known patron of arts M. P. Belyaev (publications, cash subsidies, final trips).
The work of S. of the first period (late 80s - 90s) is a world of subtly spiritualized lyrics, sometimes restrained, concentrated, elegant (fp. preludes, mazurkas, waltzes, nocturnes), then impulsive, violently dramatic (fp. Etude dis-moll, op. 8, No 12; piano prelude es-moll, op. 11, No 14, etc.). In these products S. is still very close to the romantic atmosphere. music of the 19th century, first of all to F. Chopin, whom he loved from childhood, and later to F. Liszt. In symph. prod. the influence of R. Wagner is obvious. The work of S. is closely connected with the traditions of Russian. music, especially with P. I. Tchaikovsky. Prod. The pages of the first period are in many respects related to the works. Rachmaninov. But already in early productions. S. in one way or another, his individuality is felt. In intonations and rhythms, a special impulsiveness, capricious variability are noticeable, in harmonies - spice, constant "flicker" of dissonances, in the whole fabric - lightness, transparency with a large ext. saturation. S. early showed a penchant for ideological generalizations, for the translation of impressions into concepts (as evidenced, in particular, by his youthful letters to N. V. Sekerina). This attracted him to large forms. Sonatas for piano, later symphonies and symphonies. poems become ch. milestones of his creativity. ways (fp. miniatures are most often echoes or "small models" of the same large concepts).
In Sonata No 1 (1892) - characteristic of the romantic. art-va comparison of the world of free, unconstrained feelings (1st, 3rd parts) and the feeling of severe inevitability (2nd part, mournful finale). The two-part Fantasy Sonata (No 2, 1892-97), inspired by the pictures of the sea, is deeply lyrical: the feeling, at first restrained, but already disturbed (1st part), becomes a stormy romantic. excitement, boundless as the element of the sea (2nd part). Sonata No. 3 (1897-98) was described by the author as "states of the soul". In it, at one pole - drama, growing into heroism, into the daring of a strong will (the extreme parts of the cycle), at the other - the refinement of the soul, its gentle languor, affectionate playfulness (2nd, 3rd parts). In the coda of the finale, the anthemically transformed theme of the 3rd part appears, according to the author's commentary, "from the depths of being, the formidable voice of a human creator rises, whose victorious singing sounds triumphant." New in ideological scale and in power of expression, the 3rd sonata marked the pinnacle of S.'s quest in early period creativity and at the same time - the beginning of the next stage in its development.
In production of the second period (late 90s of the 19th century - early 1900s), S. gravitated towards concepts that were not only broad, but also universal, going beyond the scope of lyric. statements. The role of moral and philosophical ideas, the search for a higher meaning and pathos of being, is growing. Create product - means to inspire people with some important truth, ultimately leading to universal beneficial changes - such is the ideological art that was finally formed at that time. position C. The six-part symphony No. 1 (1899-1900, with the participation of soloists and the choir) embodies the idea of ​​the transforming power of art. The change of mood of a romantically restless soul (2nd - 5th parts) is opposed by the image of sublime all-reconciling beauty (1st, 6th parts). Final - celebrations. dithyramb to art-vu - a "magic gift" that brings people "consolation", giving birth, according to the composer, "feelings to a boundless ocean." About the final chorus (“Come, all the peoples of the world, let us sing glory to art”), written in the spirit of the oratorio classics of the 18th century, the composer said: “I wrote it on purpose, because I wanted it to be something simple, popular”. Optimistic the finale of the 1st symphony was the beginning of a bright utopian. romanticism, which colored all subsequent works of S.
In the 2nd symphony (1901), the heroic are intensified. elements. The thread of the "plot" is stretched from a harsh and mournful andante through a daring impulse (2nd part), intoxication with a dream and passion (3rd part) through menacingly raging elements (4th part) to the assertion of unshakable human power (5th part). Part). The organic nature of the final is emphasized by the stylistic. connection with the whole cycle (which was not in the symphony No 1). But later, evaluating this ending, the composer wrote: "I needed to give light here ... Light and joy ... Instead of light, there was some kind of coercion ..., splendor ... I found the light later." The feeling associated with the triumph of man, he wanted to embody not in external solemnity. It seemed to him light and playful, like a fantastic dance; he thought of joy not as the bliss of peace, but as the utmost excitement, ecstasy.
The composer first achieved the desired goal in Symphony No. 3 ("Divine Poem", 1903-04). To this production the threads of the entire previous evolution of the composer are pulled together. Here S.'s philosophical program is formulated much more fully and more consistently, the musical-figurative content is specified, and his individual style is vividly embodied. For his contemporaries, S.'s 3rd Symphony, more than any other of his previous works, was "Scriabin's discovery." The 3rd symphony (3 parts, performed without interruption), according to the composer, is a kind of "biography of the spirit", which, through overcoming everything material and sensual, comes to some higher freedom ("divine game"). The 1st part ("Struggle") opens with a slow introduction, where the harsh and imperious motive of "self-affirmation" (the leitmotif of the whole work) passes. Next comes the dram. allegro with contrasts of gloomy strong-willed and dreamily light moods. It is characteristic that the drama is combined in this movement with a special, already purely Scriabin lightness of movement, in a certain sense anticipating the finale. The 2nd, slow part ("Pleasures") is the world of "earthly", sensual lyrics, where the sounds and aromas of nature meet the languor of the soul. The finale ("The Divine Game") is a kind of "heroic scherzo". Unlike heavy celebrations. the finale of the previous symphonies, here is an image of an intoxicatingly joyful dance or a free "play", filled, however, with strong-willed activity and impetuous energy.
The FP is close to the "Divine Poem". sonata No 4 (1901-03). Its entire "plot" is the process of gradual birth of the same feeling of joy, which is embodied in the finale of Symphony No. 3. First, the twinkling light of a star (andante); it is still "lost in a light and transparent fog", but it already reveals the radiance of the "other world". Then (2nd final part) - an act of release, a flight towards the light, an immensely growing jubilation. The very special atmosphere of this Prestissimo volando is created by its completely excited rhythmic. pulsation, flickering of light "flight" movements, transparent and at the same time extremely dynamic harmony. Products created by S. at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries are turned both to the past and to the future; Thus, in the 3rd symphony, the 1st and 2nd parts still remain in line with the "real" lyric dramas. images inherited from the 19th century, but in the end there is a breakthrough to the new. The third period of creativity (1904-10) is characterized by the final crystallization of the romantic-utopian. concepts of S. He subordinates all his activities to the creation of an imaginary "Mystery", the goal of which is far beyond the limits of art. The peculiarity of the third period is also in the radical reform of style, completely determined by the new arts. tasks. During these years, the persistent efforts of S. directed to the theoretical. substantiate your concept. Freed from all the duties that burdened him, while abroad (Switzerland, Italy, France), S. intensively studies philosophical literature - prod. Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Proceedings of the Second Philosophical Congress (Geneva, 1904). He was interested in the concept of the "universe", the meaning of the "absolute" in the subjective consciousness, in other words, the meaning of that spiritual principle, which he, along with some idealist philosophers, was inclined to understand as "divine" in man and in the world. S.'s desire for an all-encompassing formula of being made Schelling's doctrine of the "world soul" especially attractive to him (apparently, the beginning of S.'s evolution from solipsism to objective idealism is connected with the influence of Schelling's ideas). However, in his philosophical quest S. remained primarily an artist. The holistic feeling of being, which strengthened his faith in man, in the victoriousness of efforts on the path to the ideal, was wider than those theoretical ones. concepts, with the help of which he tried to solve the problems that worried him and build his own art. "model of the world". In essence, S. was impressed by everything in which he felt the spirit of freedom, the awakening of new forces, where he saw movement towards the highest flowering of personality. Philosophical reading, conversations and disputes were for S. the process of excitation of thought, he was attracted to them by that never-satisfied thirst for a universal, radical truth about the world and man, with which ethical is inextricably linked. the nature of his claims. Philosophy, moreover, gave him much-needed material for generalized poetic metaphors (such metaphors abound in C programs). S., carried away by the mystic. philosophy, at the same time he got acquainted with the Marxist literature, so the meeting with GV Plekhanov (1906) became so interesting for him. “When I met him in Bogliasco,” recalls Plekhanov, “he was not at all familiar with the materialistic view of K. Marx and F. Engels. I drew his attention to the important philosophical significance of this view. A few months later, having met him in Switzerland, I saw that he, by no means becoming a supporter of historical materialism, managed to understand its essence so well that he could operate with this doctrine better than many "hard-wired" Marxists. Plekhanov (according to the memoirs of his wife) said about S.: "Music of its grandiose scope. This music is a reflection of our revolutionary era in the temperament and worldview of an idealist-mystic." The worldview of the mystic determined some very vulnerable features of S.'s work - the utopian nature of his concept, extreme subjectivism, which left a mark on many of his works, especially his later ones.
One of the main products third period of creativity S. - one-part "Poem of ecstasy" (1905-07). Detailed and set out in verse, the program of this product. was issued by the composer as a separate pamphlet (Geneva, 1906). The content of the text is close to the program of the 3rd symphony (the same picture of the long wanderings of the "creative spirit" and, as a result, blinding light, "ecstasy"). In music, poetic the idea is interpreted more concisely with a clear emphasis on bright, optimistic. plot elements. The four large sections of the poem, which are written in a freely interpreted sonata form, represent a four-fold comparison of two thematic. groups - images of dreams and active action. Creative. the obsession of the soul, dreaming and enchanted, breaks more and more insistently into action and to the final triumph of "free will." In the code of the poem, the development of the heroic. themes "will" and "self-affirmation" creates an increase of extraordinary power - the apotheosis of the romantic. conviviality (Maestoso, the theme of "self-assertion", conducted by eight horns, trumpet, organ). Fp. sonata No. 5 (1907) combines certain characteristic images of the 4th sonata and the "Poem of Ecstasy" (the path from a dream as a contemplation of a distant twinkling star to an ecstatic dance). But the theme of the introduction has already touched upon the sphere of symphony. the poem "Prometheus": the disturbing and mysterious power of the "dark depths", where the "embryos of life" lurk (S.'s words from the epigraph to the 5th fp. sonata). To the "Poem of Ecstasy" and the 5th fp. such functions are especially close to the sonata. miniatures by S., like "The Riddle" and "The Poem of Longing" op. 52, No 2 and 3, "Desire" and "Weasel in the dance" op. 57, Nos. 1 and 2.
In "Prometheus" ("The Poem of Fire", 1909-10), the composer's shift to concepts that are even more universal and at the same time more abstract is noticeable. The name of the ancient hero symbolizes in this production. "active energy of the universe". Prometheus is "the creative principle, fire, light, life, struggle, effort, thought." The initial moment of the "plot" is dormant chaos and the life of feeling that is just emerging. The concentrated expression of this primevalness is the so-called. the Promethean chord that arises from the first measure and is the sound basis of the poem. Her music. dramaturgy makes the signs of sonata form almost inconspicuous; music resembles a single stream with a whimsically complex line inside. development. The themes of “creative mind”, bold and proud “will”, pleasure, joyful play, and languor flicker and constantly transform. The sound of the orchestra, which is unusual in its impulsiveness, resembles either sheaves of rainbow sparks, or menacing landslides, or tender moans. The orchestral fabric is jewelry-transparent, rich in lyric. means (solo piano, violin, cello), colorful details, then thickens to powerful tutti. In the main climax at the end of the coda "a huge radiant rise" (choir, organ, bell, the entire composition of copper and percussion instruments). However, for all the grandeur of the climax, "Prometheus" is perceived more as the most refined than as the most powerful of the products. C. A notable feature of this score is the inclusion of a light string (Luce) in it, intended for a light keyboard (see Light Music). The effects of changing colors recorded in this line are based on the scale of sound-color correspondences proposed by the composer himself (the first use of "Prometheus" with light accompaniment - 1915, Carnegie Hall, New York; 1916, London and Moscow; in the 1960s years in Kazan and Moscow - experiments in sound-color performance using the latest technology).
The fourth period of S.'s work (1910-15) was marked by an even greater complexity of creativity. ideas. The role of gloomy, mystically disturbing images is growing, and S.'s music is increasingly acquiring the character of a sacred rite. These last (Moscow) years of the composer's life are a time of steady growth in his fame and recognition. He gives concerts a lot, and each of his new premieres becomes important. arts. event. The circle of S.'s admirers is expanding. Among the promoters of his music: pianists - V. I. Buyukli, A. B. Goldenweiser, I. Hoffman, M. N. Meichik, M. S. Nemenova-Lunts, V. I. Skryabina-Isakovich; conductors - A. I. Siloti, E. A. Cooper, V. I. Safonov, A. B. Hessin, S. A. Koussevitzky. In the person of the latter, S. finds a publisher and an outstanding performer of his symphonies. prod. During these years, the composer's interests were focused on the "Mysteries" project, which was acquiring more and more concrete outlines. The legendary India appeared in his imagination; a domed temple reflected in the mirror surface of the lake; a grandiose conciliar action, where everyone is participants and "initiates", and there is no longer any public; special, formal clothes; processions, dances, incense; a symphony of colors, aromas, "touches"; moving architecture; whispers, unknown noises, sunset rays and twinkling stars; trumpet voices, "brass, eerie, fatal harmonies."
The participants, as it were, are experiencing the whole cosmogony. the history of the "divine" and the "material", eventually reaching the reunification of "world and spirit"; in this, according to the idea of ​​the composer, "the last accomplishment" should consist.

A. H. Scriabin. Sonata for piano No 10. First page of the manuscript.
In essence, this project was poetic. vision, behind which was hidden a thirst for a great "miracle", a dream of a new era, when evil will be defeated, suffering, when everyday life will give way to an eternal holiday, all-human high spirituality. Yet "Mystery" remained a fantasy, far from reality. She turned out to be fantastic. utopia and as art. undertaking. As a preparatory version of the "Mystery" S. conceived a large theatrical composition called. "Preliminary action"; in 1913-14 he worked on a poetic. the text of this work. The first muses also appeared. sketches, but the work was interrupted by the sudden death of the composer.
All later productions S., in themselves quite independent, create on the whole a single, not very wide range of images, one way or another connected with the ideas of the Mystery. These are the last sonatas (No No 7-10), the poems "The Mask" and "Strangeness" (op. 63), "To the Flame" (op. 72), the dance "Gloomy Flame" (op. 73, No 2), etc. These images are especially fully represented in the fp. Sonata No 7 (1911-12); it is characterized by incantatory, invocative recitatives, polyphonic chords of humming bells, gentle moaning, but without any admixture of sensuality, foggy influxes that sometimes obscure the gentle melody, and the sparkling whirlwind movements beloved by the composer, the dissolution of lyric. intonations in vibrating and fading sonorities (the moment described by the composer in the text of the "Preliminary Act": "We will disappear in the beauty of naked sparkling souls ... we will melt ..."). Fp. Sonata No 9 (1913) - one of the most severe; "evil spells", "march of evil forces", "dormant shrine", "dream, nightmare, obsession" - this is how the author himself defined some of its most important moments. On the contrary, in Sonata No. 10 (1913) there is a noticeable tendency towards subtle-light pantheistic. sentiments. In this last major production S., as in some of his later plays, new trends emerged - the desire for greater simplicity, transparency, and tonal clarity.
Creative. path S. - continuous search for new expresses. funds. His innovation was most noticeable in the field of harmony. Already in early works, remaining within the framework of the style of the 19th century, S. amazed, and sometimes shocked his contemporaries in an unusual way. high voltage, condensed by the dissonance of their harmonies. More decisive changes are noticeable in the beginning. 1900s in the 3rd symphony, in the poem op. 44 and especially in the "Fancy Poem" op. 45. The final crystallization of the new harmonic. style occurred in the production. third period. Here the major and minor tonics were replaced by a different supporting element. This new support or "center" of the pitch system becomes a very complex dissonant consonance (small major seventh chord or non-chord of the dominant type with various alteration modifications of the fifth, sometimes with an unresolved sixth; the last option is the so-called Prometheus chord) If before that the unstable harmonies of S. were, like the classics of the 19th century, striving for an achievable resolution, now, having replaced the tonic, they created a different expression. Effect. In many respects it is thanks to such new harmonies that S.'s music is perceived as "a thirst for action, but ... without an active outcome" (B. L. Yavorsky). She seems to be attracted to some obscure goal. Sometimes this attraction is feverishly impatient, sometimes more restrained, making it possible to feel the charm of "languor". And the target often eludes. She moves bizarrely, teases with her closeness and her changeability, she is like a mirage. This peculiar world of sensations is undoubtedly connected with the thirst, characteristic of S.'s time, to know the "secret", with a premonition of some great accomplishments. The harmonies of S. were his most important discovery, which helped to express in art new ideas and images born of time. At the same time, they were also fraught with certain dangers: the polyphonic central harmony in later compositions completely supplanted all other chords or made them indistinguishable. It means. least weakened the effect of changing harmonies, which is so important for music. For this reason, the possibility of harmonics narrowed. development; tonal development also turned out to be quite impossible. The more consistent the composer was in carrying out his harmonies. principles, the more clearly manifested in his work. traits of stiffness and monotony.
In the rhythmic regard music S. extremely impulsive. One of its characteristic features is a sharp emphasis, which emphasizes the imperiousness, certainty of movement, sometimes its restless, impatient character. Simultaneously S. sought to overcome the rhythmic. inertia. An energetic impulse is complicated by an indefinite multiplicity of options; the expected accent suddenly moves away or approaches, the repetitive motif reveals a new rhythm. organization. Express. the meaning of such modifications is the same as in the harmony of S.: unsteadiness, boundless instability, variability; a completely uninhibited feeling pulsates in them, rejecting inertia and automatism. The capriciously changing forms of presentation and the multiplicity of timbre shades act in the same direction. Typical for S. are textural techniques that give his music transparency, airiness, or, as he himself liked to say, “flying” (trills, vibrating chords and figurations that are bizarre in pattern).
Muses. S.'s forms are in many respects close to the traditions of the past. Until the end of his life, he appreciated the clarity, crystallinity of structures, the completeness of the department. constructions. In large production S. always in in general terms adhered to the principles of sonata allegro, sonata cycle or one-part poem (the tendency to compress the cycle and turn it into a one-part monothematic poem can be clearly seen in the works of the first decade of the 20th century). The novelty is manifested in the interpretation of these forms. Gradually, everything is thematic. elements become brief, aphoristic; thoughts and feelings began to be expressed by hints, symbols, conventional signs. In production close-up, a contradiction arose between the monumentality of the general design and the detailed, subjectively capricious "curve" of development. Although the kaleidoscopic change of trace elements and fit into the otd. relatively complete constructions, in reality it created an open process. Attention was fixed not so much on the purpose of the movement, but on the process itself, the "flow of feelings." In this sense, the technique is thematic. development and shaping in S. is related to other elements of his style. All of them form an atmosphere of electrification so characteristic of the composer, make him perceive his music as a continuous, full of rich nuances, but also a hopeless movement.
S. is one of those who, by force of lawsuits, tried to resolve the age-old question of human freedom. Inspired by faith in the magically fast and finish. liberation of man, S.'s work expressed the expectation and premonition of great social changes characteristic of many of his contemporaries. At the same time, the fantastic nature of Scriabin's ideas was incompatible with a sober understanding of real societies. processes. His younger contemporaries and artists next generations sought to discover inspiring goals not in illusions, but in reality. And yet, many composers of the beginning of the century, especially Russian ones, somehow came into contact with S., felt the influence of his new expression and the whole restless, seething world of Scriabin's searches.
Key dates of life and activity.
1871. - 25 XII (6 I 1872). In Moscow, in the family of a law student (hereinafter - a diplomat) Nikolai Aleksandrovich S. and his wife, a pianist, pupil of St. Petersburg. Conservatory Lyubov Petrovna (nee Shchetinina) b. son Alexander.
1873. - Death of the mother (from pulmonary tuberculosis). - Caring for the child is taken over by the father's relatives, ch. arr. Lyubov Alexandrovna S. - the composer's aunt.
1876. - The first attempts to reproduce S. on the piano. heard music.
1882. - Summer. Beginning of FP lessons. at G. E. Konyus. - Autumn. Admission to the 2nd Moscow. Cadet Corps (graduated in 1889).
1884. - Apparently, the first attempts to compose FP belong to this year. music.
1885. - Classes in piano. from N. S. Zverev, according to the theory of music - from S. I. Taneev (until 1887).
1888. - The first public performance in Moscow in the Great Hall of the Noble Assembly (Spanish: "Butterflies" by Schumann). - Admission to Moscow. conservatory (from the 2nd half of the 1887/88 academic year).
1891. - Passion for N. V. Sekerina (amateur pianist, student of Zverev and K. N. Igumnov; correspondence with her in 1892-95).
1892. - Graduated from the conservatory in the class of piano. V. I. Safonov with a gold medal (in the program of the graduation concert: Beethoven's sonata op. 109; Bach's "Capriccio for the Departure of Beloved Brother"; Lyapunov's waltz; Chopin's ballad in F-dur; Schumann-Liszt's "Spring Night"). - In the publishing house of P. I. Yurgenson, a waltz op. 1 - the first printed product. WITH.
1894. - Acquaintance and the beginning of business relations with MP Belyaev (correspondence in 1894-1904).
1895. - Author's speeches (2 (14) and 7 (19) III - in St. Petersburg, 11 (23) III - in Moscow). - Publication of Sonata No. 1 (published by M. P. Belyaev).
1896. - The first author's concerts abroad: 3 (15) I - Paris, 6 (18) I - Brussels, 13 (25) I - Berlin, then - The Hague, Amsterdam, Cologne, Paris again.
1897. - 27 VIII (8 IX). Marriage to V. I. Isakovich - a pianist (a pupil of the Moscow Conservatory in the class of P. Yu. Schlozer). - 11(23) X. First isp. concerto for fp. with orchestra (Odessa, soloist - author, conductor V. I. Safonov). - 27 XI (9 XII). Award of Glinkinskaya Ave. (for piano pieces, op. 3, 4, 6, 7, 9).
1898. - The beginning of pedagogical. activities in Moscow. conservatory (class of Php., professor).
1900. - 11 (23) XI. The first isp. Symphony No 1 (Petersburg, conductor A. K. Lyadov, without chorus finale). - 23 XI (5 XII). The first isp. sonatas No. 3 (Moscow, V. I. Buyukli). - Started work on libre. opera "about the philosopher-musician-poet" (the plan was not realized).
1902. - 5 (18) III. The first isp. Symphony No. 1 in Moscow, conductor V. I. Safonov (with chorus finale). - 12(25) I. First isp. Symphony No 2 (Petersburg, conductor A. K. Lyadov). - 24 V (6 VI). Arts. Council of Moscow Conservatory granted the request of S. to release him from the post of professor (at the request of V. I. Safonov, S. continued to work with graduates until the end of the next academic year).
1903. - 21 III (3 IV). The first isp. Symphony No. 2 in Moscow (conductor V. I. Safonov). - V. The end of pedagogical. work.
1904. - 19 II (3 III). Departure to Switzerland (Vezna). - 29 II (13 III). The family of S.
1905. - Break S. with V. I. Isakovich-Scriabina. - Marriage to T. F. Schlozer (niece of Professor of the Moscow Conservatory P. Yu. Schlozer, amateur pianist). - The first isp. Symphony No 3 ("Divine Poem") in Paris (16(29) V, conductor A. Nikish). - Summer. Moving to Italy (Bogliasco). - Beginning of work on the "Poem of Ecstasy".
1906. - Acquaintance with GV Plekhanov. - S.'s meeting with Plekhanov in Geneva, where the composer moved in February ("Sasha reads Plekhanov with enthusiasm" - from a letter from T. F. Schlozer dated 6 (19) II 1906). - 23 II (6 III). The first isp. Symphony No. 3 in Russia (Petersburg, conductor R. M. Blumenfeld). - Tour S. in the USA: 7 (20) XII, the first performance in the symphony. concert (New York, conductors V. I. Safonov and M. I. Altshuler); 21 XII (3 I 1907), first solo concert (ibid.).
1907. - III. T. F. Schlozer and S. are forced to hastily leave the United States due to the "illegality" of their marriage. - Moving to Paris. - 10(23) V, 17(30) V. Use. prod. S. in the cycle of "Russian Seasons", organized by S. P. Diaghilev in Paris (conductor A. Nikish, soloist I. Hoffman). - 18 XI (1 XII). The first isp. sonatas No. 5 (Moscow, M. H. Meichik).
1908. - 30 I (12 II). The birth of a son, Julian (a musically gifted child at the age of 11 drowned in the Dnieper). - VI. Acquaintance and the beginning of business relations with the conductor SA Koussevitsky - patron, publisher, one of the outstanding performers of symphonic music. prod. S. - 27 XI (10 XII). The first isp. "Poems of Ecstasy" (New York, conductor M. I. Altshuler).
1909. - I. Arrival in Moscow for two months. - Performances in the chamber concert of the RMS, in the Society "Aesthetics", in the hall of the Synodal School. - The first isp. "Poems of Ecstasy" in Russia (19 1 (1 II) in St. Petersburg, conductor G. Varlikh; 21 II (6 III) in Moscow, conductor E. A. Cooper). - A "circle of Scriabinists" was organized in Moscow (M. S. Nemenova-Lunts, K. S. Saradzhev, V. V. Derzhanovsky, A. B. Goldenweiser, M. N. Meichik, etc.).
1910. - I. Final return to Moscow.
1911. - The first isp. "Prometheus" (2(15) III in Moscow, 9(22) III in St. Petersburg; conductor Koussevitzky, piano part - author). - Use. Symphony No 1 and op. concert under dir. S.V. Rachmaninov (soloist - author). - 5(18)XI. Severance of relations with Koussevitzky. - 11 (24) XI. Awarded to S. Glinkinskaya Ave. (for "Prometheus"). - Beginning of conc. trips (Odessa, Vilnius, Minsk, Taganrog, Novocherkassk, Rostov-on-Don, Kazan, etc.).
1912. - 21 II (3 III). The first isp. Sonata No 7 in Moscow (author). - X-XI. Tour in the Netherlands, Spanish. "Prometheus" (conductor V. Mengelberg, piano part - author). - S. and his family settled in Nikolo-Peskovskiy per., 11, now st. Vakhtangov (the last apartment of S., now a memorial museum).
1913. - 19 I (1 II). The first isp. "Prometheus" in London (conductor G. Wood). - 30 X (12 XI), 12 (25) XII. The first Spanish sonatas NoNo 9, 10 (Moscow, author).
1914. - II-III. Tours in England (1 III - repeated performance of "Prometheus" in London, conductor G. Wood, soloist - author). - Summer. Work on the text of "Preliminary Action", consultations with Yu. K. Baltrushaitis and Vyach. I. Ivanov.
1915. - The last conc. performances: in Moscow - 27 I (9 II), in Petrograd - 12 (25) I and 16 II (1 III). - 7(20) IV. Beginning of the disease: a carbuncle on the upper lip, which led to a general infection of the blood. - 14(27) IV. Death of a composer.
Compositions : for orc. - 3 symphonies (No 1 E-dur, op. 26, 1899-1900; No 2 c-moll, op. 29, 1901; No 3 Divine poem, c-minor, op. 43, 1903-04), Poem of ecstasy (С-dur, op. 54, 1905-1907), Prometheus (Poem of fire, op. 50, 1909-10), pieces for symphony. orc. - Symphonic Allegro (without op., 1896-99, not finished, published posthumously under the title Symphonic Poem), Dreams (Rкverie, op. 24, 1898), scherzo (for strings. orc., without op., 1899 ), Andante (for strings. orc. without op., 1899); for fp. with orc. - concert (fis-moll. op. 20, 1896-97), fantasy (without op., 1888-89, published posthumously); for fp. -10 sonatas (No 1 op. 6, 1892; No 2 fantasy sonata op. 19, 1892-97; No 3 op. 23, 1897-98; No 4 op. 30, 1901-03; No 5 op. 53 , 1907; No 6 op. 62, 1911-12; No 7 op. 64, 1911-12; No 8 op. 66, 1912-13; No 9 op. 68, 1913; No 10 op. 70, 1913); poems: 2 (op. 32, 1903), Tragic (op. 34, 1903), Satanic (op. 36, 1903), op. 41 (1903), 2 (op. 44, 1904-05), Nocturne Poem (op. 61, 1911-12), 2 (op. 63 - Mask, Strangeness, 1912), 2 (op. 69, 1913) , To the Flame (Vers la flamme, op. 72, 1914); preludes: 24 (op. 11, 1888-96), 6 (op. 13, 1895), 5 (op. 15, 1895-96), 5 (op. 16, 1894-95), 7 (op. 17, 1895-96), 4 (op. 22, 1897-98), 2 (op. 27, 1900), 4 (op. 31, 1903), 4 (op. 33, 1903), 3 (op. 35, 1903) ), 4 (op. 37, 1903), 4 (op. 39, 1903), 4 (op. 48, 1905), 2 (op. 67, 1912-13), 5 (op. 74, 1914); mazurkas: 10 (op. 3, 1888-90), 9 (op. 25, 1899), 2 (op. 40, 1903); waltzes: op. 1 (1885-86), op. 38 (1903), Like a waltz (Quasi valse, op. 47, 1905), waltz for the left hand (no op., 1907); studies: 12 (op. 8, 1894-95), 8 (op. 42, 1903), 3 (op. 65, in nones, in sevens, in fifths, 1912); impromptu: 2 in the form of a mazurka (op. 7, 1891), 2 (op. 10, 1894), 2 (op. 12, 1895), 2 (op. 14, 1895); cycles and groups of plays: op. 2 (Etude, Prelude, Impromptu, 1887-89), op. 5 (2 nocturnes, 1890), op. 9 (Prelude and Nocturne for the left hand, 1894), op. 45 (Album leaf. Fanciful poem, Prelude, 1905-07), op. 49 (Etude, Prelude, Dreams, 1905), op. 51 (Fragility, Prelude, Inspired Poem, Dance of Yearning, 1906), op. 52 (Poem, Riddle, Longing Poem, 1905), op. 56 (Prelude, Irony, Nuances, Etude, 1908), op. 57 (Desire, Weasel in the Dance, 1908), op. 59 (Poem, Prelude, 1910-11), 2 dances, op. 73 (Garlands, Gloomy Flame, 1914); individual pieces: Allegro appassionato (op. 4, 1887-93, revised 1st movement of the unfinished youthful sonata es-moll), Presto (no op., 1888-89, 3rd movement of the unfinished youthful sonata as- moll), Concert Allegro (op. 18, 1895-1897), polonaise (op. 21, 1897-98), fantasy (op. 28, 1900-01), scherzo (op. 46, 1905), Album Leaf (op. 58, 1911); for voice with fp. - romance I would like a beautiful dream (verses by S., 1891). Literary writings and letters : Notes by A. N. Scriabin, in Sat: Russian Propylaea, vol. 6, M., 1919 (texts for the finale of the 1st symphony, for "The Poem of Ecstasy", for "Preliminary Action", opera libretto, philosophical notes) ; Letters. Intro. Art. V. Asmus, foreword. and note. A. Kashperova, M., 1965. Literature: Koptyaev A., Musical portraits. A. Scriabin, "The World of Art", 1899, No 7-8; his own, A. N. Scriabin. Characteristics, P., 1916; Trubetskoy S., Concerning the concert of A. Scriabin, "Courier", 1902, No 63, the same, in his Collection. soch., vol. 1, M., 1907; Yu. E. (Yu. Engel), (Scriabin's 2nd symphony), Russkiye Vedomosti, 1903, March 23; his own, Music of Scriabin, ibid., 1909, 24 and 25 Feb.; his own, Scriabin Concerto, ibid, 1911, March 3 and 4 (reprinted in the book: Engel Yu., Through the Eyes of a Contemporary, M., 1971); Kashkin N., Moscow School of Music, "New Word", 1910, No 6; Karatygin V. G., Young Russian composers, "Apollo", 1910, No 11, 12; him, Scriabin and young Moscow composers, ibid., 1912, No 5; his own, 3rd non-subscription concert by Siloti, Scriabin's Clavierabend, "Speech", 1912, No 341; his own, Scriabin, essay, P., 1915; his own The latest trends in Russian music, "Northern Notes", 1915, Feb. (republished in the book: V. G. Karatygin, Selected Articles, M., 1965); his own, Ziloti's 2nd Concerto (Scriabin Concerto), "Speech", 1915, No 274 ; his own, In memory of Scriabin, in his book: Selected Articles, M., 1965; Derzhanovsky V., After "Prometheus", "Music", 1911, No 14; Karasev P. A., On the question of the acoustic foundations of Scriabin's harmony, ibid., 1911, No 16; Bryusova N. Ya., About rhythmic forms by Scriabin, "Works and days", 1913, ttr. 1-2; her own, Scriabin's Realism, "Music", 1915, No 221; her own, On the Other Side of Scriabin, "To New Shores", 1923, No 2; Sabaneev L. L., Principles of Scriabin's creativity, "Music", 1914-15, No. 194, 197, 202, 203, 209, 210; his own, Scriabin, M., 1916, M.-P., 1923; his own, Memories of Scriabin, M., 1925; "Music", 1915, No 220, 229 (numbers dedicated to Scriabin); "Russian musical newspaper", 1915, No. 17-18 (dedicated to Scriabin); "Southern Messenger", 1915, No. 229 (dedicated to Scriabin); Gunst E. O., A. H. Skryabin and his work, M., 1915; "Musical contemporary", 1916, book. 4-5 (dedicated to Scriabin); Braudo E., Unpublished works of A. N. Scriabin, "Apollo", 1916, No 4-5; The charter of the society. A. N. Scriabin. Moscow, 1916. Proceedings of the Petrograd Scriabin Society, c. 1-2, P., 1916-17; Ivanov Vyach., Scriabin and the spirit of the revolution (speech at a meeting of the Moscow Scriabin Society on October 24, 1917), in his book: Native and universal, M., 1917; Balmont K. D., Light sound in nature and Scriabin's light symphony, P., 1917, 1922; Schlozer B. F., Note on the "Preliminary Action", "Russian Propylaea", vol. 6, M., 1919; his own, A. Scriabin, Berlin, 1923; Lunacharsky A. V., About Scriabin, "Culture of the Theatre", 1921, No 6 (speech before the concert, dedicated to the symphonic work of the composer); him, Taneyev and Scriabin, Novy Mir, 1925, No 6; his own, The Significance of Scriabin for Our Time, in the book: A. N. Scriabin and His Museum, M., 1930 (all Lunacharsky's articles about S. were republished in his collection: In the world of music, M., 1958, 1971) ; IgorGlebov (B. Asafiev), Scriabin, P., 1921; Lapshin I. I., Treasured thoughts of Scriabin, P., 1922; Belyaev V., Scriabin and the Future of Russian Music, "Towards New Shores", 1923, No 2; Yakovlev V., A. N. Skryabin, M.-L., 1925; the same, in his book: Selected writings about music, v. 2, M., 1971; Rimsky-Korsakov G. M., Deciphering the light line of Scriabin's "Prometheus", "De Musis", 1926, no. 2; Meichik M., Skryabin, M., 1935; Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin, 1915-1940. Sat. to the 25th anniversary of his death, M.-L., 1940; Alshvang A. A., A. H. Scriabin (Life and work), M.-L., 1945, the same, in his book: Izbr. cit., vol. 1, M., 1964, the same, in the collection: A. N. Skryabin. On the centenary of his birth, M., 1973; his own, Scriabin's Place in the History of Russian Music, "SM", 1961, No 1; Plekhanov G. V., From the memoirs of A. N. Scriabin. Letter to Dr. V. V. Bogorodsky, San Remo, May 9, 1916, in his book: Art and Literature, M., 1948; Nemenova-Lunts M., Scriabin-teacher, "SM", 1948, No 5; Rimskaya-Korsakova N. N., N. A. Rimsky-Korsakov and A. N. Skryabin, ibid., 1950, No 5; Keldysh Yu. V., Ideological contradictions in the work of A. N. Scriabin, ibid., 1950, No 1; Danilevich L. V., A. N. Skryabin. Moscow, 1953. Neugauz G. G., Notes about Scriabin, "SM", 1955, No 4, the same, in his book: Reflections, memories, diaries ..., M., 1975; Prokofiev G., Rachmaninov plays Scriabin, "SM", 1959, No 3; Ossovsky A., Selected articles, memories, L., 1961; Nestiev IV, I'm going to tell people that they are strong and powerful, "Komsomolskaya Pravda", 1965, July 2; him, Scriabin and his Russian "antipodes", in Sat: Music and Modernity, vol. 10, M., 1976; Sakhaltueva O. E., On Scriabin's Harmony, Moscow, 1965; Skrebkov S., Harmony in modern music, M., 1965; Mikhailov M., On the national origins of Scriabin's early work, in: Russian music at the turn of the 20th century, M.-L., 1966; his own, Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin. 1872-1915. Brief essay on life and work, M.-L., 1966, L., 1971; Pasternak V., People and situations. Autobiographical essay, "New World", 1967, No 1; his own, Summer 1903, ibid., 1972, No 1; Dernova V., Scriabin Harmony, L., 1968; Galeev B.S., Scriabin and the development of the idea of ​​visible music, in: Music and Modernity, vol. 6, M., 1969; Ravchinsky S., Scriabin's works of the late period, M., 1969; Delson V., Scriabin. Essays on life and work, M., 1971; A. N. Scriabin. Sat. Art. On the centenary of his birth (1872-1972), M., 1973; Shitomirskaya D. W., Die Harmonik Skrjabins, in the book: Convivium musicorum. Festschrift Wolfgang Boetticher, B., 1974; Zhitomirsky D., Scriabin, in the book: Music of the XX century. Essays, part 1, book. 2, M., 1977; A. N. Scriabin (Album). Comp. E. N. Rudakova. Moscow, 1979. Newmarch R., Prometheus, the poem of fire, "The Musical Times", 1914, v. 55 April, p. 227-31; Hull A. E., The pianoforte sonatas of Scriabin, ibid., 1916, v. 57; Montagu-Nathan M., Handbook of the piano works of A. Scriabin, L., 1916; Case11a A., L "evoluzione della musica a traverso la storia della cadenza perfetta, L., 1924; Westphal K., Die Harmonik Scrjabins, "Anbruch", 1929, Jahrg. 11, H. 2; Lissa Z., O harmonice A. N. Skrjabin, "Kwartalnik Musyczny", t. 8, Warsz., 1930; Dickenmann P., Die Entwicklung der Harmonik bei A. Scrjabin, Bern-Z., 1935; Gleich C. C h. J., Die sinfonischen Werke von A. Scrjabin, Bildhoven, 1963; Steger H., Grundzüge der musikalischen Prinzipen A. Scrjabins, "NZfM", 1972, Jahrg. 138, No 1; Eberle G., A. Scrjabin, Wandlungen in der Bewertung des musikalischen Werks, there same; Voge1 W., Zur Idea des "Prometheus" von Scrjabin, "SMz", 1972, Jahrg. 36, No 6. D. V. Zhitomirsky.

Music Encyclopedia. - M.: Soviet encyclopedia, Soviet composer. Ed. Yu. V. Keldysha. 1973-1982 .

(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 true to high humanistic ideals and worthily continued the traditions of Russian musical classics, enriching it with new discoveries. Scriabin's worldview was based on a firm, unshakable belief that art can transform people, and he worked for this idea. His works have forever entered the spiritual culture of mankind.

Alexander Scriabin was a descendant of an old noble family. His father decided to continue family traditions and, after graduating from the Faculty of Law of Moscow University, he entered a very elite educational institution - the Institute of Oriental Languages, in which Prince A. M. Gorchakov, Pushkin's lyceum comrade, helped him. After graduating from the institute, Alexander Skryabin served in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In his spare time he was fond of music and played the piano, but did not rise above the level of an amateur. While still a student, 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 outstanding talent attracted the attention of Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky, who, however, in a conversation with friends, spoke sadly about the fragility of the constitution and the painful appearance of Leshetitsky's favorite.

Soon after graduating from the conservatory and the first performances in St. Petersburg, Lyubov Petrovna began to successfully give concerts in other cities, already under the name of her husband. After the birth of her son, on the advice of doctors, she went to the Austrian Tyrol for treatment, 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, versatile artistic talent manifested itself in him. The boy early learned to read and write, and then began to compose poetry and small 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 turned some stories and stories that made a particularly strong impression on him into theatrical performances and made scenery for them himself. For example, he staged and performed Gogol's "The Nose" in his home circle. No less willingly, Alexander drew with colored pencils, sawed out various objects, and even once made a small 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 manifested itself in everything and until the end of his days. Even his manuscripts of the most complex scores were distinguished by elegant graphic design, which he did himself.

The boy was raised by his father's sister, Lyubov Alexandrovna. She devoted herself entirely to caring for the child and believed in his genius, which was not surprising, since already in three years old 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 already two hands and creating not only melodies, but also harmonic combinations. Gradually, these improvisations became more and 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 unmistakably played it by heart.

At the age of ten, Alexander Skryabin began to study the piano with a teacher at the conservatory and at the same time passed the competitive exam for the Second Moscow Cadet Corps, confidently taking first place among those who entered. 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 an educator.

Scriabin's musical talent has repeatedly attracted the attention of others. One day, his father came to Moscow, who had been in the diplomatic service in Turkey for many years. By that time, he had married a second time to Olga Fernandets. A young woman once played Bach's Gavotte and Mendelssohn's Song of the Gondolier 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 pieces on open concert in the hall of the building, where musical and literary evenings were periodically held.

In the creative development of Alexander Scriabin as a pianist, a very important role was played by N. S. Zverev, who was distinguished by an absolutely extraordinary pedagogical talent. He himself was an excellent musician, and as a teacher he gave great importance not only the professional training of their students, but also their general education and upbringing. Many musicians who later became famous lived and studied in the Zverev boarding house, including Sergei Rachmaninov, K. Igumnov and others. Scriabin came to Zverev for classes three times a week. He played 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 a well-known composer and enjoyed unquestioned authority. He himself conducted classes on the theory of composition with the "cadet". 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 composer 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 in the same period, the young composer suffered a difficult test: his painful condition of the “replayed” right hand worsened. Moreover, some doctors considered this disease incurable, and yet Scriabin did everything to restore the lost sensitivity. In June 1893, he leaves for Samara, undergoes a course of koumiss treatment, then goes to the Crimea in the hope of strengthening his strength by sea bathing and is happy to be convinced that all these measures are beneficial to him.

In 1894, an important event took place in the life of Alexander Nikolayevich Skryabin: one of the largest Russian timber merchants, MP Belyaev, became interested in his work. He spent a lot of money on organizing publishing houses and arranging concerts, composing programs from the works of Russian composers. Belyaev sent Scriabin to Germany for treatment. It was the composer's first foreign trip.

Alexander Scriabin visited many cities in Germany, visited Switzerland and Italy. When he returned to Moscow, he received a beautiful Becker piano as a gift from Belyaev. After some time, the philanthropist organized the second trip of Scriabin abroad, which helped the composer to distract himself from 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 the letters they wrote to each other. After some time, the Sekerin family finally decided that Scriabin was “an unsuitable match” for their beautiful, talented Natasha. She did not go against her relatives, but until some time Scriabin did not know anything about her "sentence". The real reason for the refusal was that he was a sickly young man, his future also seemed unclear, especially since he never hid from his girlfriend that his arm was injured. Of course, Alexander Scriabin experienced this gap very hard.

At the end of 1895 he went on his first concert tour of Europe. The success of the musician was so amazing that it exceeded the wildest expectations. His personal life also improved. Scriabin fell in love again, and this time he was reciprocated. Young people got married. His wife, Vera Isakovich, graduated from the Moscow Conservatory in 1897 with a gold medal. In January 1898, Scriabin's author's concert took place in Paris, where 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 professor of the Conservatory Safonov called "the new Bible". Scriabin created a new type of symphony. His words: "I'm 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 increased. Following her daughter Rimma, who was born in 1898, Elena was born, followed by Maria, and in the summer of 1902, her son Leo. 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 activities. He gave concerts in Geneva, Brussels, Liège and Amsterdam. Judging by the press reviews, the concerts were a great success. At the end of 1906, Scriabin went on tour in the United States. He played in the largest hall in New York, Carnegie Hall, as well as in Cincinnati, Detroit, Chicago. However, the concerts had to be urgently interrupted, as the composer's "illegal" marriage threatened to cause a scandal in the press.

The last years of the musician's life were 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 began on his upper lip, in the same place as during the trip to England. Urgent medical care was needed, but the doctors were powerless, the disease developed rapidly. A general blood poisoning began, from which Scriabin died on April 27. The funeral took place the next day at the cemetery of the Novodevichy Convent. 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, a stone monument stands on the grave of Alexander Scriabin.

The ideas now popular in narrow circles about the transition to a new world remind me of the failed project of the great composer Alexander Scriabin - his grandiose Mystery. Further - excerpts from the article by A.I. Bandura "Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin - the mysticism of creativity and the magic of light and sound".

The life of this brilliant composer, who struck the audience at the beginning of the century with unheard-of fantastic sound images that seemed to have come "from another world", is shrouded in an atmosphere of irrational disturbing mystery. Scriabin's art manifests on the physical plane the reality of the composer's spiritual world, as mysterious and incomprehensible as his very personality, which many contemporaries perceived as a phenomenon that went beyond earthly reality. “There are geniuses,” wrote K.D. Balmont, “who are not only brilliant in their artistic achievements, but brilliant in their every step, in their gait, in all their personal imprint. of all ... special people who were already inhuman or, in any case, who repeatedly and deeply looked into the inhuman, into what does not take place in three dimensions, the most complete feeling of genius, in which the state of genius is uninterrupted and in an inexhaustible radiant flow, Scriabin gave me.
At some point in his composer's evolution (apparently, it coincided with 1903 - the end of the Fourth Sonata), Scriabin suddenly realizes that he managed to touch the great secret of his art. He discovers in music a magical secretive energy that can change human consciousness and, consequently, the entire material world (which, according to Scriabin, is an illusion - a projection of human consciousness and the materialization of their phenomena). Since that time, the composer takes on the mission of the Demiurge - the author, inspirer and organizer of the Last Accomplishment, freeing the world from the power of matter. In his imagination, the idea of ​​"Mystery" is born - a grandiose synthetic work of art. All the inhabitants of the Earth were supposed to participate in this liturgical action of universal proportions - and precisely as performers, and not spectators. In a spherical temple that smoothly changes shape (the composer spoke of "fluid architecture" and "columns of incense"), dances and processions would be combined with symphonies of aromas and touches, and the recitation of sacred texts would be combined with the magic of Sound and Light. India was chosen as the place for the realization of the "Mystery", where all mankind would have gathered at the call of bells "suspended directly to the sky". According to Scriabin, seven days of magical action would embrace millions of years of cosmic evolution, and at the end of the seventh day there would come a moment of universal ecstasy, destroying being and the manifested world in the bosom of the One Eternal Absolute. About this "moment of Truth" Scriabin wrote:

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
heyday of the last
Appearing to each other
In the beauty of the naked
Glittering souls
Disappear...
Let's melt...

In essence, his entire further creative path was devoted to the work on the "Mystery". Piano and symphonic works were for him only a prelude to the "high flight", a kind of preparatory exercise for the implementation of the main work of his life. "I am doomed to accomplish the Mystery," Scriabin asserted, sometimes hinting that her idea was "revealed" to him by something (or someone) external. However, the composer shied away from such explanations ("I can't say everything and I don't have the right to say everything"), and he spoke about the "Mystery" itself exclusively in a low voice, in a half-whisper. At the same time, Scriabin tries to realize, comprehend the events that took place in his inner world. He actively studies philosophy and related sciences, makes a large number of original philosophical conclusions. His reference book is the French translation of the "Secret Doctrine", which is dotted with numerous notes by the composer.
At the end of his life, Scriabin came to the conclusion that he was fulfilling the mission entrusted to him by the Great White Brotherhood of Mahatmas. “In the teachings of the initiates,” writes his closest relative B.F. Schlözer, “who are messengers of higher powers on earth, directly revealing to them the hidden truth in its successive aspects for the enlightenment of mankind, in this teaching he found an explanation and justification for his mission on earth, for he considered himself directly, initiated from above, a member by birth of a wondrous brotherhood - the “White Lodge”, - which, he believed, exists somewhere on earth, secretly for the time being, and is waiting for him. All his thoughts were directed to distant India, the legendary Shambhala, where, according to Scriabin, he "needed to find out something." The truth that came from the East was apparently closest to the cosmic laws found by the composer in music, and the appearance of Reality in ancient esoteric teachings largely coincided with the features of the world discovered by Scriabin. "We Europeans," said the composer, "know and feel the East more than those in the East. I am more Hindu than real Indians." The life and mysterious untimely death of Scriabin at the age of 43 is a unique example of the living embodiment of a myth, a semi-legendary existence at the junction of different realities, in which we can comprehend and understand only that part that is turned into our world.
“He was not of this world, both as a person and as a musician,” wrote Scriabin's biographer L.L. K.D. Balmont recalls a strange feeling during Scriabin's concert, when the composer for a moment, as it were, revealed in himself the features of an inhabitant of another world for the listeners: "Scriabin is near the piano. He was small, fragile, this ringing elf ... And when he started to play, a light seemed to come out of him, he was surrounded by an air of sorcery... It seemed that this was not a man, even if he was a genius, but a forest spirit, who found himself in a strange human hall, where he, moving in a different environment and according to different laws, is both awkward and uncomfortable. It is significant that this fantastic image of a creature with different goals and meaning of being arose only in the sound haze of mysterious, hypnotically acting late Scriabin's works, which really open windows to other worlds, of which the composer himself became a part. Scriabin, like Lama Govinda and the Indian magician don Juan at Castaneda, was convinced that the visible world is just the result of a certain description: an understanding inspired from childhood. Therefore, Scriabin's microcosm, like human consciousness, is not reduced to a concise reflection of the macrocosm of the Reality given in the experience. The most significant in it are those features that allow, overcoming invisible barriers, to move into other worldview systems, adapting, as is characteristic of a living being, to new living conditions. Therefore, the "specific gravity", the significance of the external appearance of the world, on the one hand, and the thought that lives in this world, on the other hand, turn out to be equivalent for Scriabin. “We need to understand,” the composer writes, “that the material from which the universe is created is (our) imagination, (our) creative thought, (our) desire, and therefore, in the sense of material, there is no difference between the state of our consciousness that we we call the stone that we hold in our hand, and another, called a dream. A stone and a dream are made of the same substance and both are equally real "*. In a certain, "quantized" material world, there is no dynamics of movement, and in a "wave" of thought blurred throughout space, there is no fixed object of attention - a specific phenomenal manifestation**. Such a peculiar reflection of the principle of corpuscular-wave complementarity suggests that the basis of both phenomena is a certain Essence of a higher order - a source of radiation of an all-encompassing field that "turns off" a person into the world and creates a myth space for him - the only possible habitat for a rational being.
According to V. I. Kornev, these grandiose world "Illusions" are myths of "historical" or "prophetic" (Christianity, Judaism, Islam) and "natural" (Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism ...) religions, formed by the combined energy of millions of human consciousnesses, represent a certain distortion of the Reality, which is therefore inaccessible in its "pure form" to the thinking subject. Scientific and artistic knowledge about the world, belonging to a certain culture, thus reflects only one of the facets of Reality, which in the mind of a representative of this culture "grows" to the whole Universe. Attempts to expand the Universe of consciousness are associated with overcoming the boundaries of "one's own" myth and going beyond it.
Scriabin himself repeatedly emphasized his "independence" from traditional interpretations of Reality. "The world that lived in the view of my ancestors," the composer writes, "I deny you. I deny you, the entire past of the universe, science, religion and art, and thus I let you live." Scriabin perceives the structure of the force field of myth, which determines the traditional image of the world, as the "frequency of vibrations" of the mental waves that make up this field - their "rhythmic pattern", located above the consciousness of the subject and forming the structure of this consciousness, which also takes part in the "collective creativity" of the mythological space: "I (as a phenomenon) was born and begin to repeat unconsciously the same rhythmic figure that all my ancestors repeated. I create the world as they created it, unaware of my creativity and thinking that I perceive something existing outside of me. For each world was as he (everyone) desired it (unconsciously)."

Scriabin defines consciousness as the last and only reality of the world - the main "source of radiation" of the mythological field ("Everything is a phenomenon born in the rays of my consciousness", which forms the Universe of a person - what he can perceive and comprehend in the world: "I know the world as a series of states of my consciousness, from the sphere of which I cannot get out." For the composer, the limitations of such a vision of Reality are obvious ("... Being for me is, on the one hand, my experience, and on the other hand, the world external to this experience ... the Universe for I have an idea, part of it is in the field of my consciousness, there is an object of experience. The universe is an unconscious process. What I perceive is a part of it, illuminated by my consciousness, "but since, writes Scriabin, "I cannot get out of my sphere, included in my brain , consciousness", then "the whole world I perceive can be the creative activity of this consciousness." The ability to create, thus, becomes the main condition for expanding the boundaries of Reality in consciousness. “Recently, a person,” Scriabin writes, apparently referring to himself, “realized himself as the creator of everything that he called his sensations, perceptions, phenomena. What he considered outside himself turned out to be in his mind and only in him ".

Thus, knowledge of the Universe is reduced to knowledge of the "nature of free creativity." Creativity, according to Scriabin, has "conscious" and "unconscious" sides. "Unconscious" creativity corresponds to the "involvement" of a person in the myth: "I participate in everything with the unconscious side of my creativity. The Universe is the unconscious process of my creativity." The "conscious" side, on the contrary, consists in overcoming the framework of the traditional picture of the world - "images of the past". “The stronger the image of the past,” notes Scriabin, “the faster it takes possession of consciousness, the greater the rise is necessary to exclude it from the sphere of consciousness... The rise in this struggle determines the qualitative content of the state I experience."

The composer defines the desire to go beyond the limits of his myth - the traditional vision of Reality - as "separation" from it, "denial" of the type of consciousness formed by its structure: "the environment for me, like a link in the family chain, is a habit. I want what I have no, I want to create. To deny anything is to rise above it. Denial is the height of dissatisfaction. Combined with the desire for the new, the unknown, it is already creativity." Creative ecstasy, leading beyond the limits of myth, reveals to the Conscious of it the limitations and inexhaustibility of the Reality, from which the veil of Illusion has been removed. The composer realizes that the world is immeasurably wider than human ideas about it - although its usual appearance is also real. “Do not be afraid of this bottomless emptiness!” Scriabin exclaims. “All this exists, everything is there, whatever you want, and only because you want it, because you are aware of your strength and your freedom? you want and wherever you want, there is emptiness around you!

The feeling of "complete freedom" when going beyond the boundaries of myth, the state of "divine intoxication" with the omnipotence of one's consciousness is reflected in the pathos of such statements by Scriabin as: "I am an absolute being ... I am God." The composer believes that his consciousness is completely autonomous, free from any mythological model of Reality: “If there is nothing but my consciousness, then it is one, free and exists in and through itself. one or the other of their states." Overcoming the mythological illusion, according to Scriabin, is the crowning achievement of the entire history of human perception of Reality. “The beliefs of every era in human history, the composer writes, correspond to the fermentation of human consciousness in that era. We are already saying that the imagination of the ancients inhabited the forests with fantastic creatures, and for them these creatures were real; many even saw them. Their work ( consciousness) did not rise to the order and calmness that it is now. They were looking for, as artists are looking for, sketching. Scriabin, apparently, is sincerely convinced that he managed to synthesize all the mythological pictures of the world: “Peoples sought liberation in love, art, religion and philosophy; at those heights of ascent that are called ecstasy, in bliss that destroys space and time, they touched with me ... You, feelings of torment, doubt, religion, art, science, the whole history of the universe, you are the wings on which I soared to this height.
The activity of the great composer-mystic took place on the plane of subtle worlds, which explains many mysterious events in his life. The terrible signs that Scriabin saw to his left while playing the Sixth or Ninth Sonata - were they not something more than an artistic fantasy? And 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" - a kind of working model of the "Mystery" - on music paper? It was no coincidence that this work died along with the author - after all, what in our world was a chord of a complex structure, in parallel world could produce the effect of a nuclear explosion. In this case, one can explain the appearance at the bedside of the dying composer, in his words, "ghosts, the content and meaning of which is incomprehensible" - emissaries of another world. “He did not die,” wrote Scriabin’s student M. Meichik three days after the funeral, “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 so he had to die!" Scriabin's secret has not yet been revealed. No one can claim to have comprehended the mystery of the structure and content of the composer's works and the meaning of his life and work. Was this life just another dialogue of man with the Cosmic Mind, or did it embody one of the unrealized space programs for the development of mankind, "curtailed" at the time of the death of its prophet? The time for answering these questions has not yet come. But the magical meaning discovered by Scriabin in his composing activity, his desire to materialize the Spirit in the Sound and dematerialize the Sound (together with the entire Universe) in the Spirit does not seem today to be self-deception or delusion. "Pure spirit," wrote H. I. Roerich, "can be manifested or comprehended only through the cover of Matter, and therefore it is said that outside Matter, pure Spirit is nothing. The secret of differentiation and merging into one is the greatest Mystery and Beauty of Being."
The full text of the article is here.

A.N. Scriabin considered his work not as an end, but as a means of solving a much larger problem...

He conceived the "Mystery" "... for the orchestra, light and choir in 7000 voices, which was supposed to be performed on the banks of the Ganges, designed to unite all of humanity, to instill in people a sense of great brotherhood (as you know, another great romanticist associated similar hopes with his 9th symphony, L. Beethoven). A tragic symbol can be seen in the fact that the work on the "Mystery" was interrupted by the absurd death (from blood poisoning) of the 42-year-old composer in 1915.

Torosyan V.G., History of education and pedagogical thought, M., Vladospress, 2006, p. 202.

“The Mystery Project was grandiose and fantastic. Its contours were built in the mind of the composer for more than ten years. He understood that he was making a decision the hardest task, but believed in the realization of a great spiritual act designed to bring the desired liberation to mankind. And yet doubts tormented the soul of the composer. He decided on some preliminary version of the incarnation of the Mystery and made sketches of the so-called "Preliminary Action" - a grandiose cathedral performance, or Service, in which all mankind participates.

In the poetic basis of the "Preliminary Action" there are clear echoes of Christian, or rather, Old Testament stories in which the characters communicated with the Creator. Dialogues between I and You can serve as an example of this:

Me: Who are you, glorified by the sound of white?
Who are you, dressed in the silence of the sky?
You: I am the last achievement,
I am the bliss of dissolution
I am the permissive diamond
I am the all-sounding silence
Death white sound
I am freedom, I am ecstasy.

The picture of the universe in the "Preliminary Action" is full of mystery and deep meaning:

We are all one
current directed,
To the moment of eternity.
On the path of humanity.

It is no coincidence that the temple in ancient India, where the Mystery was to take place, was conceived by the composer as a giant altar towering above the true temple - the Earth. So he embodied in a peculiar way the Russian idea of ​​catholicity, which had a huge influence on symbolist artists. Note that in the interpretation Vyach. Ivanova catholicity personified with the ability of art to unite people in a single spiritual impulse. Conceived Vyach. Ivanov"mystery theater" was not much different from Scriabin. He also dreamed of destroying the ramp - the "separating strip" between the stage and the audience. However, there should not be a spectator as such in the Mystery, everyone is a participant.

Scriabin went the same way, but further. He tried to overcome the purely technical difficulties of the embodiment of the Mystery. It is known that he negotiated the purchase of land in India for the construction of the temple. Thinking about the Mystery, the composer said: “I do not want the realization of anything, but an endless ascent creative activity which will be called by my art".

Scriabin's conviction in the particularity of his own mission was extremely developed:

I am the apotheosis of the universe,
I'm the goal, the end of the end...
I wish in the hearts of nations
Record your love...
I give them the peace they desire
I am the power of my wisdom.
Peoples, rejoice - waiting for centuries
The end has come of suffering and sorrow.

The composer believed in the goal of the Mystery, in the cherished “enchanted shore”, to which all mankind aspires, and took responsibility for the spiritual transformation of people. He saw the means of such a transformation as a synthesis of the arts, a synthesis of sound, color, action, and poetry.

The very idea of ​​expanding the boundaries of music, merging it with other forms of art, of course, is not new. We have already spoken about this important position of the aesthetics of symbolism more than once. Nevertheless, Scriabin was extremely cautious in the matter of art synthesis. He has no music connected with the word. He, like his contemporary poets, avoided open, finished, straightforward thoughts. His music is not so much really connected with the word, but associatively masters the images of philosophical poetry. The purity of musical, or rather, instrumental self-expression was more important for the composer than theoretical doctrines. Thus, Scriabin’s work embodied an important symbolist idea about music as the highest of the arts, about music as a “super-art”, capable of expressing all the riches through sound flows. artistic culture. Mystery was supposed to fulfill the mission of universal spiritual purification. The very idea of ​​such a conciliar action could have arisen only in the context of the ideas of the daring artists-philosophers of the Silver Age. Not by chance Vyach. Ivanov wrote: “... The theoretical provisions of his (A.N. Skryabina - Note by I.L. Vikentiev) about catholicity and choral action ... differed from my aspirations, in essence, only in that they were also directly practical tasks for him.

Rapatskaya L.A., Art of the "Silver Age", M., "Enlightenment"; "Vlados", 1996, p. 54-56.

In Russian music of the early 20th century Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin occupies a special place. Even among the many stars of the Silver Age, his figure stands out with a halo of uniqueness. Few of the artists have left behind so many unsolvable mysteries, few have managed to make such a breakthrough to new horizons of music in a relatively short life. (…)

hallmark creative biography Scriabin had an extraordinary intensity spiritual development, which entailed profound transformations in the field of musical language. His ever-seeking, rebellious spirit, which knew no rest and carried away to ever new unknown worlds, resulted in rapid evolutionary changes in all areas of creativity. Therefore, it is difficult to talk about Scriabin in terms of established, stable assessments; the very dynamics of his path encourages him to take a look at this path and evaluate both its ultimate goals and the most important milestones.

Depending on the point of view of researchers, there are several approaches to periodization composer's biography of Scriabin. So, Yavorsky, who considered Scriabin's work "under the sign of youth", distinguishes two periods in it: "the period youthful life with its joys and sorrows, and a period of nervous restlessness, searching, yearning for the irretrievably departed. Yavorsky connects the second period with the end of the composer's physical youth and sees in it, as it were, the gradual elimination of innate emotional impulsivity (from the Fourth Sonata through the "Poem of Ecstasy" and "Prometheus" to the last preludes). We will return to Yavorsky's point of view, which is as interesting as it is debatable. Now it is necessary to say about another tradition, which is to a greater extent rooted in our musicology.

According to this tradition, the composer's work is considered in three main periods, which are distinguished according to the most notable milestones in his stylistic evolution. The first period covers the works of the 1880-1890s. The second coincides with the beginning of the new century and is marked by a turn to large-scale artistic and philosophical concepts (three symphonies, the Fourth and Fifth sonatas, "The Poem of Ecstasy"). The third, later one, is marked by the idea of ​​Prometheus (1910) and includes all the composer's subsequent work, unfolding under the sign of the Mystery. Of course, any classification is conditional, and one can, for example, understand the point of view of Zhitomirsky, who singles out Scriabin's works created after Prometheus as a separate period. However, it still seems to us more expedient to adhere to the above traditional scheme, taking into account the fact of the constant renewal of Scriabin's composing path and noting, as we review the "great periods", their internal qualitatively different phases.

So, first, early period. From the point of view of the final results of stylistic development, it looks like only a prelude, a prehistory. At the same time, in the works of the young Scriabin, the type of his creative personality has already been completely determined - exalted, reverently spiritualized. Subtle impressionability, combined with mental mobility, were obviously innate qualities of Scriabin's nature. Encouraged by the whole atmosphere of his early childhood - the touching care of his grandmothers and aunt, L.A. Scriabina, who replaced the boy's mother who died early - these traits determined a lot in the composer's later life.

The propensity to study music manifested itself at a very early age, as well as during the years of study in cadet corps, where the young Scriabin was given according to family tradition. His first, pre-conservatory teachers were G. E. Konyus, N. S. Zverev (piano) and S. I. Taneev (musical and theoretical disciplines). At the same time, Scriabin discovers a gift for writing, demonstrating not only an exciting passion for what he loves, but also great energy and determination. Children's classes were continued later at the Moscow Conservatory, which Scriabin graduated with a gold medal in 1892 in piano with V. I. Safonov (at the conservatory, in addition, he took a class of strict counterpoint with Taneyev; with A. S. who taught a class of fugue and free composition, the relationship did not work out, as a result of which Scriabin had to give up his diploma in composition).

About the inner world young musician can be judged from his diary notes and letters. Particularly noteworthy are his letters to N. V. Sekerina. They contain the sharpness of the first love experience, and impressions of nature, and reflections on life, culture, immortality, eternity. Already here the composer appears before us not only as a lyricist and dreamer, but also as a philosopher, reflecting on the global issues of being.

The refined mentality formed since childhood was reflected both in Scriabin's music and in the nature of feeling and behavior. However, all this had not only subjective-personal prerequisites. Heightened, heightened emotionality, combined with hostility to everyday life, to everything too rough and straightforward, fully corresponded to the spiritual disposition of a certain part of the Russian cultural elite. In this sense, Scriabin's romanticism merged with the romantic spirit of the times. The latter was evidenced in those years by the thirst for “other worlds” and the general desire to live “a tenfold life” (A. A. Blok), spurred on by the feeling of the end of the era that is being lived out. It can be said that in Russia at the turn of the century, romanticism experienced a second youth, in terms of strength and sharpness of life perception, in some ways even superior to the first (we recall that among Russian composers of the 19th century, who belonged to the “new Russian school”, romantic features were noticeably corrected by the topic of the day and ideals of new realism).

In Russian music of those years, the cult of intense lyrical experience especially characterized the representatives of the Moscow composer school. Scriabin, along with Rachmaninov, was here a direct follower of Tchaikovsky. Fate also brought the young Scriabin to Rachmaninov in the musical boarding school of N. S. Zverev, an outstanding piano teacher, educator of a galaxy of Russian pianists and composers. In both Rachmaninoff and Scriabin, the creative and performing gift appeared in an indissoluble unity, and in both of them, the piano became the main instrument of self-expression. Scriabin's piano concerto (1897) embodied the characteristic features of his youthful lyrics, and the pathetic elation and high degree of artistic temperament allow us to see here a direct parallel to Rachmaninov's piano concertos.

However, the roots of Scriabin's music were not limited to the traditions of the Moscow school. From a young age, more than any other Russian composer, he gravitated towards Western romantics - first to Chopin, then to Liszt and Wagner. The orientation towards European musical culture, together with the avoidance of the soil-Russian, folklore element, was so eloquent that it subsequently gave rise to serious disputes about the national nature of his art (this issue was most convincingly and positively covered later by Vyach. Ivanov in the article “Skryabin as a national composer"). Be that as it may, those researchers of Scriabin who saw in his “Westernism” a manifestation of a craving for universality, universalism, are apparently right.

However, in connection with Chopin one can speak of a direct and immediate influence, as well as of a rare “coincidence of the mental world” (L. L. Sabaneev). The young Scriabin's predilection for the piano miniature genre goes back to Chopin, where he manifests himself as an artist of an intimate lyrical plan (the mentioned Concerto and the first sonatas do not disturb this general chamber tone of his work too much). Scriabin took almost all the genres of piano music that Chopin met: preludes, etudes, nocturnes, sonatas, impromptu, waltzes, mazurkas. But in the interpretation of them one can see their own accents and preferences. (…)

Scriabin created his first sonata in 1893, thus laying the foundation for the most important line of his work. Ten Scriabin sonatas- this is a kind of core of his composing activity, concentrating both new philosophical ideas and stylistic discoveries; at the same time, the sequence of sonatas gives a fairly complete picture of all stages of the composer's creative evolution.

In the early sonatas, Scriabin's individual features are still combined with an obvious reliance on tradition. Thus, the aforementioned First Sonata, with its figurative contrasts and abrupt changes in states, is resolved within the boundaries of the romantic aesthetics of the 19th century; the whirlwind scherzo and mournful finale evoke a direct analogy with Chopin's sonata in B-flat minor. The essay was written by a young author during a period of severe spiritual crisis associated with a hand illness; hence the special sharpness of tragic collisions, "murmuring against fate and God" (as it is said in Scriabin's draft notes). Despite the traditional appearance of the four-movement cycle, the sonata has already outlined a tendency towards the formation of a cross-cutting theme-symbol - a trend that will determine the dramatic relief of all subsequent sonatas by Scriabin (in this case this, however, is not so much a theme as a leittontonation, played out in the volume of a “gloomy” minor third).

In the Second Sonata (1897), the two parts of the cycle are united by the leitmotif of the “sea element”. In accordance with the program of the work, they depict "a quiet moonlit night on the seashore" (Andante) and "a wide, stormy expanse of sea" (Presto). The appeal to pictures of nature again reminds of the romantic tradition, although the nature of this music rather speaks of "pictures of moods". In this work, the improvisational freedom of expression is perceived in a quite Scriabinian way (it is no coincidence that the Second Sonata is called a "fantasy sonata"), as well as the demonstration of two contrasting states on the principle of "contemplation - action".

The Third Sonata (1898) also has the features of a programme, but this is already a program of a new, introspective type, more in line with Scriabin's way of thinking. The comments to the essay speak of “states of the soul”, which then rushes into the “abyss of sorrow and struggle”, then finds a fleeting “deceptive rest”, then, “giving in to the flow, swims in a sea of ​​​​feelings”, in order to finally revel in the triumph “in the storm liberated elements". These states are respectively reproduced in the four parts of the work, imbued with a common spirit of pathos and strong-willed aspiration. The result of the development is the final episode of Maestoso in the sonata, where the anthemically transformed theme of the third movement, Andante, sounds. This technique of the final transformation of the lyrical theme, adopted from Liszt, will acquire an extremely important role in Scriabin's mature compositions, and therefore the Third Sonata, where it was first realized so clearly, can be considered a direct threshold to maturity. (…)

As already noted, the style of Scriabin's compositions - and in the early period he acted mainly as a piano composer - was inseparably linked with his performance style. The pianistic gift of the composer was duly appreciated by his contemporaries. The impression was made by the unparalleled spirituality of his playing - the finest nuances, the special art of pedaling, which made it possible to achieve an almost imperceptible change in sound colors. According to V. I. Safonov, "he possessed a rare and exceptional gift: his instrument breathed." At the same time, the lack of physical strength and virtuoso brilliance in this game did not escape the attention of the listeners, which ultimately prevented Scriabin from becoming an artist on a large scale (we recall that in his youth the composer also suffered a serious illness of his right hand, which became the cause of deep emotional experiences for him ). However, the lack of sensual fullness in the sound was to some extent due to the very aesthetics of Scriabin the pianist, who did not accept the open, full-voiced sound of the instrument. It is no coincidence that halftones, ghostly, incorporeal images, “dematerialization” (to use his favorite word) attracted him so much.

On the other hand, it was not for nothing that Scriabin's performance was called the "technique of nerves." First of all, the exceptional looseness of the rhythm was meant. Scriabin played rubato, with wide deviations from the tempo, which fully corresponded to the spirit and structure of his own music. It can even be said that as a performer he achieved even greater freedom than that which could be accessible to musical notation. Interesting in this sense are the later attempts to decipher on paper the text of the author's performance of the Poem op. 32 No. 1, which differed markedly from the known printed text. A few archival recordings of Scriabin's performance (produced on the phonol and Welte Mignon rollers) allow us to note other features of his playing: a subtly felt rhythmic polyphony, the impetuous, "heavy" character of fast tempos (for example, in the prelude in E-flat minor, op. 11 ) etc.

Such a bright pianistic personality made Scriabin an ideal performer of his own compositions. If we talk about other interpreters of his music, then among them were either his direct students and followers, or artists of a special, "Scriabin" role, which was, for example, V. V. Sofronitsky at a later time.

Here, the orientation of the young Scriabin to the style of Western European romantic music, and above all to the work of Chopin, has already been noted more than once. (This orientation played the role of a certain historical relay race: for example, in the piano music of K. Szymanowski, the Chopin tradition developed already clearly in the Scriabin vein.) It should be recalled again, however, that romanticism, as a kind of dominant personality of Scriabin, was not limited to purely linguistic manifestations, but gave direction to everything development of his creativity. From here comes the pathos of Scriabin the discoverer, possessed by the spirit of renewal, which ultimately led him to abandon his former stylistic guidelines. We can say that Romanticism was both a tradition for Scriabin and at the same time an impulse to overcome it. In this regard, the words of B. L. Pasternak become clear: “In my opinion, the most amazing discoveries were made when the content that overwhelmed the artist did not give him time to think and he hurriedly spoke his new word in the old language, not understanding whether it was old or new. Thus, in the old Mozart-Fieldian language, Chopin said so much stunningly new in music that it became its second beginning. So Scriabin, almost by the means of his predecessors, renewed the feeling of music to the ground at the very beginning of his career ... "

Despite the gradual evolutionary development, the offensive new period in the work of Scriabin is marked by a rather sharp boundary. Symbolically coinciding with the beginning of the new century, this period was marked by major symphonic ideas, unexpected for the former miniature lyricist. The reason for such a turn should be sought in the emerging system of philosophical views, to which the composer now seeks to subordinate all his work.

This system took shape under the influence of a variety of sources: from Fichte, Schelling, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche to Eastern religious teachings and modern theosophy in the version of H. P. Blavatsky's Secret Doctrine. Such a motley conglomerate looks like a random compilation, if you do not take into account a very important circumstance - namely, the selection and interpretation of the named sources, characteristic of symbolist cultural environment. It is noteworthy that the composer's philosophical views took shape by 1904 - a milestone in the history of Russian symbolism and had many points of contact with the latter. Thus, Scriabin's attraction to the way of thinking of the early German romantics, to the ideas expressed by Novalis in his novel "Heinrich von Ofterdingen", was in tune with the belief in the magical power of art, which was professed by his contemporaries of the Young Symbolists. Nietzsche's individualism and the Dionysian cult were also perceived in the spirit of the time; and Schelling's doctrine of the "world soul", which played a significant role in the formation of Scriabin's ideas, owed its spread to Vl. S. Solovyov. In addition, Scriabin's reading circle included Ashvaghosha's "Life of the Buddha" translated by K. D. Balmont. As for Theosophy, the interest in it was a manifestation of a general craving for the irrational, mystical, subconscious. It should be noted that Scriabin also had personal contacts with representatives of Russian symbolism: for many years he was friends with the poet Y. Baltrushaitis; a volume of Balmont's poems served him as a reference book when working on his own poetic texts; and communication with Vyach. Ivanov during the period of work on the "Preliminary Action" had a noticeable impact on his mystery projects.

Scriabin did not have a special philosophical education, but from the beginning of the 1900s he was seriously engaged in philosophy. Participation in the circle of S. N. Trubetskoy, studying the works of Kant, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, studying the materials of the philosophical congress in Geneva - all this served as the basis for his own mental constructions. Over the years, the composer's philosophical views expanded and transformed, but their basis remained unchanged. This basis was the idea of ​​the divine meaning of creativity and the theurgic, transformative mission of the artist-creator. Under its influence, the philosophical "plot" of Scriabin's works is formed, depicting the process of development and formation of the Spirit: from the state of constraint, surrender to inert matter - to the heights of harmonizing self-affirmation. Ups and downs on this path are subject to a clearly built dramaturgical triad: languor - flight - ecstasy. The idea of ​​transformation, the victory of the spiritual over the material becomes, therefore, not only the goal, but also the theme of Scriabin's compositions, forming an appropriate set of musical means.

Under the influence of new ideas, the stylistic range of Scriabin's works is noticeably expanding. Chopin's influences give way to Liszt's and Wagner's. In addition to the method of transforming lyrical themes, Liszt is reminiscent of the spirit of rebellion and the sphere of demonic images, Wagner is reminiscent of the heroic warehouse of music and the universal, all-encompassing nature of artistic tasks.

All these qualities have already marked the first two symphonies Scriabin. In the six-movement First Symphony (1900), ending with a choral epilogue with the words “Come, all the peoples of the world, // Let us sing the glory of art,” Scriabin’s orphism, faith in the omnipotent forces of art, was embodied for the first time. In fact, this was the first attempt to realize the idea of ​​the "Mystery", which in those years was still vaguely looming. The symphony marked an important turn in the composer's worldview: from youthful pessimism to strong-willed awareness of his strength and calling to some lofty goal. In the diary entries of this time we read remarkable words: “I am still alive, I still love life, I love people ... I am going to announce my victory to them ... I am going to tell them that they are strong and powerful, that there is nothing to grieve about, that losses No! 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.”

In the Second Symphony (1901) there is no such internal program, the word does not participate in it, but the general structure of the work, crowned with solemn fanfare of the finale, is sustained in similar tones.

In both compositions, for all their novelty, the discrepancy between language and idea is still visible. Immaturity is especially marked by the final parts of the symphonies - the too declarative finale of the First and the too ceremonial, mundane - Second. About the finale of the Second Symphony, the composer himself said that “some kind of compulsion” came out here, while he needed to be given light, “light and joy.”

Scriabin found these "light and joy" in the following works - the Fourth Sonata (1903) and the Third Symphony, "The Divine Poem" (1904). The author's commentary on the Fourth Sonata speaks of a certain star, now barely twinkling, "lost in the distance," now flaring up into a "sparkling fire." Reflected in music, this poetic image turned into a whole series of linguistic discoveries. Such is the chain of crystal-fragile harmonies in the initial “star theme”, which ends with a “melting chord”, or the “flight theme” of the second movement, Prestissimo volando, where the struggle between rhythm and meter gives the feeling of a swift movement rushing through all obstacles. In the same part, before the reprise section, the next effort is depicted by “suffocating” truncated triplets (more precisely, quartoles with pauses on the last beats). And the coda is already a typically Scriabin final apotheosis with all the attributes of ecstatic figurativeness: radiant major (gradually replacing the minor mode in Scriabin's works), dynamics fff, ostinato, “bubbling” chord background, “trumpet sounds” of the main theme… There are two parts in the Fourth Sonata, but they are merged with each other as phases of development of the same image: in accordance with the transformations of the “star theme”, the languidly contemplative mood of the first part turns into an effective and jubilant pathos of the second.

The same tendency to compress the cycle is observed in the Third Symphony. Its three parts - "Struggle", "Enjoyment", "Divine Game" - are connected by the attacca technique. As in the Fourth Sonata, the dramatic triad “languor – flight – ecstasy” is guessed in the symphony, but the first two links in it are reversed: the starting point is the active image (first part), which is then replaced by the sensual-contemplative sphere of “Delights” (second part) and the joyfully elated Divine Game (final).

According to the author's program, "The Divine Poem" represents "the evolution of human consciousness, torn off from past beliefs and mysteries ... consciousness that has passed through pantheism to the joyful and intoxicating assertion of its freedom and the unity of the universe." In this "evolution", in this growing self-consciousness of a man-god, the defining moment, a kind of starting point, is the heroic, strong-willed principle. (…)

The "Divine Poem" was perceived by contemporaries as a kind of revelation. The new was felt both in the warehouse of images and in the free, full of contrasts and surprises character of the general sound flow. “God, what was that music! - B. L. Pasternak recalled her, describing his first impressions. – The symphony was constantly collapsing and collapsing, like a city under artillery fire, and everything was built and grew from debris and destruction ... The tragic power of the composition solemnly showed its tongue to everything decrepitly recognized and majestically stupid and was swept away to madness, to boyishness, playfully spontaneous and free, like fallen Angel".

The Fourth Sonata and the Third Symphony occupy a purely central position in Scriabin's work. The concentration of the utterance is combined in them, especially in the "Divine Poem", with a variety of sound palette and the still clearly felt experience of predecessors (parallels with Liszt and Wagner). If we talk about a fundamentally new quality of these compositions, then it is connected primarily with the sphere of ecstasy.

The nature of ecstatic states in Scriabin's music is quite complex and cannot be unambiguously defined. Their secret is hidden in the depths of the composer’s personality, although here, obviously, both the “purely Russian craving for extremeness” (B. L. Pasternak) and the general desire for the era to live a “tenfold life” affected. In close proximity to Scriabin is the cult of Dionysian, orgiastic ecstasy, which was glorified by Nietzsche and then developed by his Russian followers, primarily Vyach. Ivanov. However, Scriabin's "frenzy" and "intoxication" also show his own, deeply individual psychological experience. Based on the nature of his music, as well as verbal explanations in the author's remarks, commentaries, philosophical notes and his own poetic texts, it can be concluded that Scriabin's ecstasy is a creative act that has a more or less distinct erotic coloring. The polarity of "I" and "not-I", the resistance of "inert matter" and the thirst for its transformation, the joyful triumph of the achieved harmony - all these images and concepts become dominant for the composer. The combination of "supreme sophistication" with "supreme grandiosity" is also indicative, coloring all his compositions from now on.

With the greatest completeness and consistency, such a figurative sphere was embodied in the "Poem of Ecstasy" (1907) - an essay for a large symphony orchestra featuring five trumpets, an organ and bells. In comparison with the Third Symphony, there is no longer a “struggle”, but soaring in certain heights, not the conquest of the world, but the bliss of owning it. Elevation above the ground and emphasizing emphatically vivid emotions attract attention all the more because the poetic text to the Poem still mentions the “wild horror of torment”, and the “worm of satiety”, and “the decomposing poison of monotony”. At the same time, this poetic version of the work (completed and published by Scriabin in 1906) has tangible parallels with the main, musical version. The poetic text is quite detailed, structurally rhythmic (the refrain is the lines: “The playing spirit, the wishing spirit, the spirit that creates everything with a dream ...”) and has a directed, “crescendoing” dramaturgy (the final lines of the Poem: “And the universe resounded with a joyful cry “I am! "").

At the same time, Scriabin himself did not regard literary text"Poems" as a commentary on the performance of music. Most likely, we have before us a characteristic example of the syncretism of his thinking, when the image that excited the composer was simultaneously expressed both in the language of music and through philosophical and poetic metaphors.

Scriabin wrote The Poem of Ecstasy while living abroad, which did not prevent him from following the events of the first Russian revolution with interest. According to the Plekhanovs, he even intended to provide his symphonic opus with the epigraph "Get up, get up, working people!" True, he expressed this intention with some embarrassment. It is impossible not to pay tribute to his embarrassment: to associate in this way the states of the “spirit playing, the spirit of desire, the spirit surrendering to the bliss of love” can only be a very big stretch. At the same time, the electrified atmosphere of the era was reflected in this score in its own way, defining its inspired, even inflated emotional tone.

In The Poem of Ecstasy, Scriabin first comes to the type of one-part composition, which is based on a complex of themes. These seven themes in the context of the author's comments and remarks are deciphered as the themes of "dream", "flight", "creations that have arisen", "anxiety", "will", "self-affirmation", "protest". Their symbolic interpretation is emphasized by their structural immutability: the themes are not so much subject to motive work as they become the subject of intense coloristic variation. Hence the increased role of the background, entourage - tempo, dynamics, rich amplitude of orchestral colors. The structural identity of the themes-symbols is interesting. They are brief constructions, where the primordially romantic lexeme of impulse and languor - a leap followed by a chromatic slip - is formed into a symmetrical "circular" construction. Such a constructive principle gives the whole a tangible inner unity. (…)

Thus, the traditional sonata form appears noticeably modified in the Poem of Ecstasy: we have before us a multi-phase spiral composition, the essence of which is not the dualism of figurative spheres, but the dynamics of an ever-increasing ecstatic state.

A similar type of form was used by Scriabin in the Fifth Sonata (1908), a companion to the Poem of Ecstasy. The idea of ​​the formation of the spirit here acquires a distinct shade of a creative act, as evidenced by the lines of the epigraph already borrowed from the text of the Poem of Ecstasy:

I call you to life, hidden aspirations!
You drowned in the dark depths
creative spirit, you fearful
Embryos of life, I bring you boldness!

In the music of the sonata, respectively, the chaos of the “dark depths” (opening passages), and the image of the “life of embryos” (the second entry theme, Languido), and the “daring” of active, strong-willed sounds are guessed. As in the "Poem of Ecstasy", the motley thematic kaleidoscope is organized according to the laws of sonata form: the "flying" main and lyrical side parts are separated by an imperative, with a touch of Satanism, binder (Misterioso's note); an echo of the same sphere is perceived Allegro fantastico of the final installment. At the new stages of musical development, the presence of the main image in a constrained contemplative state is noticeably reduced, the increasing intensity of movement leads in the code to a transformed version of the second introductory theme (estatico episode). All this is very reminiscent of the end of the previous, Fourth Sonata, if not for one important touch: after the culminating sounds of the estatico, the music returns to the mainstream of the flight movement and breaks off with whirlwind passages of the initial theme. Instead of affirming the traditional major tonic, a breakthrough is made into the sphere of unstable harmonies, and within the framework of the sonata concept, there is a return to the image of the original chaos (it is no coincidence that S. I. Taneev sarcastically remarked about the Fifth Sonata that it “does not end, but stops”).

We will return to this extremely characteristic moment of the work. Here it is worth noting the interaction in the sonata of two opposite tendencies. One is emphatically "teleological": it comes from the romantic idea of ​​the final comprehension-transformation and is associated with a steady striving for the final. The other, rather, has a symbolist nature and causes fragmentation, understatement, mysterious transience of images (in this sense, not only the sonata, but also its individual themes “do not end, but stop”, breaking off with bar pauses and as if disappearing into a bottomless space). The result of the interaction of these tendencies is such an ambiguous ending of the work: it symbolizes both the apotheosis of the creative mind and the ultimate incomprehensibility of being.

The Fifth Sonata and the "Poem of Ecstasy" represent a new stage in Scriabin's ideological and stylistic evolution. The new quality manifested itself in the composer's coming to the one-part form of the poem type, which from now on becomes optimal for him. Poemness can be understood in this case both as a specific freedom of expression, and as the presence in the work of a philosophical and poetic program, an internal “plot”. Compression of the cycle into a one-part structure, on the one hand, reflected the immanent musical processes, namely, Scriabin's desire for an extremely concentrated expression of thoughts. On the other hand, “formal monism” (V. G. Karatygin) meant for the composer an attempt to realize the principle of higher unity, to recreate an all-encompassing formula of being: it is no coincidence that during these years he was interested in the philosophical concepts of the “universum”, “absolute”, which he finds in works of Schelling and Fichte.

One way or another, Scriabin invents his own, original type of poem composition. In many respects, it is oriented towards Liszt, however, it differs from the latter in greater rigor and constancy. The thematic multiplicity as a result of the compaction of the cycle to a single-movement structure does not greatly shake the proportions of the sonata scheme in Scriabin. Rationalism in the field of form will continue to be a characteristic feature of Scriabin's style.

Returning to the Fifth Sonata and the "Poem of Ecstasy", it should be emphasized that within the framework of the average period of creativity, these compositions played the role of a certain result. If in the first two symphonies the concept of the Spirit established itself at the level of an idea, and in the Fourth Sonata and the Divine Poem it found adequate expression in the sphere of language, then in this pair of works it reached the level of form, giving perspective to all further major creations of the composer.

O. Mandelstam

Late period Scriabin's work does not have such a clear boundary that separated the early and middle periods. However, the changes that his style and his ideas underwent in the last years of his life indicate the onset of a qualitatively new stage in the composer's biography.

At this new stage, the tendencies that characterized Scriabin's works of previous years reach their utmost sharpness. Thus, the everlasting duality of Scriabin’s world, gravitating towards “highest grandiosity” and “highest refinement”, is expressed, on the one hand, in a deepening into the sphere of purely subjective emotions, extremely detailed and sophisticated, and on the other hand, in a thirst for the great, cosmic in scope. On the one hand, Scriabin conceives large compositions of a super-musical and even super-artistic scale, such as "The Poem of Fire" and "Preliminary Action" - the first act of the "Mystery". On the other hand, he again pays attention to the piano miniature, composing exquisite pieces with intriguing titles: “Strangeness”, “Mask”, “Riddle”…

The later period was not uniform in regard to its temporary deployment. Generally speaking, there are two phases. One, covering the turn of the 1900-1910s, is associated with the creation of Prometheus, the other, post-Prometheus, includes the last sonatas, preludes and poems, which are marked by further searches in the field of language and close proximity to the concept of the Mystery.

"Prometheus" ("The Poem of Fire", 1910), a work for a large symphony orchestra and piano, with organ, choir and light keyboard, was undoubtedly Scriabin's most significant creation "in the pole of grandiosity." Arising at the point of the golden section of the composer's path, it became the gathering focus of almost all of Scriabin's insights.

Noteworthy is the program "Poems", associated with ancient myth about Prometheus, who stole the heavenly fire and gave it to people. The image of Prometheus, judging by the works of the same name by Bryusov or Vyach. Ivanov, was very much in line with the mythological disposition of the Symbolists and the significance attached in their poetics to the mythologeme of fire. Scriabin also constantly gravitates towards the fiery element - let's mention his poem "To the Flame" and the play "Dark Lights". In the latter, the dual, ambivalent image of this element is especially noticeable, as if including an element of a magical spell. The demonic, god-fighting principle is also present in Scriabin's "Prometheus", in which the features of Lucifer are guessed. In this regard, we can talk about the influence of the theosophical teachings on the idea of ​​the work, and above all, the “Secret Doctrine” of H. P. Blavatsky, which the composer studied with great interest. Scriabin was fascinated by both the demonic hypostasis of his hero (his statement is known: “Satan is the yeast of the Universe”), and his luminous mission. Blavatsky interprets Lucifer primarily as a "bearer of light" (lux + fero); Perhaps this symbolism partly predetermined the idea of ​​light counterpoint in Scriabin's Poem.

Interestingly, on the cover of the first edition of the score by the Belgian artist Jean Delville, commissioned by Scriabin, Androgyn's head was depicted, included in the "world lyre" and framed by comets and spiral nebulae. In this image of a mythological creature that combines male and female principles, the composer saw an ancient Luciferic symbol.

However, if we talk about pictorial analogues, and not at the level of signs and emblems, but in essence of artistic images, then Scriabin's Prometheus evokes associations with M. A. Vrubel. In both artists, the demonic principle appears in the dual unity of the evil spirit and the creative spirit. Both of them are dominated by a blue-lilac color scheme: according to Scriabin's light and sound system, fixed in the Luce line (see below for more details), it is the key of F-sharp - the main key of the Poem of Fire - that corresponds to it. It is curious that Blok saw his “Stranger” in the same scale - this, according to the poet, “a devilish fusion from many worlds, mostly blue and purple” ...

As you can see, with an external connection with the ancient plot, Scriabin interpreted Prometheus in a new way, in tune with the artistic and philosophical reflections of his time. For him, Prometheus is primarily a symbol; according to the author's program, he personifies the "creative principle", "the active energy of the universe"; it is "fire, light, life, struggle, effort, thought." In such a maximally generalized interpretation of the image, it is easy to see a connection with the already familiar idea of ​​the Spirit, the idea of ​​becoming world harmony out of chaos. The successive relationship with previous compositions, especially with the "Poem of Ecstasy", generally characterizes this composition, for all the novelty and unprecedentedness of its concept. Common is the reliance on the multi-theme form of the poem type and the dramaturgy of continuous ascent - typically Scriabin's logic of waves without recessions. Here and there, symbolic themes appear that enter into complex relationships with the laws of sonata form. (…)

We note (...) the similarity with the general plan of the “Poem of Ecstasy”: in both works, development is impulsive, undulating, starting from the antithesis of languor - flight; here and there fragmentary, kaleidoscopically motley material submits to a steady movement towards the final apotheosis (where the sound of the choir is added to the orchestral colors in the second case).

However, this, perhaps, ends the similarity between Prometheus and Scriabin's previous works. The general coloring of the “Poem of Fire” is already perceived as something new, due, first of all, to the harmonic finds of the author. The sound base of the composition is the “Promethean six-tone”, which, in comparison with the previously used whole-tone complexes, carries a more complex range of emotional nuances, including the expressiveness of semitone and low-tone intonations. "Blue-lilac Twilight" really flows into the world of Scriabin's music, which until recently was permeated with "golden light" (to use Blok's well-known metaphor).

But there is another important difference here from the same "Poem of Ecstasy". If the latter was distinguished by a certain subjective pathos, then the world of Prometheus is more objective and universal. There is also no leading image in it, similar to the “theme of self-affirmation” in the previous symphonic opus. The solo piano, at first as if challenging the orchestral mass, then drowns in the general sounds of the orchestra and choir. According to the observation of some researchers (A. A. Alshvang), this property of the "Poem of Fire" reflected an essential moment in the worldview of the late Scriabin - namely, his turn from solipsism to objective idealism.

Here, however, serious reservations are required regarding the peculiarities of Scriabin's philosophical and religious experience. The paradox was that Scriabin's objective idealism (one of the impetus for which was Schelling's ideas) was an extreme degree of solipsism, since the recognition of God as some kind of absolute power became for him the recognition of God in himself. But in the composer's creative practice, this new stage of self-deification led to a noticeable shift in psychological accents: the author's personality seems to recede into the shadows - as a mouthpiece of the divine voice, as an implementer of what is predetermined from above. “... This feeling of being called, destined to carry out some single task,” B. F. Schlozer reasonably notes, “gradually replaced in Scriabin the consciousness of a freely set goal, to which he aspired while playing, and from which he, in the same way, could voluntarily refuse. In him, in this way, the consciousness of the individual was absorbed by the consciousness of the deed. And further: “From theomachism through self-deification, Scriabin thus came through his inner experience to the comprehension of his nature, human nature, as a self-sacrifice of the Divine.”

For the time being, we will not comment on the last lines of this quotation, which characterize the outcome of Scriabin's spiritual development and are related to his mystery plans. It is only important to note that already in "Prometheus" this way of thinking turned into an increased objectivity of musical ideas. As if Scriabin's "Spirit", no longer feeling the need for self-affirmation, turns its gaze to its creation - the world cosmos, admiring its colors, sounds and aromas. Fascinating brilliance in the absence of the former "tendentiousness" is a characteristic feature of the "Poem of Fire", giving reason to perceive this work among the composer's later ideas.

However, this brilliance of the sound palette is by no means valuable in itself. We have already mentioned the symbolic interpretation of the musical themes of Prometheus, which act as carriers (sound equivalents) of universal cosmic meanings. The method of "symbol-writing" reaches a special concentration in the "Poem", given that the "Promethean chord" itself - the sound basis of the work - is perceived as the "chord of the Pleroma", a symbol of the fullness and mysterious power of existence. Here it is appropriate to speak about the meaning that the esoteric plan of the "Poem of Fire" as a whole has.

This plan goes directly back to the mystery of the "world order" and includes, along with the symbols mentioned, some other hidden elements. It has already been said about the influence of theosophical teachings on the idea of ​​the Poem of Fire. Scriabin's work connects with Blavatsky's "Secret Doctrine" both the very image of Prometheus (see Blavatsky's chapter "Prometheus - Titan"), and the theory of light-sound correspondences. It also seems not accidental in this series numerical symbolism: the six-sided "crystal" of the Promethean chord is similar to the "Solomon seal" (or the six-pointed symbol that is symbolically depicted at the bottom of the score cover); in the Poem there are 606 measures - a sacred number that corresponds to the triadic symmetry in medieval church painting associated with the theme of the Eucharist (six apostles to the right and left of Christ).

Of course, the scrupulous counting of time units and the overall alignment of the form, including the precisely observed proportions of the “golden section” (the composer’s surviving working sketches speak of this work), can be regarded as evidence of rational thinking, as well as familiarity with the metrotectonic method of G. E. Konius ( who was one of Scriabin's teachers). But in the context of the concept of Prometheus, these features acquire an additional semantic load.

In the same connection, we note the purely rationality of the harmonic system: the “total harmony” of the Promethean six-tone can be perceived as the embodiment of the theosophical principle “Omnia ab et in uno omnia” - “everything in everything”. Of the other significant moments of the work, it is worth paying attention to the final part of the choir. The sounds sung here e - a - o - ho, a - o - ho- this is not just a vocalization of vowels, performing a purely phonic function, but a variant of the sacred seven-vowel word, personifying the driving forces of the cosmos in esoteric teachings.

Of course, all these hidden meanings, which are addressed to the “initiates” and which can sometimes only be guessed at, form a very specific layer of content and in no way cancel the direct power emotional impact"Poems of Fire". But the very presence of them in the late Scriabin serves as the most important symptom: his art is less and less satisfied with purely aesthetic tasks and more and more strives to become action, magic, a signal of connection with the world mind. Ultimately, such messages became very important for Scriabin in his approach to the Mystery.

However, even as a purely artistic phenomenon, Prometheus was a milestone in Scriabin's composing path. The degree of innovative radicalism here is such that the work has become a kind of emblem of the creative quest of the 20th century. The author of the “Poem of Fire” is close to the avant-garde artists by the study of the artistic “limit”, the search for a goal at the edge and beyond the edge of art. At the micro level, this manifested itself in the details of harmonic thinking, at the macro level, in going beyond music into new, previously unknown forms of synthesis (“light symphony”). Let's take a closer look at these two sides of the work.

In Prometheus, Scriabin first comes to the mentioned technique of pitch determinism, when the entire musical fabric is subordinated to the chosen harmonic complex. “There is not a single extra note here. This is a strict style, ”the composer himself spoke about the language of the Poem. This technique is historically correlated with the advent of A. Schoenberg to dodecaphony and is among the largest musical discoveries of the 20th century. For Scriabin himself, it meant a new stage in the embodiment of the principle of the Absolute in music: the “formal monism” of the “Poem of Ecstasy” was followed by the “harmonic monism” of the “Poem of Fire”.

But besides pitch combinatorics, the very nature of Scriabin's harmonic complexes, oriented, unlike Schoenberg's dodecaphony, to the chordal vertical is also noteworthy. The latter was associated by Sabaneev with the concept of "harmony-timbre" and contained the germ of a new sonority. In this regard, the actual phonic side of the Promethean chord, which is demonstrated by the first bars of the "Poem of Fire", attracts attention. It is known that Rachmaninoff, listening to the work, was intrigued by the unusual timbre coloring of this fragment. The secret was not orchestration, but harmony. Together with the fourth arrangement and the pedal held for a long time, it creates a bewitchingly colorful effect and is perceived as a prototype of the sonorous cluster - another insight of Scriabin into the music of the future.

Finally, the structural nature of the "Promethean six-sound" is indicative. Having arisen by alteration of the chords of the dominant group, during the creation of the "Poem of Fire" it is emancipated from the traditional tonality and is considered by the author as an independent structure of overtone origin. As shown by Scriabin himself in the mentioned working sketches of Prometheus, it is formed by the upper overtones of the natural scale; here is a variant of its quarter arrangement. The later works of the composer, where this structure is supplemented by new sounds, reveal a desire to cover the entire twelve-tone scale and a potential focus on ultrachromatic. True, Scriabin, in the words of Sabaneev, only looked into the "ultrachromatic abyss", never going beyond the traditional temperament in his works. However, his arguments about “intermediate sounds” and even about the possibility of creating special tools for extracting quarter tones are characteristic: they testify in favor of the existence of a certain micro-interval utopia. The harmonic innovations of Prometheus also served as a starting point in this respect.

What was the light part of the “Poem of Fire”? In the line Luce, the top line of the score, with the help of long-held notes, Scriabin recorded the tonal-harmonic plan of the work and at the same time its color-light dramaturgy. As conceived by the composer, the space of the concert hall should be painted in different tones, in accordance with the changing tonal-harmonic foundations. At the same time, the Luce part, intended for a special light clavier, was based on the analogy between the colors of the spectrum and the keys of the fourth-quint circle (according to it, the red color corresponds to the tone before, orange - salt, yellow - re etc.; chromatic tonal foundations correspond to transitional colors, from purple to pink).

Scriabin sought to adhere to this quasi-scientific analogy between the spectral and tonal series for the reason that he wanted to see some objective factors behind the experiment he was undertaking, namely, the manifestation of the law of higher unity that governs everything and everything. At the same time, in his vision of music, he proceeded from synopsy - the innate psycho-physiological ability of color perception of sounds, which is always individual and unique (Sabaneev recorded discrepancies in color hearing in Scriabin and Rimsky-Korsakov, citing comparative tables). This is the contradiction of Scriabin's light and music idea and the difficulty of its implementation. They are also aggravated by the fact that the composer imagined a more complex pictorial series, not reducible to simple illumination of space. He dreamed of moving lines and shapes, huge "pillars of fire", "fluid architecture", etc.

During the lifetime of Scriabin, it was not possible to implement the lighting project. And it was not only the technical unpreparedness of this experiment: the project itself contained serious contradictions, if we compare the sophisticated visual fantasies of the composer with the extremely schematic view to which they were reduced in the part of Luce. As for the engineering and technical initiative, it was destined to play an important role in the future fate of the "light symphony" and light music in general - up to the latest experiments with moving abstract painting, which is able to give an effect close to "fluid architecture", and " pillars of fire...

Let us mention in this connection such inventions as the optophonic piano by V. D. Baranova-Rossine (1922), the color-light installation by M. A. Skryabina, and the electronic optical sound synthesizer ANS (Alexander Nikolaevich Skryabin) by E. A. Murzin (in the Museum of A. N. Scriabin), the Prometheus instrument, developed by the design bureau at the Kazan Aviation Institute, and the Color Music apparatus by K. N. Leontiev (1960-1970s), etc.

Interestingly, as an aesthetic phenomenon, Scriabin's idea of ​​visible music turned out to be extremely consonant with the artists of the Russian avant-garde. So, in parallel with Prometheus, V. V. Kandinsky (together with the composer F. A. Hartman and the dancer A. Sakharov) worked on the composition “Yellow Sound”, where he realized his own musical perception of color. M. V. Matyushin, the author of the music for the futuristic performance Victory over the Sun, was looking for links between vision and hearing. And A. S. Lurie in the piano cycle “Forms in the Air” created a kind of quasi-cubist musical notation.

True, all this did not yet mean that the “Poem of Fire” was expected in the 20th century exclusively by the “green light”. The attitude towards Scriabin's synthetic idea, as well as towards the "total work of art" in the Wagnerian or Symbolist version in general, changed over the years - up to the skeptical denial of such experiments by composers of the anti-romantic direction. I. F. Stravinsky in his "Musical Poetics" postulated the self-sufficiency of musical expression. This self-sufficiency was defended even more decisively by P. Hindemith, who created a caustic parody of the Gesamtkunstwerk in his book The World of the Composer. The situation changed somewhat in the second half of the century, when, along with the “rehabilitation” of the romantic way of thinking, interest in the problems of synesthesia, in the artistic forms of “complex feeling”, was renewed. Here, both technical and aesthetic prerequisites began to contribute to the revival of the light symphony - the guarantee of the ongoing life of the Poem of Fire.

But let's get back to Scriabin's composing path. The writing of Prometheus was preceded by a rather long period of time, from 1904 to 1909, when Scriabin lived mainly abroad (in Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium; tours to the USA also belong to 1906-1907). Judging by the fact that it was then that the most fundamental works were created or conceived, from the Divine Poem to the Poem of Fire, these were years of increasing creative intensity and spiritual growth. Scriabin's activities were not limited to concert tours. His compositional ideas were updated, the circle of philosophical readings and contacts expanded (including communication with representatives of European theosophical societies). In parallel, Scriabin's fame grew in Russia and abroad.

It is not surprising that upon his return to Moscow, he was already a crowned master, surrounded by an environment of devoted admirers and enthusiasts. His music was performed by the most prominent pianists and conductors - I. Hoffman, V. I. Buyukli, M. N. Meichik, A. I. Ziloti, S. A. Koussevitzky and others. included K. S. Saradzhev, B. V. Derzhanovsky, M. S. Nemenova-Lunts, A. Ya. Mogilevsky, A. B. Goldenweiser, E. A. Beckman-Shcherbina (later the circle was transformed into the Scriabin Society).

At the same time, during these last five years of the composer's life (1910 - 1915), the circle of his direct human contact noticeably narrowed. In the apartment on Nikolo-Peskovsky, where Scriabin's music was played and there were talks about his "Mystery", an atmosphere of some unanimity reigned (carefully guarded by the composer's second wife, T. F. Schlozer). However, among the visitors to the Scriabin house were not only enthusiastic listeners, but also enterprising interlocutors. Suffice it to say that N. A. Berdyaev, S. N. Bulgakov, M. O. Gershenzon, Vyach. I. Ivanov.

The composer had a particularly close friendship with the latter. She was imprinted in one of the poems by Vyach. Ivanov, where there are, for example, the following lines:

A two-year term was given to us by fate.
I went to him - "on the light";
He visited my house. Waiting for a poet
For a new anthem, a high award, -
And remembers my family clavier
His fingers are magical touches ...

The poet later wrote: “... the mystical underlying foundation of worldview turned out to be common for us, many particulars of intuitive comprehension were common, and in particular, the view of art was common ... I recall this rapprochement with reverent gratitude.” We will return to the general view of art later. It should also be noted here that such a circle of contacts, with its well-known tightness, was very favorable to the plans and ideas that Scriabin hatched in the last years of his life.

Actually, they all came down to one thing - to the idea and implementation of the "Mystery". Scriabin conceived the "Mystery" as a grandiose quasi-liturgical act, in which different types of art would be combined and which would finally accomplish a universal spiritually transforming act. This idea, towards which the composer went very consistently and purposefully, was the result of an exaggerated sense of his own "I". But Scriabin came to it not only through the path of a solipsistic philosopher. He drew the consciousness of his own divine mission in a brilliant musical talent, which allowed him to feel himself the master in the realm of sounds, and therefore, the executor of some higher will. After all, the synthesis of all types of artistic and in general human activity in the coming "cumulative work of art", which both Scriabin and his symbolist contemporaries dreamed of, should be accomplished, according to their ideas, under the sign of the "spirit of music" and under the auspices of music as the highest of the arts. From this point of view, Scriabin's belief in his own vocation and intention to immediately put his project into practice look psychologically motivated.

The last creation of Scriabin was supposed to concentrate the magical power of art by means of artistic synthesis and by means of a rite-ritual, in which there would be no actors and spectators, and everyone would be only participants and initiates. Following the program of the "Mysteries", the "priests" are, as it were, involved in some kind of cosmogonic history, observing the development and dying human races: from the birth of matter to its spiritualization and reunion with God the Creator. The act of this reunion is supposed to mean "the fire of the universe", or universal ecstasy.

In the description by Scriabin himself of the setting for the performance of the Mystery, legendary India and a temple on the lake are mentioned; processions, dances, incense; special, solemn clothes; symphonies of colors, aromas, touches; whispers, unknown noises, sunset rays and twinkling stars; incantatory recitatives, trumpet voices, brass fatal harmonies. These semi-fantastic dreams were combined with quite earthly affairs: finding funds for the construction of a special room with an amphitheater where the action was to be played out, taking care of the performing musicians, discussing the upcoming trip to India ...

Scriabin did not realize his project, his plans were disrupted by his sudden death. From what he had planned, he managed to write only a poetic text and fragmentary musical sketches of the "Preliminary Act" - the first act of the "Mystery".

The idea of ​​"Preliminary Action", born not without the influence of Vyach. Ivanov, arose, apparently, not by chance. This work was conceived by the composer as an approach to the "Mystery", but in fact it was supposed to be its compromise, realizable version - the main idea was too grandiose, the utopianity of which Scriabin, perhaps, subconsciously felt. The surviving sketches allow us to guess the nature of the alleged music - refined, complex and meaningful. The Scriabin Museum has 40 sheets of draft sketches of the "Preliminary Action". Subsequently, attempts were made to reconstruct it - either in the form of a choral composition with the part of a reciter, where Scriabin's verse text was used (S. V. Protopopov), or in a symphonic, orchestral version (A. P. Nemtin).

But the music of the Mystery can also be judged by the written, finished compositions of Scriabin, which he created in the last years of his life. The sonatas and piano miniatures that appeared after "Prometheus" became, in essence, the bricks of the future musical building and at the same time - the "initiatory school" for the listeners-participants of the "Mystery".

Of the five late sonatas almost textually resonates with the mentioned sketches of the "Preliminary Action" Eighth (perhaps that is why Scriabin himself did not play it on the stage, seeing in it a fragment of a future more important idea). On the whole, the sonatas are close to each other in the sophistication of the language and the reliance on a single-movement poem composition, already tested before by Scriabin. At the same time, the world of the late Scriabin appears here in various guises.

So, the Seventh Sonata, which the composer called the “white mass”, is close to the “Poem of Fire” in terms of the structure of music. The composition is permeated with magical, incantatory elements: fatal "blows of fate", swift "cosmic" whirlwinds, the incessant sound of "bells" - sometimes quiet and mysteriously detached, sometimes booming, like an alarm. The music of the Sixth is more chamber, gloomy concentrated, where in the harmony of the “Promethean six-tones” minor, low-frequency colors dominate.

The contrast between the Ninth and Tenth Sonatas is even stronger. In the Ninth Sonata, the "black mass", the fragile, crystal clear theme of the side part turns into an infernal march in the reprise. In this act of “desecration of the sacred” and rampant diabolism (in place of the former apotheoses of divine light), the demonic line of Scriabin’s music, touched upon earlier in the Ironies, the Satanic Poem and some other compositions, culminates. (Sabaneev connects the idea of ​​the Ninth Sonata with the paintings by N. Shperling hanging in the Scriabin house. “Most of all,” he writes, “A. N. complained about the picture where the knight kisses the emerging hallucination of the medieval Mother of God.”)

The Tenth Sonata is conceived quite differently. This magical beauty of music, as if filled with fragrance and birdsong, the composer himself associated with the forest, with earthly nature; at the same time, he spoke of its mystical, otherworldly content, seeing in it, as it were, the last act of the disembodiment of matter, "the destruction of physicality."

In area piano miniatures A sign of the late style is a specifically interpreted programming. In itself, the program principle in piano music at the turn of the century was not a novelty - one can recall at least the preludes of C. Debussy. Scriabin is also close to Debussy by the nature of his interpretation: a minimum of external pictorialism and a maximum of psychologism. But even in this comparison, Scriabin's music looks more introspective: in terms of the titles of the pieces, it is not Clouds or Steps in the Snow, but Mask, Strangeness, Desire, Whimsical Poem...

Usually, programming entails an element of figurative concretization, and this element is present to some extent in Scriabin's plays. Thus, “Garlands” are based on the form of a chain of small sections, and “Fragility” is framed in a functionally unstable, “fragile” structure, which can be interpreted both as a sonata form without development, and as a three-part form with a coda (synthetic form type). At the same time, such specification is very conditional. Appealing as if to non-musical realities, Scriabin never goes beyond the bounds of immanent musical expressiveness, only sharpening and concentrating it in a new way.

As already noted, in the later period, Scriabin's work continued to evolve actively. This, in fact, forces us to single out the last, post-Promethean stage in it, which indicates further changes in the field of musical language and at the same time - about the results of the entire composer's path.

One of these outcomes is the increased hierarchy of the language system, where harmony enjoys the right of absolute monopoly. It subjugates all other means of expression, including melody. Such a dependence of the horizontal on the vertical, or rather, the idea of ​​a melody as a harmony decomposed in time, Scriabin himself defined by the concept of “harmony-melodies”. The whole "Poem of Ecstasy" is already based on "harmony-melodies". Starting with Prometheus, where the principle of complete pitch determinism of the whole operates, this phenomenon is recognized as a regularity.

And yet it would be wrong to speak in this connection about the complete absorption of the melodic principle by the harmony. Scriabin's melody also had its own logic of evolutionary development. From the extended romantic cantilena of his early opuses, the composer went to the aphoristic type of utterance, to the motivic fragmentation of the line and the increased suggestive expressiveness of individual intonations. This expressiveness was exacerbated by the symbolic interpretation of themes in the mature and later periods (let's call for example the theme of "will" in the "Poem of Fire" or the theme of "dormant shrine" from the Ninth Sonata). Therefore, one can agree with Sabaneev, who noted that in his later years, Scriabin, although he ceases to be a melodist, becomes a “thematicist”.

If we talk about the proper harmonic system of the late Scriabin, then it developed along the path of further complication. The logic of its development consisted of two opposite tendencies. On the one hand, the circle of functionally comparable elements narrowed more and more, eventually reducing to one type of authentic sequences. On the other hand, as this narrowing progressed, the very unit of Scriabin's harmony, namely the chord vertical, became more and more complex and multi-component. In the compositions of later opuses, after the six-tone "Promethean chord", eight- and ten-tone complexes appear, which are based on the semitone-tone scale. (…)

Rhythm and texture generally appear in the late Scriabin in a renewed function. It is they who sometimes stimulate the linear stratification of harmony. A special role belongs to such cases of ostinato (as in the prelude just mentioned). In addition to influencing harmony, the ostinato principle carries an independent meaning. Together with him, Scriabin’s music, which is “anthropocentric” in its origins, cultivating the quiveringly changeable moment of human feeling, seems to be invaded by some kind of transpersonal force, either the “clock of Eternity”, or the infernal danse macabre, as in the Ninth Sonata or in the Dark Flame ". One way or another, before us is another innovation of recent years, another evidence of the ongoing composer's search.

The late period of Scriabin's work raises many questions, and one of them is related to his qualitative assessment. The fact is that the official Soviet musicology regarded him, rather, in a negative way. The disappearance in later compositions of contrasts - consonance and dissonance, ups and downs, tonics and non-tonics - was seen as a symptom of a crisis, a final impasse. Indeed, the figurative-stylistic range of Scriabin's music narrowed over the years; restrictions were imposed by the very principle of "total" harmony, reliance on the same type of sound structure. At the same time, the composer's language system was not absolutely hermetic; new patterns arose in place of old patterns. The narrowing was accompanied by deepening and detailing, penetration into the microparticles of sound matter. The renewed, specifically condensed expressiveness, examples of which we have seen above, determines the unconditional value of later opuses.

However, the question of assessing the late period has another side. We have already cited the position of Yavorsky, who heard in the later works of Scriabin "the swan song of the soul", "the last breath of a vanishing wave." He considers the creative path of the composer as something complete and exhausted. With this approach, the very concept of the “late period” acquires not a chronological, but some essential meaning.

B. V. Asafiev and V. G. Karatygin saw this path differently - not a closed arc, but a rapidly ascending straight line. Sudden death interrupted Scriabin's work on the threshold of the most daring discoveries - this view was also held by many other Scriabin researchers. Which position is correct? Even today it is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to this question. In any case, what, according to Yavorsky, was emotional and psychological exhaustion, was not so in terms of language and aesthetics. The innovations of the late Scriabin rushed into the future, they were continued and developed in subsequent times. In this sense, the concept of the "ascending straight line" is already more valid.

And from the point of view of the very path of Scriabin, the late period turned out to be a kind of culminating point, the focus of those goals and tasks towards which the composer went all his life. B. F. Schlozer, speaking about the importance for Scriabin of the concept of the Mystery, emphasized that the study of his work should begin with the Mystery, and not end with it. For all of it was "mysterious", everything reflected the light of his project, like the light of a bright, inaccessibly distant star. Something similar can be said about the entire late period, which concentrated the philosophy of Scriabin's music, its meaning and purpose.

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I sing when the larynx is cheese, the soul is dry,
And the gaze is moderately moist, and consciousness is not cunning.
O. Mandelstam

Let's take a closer look philosophical and aesthetic principles Scriabin's creativity, which are visible in the "reverse perspective" of his evolutionary path, from the height of the latest ideas. In the following presentation, we will touch on the composer's entire heritage - but not in a progressive chronological aspect, but with a certain general set of ideas in mind. These ideas, becoming clearer towards the end of Scriabin's life, had a profound influence on his musical creativity.

The question of the interaction between Scriabin's philosophy and music has already been touched upon above. It is noteworthy that, having made his art an instrument of the philosophical system, the composer did not compromise his own musical laws, having managed to avoid the rigorism and superficial literaryness that is possible in such cases. This probably happened for the reason that the philosophical theories themselves, drawn by Scriabin from the spiritual arsenal of symbolist culture, were conducive to musical embodiment. Thus, the idea of ​​creative boldness, emerging from the chaos of world harmony, was comprehended by Scriabin as an internal law of music (let us recall the Fifth Sonata with its movement from a semi-illusory, constrained state to an ecstatic triumph). In musical art, as nowhere else, the effect of transformation, transfiguration, which underlies the symbolist artistic method, is achievable; Scriabin embodied it in the specific multi-phase sonata dramaturgy, the multi-stage removal of semantic veils from the prototype. And the very ambiguity of music as an art was used by the composer in the aspect of symbolization, because, like no other musician, he had the gift of “secret writing” (recall the sphinx themes of his compositions or the intriguing headings of later miniatures).

But Scriabin's involvement in contemporary culture also manifested itself on a wider scale, starting with the fundamental tasks of creativity and view of art. The starting point for the composer was the romantic concept of artistic creativity, according to which the latter is understood as something immanent in life and capable of radically influencing this life. Scriabin's contemporaries, the Young Symbolist poets and philosophers (above all, Bely and Vyach. Ivanov) elevated this effective force of art into the concept theurgy. It was theurgy (magic, transfiguration) that they conceived as the main goal of the “Mystery Theatre”, which they dreamed about and to which they devoted a considerable number of theoretical works.

“Fire of the universe”, a general spiritual upheaval – no matter how the ultimate goal of such actions was defined, the very idea of ​​them could have arisen only in Russia in the 1900s, in the atmosphere of apocalyptic prophecies and the expectation of some kind of historical catharsis. Scriabin also sought to bring closer the "cleansing and regenerating catastrophe of the world" (Vyach. Ivanov). Moreover, like no one else, he was concerned with the practical implementation of this task: “his theoretical positions on catholicity and choral action,” wrote Vyach. Ivanov, - differed from my aspirations in essence only in that they were for him also direct practical tasks».

It is characteristic that in their social utopias, pursuing goals outside of art, the Russian Symbolists nevertheless staked precisely on art. Theurgical tasks were intricately intertwined with aesthetic ones. There were, in fact, two approaches to art - depending on the accents that certain artists put in their work. They were reflected in the controversy on the pages of the Apollon magazine, when in 1910, in response to Blok’s publication “On the Current State of Russian Symbolism,” Bryusov’s article “On the Slave’s Speech in Defense of Poetry” appeared. Bryusov defended in this dispute the right of poets to be only poets, and arts to be only art. To understand this position, we must remember that the struggle for the purity of poetry, for its artistic self-determination, initially characterized the symbolist movement. When the slogan of pure beauty was replaced among the Young Symbolists by the slogan "beauty will save the world", with a very serious stake on the saving mission of art, aesthetic tasks threatened to be again pressed. This fact is historically very characteristic: at the turn of the century, Russian art liberated itself, threw off the burden of eternal social concerns - but only in order to re-aware its national rock, rush into life again and merge with it - now in some kind of apocalyptic-transforming act . It is not surprising that Bryusov's article appeared in such a context, with its kind of protective pathos.

At the same time, this confrontation between "younger" and "older" Symbolists should hardly be exaggerated. Theurgical and aesthetic principles were too closely merged in their work to become the banner of fundamentally hostile camps.

They were also inseparable with Scriabin. The composer did not participate in the literary struggles of his time, but he was undoubtedly a spontaneous adherent of the theurgic direction, and he also gave a unique example of the practical orientation of his “theurgism”. This does not mean that aesthetic problems proper were alien to him. Scriabin's aestheticism manifested itself in bewitchingly refined sounds; immersion in the world of unusual harmonies and extravagant rhythms in itself carried the temptation of self-fulfillment. But the composer thought of his inventions not as a goal, but as a means. Since the beginning of the 1900s, all his writings betray the presence of a certain super-task. Their language and plot appeal not so much to aesthetic contemplation as to empathy. The magical meaning is acquired by ostinato, harmonic and rhythmic “incantation”, heightened and intense emotionalism, which “attracts in breadth and height, turning passion into ecstasy and thereby raising the personal to the universal.” This also includes Scriabin's esotericism, in particular the theosophical symbols of Prometheus: they are addressed to those participants and initiates whom the composer spoke about in connection with his mystery plans.

As already mentioned, the transformative, theurgic act, the essence of which is in the rapidly growing creative self-consciousness of the spirit, was also a constant theme of Scriabin's works starting from the Third Sonata. In the future, it acquired an increasingly global scale. This allows us to see here an analogy with the ideas of Russian cosmist philosophers, especially with the doctrine of the noosphere. According to V. I. Vernadsky, the noosphere is that specific shell of the Earth, which is a concentrate of spirituality and which, without being merged with the biosphere, is capable of exerting a transforming effect on it. "Noos" in translation means will and mind - the themes of "will" and "mind" are also born in the first bars of the "Poem of Fire", accompanying the theme of Prometheus the Creator. For Vernadsky, the influence of the noosphere carries a huge optimistic charge - Scriabin's compositions also end with a dazzling triumph of finals.

Thus, the theurgical beginning entered Scriabin's music, despite the fact that in the version of the Mystery, that is, as the final and all-encompassing act, theurgy was not implemented by him.

Something similar can be said about Scriabin's idea catholicity. Sobornost as an expression of the unifying ability of art, the complicity of many people in it, was the subject of close attention of the Symbolist cultural elite. Vyach developed this idea especially carefully. Ivanov. In his works devoted to the mystery theater (“Wagner and the Dionysian Action”, “Premonitions and Premonitions”), he puts forward such principles of the new mystery as the elimination of the ramp, the merging of the stage with the community, as well as the special role of the choir: small, associated with the action, as in the tragedies of Aeschylus, and a large one, symbolizing the community, a singing and moving crowd. For such choral dramas, the author intended a special architectural setting and "the prospect of completely different spaces" than ordinary theater and concert halls.

Scriabin also thought in the same direction, dreaming of distant India and a domed temple where the conciliar action should take place. His plans also included overcoming the ramp in order to achieve unity of experiences: the ramp is the personification of theatricality, and he considered theatricality incompatible with mystery and criticized Wagner's musical dramas for its costs. Hence his unwillingness to see the audience in the conciliar action - only "participants and initiates."

Scriabin wanted to participate in the "Mystery" of all mankind, not stopping at any spatial and temporal boundaries. The temple, in which the action should unfold, was conceived by him as a giant altar in relation to the true temple - the whole Earth. The act itself should be the beginning of some universal spiritual renewal. “I do not want the realization of anything, but the endless upsurge of creative activity that will be caused by my art,” the composer wrote.

At the same time, such a globally conceived enterprise had little in common with literally understood nationwide. The hyperdemocratic idea was initially in conflict with the extremely complex form of its implementation, as evidenced by the sketches of the "Preliminary Action", as well as the entire stylistic context of the late period of creativity. However, this contradiction was symptomatic of the Scriabin era. The utopia of catholicity arose then as a result of the awareness of the "diseases of individualism" and the desire to overcome them at all costs. At the same time, this overcoming could not be complete and organic, since the ideologists of the new mystery were themselves the flesh of the flesh of an individualistic culture.

However, the conciliar principle was realized in its own way in Scriabin's work, endowing it with a glimpse of "grandness" (to use the words of the composer himself). His stamp lies on the symphonic scores, where, beginning with the Poem of Ecstasy, additional brass, organ and bells are introduced. Not only in the "Preliminary Act", but already in the First Symphony and in the "Poem of Fire" a chorus was introduced; in "Prometheus", according to the author's intention, he should be dressed in white clothes - to enhance the liturgical effect. In the cathedral function, the function of uniting the multitude, Scriabin's bells also appear. In this case, we mean not just the inclusion of bells in orchestral scores, but the symbolism of bell ringing, which is so widely represented, for example, in the Seventh Sonata.

But let's turn to one more component of the "Mystery" and, accordingly, to one more facet of Scriabin's aesthetics - we will talk about the idea synthesis of the arts. This idea also dominated the minds of contemporaries. The idea of ​​expanding the boundaries of the arts and dissolving them into a kind of unity was inherited by Russian symbolists from the romantics. Wagner's musical dramas were both a reference point for them and an object of positive criticism. In the new "total work of art" they sought to achieve a new completeness and a new quality of synthesis.

Scriabin planned to combine in his "Mystery" not only sound, word, movement, but also the realities of nature. In addition, according to Schlözer, “the expansion of the limits of art by the material of lower feelings should have occurred in it: in All-Art, all elements that cannot live on their own should be animated.” Indeed, Scriabin had in mind rather a synthesis sensations than independent art series. His "Mystery" gravitated more to the liturgy than to theatrical performance. It is in temple worship that one can find analogies to his fantasies about "symphonies" of aromas, touches and tastes - if we recall church incense, rites of communion, etc. And the goal of such "All Art" was pursued not so much aesthetic as theurgical, as already mentioned higher.

However, Scriabin nurtured the ideas of synthesis long before The Mystery. His plans met with an interested response from symbolist poets. This is evidenced by the article by K. D. Balmont "Light sound in nature and Scriabin's light symphony", dedicated to "Prometheus". Vyach supported them even more actively. Ivanov. In his article “Čiurlionis and the problem of art synthesis”, he writes about the relevance of such ideas and gives them his explanation. The inner experience of a modern artist, Ivanov believes, is wider than the limited possibilities of art alone. “Life resolves this contradiction by shifting this art towards the neighboring one, from where new ways of representation come into syncretic creation, suitable for enhancing the expressibility of inner experience.” Using the example of Čiurlionis, this musician in painting, Ivanov speaks of artists “with a shifted axis”, who occupy a kind of neutral position between the areas of individual arts. They seem to be alone contemporary culture, although their type is very symptomatic for her, and the prototype here is F. Nietzsche - "a philosopher is not a philosopher, a poet is not a poet, a renegade philologist, a musician without music and the founder of religion without religion."

Returning to Scriabin, it should be noted that the obvious power of musical genius. She intuitively attracted him to the path of "absolute", pure music, no matter how much he talked about his synthetic plans.

Thus, the position of the literary component in his work is at least contradictory. On the one hand, the composer was obsessed with the word, as evidenced by the titles of his works, program comments, prose and poetry, detailed author's remarks, the lexical structure of which, it seems, goes beyond the applied purpose; finally, independent poetic experiments. Let us add to all this the libretto of the opera planned in the early 1900s, the texts of the Poem of Ecstasy and the Preliminary Act. On the other hand, it is characteristic that neither the opera nor the "Preliminary Action" were carried out (except for individual sketch fragments). Everything created by Scriabin, with the exception of two romances and the youthfully imperfect finale of the First Symphony, only implies the word, but does not materialize it musically. Obviously gravitating toward the word, but at the same time fearing, apparently, its coarsening concreteness, the composer ultimately preferred the unvoiced, programmatic version of literary texts.

The situation with the idea of ​​a light symphony was somewhat different, since in this case Scriabin used the nonverbal language of color and light effects. This idea became a genuine discovery, to this day being a source of far-reaching hypotheses, scientific conjectures, artistic reflections and, of course, attempts at technical implementation, which seem to be closer to the author's intention.

And yet, no matter how inspiring the example of Prometheus may be, Scriabin left very few samples of the actual synthesis of the arts. A bold theorist, he turned out to be an extremely cautious practitioner in this area. In his work, he limited himself to the sphere of purely instrumental genres, unconsciously reflecting the symbolist "fear of eloquence" and embodying the idea of ​​music as the highest of the arts, capable of intuitively, and therefore adequately comprehending the world.

This, however, does not remove the problem of "complex feeling" in his music. The fact is that the combination of sound with a word, color or gesture takes place not so much in real, but in an imaginary space, where the “astral image” of the composition is formed (as the composer himself liked to say). Regarding his verbal comments, Scriabin said that it is “almost like a synthetic work... These ideas are my intention, and they enter the composition just like sounds. I'm writing it with them." Of course, from the standpoint of the “self-sufficiency” of a musical statement, one can be skeptical about these invisible layers of creativity, about what is beyond the edge of a sheet of music and behind the silhouettes of musical signs, and demand from musicians-performers complete identity of the fixed text (as did, for example, Stravinsky in relation to his compositions). But it is unlikely that such an approach will be in the spirit of Scriabin, whose music B. L. Pasternak called “supermusic” not by chance - because of her desire to surpass herself.

We examined those features of Scriabin's work that are associated with his view of art and which, following Schlözer, can be called "mysterious". Let us now turn to some of the most important principles of his composer's thinking. The internal structure of Scriabin's music, its constructive laws, its time and space, for all the significance of musical traditions, were also largely due to the philosophical ideas of the era. Of central importance to Scriabin was the idea Infinite combined with utopia unity.

“The abyss of stars has opened up full, // There are no number of stars, the abyss of the bottom” - these lines of M. V. Lomonosov, often quoted by symbolists, were very consistent with the mode of feeling of those years. The principle of actual, that is, directly experienced infinity, determined both the type of attitude and the artistic method of symbolism: the essence of this method was an endless immersion into the depths of the image, an endless game with its hidden meanings (not without reason F.K. Sologub argued that “for real art, the image of objective world is just a window to infinity.

The infinity of the world could sow confusion and fear if it were not for the idea of ​​the unity of existence, which had a global, all-penetrating meaning for the Russian symbolists of the "second wave". For them, it was not so much a philosophical doctrine as a delight, an intuition, a romantic dream. The immediate predecessor of the Young Symbolists in this respect was Vl. S. Solovyov. Initiation to the Absolute, rebirth in man perfect image God's are closely connected with his philosophy of Love. Love embraces a person's attitude to more than himself, it is able to overcome chaos, decay, the destructive work of time. In the poetic lyrics of Solovyov and his followers, cosmic images often act as carriers of such a unifying, harmonizing principle. The sun, stars, moon, sky blue are interpreted in the spirit of Plato's myth of erotic ascent (Eros, according to Plato, is the link between man and God, the earthly world and the heavenly world). They are no longer just traditional attributes of romantic poetics, but symbols of divine light illuminating earthly vanity. Here is an excerpt from Solovyov's poem:

Death and time reign on earth,
You do not call them masters;
Everything, spinning, disappears into the mist,
Only the sun of love is motionless.

We find a direct analogy to Solovyov's "sun of love" in Scriabin's Fourth Sonata. The agonizing delight before the “wonderful radiance” that flares up in the finale into a “sparkling fire” is conveyed with the help of leitmotif transformations of the main theme of the sonata - “the theme of the star”. In later writings, for example in the "Poem of Fire", the image of the cosmos itself appears; the idea of ​​unity is embodied here not so much at the level of thematic dramaturgy, but at the level of harmony; hence the feeling of a certain spherical space, as boundless as it is permeated with gigantic volitional tension.

In terms of the parallel under consideration, the erotic coloring of Scriabin's musical revelations is also characteristic. The motifs of "languor" and "enjoyment", the polarity of "female" and "male", endless variants of "petting" gestures, an unstoppable movement towards the final ecstasy - all these moments of his works correspond to Solovyov's apology for sexual love (no matter how dubious they may seem from the standpoint of orthodox Christian beliefs). For example, D. L. Andreev attributes Scriabin's "mystical voluptuousness" to his gift of a dark herald. It is unlikely that such a characterization is fair - the luminous principle is too clearly expressed in his music.

The principle of "everything in everything" has already been mentioned here. Scriabin of the period of the “Poem of Fire” was close to his theosophical interpretation. It is no coincidence that the most consistent embodiment of this principle - the quasi-serial organization of a large form through a totally acting harmonic complex - was first undertaken in Prometheus, this most esoteric creation of the composer. But Scriabin adhered to the same system in other writings of the later period, which speaks of its broader foundations, which are not reducible to theosophical doctrines. In any case, having created the musical equivalent of the idea of ​​the Absolute and embodying Balmont’s motto: “All faces are hypostases of the One, scattered mercury”, the composer summarized a fairly wide and diverse spiritual experience (including modern God-seeking and new interpretations of Schelling’s doctrine of the “world soul”).

Scriabin's principle of "everything in everything" had both spatial and temporal parameters. If the former can be observed on the example of the harmony of "Prometheus", then in the second case the idea of ​​an inextricable relationship between the instantaneous and the eternal, the momentary and the extended played an important role. This idea fed many motifs of the new poetry (a typical example is Vyach. Ivanov's poem "Eternity and a Moment"). It also underlay the mystery utopias of the symbolist poets. So, Andrei Bely, speaking in one of his early works about the transformation of the world “through music”, thought of this process as a one-time process: “The whole life of the world will instantly flash before the spiritual eye,” he wrote in one of his letters to A. A. Blok, developing your ideas.

The instantaneous experience of the entire historical experience of mankind (through the reconstruction of the history of races) was also conceived by Scriabin in his "Mystery". Hence the idea of ​​"involution of styles" in it. It is not entirely clear what this “involution of styles” would have been: composers of subsequent generations, primarily Stravinsky, took up the reproduction of historical time through the operation of various style models. Most likely, under the conditions of Scriabin's stylistic monism, it would have resulted in a generalized "archaism" of quasi-Promethean consonances, which personified for the composer "the dark depths of the past."

But one way or another, the possibility of covering immeasurable temporal depths with music has long worried Scriabin. Evidence of this is his philosophical notes of the 1900s, where the idea of ​​a simultaneous experience of the past and the future sounds like a leitmotif. “The forms of time are such,” writes the composer, “that for each given moment I create an infinite past and an infinite future.” “Deep eternity and infinite space,” we read elsewhere, “there are constructions around divine ecstasy, there is its radiation ... a moment that radiates eternity.” These thoughts make themselves felt even more strongly towards the end of the creative path, as evidenced by the opening lines of the "Preliminary Action": "Once again the Infinite wills to recognize itself in the finite."

It is interesting that in Scriabin's philosophy of time there is practically no category of the present. There is no place for the real in Scriabin's cosmos, his prerogative is Eternity spilled in a moment. Here is another difference from Stravinsky, who, on the contrary, was characterized by an apology for the present, erected through a parallel to “ontological time”. Of course, such a difference in attitudes is reflected in the music of both authors and especially in their understanding of the musical form as a process. Running a little ahead, we note that the specificity of Scriabin's sound world with its polarization of eternity and the moment was reflected in the preference that the composer gave to the "ultimate form" over the "middle form" (to use the terms of V. G. Karatygin).

In general, the composer's philosophical deductions were quite consistently embodied in his musical work. This also applies to the considered relationship between the eternal and the instantaneous. On the one hand, his mature and late compositions are perceived as parts of some continuously ongoing process: the total instability of harmony makes their constructive isolation very problematic. On the other hand, Scriabin consistently moved towards the compression of musical events in time. If the path from the six-movement First Symphony to the one-movement "Poem of Ecstasy" can still be regarded as an ascent to maturity, liberation from youthful verbosity, then the musical process in the compositions of the middle and late periods reveals a temporary concentration that significantly exceeds traditional norms.

Some piano miniatures are perceived as a kind of experiment with time. For example, in the "Fancy Poem" op. 45 application for large-scale thematics in the nature of "flight" and "self-affirmation of the spirit" is combined with extremely small size and fast pace. As a result, the time of perception of the piece exceeds the time of its sounding. In such cases, at the end of the work or its sections, the composer liked to set bar pauses. They give the opportunity to think about the image, more precisely, to feel its transcendental essence, going beyond the boundaries of real physical time. In the aforementioned play, op. 45 the poem is connected with a miniature; this, in fact, is its main "quirk", recorded in the title. But the properties of such “quirkiness” are also found in other works by Scriabin, where the poetic eventfulness is compressed to an instant, turns into a hint.

"Sounding silence" generally played a significant role in the composer's psyche. Sabaneev cites Scriabin’s characteristic confession: “I want to introduce into the Mystery such imaginary sounds that will not really sound, but which must be imagined ... I want to write them in a special font ... ". "And when he played, - writes the memoirist, “it was felt that, indeed, his silence sounded, and during the pauses some imaginary sounds vaguely hover, filling the sound void with a fantastic pattern ... And no one interrupted these pauses of silence with applause, knowing that “they sound likewise. Further, Sabaneev says that Scriabin could not stand pianists who, having played a piece, are carried away from the stage “with a thunder of applause”

Scriabin's desire to identify the extended and the instantaneous is evidenced by his "harmony-melody". As already mentioned, the composer used this concept, implying the structural identity of the horizontal and vertical. Horizontal-vertical reversibility in itself is natural in the conditions of a complete monopoly of the chosen sound complex; this phenomenon is typical, in particular, for the serial technique of the Novovenets composers. In Scriabin, however, such interdependence takes the form of a specific translation of time into space - a technique that underlies both relatively small and large constructions. Many of Scriabin's themes are organized by folding the melodic horizontal into a complex crystal-like vertical - a kind of micro-image of the achieved unity. Such, for example, is the piano piece Desire, op. 57 - a miniature version of ecstatic states achieved by the described method of "crystallization". Such are the polyphonic arpeggiated tonics at the end of Garlands, op. 73, Sixth Sonata and other Scriabin compositions. They would have looked like traditional final ramplissages if not for this unifying effect; it is no coincidence that they gather together, "crystallize" the entire sound complex of the work.

We have already spoken about the symbolization in Scriabin's music of an endless process. A large role in this belongs to the tense statics of the harmonic language. However, rhythm also performs an essential function - a direct conductor of temporal processes in music. In connection with rhythm, Scriabin argued that music, apparently, was able to "bewitch" time and even completely stop it. In the work of Scriabin himself, an example of such a stopped, or disappeared, time is the prelude op. 74 No. 2 with its all ostinato movement. According to Sabaneev, the composer allowed for the possibility of performing this piece in two ways: traditionally expressive, with detail and nuance, and absolutely measured, without any shades. Apparently, the composer had in mind the second version of the performance when he said that this prelude seemed to last “for centuries”, that it sounds forever, “millions of years”. As the same Sabaneev recalls, Scriabin liked to play this prelude many times in a row without a break, obviously wanting to experience such an association more deeply.

An example with a prelude from op. 74 is all the more indicative that the ostinato principle was not previously characteristic of Scriabin's music. The composer's rhythm was originally distinguished by romantic freedom, the widespread use of tempo rubato. The appearance of measured rhythmic formulas against this background in the late period brings with it a new quality. In the dual unity of the human - the divine, Scriabin is attracted by the second, hence the majestic and impassive coloring of the individual pages of his work.

However, the techniques of rhythmic ostinato demonstrate in Scriabin a fairly wide range of expressive possibilities. If the prelude op. 74 No. 2, as it were, takes us to the other side of being, forcing us to listen to the “clock of eternity”, then in some other works the introduction of this technique is of a sharply conflicting nature. In combination with the impulsive freedom of texture and polyharmony, the "enchanting" power of ostinato acquires a demonic tinge. For example, in the culmination codas of the Ninth Sonata or The Dark Flame, attempts to “stop time” are more than dramatic, they are fraught with a breakdown into chaos. Here we have before us - the image of the "gloomy abyss", in contact with the expressionist trends in the art of the XX century.

But let us return to the prelude from op. 74. When the composer played it many times in a row without a break, he was probably guided not only by its ostinato rhythm. The play ends with the same phrase with which it began, hence the possibility of its repeated reproduction. This gives reason to talk about the extremely important for Scriabin's music symbolism of the circle.

Since the worldview of Scriabin and his contemporaries was determined by actual, that is, directly experienced infinity (or eternity, seen in an instant), it is not surprising that its symbol was a circle, the figure of circulatio (recall that in mathematics actual infinity is expressed by an infinite number of points on a circle, while potential - by points on a straight line).

The symbolism of the circle was quite common in the new poetry. Let us cite as an example "Circles in the Sand" 3. N. Gippius, her own "Countries of Despondency" with the final phrase "but there is no daring, the ring closes"; one can also recall Blok's poem "Drawing a smooth circle around the circle." It is not for nothing that Bely, in his article "Line, Circle, Spiral - Symbolism," considered it possible to theoretically generalize such symbolism. The named poems are brought together by the feeling of the oppressive predestination of being. In Scriabin, we also sometimes observe a concentrated, constrained state, depicting fate and death. However, the composer's circle formula also has a broader expressive meaning, concentrating in itself the magical-suggestive principle so characteristic of his statements. Such, for example, is the prelude op. 67 No. 1, equipped with a significant remark Misterioso: continuous melodic whirling on an ostinato harmonic background means sacrament, divination.

Characteristically, Scriabin often resorted to "circular" metaphors when talking about the formal-constructive laws of music. He owns the well-known thesis: "The form should be in the end like a ball." And in philosophical notes, the composer uses a similar metaphor when describing his concept of the universe. “She (the history of the universe. - T. L.) there is a movement towards the focus of the all-encompassing consciousness illuminating it, there is a clarification. And elsewhere: "Reality appears to me as a multitude in the infinity of space and time, and my experience is the center of this ball of infinitely large radius." (…)

Among Scriabin's notes already cited here, there is a drawing made by him: a spiral inscribed in a circle. Almost not commented on in the main text, this drawing, nevertheless, surprisingly accurately reflects the composition of the Fifth Sonata, as well as Scriabin's idea of ​​the musical process in general. Speaking of the Fifth Sonata, it should be emphasized that its example demonstrates an important discovery of the composer, associated with a tendency to an open form. Similar phenomena in musical creativity, based on the effect of continuous dynamic growth, were already observed in the 1910s - these are, in particular, the final episodes of Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring or Prokofiev's Scythian Suite. By the way, in Scriabin's discussions about the mystery act, the image of "the last dance before the very act" repeatedly surfaced - Stravinsky's "Great Sacred Dance" plays a similar role. At the same time, Scriabin's ecstasy is different from Stravinsky's, and his experience of the infinite, captured in mature and late compositions, is also specific.

As you can see, in the field of large form, Scriabin thought very boldly and non-normatively - with an outward adherence to classical schemes. The dream of the "Mystery" was supposed to take him even further away from these schemes, the projected grandiose action did not fit into any known canons. But the composer worked just as subtly with microunits of musical matter. This is evidenced by the refined technique of details, the unpredictable variety of time divisions and, of course, the extremely complex harmonic language, in which the intrinsic value of each sounding moment increased more and more.

This complexity of micro- and macroforms, this “plus or minus infinity” was meant by Karatygin when he wrote that Scriabin “looked with one eye into some kind of wonderful microscope, with the other into a gigantic telescope, not recognizing vision with the naked eye.” In the article where these lines are quoted from, the author connects the micro and macro levels of Scriabin's music with the concept of "ultimate form", and by "middle form" he understands the level of sentences and periods accessible to the "naked eye". This "middle form" was distinguished by Scriabin's conservatism and academicism. Sabaneev spoke about the "accounting prudence" of the composer, who used to tactfully mark themes and sections of his compositions on music paper. Probably, the “middle form” for Scriabin was not so much a cost of academicism, but rather an “internal metronome” (V. G. Karatygin), a kind of self-preservation instinct. The centripetal, rational beginning generally paradoxically characterized the Symbolist artists, who, with all their craving for the intuitive, the mystical, were “bad children of the age of reason, order and system.” Be that as it may, the immeasurable and infinite in Scriabin tends to “recognize itself in the finite” (recall the lines of “Preliminary Action”), it has a definite starting point, being in a hidden conflict with the finite-dimensional.

This conflict extends to the very existence of Scriabin's works: observing the condition of opus, they have a beginning and an end, although it seems that they are internally intended for constant duration. In a certain sense, they model the entire creative life of the composer, which, like the Fifth Sonata, "did not end, but stopped." Having been preparing himself for The Mystery for a long time, Scriabin did not carry out his project. It should be noted that the addition of individual works into a kind of super-design was typical of the artists of the Symbolist era. They saw the mystery theater as the crowning achievement of messianic tasks, the far-reaching goals of which did not receive any clear outlines in their minds. Already at the end of the 1900s, Bely wrote about his theurgical plans: "From realization - only to striving - this is the turn that I painfully experienced." Scriabin did not experience such disappointment, remaining a knight of his idea until the very last days. Therefore, who died almost suddenly and much earlier than his "fellow divination" (V. Ya. Bryusov), he, perhaps, like no one else, embodied the drama of the finiteness of human existence before the infinity of dreams.

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I sing when the larynx is cheese, the soul is dry,
And the gaze is moderately moist, and consciousness is not cunning.
O. Mandelstam

It has already been touched upon here many times. cultural and artistic context Scriabin's work, in particular its connection with symbolism. Correlating the composer with the spiritual atmosphere of the beginning of the century helps to better understand the nature of many of his ideas. On the other hand, against such a broad background, the style orientation Scriabin and the nature of his historical mission, since he happened to live and work at the crossroads of two eras.

It is curious that Scriabin felt his involvement in modern culture mainly through non-musical contacts. According to a certain psychological attitude, he remained quite indifferent or critical (at least in words) to the music of his contemporaries, preferring the society of musicians to the society of writers, artists and philosophers. His work strove to absorb the spiritual aura of the epoch, as if bypassing musical mediating links, although it was, in the end, the experience of absolute music.

We have already talked about the synthetic nature of the artistic worldview, which distinguished the culture of the turn of the century. The tendency of the arts to overcome their own boundaries and interpenetrate manifested itself everywhere. Characteristic in this regard is the multifaceted education of the ministers of the muses, which also affected the nature of their musical activities. So, V. I. Rebikov was fond of poetry, A. V. Stanchinsky composed short stories, serious musical experiments were carried out by the painter M. Chiurlionis, the poets M. A. Kuzmin and B. L. Pasternak. It is not surprising that musical “pictures”, poetic “symphonies” (Andrei Bely), picturesque “fugues” and “sonatas” (M. Čiurlionis) appeared against this background. The very creative psychology of the "Silver Age", the desire to comprehend the world in its maximum completeness and harmony stimulated the ability to be inspired by other arts, which is primordially romantic in nature.

In music, this trend manifested itself in a new program movement, in a penchant for headings, explanations, verbal comments. This feature is all the more remarkable because the representatives of the next generation, such as Stravinsky, did not like such verbal revelations; they defended the right of music to autonomy, a kind of "non-intervention" principle. In connection with such phenomena, Yu. N. Tynyanov talks about a certain rhythm in the development of the arts, when periods of their mutual attraction are replaced by periods of repulsion. However, such changes, already observed since the late 1910s, did not at all mean the removal from the agenda of the very idea of ​​synthesis of the arts, which, while continuing to dominate the minds, only acquired new forms.

Scriabin remained faithful to this idea to the end. Carried away by the flight of fantasy, seeing in the "Mystery" the ideal of All-Art, he thought of himself as its undivided creator. It is known, for example, that when writing poetic text"Preliminary action" as a result, the idea of ​​\u200b\u200bco-authorship was excluded. The composer himself composed this text, at the risk of being in this area not up to par. So, in fact, it happened, and only the “mystical” non-realization of Scriabin’s word (which either did not have time to be embodied, or, in most cases, remained “silent”, programmatic, unpronounceable) partly removes the problem of the inequivalence of his synthetic projects.

A different fate befell the light symphony, the idea of ​​which still excites minds and serves as an impetus for ever new technical experiments. Returning to the era of Scriabin, let us recall once again the parallels with V. V. Kandinsky. His composition "Yellow Sound", chronologically synchronous with "The Poem of Fire", did not arise from scratch; the ground for it was a deeply developed sense of synesthesia. Kandinsky "heard" colors, just as Scriabin "saw" sounds and tonalities. The bet on the musicality of pictorial art generally distinguished this artist, naturally leading him to the emotional and symbolic perception of color. Such an aesthetic program was most fully formulated in the treatise On the Spiritual in Art, which appeared a year later than Scriabin's Prometheus. Noteworthy is the timbre interpretation of colors characteristic of Kandinsky. The orange color sounds to him "like a medium-sized church bell calling to the Angelus prayer, or like a strong voice of an alto" - while the sound of the opposite violet color "is similar to the sounds of an English horn, a flute and in its depth - a low tone woodwind instruments".

However, Scriabin came into contact with contemporary art not only through the idea of ​​synesthesia. There are broader parallels here as well. The epoch of Scriabin was the epoch of modernity, more and more realized today in the categories of "grand style". Features of this style are also found in Scriabin. This does not at all contradict his inner involvement in the Symbolist trend. After all, symbolism and modernity were not only chronologically parallel phenomena. They were combined with each other as method and style, content and form. Simplifying the picture somewhat, we can say that symbolism determined the inner ideological and semantic layer of works, and modernity was a way of their “materialization”. It is no coincidence that these phenomena were concentrated around different types art: Art Nouveau embraced the subject environment of plastic art, architecture and design, and symbolism was home to a purely “spiritual” area of ​​poetry and philosophy. In a similar ratio of external and internal, they nourished the work of Scriabin.

The previous section dealt mainly with the temporal parameters of Scriabin's music. Here it is appropriate to say about her spatial specificity, due to some aesthetic attitudes.

But first, let us note that it was Art Nouveau, with its focus on the visual principle, that at the turn of the century provoked the convergence of music with the spatial arts. The picturesque concept of the musical form was very characteristic of the composer's work of that time. Let us mention at least Diaghilev's one-act ballet, in whose music the procedural principle seemed to be neutralized in favor of the brightness of color. At the same time, a certain visualization of the musical series was manifested in the features of musical architectonics - in particular, in the “rim” effect, which is close to the “double frame” technique common in modernist style. Such, for example, is the “Pavilion of Armida” by N. N. Tcherepnin, which arose from the idea of ​​a “lively tapestry”. Following the scenery of A. N. Benois, this music was intended as much for the eye as for the ear. It was designed to stop a beautiful moment.

Scriabin practically did not write for the theater and was generally far from any kind of theatrical and picturesque entertainment. But in his work, the cultivation of spatial sensations characteristic of the era was manifested. It is already evident in his philosophical discussions about the Cosmos, about the spherical infinity of the Universe. In a certain sense, the composer subordinated the temporal factor to the spatial one. His musical chronos seems to be closed in this spherical infinity, the property of vector orientation is lost in it. Hence the inherent value of the movement as such, it is not without reason that Scriabin's favorite forms are dance and play. Let us add to this the aforementioned craving for the simultaneity of the utterance, which seems to make music forget about its temporary nature; further - the cult of the sounding aura created by various methods of piano and orchestral texture; geometric-plastic associations in the spirit of "shape - ball", etc.

If we talk about the Art Nouveau style itself, with its exquisite plasticity and decorativeness, then the musical “genes” of the composer were already in contact with it. Recall that his genealogy is connected with Chopin's cult of aristocratically refined beauty and, in general, with romanticism, this spiritual soil of modernity. If Chopin's style as a whole was distinguished by rich ornamentation, then Scriabin's melody sometimes resembles the technique of linear ornamentation with the underlying motif of the wave (the wave mythologeme, the "calling card" of the Art Nouveau style, is also actively represented in the text of "Preliminary Action"). The increased thematization of the musical fabric, which accompanied the "Prometheus six-tone", results in the interpenetration of the background and relief, which also characterized the masters of the new art. In Scriabin, it is especially evident in cases of texturally decomposed harmony. The “Promethean chord” itself, demonstrating the structure of a certain hexahedron due to the fourth arrangement, gives rise to a feeling of the “geometry of crystals”. Here, an analogy is already possible with a very specific representative of the new Russian painting, who “always and in everything saw the crystalline structure of matter; its fabrics, its trees, its faces, its figures - everything is crystalline, everything is subject to some kind of hidden geometric laws that form and build the material. As you might guess, in the above quote by M. A. Voloshin, we are talking about M. A. Vrubel. We have already noted Scriabin's analogies with this artist in terms of demonic images and blue-lilac colors. The "crystallinity" of artistic matter also brings these masters closer, making it possible to see them under the arches of a common style.

This is all the more remarkable that Scriabin did not have direct contact with Vrubel - unlike, for example, Rimsky-Korsakov, whose operas Vrubel designed at the Mamontov Theater (one can only talk about the composer's undoubted interest in the painter, and also recall that Vrubel's the music room in the Kusevitsky mansion, where Scriabin settled in 1909 upon his return from abroad and where he spent many hours at the piano, was hung with paintings). Biographical sources often mention the names of other artists. So, in addition to the Belgian painter J. Delville, who designed the cover of Prometheus, the Moscow artist N. Shperling, who impressed the composer with the mystical coloring of his subjects and passion for the East, was part of Scriabin's circle. It is also known that Scriabin visited the Moscow exhibition of M. Čiurlionis; Approvingly evaluating this master, he nevertheless found that Čiurlionis was “too illusory”, that “he has no real strength, he does not want his dream to become a reality.”

But it is not the biographical facts that serve as the decisive argument in this case, but the degree of mutual aesthetic assonance of the artists. And here the closest analogue to Scriabin, along with Vrubel, was the aforementioned V. V. Kandinsky. Their similarity in the plane of the synthesis of arts and color-musical correspondences has already been mentioned. But in the same "Poem of Fire" one can find other moments that are consonant with Kandinsky's aesthetic program. If Kandinsky went in his "Compositions" and "Improvisations" to the symbolic perception of color and to its emancipation from the depicted object, then something similar happened with the late Scriabin. His Prometheus is an example of harmonic paint emancipated from tonal connection. The departure from traditional tonal thinking to the world of new sounds meant the rejection of any, even indirect, life realities in favor of games, enigmatic sound arabesques. If we allow an analogy between figurative painting and tonal music (which, I think, is historically justified), then we can see a certain parallelism in the pictorial and musical innovations of the 1910s, which left behind these seemingly unshakable principles. With regard to the New Viennese school, the phenomenon of emancipated sound color is determined by Schoenberg's concept of Klangfaibenmelodie. Scriabin observed a largely similar process, and with Kandinsky he was brought together by the commonality of Russian cultural origins, and the romantic underpinning of creativity, and a kind of synthetic methods: just as Kandinsky combined non-objectivity with figurativeness, so Scriabin’s sophisticated play of sound ornaments coexisted with quasi-tonal melodic lexemes.

Concluding the parallels with the new Russian painting, we note that in the later period his style developed according to the evolution from Art Nouveau to Abstractionism. On the one hand, the role of hidden symbolic elements increased in his music. As already mentioned, the “Prometheus chord” itself was for Scriabin a “Pleroma chord”, and not just a successfully found sound color. On the other hand, the composer sometimes consciously abandoned the former colorism and sensual fullness of sounds. The desire to penetrate the shell of phenomena, characteristic of the symbolist method, led at some stage to a change in the balance between the external and the internal, the explicit and the hidden. Scriabin was no longer attracted by the theurgical action - transformation, but by the reality of another world. The path from "Prometheus" to the later preludes, from op. 60 to op. 74 is the path from colorfulness to monotony, to simplicity and straightness of the drawing. The following statement of the composer is significant in this sense: “When the painful boiling of passions reaches its climax in art, everything will come to a simple formula: a black line on a white background, and everything will become simple, quite simple.”

This black and white tone dominates the last Scriabin preludes. Prelude op. 74 No. 2 the composer called the "astral desert", using, in addition, such expressions as "higher reconciliation" and "white sound". We have already spoken of this play in connection with the idea of ​​the infinite. Modern scholars also write about the new quality of Scriabin's pianism that appeared here, consonant with the 20th century: "The Scriabin of the future is the will to intellectual concentration and the ability to contemplate the abstract, artistically disinterested beauty of ideas and forms." The process of the emergence of this quality is also described: from timbre-colored rhythmic ornaments to the musical ideas of rhythmlessness and the disappearance of time. This style already evokes new analogies - not so much with Kandinsky's "improvisations", but with the Suprematist compositions of K. S. Malevich, which the artist himself thought of as an allegory of pure spirituality (the analogy of Scriabin's "astral desert").

Everything in this piece is filled with this “highest reconciliation”: the total ostinato of descending voices with their initially “dark” semantics, the frame of empty fifths in the bass, continuous stay in a closed space. Apparently, the music of the “Preliminary Act” also gravitated towards a similar lack of color, intangibility, fragments of which the composer played to Sabaneev. “He told me,” the memoirist recalls, “about the choirs that would sing here and there, about the exclamations of the hierophants who would pronounce the sacred words of his text, about solo, as it were, arias - but I did not feel these sonorities in the music: this the amazing fabric did not sing with human voices, did not sound with orchestral colors ... It was a piano, full of ghostly sonorities, the world. It is difficult to say how "piano-like" these fragments really were and how they could have been orchestrated by the author. It is clear that he needed incorporeal sounds, dematerialization, the sacred "silence of thought."

Once upon a time, back in the youthful First Sonata, Scriabin supplied the chorale episode of the funeral march with the remark "Quasi niente" - "as if nothing." Within the framework of the quasi-romantic program, this episode was unequivocally perceived as a metaphor for death. In later years, a similar image sounds like the providence of other being, an exit into the infinite space of the cosmos. Quasi niente op. 74 reminds of Malevich's "Black Square" - this limit of all possibilities, a symbol of Nothing and Everything. One can only note that, in contrast to the Suprematist experiments in avant-garde painting, this transcendent image turned out to be the last, final one for Scriabin, symbolically coinciding with the end of his earthly existence.

As you can see, Scriabin's genetic connections with romanticism did not prevent those aspects of his work that were in direct contact with the art of the 20th century and with the works of avant-garde artists from manifesting themselves. In this, in fact, the boundary, binding nature of his historical mission was manifested. Scriabin belonged to the generation about which Bely wrote: "We are the children of this and that century, we are the generation of the turn." Indeed, an entire era ended with Scriabin's work. The very fact of his death in 1915, at the beginning of the First World War, of this “official funeral” of the romantic 19th century, was already symbolic. But the composer's discoveries were directed to the future, defining many characteristic trends in modern musical art. Let's see how it correlated with his music of the 20th century.

Some significant parallels have already been mentioned above. The idea of ​​light and music synthesis brought Scriabin closer not only to Kandinsky, but also to Schoenberg. In Schoenberg's monodrama "The Happy Hand" three years later than "Prometheus", a system of light timbres was used (while Scriabin rather had "light harmonies"). By the way, all three protagonists of "visible music" were presented in 1912 on the pages of the Munich almanac "The Blue Rider": Kandinsky and Schoenberg - their own theoretical works, and Scriabin - an article about Sabaneev's "Poem of Fire". However, other aspects were also united with the expressionism of the Novy Viennese school of the late Scriabin - from techniques in the spirit of Klangfarbenmelodie to specific intonational-harmonic formulas, whose origins go back to late romanticism. On a European scale, a kind of resonance to Scriabin, already in later times, was also the work of O. Messiaen. Such properties of the French master's music are referred to Scriabin, such as the ecstatic elation of the emotional structure, the tendency to "over-major", the attitude to creativity as a liturgical act. However, Scriabin's experience was most clearly refracted in the music of Russian composers - moreover, not in terms of parallels, but in the form of a direct and unambiguous impact.

Thus, the search for the Russian musical avant-garde of the 1910-1920s goes back to Scriabin. Interestingly, the finalist of the romantic era anticipated the avant-garde concept of musical creativity even to a greater extent than his younger contemporaries, the anti-romantics Prokofiev and Stravinsky. In connection with the "Poem of Fire" we have already spoken about Scriabin's exploration of the artistic "edge", "limit" - whether it be a tendency towards ultrachromaticism, on the one hand, or the super-artistic project of the "Mysteries", on the other. A similar utopianism of ideas characterized both the representatives of the symbolist culture and the avant-garde artists who came to replace them. In the later work of Scriabin, attention is also drawn to the very expansion of innovative search, which was accompanied by a special "distillation" of sound matter, its purification from any direct influences and traditions. Composers of the avant-garde set themselves similar tasks, concentrating their interests around the problem of language and striving to create a certain model of the music of the future.

Among Scriabin's successors were those who left Russia after the revolution and developed his experience beyond its borders. These are, in particular, A. S. Lurie, N. B. Obukhov, I. A. Vyshnegradsky. In their work, a purely spiritual connection with the creator of the "Mystery" is also revealed. For example, Obukhov for many years nurtured the idea of ​​"The Book of Life" - a work of a religious and mystical nature, in many respects akin to Scriabin's project. But the continuity in the field of linguistic innovations was still dominant. The same Obukhov was the creator of "harmony with 12 tones without doubling." This system, which affirmed the intrinsic value and equality of all sounds of the chromatic scale, echoed both Schoenberg's dodecaphonic method and the late Scriabin's harmony.

The trend towards ultrachromatics was developed, in turn, by Lurie and Vyshnegradsky. If the first was limited to the manifestation of this method (as early as 1915 he published a prelude for a quarter-tone piano, preceded by a brief theoretical preface) in the futuristic magazine Sagittarius, then for the second he had a fundamental character. Vyshnegradsky was one of the adherents of the micro-interval technique in the music of the 20th century. With the help of this technique, he sought to overcome the discontinuity of equal temperament, creating on its basis the doctrine of the "sound continuum". It is noteworthy that the composer considered Scriabin to be his immediate predecessor on this path. By his own admission, he heard Scriabin's later compositions in an ultrachromatic key and even tried to adapt the Ninth and Tenth Sonatas, as well as the Nocturne Poem op. to the quarter-tone recording. 61. It should be emphasized that Vyshnegradsky perceived Scriabin's prophecies in a holistic way, striving to realize them in various areas of his work. So, he projected the technique of splitting the tone into the area of ​​rhythm, thought about combinations of light and sound, designed a special domed room to fulfill his plans; finally, he created the composition "Day of Being", in his own way responding to the idea of ​​"Mystery".

Vyshnegradsky is one of those figures whose efforts brought Scriabin's experience directly into the European space. Having left Russia in 1920, he was in contact with W. Möllendorff and A. Haba in Berlin, and participated in the Congress of Quarter-tone Composers. He connected most of his life with France, where at the end of the 30s he received the interested attention of Messiaen, and in the post-war years he came into contact with P. Boulez and his school. Thus, thanks to the emigrant Scriabinists, not only did the European musical avant-garde assimilate Scriabin's discoveries, but also a connection was made between its two waves.

What was the fate of Scriabin's legacy in Russia? Even during the composer's lifetime, many musicians, especially from the immediate Moscow environment, experienced the power of his influence. One of them was A. V. Stanchinsky, in whose work Taneyev's "constructivism" - a penchant for strict polyphonic forms - was combined with Scriabin's emotional impulsiveness and exaltation (in a sense, this "strange" symbiosis remained unsolved: Stanchinsky's life path was cut short too early). In the following years, including the “revolutionary” 1920s, almost all young composers went through the passion for Scriabin. The impetus for this passion was the untimely departure of the master, and the very spirit of his innovation, especially close to composers - members of the Association of Contemporary Music. Under the sign of Scriabin, the work of S. E. Feinberg unfolded, the influence of his style was reflected in a number of works by N. Ya. Myaskovsky, An. N. Aleksandrova, A. A. Kreina, D. M. Melkikh, S. V. Protopopov (we have already mentioned Protopopov’s attempt to reconstruct “Preliminary Action”).

The musicians were driven by the desire to comprehend Scriabin's insights, to embody his underrealized, future-oriented ideas. At the same time, there was a theoretical understanding of Scriabin's experience (which began as early as 1916 with a controversy about ultrachromatism), and its introduction into composer practice. In this sense, the figure of N. A. Roslavets is noteworthy, who used in his work his own theory of “synthetaccord”, in many respects similar to the technique of the sound center of the late Scriabin.

It is characteristic that Roslavets, in his own words, saw his kinship with Scriabin exclusively "in a musical-formal, but by no means in an ideological sense." Such technologism in relation to the Scriabin tradition was the result of a kind of “ideological fear”, the reasons for which are not difficult to guess. In the 1920s, many made serious claims to the theosophical-mystical revelations of Scriabin, which seemed at least yesterday and a tribute to the dilapidated decadence. On the other hand, he repelled the categorical nihilism of the leaders of the RAPM, who saw in Scriabin only a preacher of reactionary idealistic philosophy. In any case, the composer's music threatened to be sacrificed to ideological dogma, whatever the nature of the latter.

However, domestic culture ultimately did not limit itself to a "musical-formal" attitude towards Scriabin. The general atmosphere of the 1920s was consonant with the heroic activism and rebellious pathos of his writings. The composer's transformative utopia also fit into the picture of the world of those years. She unexpectedly responded with new "plein air forms of a synthetic type," as Asafiev called the mass events of that time, such as "The Mystery of Liberated Labor" (played out in Petrograd in May 1920). True, this new mystery was already completely Soviet: catholicity was replaced in it by “mass character”, theurgicity by propaganda, and sacred bells by factory horns, sirens and cannonade. No wonder Bely wrote Vyach. Ivanov: “Your orchestras are the same Soviets,” ironically alluding to his mysterial aspirations of previous years.

In general, in the 1920s, the Soviet myth about Scriabin was born, which was destined for a rather long life. He was born not without the efforts of A.V. Lunacharsky, who called Scriabin the petrel of the revolution. This myth expressed itself in different forms: the "Poem of Ecstasy" as a counterpoint to the newsreel of the October events, or the finale of the "Divine Poem" as the apotheosis of the military parade on Red Square - just a few of them. Not to mention such a one-sided interpretation of Scriabin, with such an approach to him, a significant part of his legacy remained outside the boundaries of attention.

This applies primarily to the works of the late period, which did not fit either with Soviet mythology or with the corresponding evaluative attitudes in art. Such, in particular, is the Ninth Sonata, which embodies the image of world evil. In the reprise performance of the side part, a kinship with the “invasion marches” in the symphonies of D. D. Shostakovich, a composer who had his own accounts with the bureaucratic optimism of Soviet times, is captured. The commonality is also manifested in the fact that both composers' grotesque marching episodes act as an act of "desecration of the sacred", the result of a deep transformation of initially positive images. This development of the Lisztian romantic tradition testifies to the power of Scriabin's insights, which connected the 19th century with the 20th century.

Scriabin's influence on new music has by and large never been interrupted. At the same time, the attitude towards him was different, the tides of interest alternated with the ebbs. If we have in mind the tides, then along with the 1920s, we should also talk about later times. The second wave of Scriabinianism began in the 1970s. According to some change cultural paradigms then a new mode of feeling was formed, in contrast to the long-dominated aesthetics of the Neue Sachlichkeit, romantic vibes again gained strength. And the return to Scriabin in this context has become very symptomatic.

True, unlike in the 1920s, this return does not have the character of an outright pilgrimage. Scriabin's experience is perceived with new accents corresponding to the new psychological mood. Not everything in it turns out to be close to modern authors. They seem to be trying to insure themselves against Scriabin's egocentrism and from an excessive, in their opinion, and therefore artificial, feeling of happiness. This is stated, in particular, by A. G. Schnittke in one of his interviews. Indeed, in modern world which has gone through all the cataclysms of the 20th century, such an excess is hardly possible. The new turn of the century gives rise to a new apocalyptic consciousness, but no longer with a touch of heroic messianism, but rather in the form of a repentant confession. Accordingly, spiritual asceticism is preferred to “mystical voluptuousness” (as D. L. Andreev defined the emotional tone of the “Poem of Ecstasy”).

However, repulsion from Scriabin is often the reverse side of attraction to him. Scriabin and the romanticism of the beginning of the century are associated with new ideas about creativity. Characteristic in this regard is the rejection of the inherent value of art - if not in the spirit of world-transforming utopias, then in the spirit of meditation. The fetishization of the present moment, so indicative of mid-century culture, is giving way to the criteria of the Eternal. The vector sensation of space again closes into the infinity of the sphere.

In this sense, Scriabin's understanding of form as a sphere is close, for example, to the principle of icon composition in the work of V. V. Silvestrov, where all elements are also given in advance. With Silvestrov, the forgotten effect of a sounding aura is revived - swaying shadows, vibrations, textured timbre echoes - “breaths”. All these are signs of "cosmic pastorals" (as the author himself calls his works), in which echoes of Scriabin's works are heard.

At the same time, Scriabin's "supreme sophistication" seems to say more contemporary composers than "supreme grandiosity". They are also not close to the pathos of heroic self-affirmation and the spirit of activism, which had many destructive consequences in the 20th century. It is easy to see that this perception of Scriabin is fundamentally alternative to the Soviet myth about him. However, here the reflection of the late phase of culture, which has colored the work of recent years, also makes itself felt. It is reflected in the works of the same Silvestrov, created in the genre of postlude.

One of the impulses for turning to Scriabin in recent decades was the development of the spiritual riches of the Silver Age, including the legacy of Russian philosophers. Composers are re-aware of both the religious quests of that time and those ideas about art that were, for example, formulated by N. A. Berdyaev in his work “The Meaning of Creativity”, a book that appeared a year after Scriabin’s death and found many points of contact with his system. thoughts. Back in the 1920s, B.F. Schlözer reasonably stated that “the writer and the musician are in tune on one point: namely, in the way of“ justifying ”a person - through creativity, in the exclusive affirmation of him as a creator, in the affirmation of his divine sonship not by grace. , but in essence.

Of the musicians of the current generation, this way of thinking is very close to V. P. Artyomov, the composer who most openly postulates his successive connection with Scriabin. This connection is both in the desire to hear the “music of the spheres”, and in the philosophical and religious programs of major works that form a kind of super-cycle (tetralogy “Symphony of the Way”).

However, the works of S. A. Gubaidulina, who in her own way embodies the idea of ​​art-religion, are also perceived as parts of an endlessly lasting liturgy. Scriabin expressed this idea through "absolute music", which at the same time tested its universality in the forms of synesthesia. In Gubaidulina, with the hegemony in her work of instrumental genres, the transmusical expressiveness of plays such as “Light and Dark” (for organ) attracts attention, and in addition, the idea of ​​color symbolism, which originated in her Mosfilm film and music experiments. The general is also seen in the esoteric warehouse of creativity, in an appeal to hidden signs and meanings. Gubaidulina's numerical symbolism is perceived as an echo of the complex harmonic and metrotectonic combinations of the "Poem of Fire", in particular the use of the Fibonacci series in her works - this universal structuring principle, which is thought by the author as "a hieroglyph of our connection with the cosmic rhythm".

Of course, these and other features of the music of contemporary authors cannot be reduced to Scriabin's origins. Behind them is a long experience of world culture, as well as the experiments of the later avant-garde, which has already sublimated the discoveries of the Russian musician. Masters of the current generation are more willing to address in their interviews to O. Messiaen or K. Stockhausen. This can be explained not only by historical closeness to the latter, but, probably, by the fact that Scriabin's innovations in Western music had the prospect of a "pure", non-ideologized development. Whereas precisely the repulsion from the “Scriabin myth” characterizes the current revival of Scriabin in Russian art.

And yet the absence of programs and manifestos so characteristic of the 1920s does not make the new Scriabinianism any less obvious. Moreover, today it is not only a demonstration of a “musical-formal” (according to N. A. Roslavets) connection. After all, behind it is a common picture of the world, an appeal to spiritual experience that arose at a similar point in the cultural spiral and "in the same part of the Universe."