The Musical Talents of Alexander Scriabin - Assignment Example

Alexander Scriabin The musical talents of Alexander Scriabin have attracted praises for many decades. Scriabin composed and played piano in his own style, thereby contributing to the avant-garde. Scriabin did not only entertain soviet nationals, but also music lovers across the world. Musicians usually learn their musical styles from the pre-existing styles, but would later switch to another style in order to project their talents to the society. Scriabin displayed extra ordinary talent in playing piano, gaining popularity among the professional pianists. The paper seeks to analyse the musical work of Scriabin focusing on his contribution to changes in music composition and performance. Scriabin Preludes Scriabin music performances are some of the greatest pieces in piano performance. Critics have observed that Scriabin performance of Prelude Op. 11 No. 2 did not reflect the traditional trends in playing notes using piano (Leikin 136). In this piece, Scriabin breaks slurs then mixes non-legato with short motifs or the staccato notes. The old Guard performance does not display any of the above techniques in mixed notes or creating staccato notes to cut short a phrase that should be long. This means that the performance would not only display new techniques, but will create advent of a new genre in piano performance. Some critics have observed that the Scriabin created romantic convention, which enabled the spinning of long musical lines (Leikin 161). It is important to note that the combination that brought the legato notes and staccato notes created new performance in the Prelude Op. The notes make the tonal variation and rhythmic balances different from the Old Guard. Prelude OP. 11 is one of the admired pieces that many other composers have thought of performing because of the great composition that combined various components in music. Scriabin composition borrows its attributes from Beethoven and Mozart. Mozart and Beethoven projected short slurs with rare crossing of lines (Chang 20). It is notable that Scriabin prolonged the slurs and crossed the lines to come up with a combination that was perfect. Critics have attributed the performance to Scriabin accident that led him to use the left hand more than the right hand (Damare 77). The notes played in the concerto are quite high and are unique because no composer or pianist had played such notes especially when using the left hand. The sterling tempo in the concerto Prelude 11 performance stunned many artists because it did not only increase its tempo towards the climax, but also the arrangement of note that created the effects. Critics observed that the tempo of the music often fluctuated but surprisingly remained stable without creating any disorder (Damare 79). The turbulent sound that streams due to the high notes played in the concerto did attract many viewers during Scriabin’s performances. Scriabin’s songs emulated Russian folk tunes, which had asymmetrical rhythms. The Preludes took the 5/8 motivic structures. Critics have observed that Scriabin concerto resembled the songs of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Igor Stravinsky, and Modest Mussorgsky (Chang 23). It is important to note that Scriabin did not perform his tunes the traditional way but incorporated the new ideas to sing notes that were higher than the traditional notes played on the piano. Scriabin used piano to play his notes; although piano was not new to Scriabin or his audience, the concerto music that he played had new notes which demonstrated a new style of performance. The Prelude OP. 11 comprises of new notes that his predecessors had not played. Scriabin’s childhood was very instrumental to his skills as a composer and a pianist. Born of a mother who was a pianist (though she died when he was one year old), Scriabin took piano lessons with Nikolai Zverev. That teacher was strict in instilling discipline to his students. When Scriabin joined the Cadet Corps, he demonstrated an interest in music by becoming a friend of Leonid Limontov. Scriabin’s idea of composing his own tune is evident during his early days in college where he disagreed with his music lecturer over the type of song he ought to compose (Chang 16). Scriabin did not have the will to compose songs that did not impress him. This tends to explain the new ideas that he introduced in playing piano as well as composing notes that were either a tone higher or staccato, contrary to the traditional versions. The rich background created the urge which Scriabin displayed by singing notes that are different from what his challengers played or what was traditionally played. Historically, Scriabin’s performance delineates formal sections and phrases by relaxing the tempo of the performance. Scriabin could use fermatas to separate sections or phrases, which were characteristic of the formal performance (Alter 155). Deviating from the formal trends in composing and playing notes on the piano seems to be the genesis of the Avant-Garde. The tempo of his performance would speed shortly and drop at the end. These attributes built Scriabin to come up with a new trend in playing music. Scriabin Sonatas Scriabin’s performance of sonatas did not rely on the formal trends, which were applicable during the romantic period. Critics have observed that Scriabin deviated from the sonatas trends played during the Romantic time. The composition of Scriabin Sonatas qualifies them as Avant–Garde because they declined the procedures observed in the performance of the time. Scriabin’s sonatas demonstrated pitch and rhythm modification from the formal performance. Scriabin altered LH throughout his composition and performance making his performance unique. Normally, LH displays the following as its original segment (72, 79-80, 91-92, 155-157, 161, 167, 171, and 176-179); however, Scriabin introduced higher notes altering the formal trends in playing the sonatas (Leikin 151). It is notable that Scriabin could avoid the RH 63-65 note and would go a head to strike the RH 70, 177 then proceeds to strike LH 99. This style is unique and it produced different notes from the anticipated normal trend. Scriabin’s sonatas did not reflect the Russian rhythms; instead, it promoted the interests of Scriabin. The trend introduced by Scriabin in performing sonatas did not borrow from the traditional trends; it was his own unique composition. Critics have observed that Scriabin could introduce deviations in various sections, which appeared to critics of Scriabin as mistakes, but Scriabin could confirm that he did not play the notes mistakenly by playing the same rhythm and pitch repeatedly (Damare 266). This aspect confirmed to them that Scriabin’s performance was unique and it did not rely on the formal performance. Notably, Scriabin did not introduce the use of new instruments when introducing these notes. However, he used the same instruments used by other pianists to produce the unique notes. It is interesting to note that Scriabin could delay playing some notes while aligning the same with the beats (Alter 155). This observation was a confirmation to his audience that he knew exactly what the composition would yield and that it did not occur erroneously. Scriabin’s performance had flexible tempos, which made them suit the notes played. It is evident through the work of Scriabin that he was able to slow the tempos from semi quiver note of 140 to 145 at a tempo of 1-50 (Leikin 153). Such performance was wonderful because it was very different from trends employed in formal performance. Critical observation of Scriabin’s work identifies three trends employed in tempo change especially when accelerating in mm. 40-43, 93-95 and retardation in m. 48 (Damare 73). The perfect combination of the above trend and repetition of the same to the audience elicited the Avant Garde. Critics observed that Scriabin accident that broke his right hand must have contributed to his trends in playing notes and maintaining the music tempo his own way (Berry 269). It is also plausible that Scriabin’s early childhood performance and attitude towards performing the formal pieces must have contributed to his ideas of the Avant Garde. Other than Scriabin biography that contributed to his model of performance, historically, Scriabin crisscrossed countries performing to audiences in France and England, among other countries. This influenced his performance especially with respect to Russian folk tunes. Scriabin displayed a little of the Russian tunes in his early performance, but abandoned them to come up with new trends in performance. In conclusion, Scriabin’s concerto and sonatas performance represent the Avant Garde because he deviated from the formal trends by playing different notes, changing the tempos, pitch and rhythm of his music. His background as a child and education prepared him to the kind of pianists that he later became. Scriabin played great notes using his left hand, a trend that was unique during the Romantic time. His performance displayed the deviation repeatedly thereby confirming to his critics that the trends were his composition. Works cited Alter, M. Nora. Chris Marker. Illinois: University of Illinois Press. 2006. Print. Berry, C. David. A Topical Guide to Schenkerian Literature: An Annotated Bibliography with Indices. New York: Pendragon Press. 2004. Print. Chang, Chia-Lun. Five Preludes Opus 74 by Alexander Scriabin: The Mystic Chord as Basis for New Means of Harmonic Progression. New York: ProQuest. 2006. Print. Damare, M. Brad. Music and Literature in Silver Age Russia: Mikhail Kuzmin and Alexander Scriabin. Michigan: ProQuest. 2008. Print. Leikin, Anatole. The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin. New York: Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. 2011. Print. Read More