Scriabin, Aleksandr

Scriabin, Aleksandr (Nikolayevich)

Aleksandr Scriabin.

(credit: Novosti Press Agency)

(born Jan. 6, 1872, Moscow, Russia—died April 27, 1915, Moscow) Russian composer and pianist. He studied piano and composition at the Moscow Conservatory and then launched a successful concert career. His early music was mostly for piano (including études, preludes, and sonatas) but also included two symphonies and a piano concerto. After 1900 he was much preoccupied with mystical philosophy and began using unusual harmonies, producing a third symphony and the Divine Poem (1904). He became involved in theosophy, which provided the basis for the orchestral Poem of Ecstasy (1908) and Prometheus (1910); the latter called for the projection of colours onto a screen during the performance. No longer thinking in terms of music alone, he made sketches for a huge operatic ritual, Mysterium, which was never composed.