Classical Music/Composers Datebook: January 6
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was born in Moscow on January 6, 1872, into an aristocratic family. When he was only a year old, his mother, a concert pianist, died of tubercolosis. Scriabin's father left for Turkey, leaving the young infant with his doting grandmother and great aunt. He studied the piano from an early age, taking
lessons with famed strict disciplinarian teacher Nikolay
Zverev, who also taught Sergei Rachmaninov and other prodigies
at the same time.
He studied the piano from an early age, taking lessons with famed strict disciplinarian teacher Nikolay Zverev, who also taught Sergei Rachmaninov and other prodigies at the same time.
Famous Contemporaries
His home was a place where famous musicians of the day, such as Tchaikovsky, would be the audience for Zverev's pupils' performances, usually of their own compositions. Zverev was demanding and strict; he even threw Rachmaninov out when he asked for his own room in order to compose without disturbance from noise.
Orchestral Works
While Scriabin wrote only few orchestral works, they are among his most famous, and some are frequently performed. They include three symphonies, a piano concerto (1896), The Poem of Ecstacy (1908) and Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (1910). It was played like a piano, but projected colored light on a screen in the concert hall rather than sound. Most performances of the piece (including the premiere) have not included this light element, although a performance in New York City in 1915 projected colours onto a screen.
Scriabin's original colour keyboard, with its associated turntable of coloured lamps, is preserved in his apartment near the Arbat in Moscow, which is now a museum dedicated to his life and works.
Resources:
Image Credit:
Alexander Skryabin. en.wikipedia.org. Public Domain.
Alexander Scriabin: Russian composer and pianist
Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was born in Moscow on January 6, 1872, into an aristocratic family. When he was only a year old, his mother, a concert pianist, died of tubercolosis. Scriabin's father left for Turkey, leaving the young infant with his doting grandmother and great aunt. He studied the piano from an early age, taking
lessons with famed strict disciplinarian teacher Nikolay
Zverev, who also taught Sergei Rachmaninov and other prodigies
at the same time.Early Life of Scriabin
He studied the piano from an early age, taking lessons with famed strict disciplinarian teacher Nikolay Zverev, who also taught Sergei Rachmaninov and other prodigies at the same time.
Famous Contemporaries
His home was a place where famous musicians of the day, such as Tchaikovsky, would be the audience for Zverev's pupils' performances, usually of their own compositions. Zverev was demanding and strict; he even threw Rachmaninov out when he asked for his own room in order to compose without disturbance from noise.
Orchestral Works
While Scriabin wrote only few orchestral works, they are among his most famous, and some are frequently performed. They include three symphonies, a piano concerto (1896), The Poem of Ecstacy (1908) and Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (1910). It was played like a piano, but projected colored light on a screen in the concert hall rather than sound. Most performances of the piece (including the premiere) have not included this light element, although a performance in New York City in 1915 projected colours onto a screen.
Scriabin's original colour keyboard, with its associated turntable of coloured lamps, is preserved in his apartment near the Arbat in Moscow, which is now a museum dedicated to his life and works.
Resources:
- The Grove concise Dictionary of Music, edited by Stanley Sadie. London: Macmillan, 1994.
- The Oxford Dictionary of Music, Revised Edition, edited by Michael Kennedy. OUP, 1994, reprinted 2001.
Image Credit:
Alexander Skryabin. en.wikipedia.org. Public Domain.
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