Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Scriabin's Fourth
Sonata
Kenneth Smith
UNIVERSITY OF DURHAM1
Feeling that the drudgery of teaching work had stifled the talents of a
creative genius, Scriabin left his post at the Moscow Conservatoire in
1903, devoting himself entirely to composition. Many ideas that had
been gestating during this time grew into some of his finest
compositions, yielding a surge of music often referred to as his
'middle period'. It was during this time that Scriabin's music and
philosophy became preoccupied with the mystical and the erotic.
The aims of this brief paper are (1) to explore how Scriabin
developed a rich musical symbolism to depict certain types of erotic
encounter; (2) to explore the significance of predecessors such as
Wagner to the development of this symbolism; (3) to define ways in
which this language characterises masculine and feminine elements
in an attempt to portray idealised erotic experience and (4) to
examine issues of gender polarity in view of Scriabin's philosophy of
artistic creation.2
Particularly reflective of this 'middle period' is the Fourth Sonata
in F# Major, op.30. The music is complemented by an unpublished
example of Scriabin's linguistically over-charged poetry, in which a
superhuman, god-like being is enticed by a distant star which he
flies towards and blissfully engulfs. The two movements follow the
poem's teleological form in one of Scriabin's earliest attempts to
create a state of ecstasy, symbolised by 'flight'.
In a light mist, transparent vapourLost afar and yet distinctA star
gleams softly.
How beautiful! The bluish mysteryOf her glowbeckons me,
cradles me.
Example 1
Each of these voices contains characteristics of gender
representation which were prevalent in the nineteenth century. The
first sonority we hear in the left-hand is essentially a B 'major 7th'
chord, the outer parts containing the interval of the seventh. A
parallel chromatic descent begins which lasts throughout the first
four bars.
Example 2
Susan McClary argued that the descending chromatic line is a
common trope for female seduction in nineteenth-century opera to
the extent that in Bizet's Carmen, Carmen's voice is confined to this
kind of melody. Feminine control is displayed through the rate of
chromatic descent and Carmen playfully lingers over certain pitches
in order to draw attention to her control. 9 Some commentators have
found elements of chromaticism in the voice of the seductive sirens
in Wagner's Tannhuser, and the influence of Wagner was certainly
Example 3
Using the same tremolandi that later portray the stars in
Wolfram's Act III prayer 'Da scheinest du, O! lieblichster der Sterne',
Venus uses chromaticism as a tool to regain some semblance of
control. In the Fourth Sonata this descending chromatic line
corresponds to the poetic subject (undoubtedly Scriabin himself)
who yearns for the star to beckon him he wants to be seduced.
Example 4
This assertive, powerful, strident sequence of fourths, associated
with the world of military trumpet calls, has shown the manliness of
many an operatic hero, particularly Wagner's Siegfried, a character
who is often cited as the influence to Scriabin's early plans for an
opera. Siegfried's debut as a protagonist in The Ring is fairly typical:
Example 5
These fourths, played with anacruses, are found as recurring
motives throughout Scriabin's career. Ellon Carpenter finds many
variants of the following figure in the Third Sonata, op.23. 11
Example 6
Observe how this figure rises boldly with a fourth and then
descends chromatically. And this pattern finds other voices, most
famously in the Poem of Ecstasy, op. 54, commonly known as the
trumpet's "I am" motive.12
Example 7
In the Poem of Ecstasy it famously represents the assertion of the
ego a masculine, creative ego amid a passive universe. The motive
microcosmically contains much of the discourse of Scriabin's music;
the masculine trumpet-call reaches out of the music's surface and
becomes dissolved back into it through a chromatic fall. This offers a
pattern of assertion followed by retraction, or attempt followed by
failure; these patterns expand into phrase structures everywhere,
particularly in the following presto volando movement. Here the
first two bars are transposed upwards by a fourth and followed by a
chromatic ascent until this melodic rise dissipates and we are drawn
back down to our starting point of D#.
Example 8
The cumulative affect of phrases such as this, where tension is
generated and then mildly dissipated, work within a sonata form to
produce a special kind of forward momentum in which, as Stephen
Downes puts it, "the sonata design is subsumed or overwhelmed by a
single climactic trajectory towards a final cataclysmic revelation". 13 I
can find no better way of illustrating Scriabin's structure than with
some of Wilhelm Reich's diagrams from The Function of the
Orgasm, showing the 'Forepleasure mechanism' and the 'Endpleasure mechanism'; only in the latter "is the energy discharge
equal to the accumulated tension".14
Figure 1
Each temporary set-back to the persistent god-like subject
increases his desire to reach a state of orgasm which Scriabin
predictably explores at the very close of the work.
Looking back to the "I am" motive from the Poem of Ecstasy we
find the fourths balanced along the temporal axis through the
chromatic fall which immediately follows.
Rising
Chromatic
fourths
Fall
But in the opening of the Fourth Sonata the fourths continue
their trajectory and balance is restored contrapuntally by the
descending chromatic voice. The two paradigms are spatially
superimposed.
Rising
Fourths
Chromatic
Fall
Bar 6 of this sonata displays yet another operatic gesture when
over a gentle, lulling rhythm, parallel sixths are heard which
discharge the tension of the sevenths in the opening chords.
Example 9
Singing in sixths or thirds is a well-known symbol of the union of
characters in the operatic tradition. Scriabin's favourite opera
Tristan and Isolde appears to be a poor model here because, when
the characters initially drink the love potion, most of the subsequent
discourse in Act I occurs in pure octaves. But we may be able claim
that this is just 'the drink talking' here as most of their Act II
discourse utilises many parallel thirds and sixths at moments of
particular closeness.
In bar 6 this 'coming together' of the two voices seems to be
complete. The lower chromatic voice has tamed the upward thrust of
the rising fourths and pulled the F# downwards to create the octave
displacement thus we feel satisfaction. But we are only allowed to
enjoy this harmonic union for one bar. The dominant seventh on G#
(II7) which underpins the gesture, resolves to a C# seventh chord
(V7) for a mere quaver beat before an obtrusive 'wrong note' throws
a spanner in the works an Fx marked 'con voglia'. This 'wrong
note' comes from the expectation that the upper D# (6) would
resolve naturally as a suspension to a C# (5), and this drop of a
minor sixth comes as something of an interruption. This 'dropping'
figure becomes a salient motive at the ends of phrases throughout
the sonata. It always appears at moments where the voices fail to
unite and where the expected tonal resolution is taken to new
harmonic areas. Perhaps this is another gesture from opera, where a
decisive statement, often of rejection, is supported by a melodic
drop. In Tristan we find this everywhere, particularly in the many
instances where Tristan and Isolde repeat each other's names in a
desperate bid to unite, but the repetition only serves to highlight
their individuality. This example from the end of Act I is particularly
representative.
Example 10
We find a similar pattern in the love scene from Siegfried. Just
before Brnnhilde sings her beautiful 'Ewig war ich, ewig bin ich' she
begins to show signs of doubt and turmoil.
Example 11
The melodic drop in the Sonata falls from the note D# (6),
simultaneously prolonging the pitch from the first bar and reducing
the voice of rising fourths to its starting point square one. Indeed
the voice immediately uses a simple scale to reemphasise this 6
through an appoggiatura in a Tristanesque 'longing' motive.
Example 12
The 'Tristan chord' here is well placed as Scriabin's poem refers
to the subject having "no other goal than longing" the desire to
desire. Scriabin undoubtedly mused upon the concept of desire
leading only to renewed desire in his youthful readings of
Schopenhauer and obviously felt the resonance with Wagner.
In bar 19 of the sonata Scriabin launches into a section which
develops this 'longing motive' in many different keys. He generally
seems to interpret the Tristan chord as a French sixth, accented with
an appoggiatura. This resolves to the dominant and thus indicates
the tonic only through implication. In this way Wagner's opening to
Tristan presents the key of A minor through use of a French sixth
moving to a dominant seventh without actually presenting a specific
tonic chord. The tonic is the absent goal.
Example 13
And this is how tonality is made implicit in the Fourth Sonata.
Scriabin exploits many key relationships of varying stability; in fact
he indicates no less than ten different keys throughout the
movement without ever giving a definitive cadence. Moreover these
French sixth chords frequently present the dominant onto which
they resolve as if it were satisfaction in itself without the need for a
Example 14
In this example the trill, which is usually an embellishment of a
dominant chord, actually appears over the French sixth and makes
this feel like a chromatic move to G major rather than to C major.
Tension is only partially discharged in line with Reich's
'Forepleasure mechanism'. These pseudo-cadences occur in many
different and distantly related keys, always searching for a tonal
object of satisfaction, finding only transitory moments of
gratification. The only cadence per se is given to us at bar 14 in the
key of B flat. On reemphasis of this local tonic at bar 16 however, the
melodic material from the 'union of sixths' is now presented in an
incomplete form as a single monodic voice. This monodic voice
soon descends from its serene, angelic heights and becomes
chromatic, once more leading us to the characteristic negation of the
dropping sixth. This time the sixth is intensified with cross-rhythms
in the lower parts a further separation.
Example 15
If we have any doubts about the separation of the musical
material into an active / passive dichotomy in the early bars, which
were tinged with an atmosphere of "light mist" and "transparent
vapor", then more concrete evidence can be found in the repetitions
of the opening period structure. At bar 35 there is an interchange of
voices where the left-hand of the pianist brings out the rising fourths
whilst the right-hand plays a more objectified version of our 'siren
song' with the chromatic object moving in octaves. This presentation
provides support to the image of the "distant star" which "twinkles
softly" being played pianissimo in the high register with
"glimmering rays".
Example 16
Separation between the voices is emphasized in two newer ways.
Firstly, the piano is spatially inverted. The masculine fourths are
now in the lower 'earthy' register and are constantly trying to
penetrate the distant material in the right hand which is now much
higher. At times the hands come close together and, when the
fourths are articulated, they almost touch each other as if the
musical drama is now being enacted in the physical gestures of the
pianist. Secondly, the two voices become rhythmically disjointed; the
lower articulates the triple metre while the upper presents a crossrhythm in groups of four, adding a further layer of separation to the
voices.
We have read the poem which was written to accompany the
sonata and have heard the story of the man trying to fly to and have
union with a distant star, but let us look at these opening measures
from a different angle. In 1903 Scriabin was about to lapse into
solipsism under the influence of the psychologist Wilhelm Wundt
and philosopher Johann Fichte who saw the mind as the absolute
principle of reality. As is well known, Scriabin came to believe that
the physical world was a mere representation of his own psyche, and
he was therefore the creator of the world. As early as 1894 his
notebooks show a firm belief that creation is the key to salvation: "I
can say that they [people] can expect nothing from life except THAT
WHICH THEY CREATE BY THEMSELVES ALONE".15 And in 1904
his notebooks read "Thus, it is that I am the author of all
experiences. I am the creator of the world ..." 16 Scriabin's initiation
to Philosophy came in 1894 through Schopenhauer's World as Will
and Idea. Of course Scriabin did not feel any sense of responsibility
to apply Schopenhauer in the same pessimistic context. Scriabin felt
that by imposing his will rather than the will, he was 'overcoming
himself' in a Nietzschean sense. He synthesised these ideas to
predict a highly optimistic end when he would lead the world to
apocalyptic ecstasy with his eschatological Mysterium a final
satisfaction of the will where the suffering of desire would be laid to
rest.17
The act of creation was equated with eroticism to Scriabin;
Leonid Sabaneeff records the following conversation.
the creative act is inextricably linked to the sexual act. I definitely
know that the creative urge in myself has all the signs of a sexual
stimulation within me ... And note please that the creative artist is
square in the middle of this the weaker he [the composer] is in the
sexual area, the weaker his art. Maximum creativity; maximum
eroticism. Look at Wagner. Tristan is his maximum, and Parsifal,
already it has dropped. It's the work of a worn out old man.18
Example 17
This chord expands into a whole-tone introduction which, in
turn, gains momentum and grows into a diatonic 'first subject'.
Scriabin amplified this principle himself, appending the following
lines to this Fifth Sonata:
I summon you to life, secret yearnings,You who have been
drowned in the dark depths,Of the creative spirit, you timorous
Embryos of life, it is to you that I bring daring.24
Returning to the Fourth Sonata we hear the initial womb-like
chord, the B 'major 7th' discussed earlier. The third of this chord is
missing in the first moments however, and the emasculated chord
lacks the distinguishing feature of major and minor. On the fourth
beat the pitch is presented in a registrally displaced form, thus giving
birth to the separation which is to become the main discourse of the
music. The third of the chord becomes the beginning of the rising
fourths D#.
Example 18
This D# is the 6th of the F# major scale and becomes vitally
important. The second movement of the sonata is famously
associated with the concept of 'flight' and one can hear many
obvious musical analogies to flying: sequentially ascending tremolo
patterns, broken rhythms, small motives being hurled around the
upper register, and the Left hand's frequent pedal points become
centres of gravity. There are more subtle means of achieving this
sense of flight which are beyond the scope of the paper but one we
will mention briefly is the fact that throughout the entire sonata,
those with a Schenkerian viewpoint find it difficult to build an
Urlinie into the piece, principally because the 5 (C#) is constantly
being displaced by the 6 (D#).25 This insistence on 6 again probably
stems from Scriabin's reading of Tristan and Isolde, particularly
Isolde's love-death as her soul ascends through the air to a climactic
E major chord with a suspended sixth (C#) moving downwards to a
B major chord with a similar suspension (G#). These sixths
beautifully soar above Isolde's vocal line.
Example 19
The 6 was born in the opening of the Fourth Sonata and as we
shall see, is only extinguished in the final bars. From creation the
birth of polarities, Scriabin leads us to their ultimate destruction
"dematerialization" and "synthesis". Approaching the end of the
sonata we hear a final reminder of the irreconcilable D# (6) versus
C# (5) conflict before an apotheosised rendition of the opening
movement, in which the two gendered voices are fused into fistfuls
of repeated chords the same chords in octaves.
Example 20
The D# (6) becomes naturalized and chromatically falls to a C#
(5) at the moment when we hear the first pure F# triad; the final
chromatic seduction has been overcome.
Example 21
Thus all polarities become dissolved into a presentation of the
theme from the Andante and ultimately into a grandiose exposition
of the tonic chord, the same chord which has been implied many
times but has remained abstract.
Wagner achieved this pattern of tonic avoidance over four hours
and cleverly manipulates his material after the final climax of
Tristan to end the opera as beautifully as it began, thoroughly
enjoying a tonic chord of B major. Scriabin gives the tonic only as
the very final gesture, perhaps somewhat crudely. He seems to have
seen the tonic chord as the driving force behind his music, and so
skilful is this avoidance of the chord that when it does arrive, it can
sound almost disappointing and trite. Even as late as Prometheus,
op.60, Scriabin still ended on a massively orchestrated tonic chord
despite the fact that the work is debatably atonal. Could the modern
listener then be justified in siding with Adorno in viewing 'out of
context' tonic chords as "impotent clichs" which "no longer fulfill
their function"?26 It is probably not unreasonable of Scriabin to give
the public audience what he had been teasing them with for seven
minutes, what they wanted to hear an ecstatic tonic chord in which
all differences disappear what Susan McClary referred to, drawing
Footnotes
1 A version of this paper was first presented at the RMA Research
Students' Conference in Durham, 30 March01 April 2005 Back
2 This paper is written within the context of a relatively new
trend in musicology that has focused on issues of gender and
sexuality. Initially influenced by the feminist movement in the
1980's, writers such as Catherine Clment, Ruth Solie, Marcia
Citron, Susan McClary, Suzanne Cusick, Fred Maus, Lawrence
Kramer, Mary Ann Smart and Stephen Downes among many others,
have examined both the cultural context of musical composition and
the musical discourse within the compositions themselves. Writers
have tended to focus on the genres of opera, lied and programmemusic, using the extra-musical dimension as a mediator between
broad sociological issues and minute details of musical composition.
Scriabin's Fourth Sonata is ideal material to examine because his
own poetry, despite being purely private, reflects his broader
philosophical perspectives and simultaneously helps to elucidate the
technical processes of his musical logic. As part of a larger project,
this brief paper highlights issues which I will explore more fully in
Scriabin's piano and orchestral literature, and hopefully the models
of gender-construction which can be found in this private
programme-music may be useful in defining procedures in his
'absolute' compositions. Analyses of Scriabin's music have continued
to appear since his death in 1915. My own gendered readings of the
music are a preliminary attempt to explain the compositions in view
of Scriabin's mystical-erotic preoccupations. Back
3 Faubion Bowers, Scriabin: A Biography, i, 2nd ed. (New York:
Dover Publications, Inc., 1996), pp. 3323 Back
4 Boris de Schloezer, Scriabin: Artist and Mystic, trans. Nicolas
Slonimsky, (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987), p. 113 Back
5 H. P. Blavatsky, The Secret Doctrine: the Synthesis of Science,
Religion, and Philosophy (London: The Theosophical Publishing