Principles of Tonal Organization in Alexander Scriabin’s Works after Op. 58

Abstract

Throughout his life, Scriabin’s harmonic language underwent an evolution. His late period style featured a radical break from traditional harmony. This article examines some of the innovations to be found in Scriabin’s late works. A general theoretical background on Scriabin’s late period harmonic language is presented, as it is needed in order to understand the subsequent analyses. Likewise, main philosophical ideas pertaining to mysticism and theosophy, distilled from Scriabin’s notebooks (recently published in 2018 in an English translation by Simon Nicholls and Michael Pushkin), are summarized. A detailed analysis of his Etude Op. 65, No. 3 pinpoints the unique features of his late style and attempts to link certain compositional procedures found late period works after Op. 60, to general mystic ideas. Lastly, implications for further Scriabin research are presented. Keywords: Alexander Scriabin, Late Period, Etudes Op. 65, Mysticism, Theosophy, Harmony.