Scriabin: A Biography

This definitive biography of Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915), newly revised and updated by the author, incorporates many confessional letters and personal reminiscences in a vivid, highly personal portrait of the controversial Russian composer. One of the visionary pioneers who sought a new musical language, at least a full decade before the advances of Stravinsky and Schoenberg, Scriabin immersed himself in a search for a way to express, in sound, the mystical and theosophical ideals that obsessed him.

This monumental biography probes the complexities of the composer's personal revolution as it chronicles the turbulent events of his upbringing, marital life and career: his tours of Europe and America, abandonment of his wife, brushes with homosexuality and madness and the flowering of an unrealized vision to synthesize all of art and life in an all-encompassing final work.

Originally published in two volumes, the work is republished here in one volume unabridged, complete with a catalog of Scriabin works and 49 rare photographs.

CONTENIDO:

Introduction to the Dover edition
Author's note

Volume One

Book I.
Kaleidoscope of Russian music
I. Origins
II. Atmosphere
III. History
IV. Malaise
Scriabin
I. For and against
II. Among the Soviets... for a while

Book II
I. Family
II. Cadet Corps
III. Music
IV. Conservatory
V. Reputation
VI. Love
VII. Maecenas
VIII. Abroad
IX. Tour
X. Marriage
XI. Second tour
XII. Professorship
XIII. Two symphonies
XIV. Professorship (continued)
XV. Opera
XVI. Philosophy
XVII. Middle masterworks

Volume Two

Book III
I. Intrigue
II. Break with Vera
III. Arrangements
IV. Revolution
V. Doctrine
VI. End of Vera
VII. Plekhanov
VIII. 1905-6 notebooks
IX. Break with Belaieff
X. "The Poem of Ecstasy"
XI. America
XII. Europe again
XIII. Home
XIV. Finale

Catalog of Scriabin's works
Index of principal names