Piano Sonata No. 10 (Scriabin)
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Piano Sonata A piano sonata is a sonata written for a solo piano. Piano sonatas are usually written in three or four movements, although some piano sonatas have been written with a single movement ( Scarlatti, Liszt, Scriabin, Medtner, Berg), others with t ...
No. 10, Op. 70, was written by
Alexander Scriabin Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin (; russian: Александр Николаевич Скрябин ; – ) was a Russian composer and virtuoso pianist. Before 1903, Scriabin was greatly influenced by the music of Frédéric Chopin and composed ...
in 1913. It was his final work in this form. The piece is highly
chromatic Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to musical instruments, intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony. They are very often used as a pair, ...
and tonally ambiguous like Scriabin's other late works, although arguably less
dissonant In music, consonance and dissonance are categorizations of simultaneous or successive Sound, sounds. Within the Western tradition, some listeners associate consonance with sweetness, pleasantness, and acceptability, and dissonance with harshness ...
than most of his late works. It is characterized by frequent
trill TRILL (Transparent Interconnection of Lots of Links) is an Internet Standard implemented by devices called TRILL switches. TRILL combines techniques from bridging and routing, and is the application of link-state routing to the VLAN-aware custom ...
s and
tremolo In music, ''tremolo'' (), or ''tremolando'' (), is a trembling effect. There are two types of tremolo. The first is a rapid reiteration: * Of a single Musical note, note, particularly used on String instrument#Bowing, bowed string instrument ...
s. It is sometimes called his "Insect Sonata", referring to his words: "My Tenth Sonata is a sonata of insects. Insects are born from the sun ..they are the kisses of the sun." The atmosphere of the introductory pages of the Tenth Sonata is veiled and distant, like an impressionist reflection, but much more intensely elevated and spiritual. Trills soon sweep into every corner of the music, and in the last pages they are transformed into a glorious reverberation, as if shimmering with pulses of glowing light and taking on lives of their own. Such life and light/sound corroborations are typical of the composer's own imaginative world. The tenth sonata is in closer dialogue with Sonata Form than some of his other sonatas. It opens with a few desolate notes, forming an
augmented chord Augment or augmentation may refer to: Language *Augment (Indo-European), a syllable added to the beginning of the word in certain Indo-European languages *Augment (Bantu languages), a morpheme that is prefixed to the noun class prefix of nouns i ...
and then a
diminished chord In music theory, a diminished triad (also known as the minor flatted fifth) is a triad consisting of two minor thirds above the root. It is a minor triad with a lowered ( flattened) fifth. When using chord symbols, it may be indicated by the ...
. Then, it moves on to a simple chromatic theme, and then back to the opening theme. Scriabin then introduces the luminous trills that pervade the rest of the piece, and then moves on to a third theme with a chromatically descending melody. Following the sonata format, these three themes take on a modified form in the
development Development or developing may refer to: Arts *Development hell, when a project is stuck in development *Filmmaking, development phase, including finance and budgeting *Development (music), the process thematic material is reshaped *Photographi ...
before settling down to the recapitulation. During the middle portion, the feverish buzzing rises to a ferocious climax that thrusts both hands' trills into the upper register of the instrument. The very first, single-line gesture of the piece is not given again until after the richly-varied "recapitulation" has been made; it arrives quite unexpectedly, and is punctuated by a falling fourth in the bass that ends on C natural -- a pitch that, in his last music, assumes great significance for Scriabin, who came to view it as a kind of cleansing tonal focus. Like Scriabin's other sonatas, it is both technically and musically highly demanding for the pianist. A typical performance is about 12 minutes. Notable recorded performances of this piece include that of Scriabin’s son-in-law and musical champion,
Vladimir Sofronitzky Vladimir Vladimirovich Sofronitsky (or Sofronitzky; russian: Влади́мир Влади́мирович Софрони́цкий, ''Vladimir Sofronitskij''; – August 29, 1961) was a Soviet-Russian classical pianist, best known as an interpr ...
, and that of the great pianist
Vladimir Horowitz Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz; yi, וולאַדימיר סאַמוילאָוויטש האָראָוויץ, group=n (November 5, 1989)Schonberg, 1992 was a Russian-born American classical pianist. Considered one of the greatest pianists of all ...
, who also championed many of Scriabin’s works throughout his long career. The Russian virtuoso
Arcadi Volodos Arcadi Arcadievich Volodos (russian: Аркадий Аркадьевич Володось, links=no, ''Arkadij Arkadjevich Volodos''; born 24 February 1972) is a Russian pianist and composer. His first name is sometimes transliterated Arcady or Ar ...
took the very unusual step of opening his Carnegie Hall debut concert with this Sonata, reflecting a daring approach to programming as well as a commitment to Scriabin’s legacy. More recently,
Yuja Wang Yuja Wang (; born February 10, 1987) is a Chinese classical pianist. She was born in Beijing, began studying piano there at age six, and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing and the Curtis Institute of Music in Phila ...
delivered a performance of the Sonata in recital at Carnegie Hall, as well as the Philharmonie in Berlin.


References


External links


Scriabin's Tenth Sonata available for download
on UBUWEB (Aspen issue no. 2 item 3), along with three preludes and introductory comments by
Faubion Bowers Faubion Bowers (January 29, 1917 – November 17, 1999) was an American academic and writer in the area of Asian Studies, especially Japanese theatre. He also wrote the first full-length biography of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. During t ...
. * {{Authority control Piano Sonata 10 1913 compositions