The Piano Sonata No. 4 in F-sharp major,
Op. 30, 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 ...
around 1903 and first published in 1904. It consists of two
movements, ''Andante'' and ''Prestissimo volando'', and is one of Scriabin's shortest
piano sonatas (a typical performance takes about 8 minutes). The
sonata
Sonata (; Italian: , pl. ''sonate''; from Latin and Italian: ''sonare'' rchaic Italian; replaced in the modern language by ''suonare'' "to sound"), in music, literally means a piece ''played'' as opposed to a cantata (Latin and Italian ''cant ...
is generally considered to be the beginning of Scriabin's middle period due to the newly mystical sonorities and
tonal ambiguity of the first movement. It remains one of the most performed of Scriabin's sonatas.
Stylistic traits
The sonata is written in a post-
Romantic
Romantic may refer to:
Genres and eras
* The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries
** Romantic music, of that era
** Romantic poetry, of that era
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style, similar to Scriabin's other works of the time. The first movement, expressive and calm, is
monothematic
In music, a subject is the material, usually a recognizable melody, upon which part or all of a composition is based. In forms other than the fugue, this may be known as the theme.
Characteristics
A subject may be perceivable as a complete m ...
(based on a single theme). The second movement, celebratory and climactic, starts ''
attacca
A variety of musical terms are likely to be encountered in printed scores, music reviews, and program notes. Most of the terms are Italian, in accordance with the Italian origins of many European musical conventions. Sometimes, the special mus ...
'' right after the ''Andante'' movement.
A more
Romantic
Romantic may refer to:
Genres and eras
* The Romantic era, an artistic, literary, musical and intellectual movement of the 18th and 19th centuries
** Romantic music, of that era
** Romantic poetry, of that era
** Romanticism in science, of that e ...
idea is the use of
cyclic form in restating the ''Andante’s'' main theme (''dolcissimo'') as the ecstatic climax of the ''Prestissimo volando'' movement (''Focosamente'', ''giubiloso''). This outlay appears closely related to the last two movements from the
3rd sonata, also linked by an ''attacca'', where the climax of the finale likewise restates the lyrical ''Andante'' theme of the third movement. Russian composers such as
Tchaikovsky or
Rachmaninoff often restated the lyric theme of the finale movement as climactic
coda
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* Movie coda, a post-credits scene
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(for example in the
piano concerto
A piano concerto is a type of concerto, a solo composition in the classical music genre which is composed for a piano player, which is typically accompanied by an orchestra or other large ensemble. Piano concertos are typically virtuoso showpiec ...
s). Scriabin instead returns to the 'slow' movement’s theme, and this may have led to further experiments with a condensation of form in the single-movement
5th sonata where the climax (''estatico'') is again a restatement of the ''Languido'' theme (''dolcissimo'').
Background
Scriabin wrote a poem after composing this sonata that explains its meaning:
References
External links
*
{{Authority control
Piano Sonata 04
1903 compositions
Compositions in F-sharp major