Prelude Op.11 No.1

Description

Fives in the right hand run against threes in the left, never resolving into each other, across the forty-odd seconds of this prelude. It is the first of Scriabin's 24 Preludes, Op. 11, written between 1888 and 1896; the plan — one prelude in each of the twenty-four keys — follows Chopin's Op. 28, and like Chopin it opens in C major. Belyayev published the set in 1897, and it carried Scriabin's name abroad.

The substance of the piece is rhythmic. In its C major common time neither hand rests and the harmony barely moves, so what reaches the ear is very nearly the friction between the two divisions of the beat.

Everything hangs on the five against three, at an intermediate level. Trying to count the two together guarantees collapse; the standard route is to automate each hand separately and only then combine them. Hold the left hand's triplets as the pulse in your body and let the right float above. The point is not to line them up but to let them lie apart.

Preludes by Scriabin, tracing a path from early Chopin influence toward his own distinctive mystical style.