Description
A few sounds set apart by silence: this is a piece the size of a fragment. It is No. 4 of the Five Preludes, Op. 16, written in 1894-95, and the sparest of the five: 171 notes and under a minute of music.
Written in triple meter in E-flat minor, a dark key of six flats, it cuts the number of notes in both hands to a minimum: the left lays down chords sparsely, the right sings in long values, and the silence between the sounds becomes material in its own right. It reads as a test of how much weight Scriabin could carry with how little.
Rated beginner, it is the easiest Scriabin in this catalogue, and no trouble at all if the aim is only to find the notes. But with so few of them, the colour of each and the spacing between them simply are the performance. Do not rush to the end; wait for each chord to finish sounding. For a beginner's piece, it is not easy to make it tell.
Preludes by Scriabin, tracing a path from early Chopin influence toward his own distinctive mystical style.
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Sheet music provided by Mutopia Project
About the Composer
Alexander Scriabin (1872-1915)
Alexander Scriabin was a Russian composer and pianist from Moscow known for developing a highly personal musical world tied to mystical philosophy. His early works show the lyrical influence of Chopin, but he gradually moved away from traditional tonality toward his own distinctive harmonic system. This site includes 8 of his works, including an early etude and preludes from Op. 11 and Op. 16.
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