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Skryabin, Philosophy and the Music of Desire. By Kenneth M. Smith. (Royal Musical Association Monographs, no. 19.) Farnham, Surrey, Eng.: Ash- gate, 2013. [xi, 161 p. ISBN 9781409438915. $99.95.] Music exam- ples, illustrations, bibliography, index.
Kenneth M. Smith's monograph provides an interdisciplinary study of Aleksandr Scriabin's music through Scriabin's own philosophy of desire (as well as philoso- phies that he was exposed to), semiotic- psychoanalytical theory, and music analysis. While there is already a great body of ana- lytical work on Scriabin's music, there are fewer works that try to shed light on Scriabin's music through his own philo- sophical ideals. Smith's book addresses this important gap; he examines Scriabin's mu- sic through extramusical interpretations, which he ties to selected musical works. The book provides an important intersec- tion between the composer's ideology and his art, something that is often overlooked in the scholarly world.
The book is organized into five chapters (and a short introduction). Each chapter begins with quotations largely drawn from Scriabin and Leonid Sabaneev (Scriabin's close friend and biographer), expressing Scriabin's idiosyncratic ideas on tonal eroticism, polarity of the sexes (masculine/ feminine), and musical sensuality (pp. 1, 6, 46). In the introduction to his book, Smith criticizes previous writings on Scriabin's music. By dividing them into two cate- gories, he identifies those who have tried but failed to link Scriabin's philosophical beliefs to his music (Alfred Eaglefield Hull, Scriabin: A Great Russian Tone-Poet [London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner, 1918]; Leonid Sabaneev, Vospominaniia o Skryabine (Reminiscences about Scriabin) [Moscow: Klassika XXI, 2000]; Alfred Swan, Scriabin [New York: Da Capo Press, 1969]; among others) and those who have mainly focused on Scriabin's music, neglecting his philo- sophy altogether (Varvara Dernova, Garmoniia Skryabina (Scriabin's Harmony) [Leningrad: Izd'vo Muzyka, 1968]; James M. Baker, The Music Of Alexander Scriabin [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986]; George Perle, "Scriabin's Self- Analyses," Music Analysis 3, no. 2 [July 1984]: 101-22; and Peter Sabbagh, The Development of Harmony in Scriabin's Works [U.S.: Universal Publishers, 2003]; among others). Thus, through an interdisciplinary approach, Smith attempts to present a more complete understanding of Scriabin's music-music that is generated through the composer's readings and understand- ing of different philosophical writings (Russian and Western) and Scriabin's own writings and views on theosophy, the...