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Abstract
Since his death in 1915, Alexander Scriabin's music has posed problems for his analysts. In large part this is due to the fact that in about 1907, his harmonies began featuring dissonant sonorities that acted as finalities in and of themselves, possibly replacing tonic triads from classical tonality. Accordingly, there are many thoughts as to how Scriabin viewed these puzzling dissonant “stabilities” in particular, and structure in his music in general. Furthermore, there exist numerous accounts on this problematic body of music, accounts that profess to uncover structural truths. In this dissertation the author looks at several analytical systems that purport to reveal some of these truths. Drawing largely on sources from Russia, the composer's native country, he includes their views into a larger framework of music analysis and theory.
Though the available analytical systems are indeed copious, four are drawn upon primarily: octatonicism, the dominant harmony, set theory, and Russian theory. The eight-note world of the octatonic scale grew out of conventional diatonicism. Its ramifications in the post-tonal world are many, and its relevance to the music of Scriabin significant. Insofar as his late dissonant stabilities are dominant formed and dominant sounding, one method views all late chordal structure in these terms. Yet another uses the more abstract methodology of set theory, in hopes of trying to elucidate Scriabin's enigmatic structures. The fourth chapter deals with Russian views and writings on the music of Scriabin; obviously, they feel they have the true answers to their native composer's most difficult music. In the fifth and final chapter, Scriabin's Seventh Piano Sonata is examined in detail, using the four approaches discussed in the dissertation, in order to address more complicated and longer structures. Finally, the author offers suggestions as to which is the best analytical method to truly understand large-scale structure in the music of this great composer.
