Composer Alexander Scriabin (18721915) has been unjustly neglected by the musicological literature, despite a flood of publications some 50 years ago that should have set the groundwork for an ongoing interest. Though this lengthy volume will not single-handedly resolve that problem, it will certainly interest scholars and performers, students, and lovers of music with a thirst for Scriabin research and commentary. The 14 chapters are presented in three parts: Encountering Scriabin, which introduces the composer and his work; Topics in Reception History, which looks at the curious reception accorded Scriabin in his lifetime and after; and Performance, which offers a lengthy set of notesat heart performance instructionson the general features of Scriabin's music. It will be most useful to the intelligent performer, one who likes to understand music in broad strokes illuminated by significant details. And scholars will appreciate the in-depth musicological discussion.
Summing Up: Recommended.... Lower-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers. * Choice Reviews * The Alexander Scriabin Companion: History, Performance, and Lore is a beautifully written and comprehensive tour de force, capturing Aleksandr Niko - layevich Scriabins life and music from both historical and performance perspectives. Its authors. . . provide expert commentary and discussion of the historical significance of Scriabin as a composer, pianist, and mystic. The book. . . is an especially valuable resource for performers for its breadth and depth of discussion of specific works, their performance history, and recommended (great) recordings. . . . the book does a superb job in bringing different angleshistorical and musicalto the forefront of Scriabins complex music. Although it is aimed at the performerespecially the pianistit is a must-read for Scriabin lovers and specialists alike, for it provides a complete picture of the enigma that still surrounds Scriabins life and his music today. The brilliant achievement of Ballard and Bengtson was to bring all these threads together in a single volume. * Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association * Composer Alexander Scriabin was a self-styled musical messiah, the greatest sensualist in the Russian tradition and Western canon. In his imagination, the black and white keys of the piano turned into crimsons, mauves, and yellows; he endeavored to write music of spiritual transport by postponing harmonic resolutions for painful-pleasures sake and imagined, orgasmically, the end of the world. In every aspect of his art, Scriabin privileged the ineffable over the formal, the innate over the logical, inviting audiences and interpreters to follow him into another realm of creativity. Here at last is a sensitive, comprehensive exploration of Scriabins life and works that places his mystic-erotic fantasies in context. Lincoln Ballard, Matthew Bengtson, and John Bell Young discount the composers naysayers and serve as our sympathetic guide to the interpretation and appreciation of Scriabin's music in all its wonder. -- Simon A. Morrison, Professor of Music, Princeton University For over a hundred years, the compositional techniques of Alexander Scriabin have challenged and at times defied music theorists. The mystical conceptions that he claimed as the foundation of his work have also been hotly debated. Not only an excellent overview of Scriabin's life and compositions, The Alexander Scriabin Companion is also a major contribution to the understanding of Scriabin's methods, as well as the influences on his work, philosophy and psychology. There are enlightening discussions of melody and harmony, sound, light, and color, compositional and pianistic techniques, and the reception of his work by musicians and audiences. The authors not only contextualize these essential features cogently within the rich and complex intellectual history of pre-World War I Russia, but also effectively describe how they were received and evaluated through the twentieth century to the present. -- Jay Reise, Composer and Professor of Music, University of Pennsylvania
