A.N. Scriabin:
Mystery without sacrifice and salvation
The Burden of World History
Some geniuses were convinced that they were Messengers of special knowledge and Conductors of new views necessary for further development human civilization. And here is the composer Alexander Scriabin sincerely considered himself the Messiah, who had the power to change not only earthly existence, but also universal existence!
All the creative personalities about whom I write have had a certain influence on my life, and the conductor of the world - the creator of a grandiose light and music mystery - is no exception.
During military service In Moscow, I more than once walked along Khitrovsky Lane past the outbuilding of the Lopukhins’ estate, not knowing that one of the most mysterious Russian composers of the 20th century, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin, was born in this house. Literally seventy meters from the building in question, I stood guard dozens of times at night in five-story building No. 2, which was called the “Osterman House.” At that time, on the even side of the alley there were real estate properties of the Military Engineering Academy, and in the building where I was on guard duty, cadets - officers who came to the Soviet academy from developing countries - lived and studied.
Khitrovsky Lane and Khitrovskaya Square at that time were named after Maxim Gorky, and none of the commanders of our unit said that these places were somehow connected with Scriabin and Tyutchev. But there was a lot of talk about the Khitrov market, where banditry flourished before the revolution and where criminal elements and vagabonds of all stripes gathered from all over Russia. Muscovites called this place Khitrovka, and it had a bad reputation. Nevertheless, I always liked to wander through quiet corners, feeling the aroma of the pre-revolutionary capital. Since then, Khitrovskaya Square and the narrow alleys radiating from it have been my favorite place in Moscow. It reminds me of military service with its hardships and incredible adventures.
I deliberately mentioned Khitrovka, whose inhabitants lived an extremely mundane and vicious life, without thinking about any spiritual rebirth. And the fact that it was there that Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin was born indicates a fatal predetermination - the brightly fluorescent consciousness of the famous composer from his very birth was discordant with the dirty, faded tones of the surrounding reality and was doomed to exist and develop only in the illusory world of fantasy. This was the strength of Alexander Nikolaevich and at the same time his weakness: the duality of thoughts, feelings and actions was constantly visible throughout life path. But then, being a soldier, I knew nothing about the mysterious patterns in the composer’s fate. And, to be honest, I heard about Alexander Nikolaevich himself by chance.
One day, the platoon commander took me to an intelligent-looking old man and, nodding in his direction, ordered: “You are at the disposal of Dmitry Apollinarievich. Carry his things to him and immediately return to the guardhouse.” The old man turned out to be a former teacher at the academy and lived in the house next to the post, and the “things” turned out to be several wooden sculptures that needed to be moved from his apartment to the basement. Among them was a meter-tall sculpture of some dapper man. Dmitry Apollinarievich respectfully touched her and asked:
— Young man, are you familiar with the work of this composer, who dreamed of changing humanity?
I shrugged my shoulders: they say, I can’t imagine it.
“Yes, my young friend,” Dmitry Apollinarievich said sadly, “every day you pass by the house where the Russian genius Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin was born, and past the temple in which he was baptized, but I see that you don’t even suspect about it.” We will have to enlighten, otherwise the “light elf, king of consonances” will be very dissatisfied. And now, comrade soldier, listen and remember,” the retired colonel began his unexpected “political information.” — Alexander Nikolaevich, who considered himself an “absolute being,” as if a sparkler sparkled, blinded his eyes and quickly burned out, leaving behind the memory of an exquisite fireworks display, dusted with cold flakes of endless time. Scriabin’s biographer Leonid Leonidovich Sabaneev stated: “There were plenty of “Scriabinists”, fascinated by his music, but there were no “Scriabinians”.”
Dmitry Apollinarievich fell silent, his cheeks flushed, apparently, the memory of the composer caused strong emotions in his soul.
Accustomed during my service to soldier's jargon and thinking, I was surprised by such a literary and philosophical manner of narration and looked forward with interest to the continuation.
Remembering my presence, Dmitry Apollinarievich confidentially said:
“Tomorrow we start renovations, but let’s still leave Scriabin in the apartment, he’ll strengthen me.” Take the rest of the sculptures to the basement, and then I’ll tell you something else.
When the “things” were transferred, Dmitry Apollinarievich admitted that many years ago he wrote a dissertation on Scriabin, but for a number of reasons its defense had to be postponed. From the colonel's further story I learned that famous composer and the pianist Scriabin was opened great secret, which he announced to everyone. According to him, to change the world, you need to connect different arts and give a great performance, at which all nations, beasts and birds must be present, summoned by huge bells suspended in the sky. When this mysterious action, called by Scriabin “The Mystery of Transfiguration,” is completed, the Universe will change - it will become perfect.
“I see that you are interested in all this, so I will also reveal my own secret,” Dmitry Apollinarievich said mysteriously. — Scriabin was not looking for new art, but wanted to create new Space, and this is where we fundamentally disagreed. I understand that Alexander Nikolaevich had a unique imagination, he was not of this world, but to imagine himself as the Creator of the Universe is already too much. True, some of Scriabin’s contemporaries perceived him as a Prophet, the Guardian Genius of Russia, the most mysterious and mystical musical representative of symbolism. They created a beautiful myth about his unmistakable foresights of the future and the special mission of the composer, they said that he would not have survived an hour if he learned that he would not write his “Mystery”, but in reality it turned out that this was just beautiful words. I thoroughly studied Scriabin’s life and I can say that Alexander Nikolaevich, unfortunately, did not live up to the ideals he declared. This was his tragedy - this extraordinary man was let down by pride. As the Chinese say: “The sky does not say about itself: I am high.”
After these words, Dmitry Apollinarievich took a deep breath and reminded me that it was time for me to “go to the guardhouse.”
“If you’re on leave, come and visit,” the talkative colonel said goodbye and took his leave.
Being impressed by what I heard, I took L. Sabaneev’s book about Scriabin from the academic library and began to read it. I wanted to meet with Dmitry Apollinarievich again, but, unfortunately, it didn’t work out. Six months later, my term of service came to an end, and when I left for civilian life, I forgot about the great composer. Years passed, and Sabaneev’s book came into my hands again. I thought, apparently, the time has come to turn my attention to Alexander Nikolaevich.
Fixed idea
To understand how seriously Scriabin believed in the transformation of the world, I decided to take a closer look at his biography. Trusting musicologists who consider Scriabin a great composer and pianist, I focused my attention elsewhere. I wanted to know how the philosophical postulates proclaimed by Alexander Nikolaevich about the transformation of humanity influenced his own feelings and actions. After all, if Scriabin considered himself a superman, a true messiah and took on such a great mission, then he had to correspond to very high moral and spiritual qualities.
Being a very gifted creative person, Alexander Nikolaevich constantly created his own myths and legends, which he then sincerely believed in. Until 1903, the composer did not have any clear doctrines about the eschatological light and sound mystery aimed at changing humanity, although the idea of unity and transformation of the world was already in the minds of Russian philosophers and representatives of the creative intelligentsia.
In 1873, Vladimir Solovyov wrote:
“The conscious conviction that the present state of humanity is not what it should be means to me that it must be changed, transformed.”
Probably, such a conclusion was one of the impetuses for the creatively impressionable Scriabin to his own insight. However, the composer did not pay attention to the fact that the famous philosopher did not count on the instant revival of humanity. " In any case, I will not see the living fruit of my future labors" - wrote Soloviev .
Such “carelessness” on the part of Alexander Nikolaevich is not accidental - he turned his attention only to what inspired him.
Scriabin’s brother-in-law Boris Fedorovich Shletser mentions this:
“He was not able to treat the subject with disinterest, did not want and did not know how to consider it as such, but he always judged it and assessed it by the extent to which this fact, event, person, object favored his goals and plans.”
Hypertrophied conceit and incessant fantasies constantly warmed the consciousness of the composer, who did not want to be distracted by anything prosaic. This position was a deeply thought-out and conscious desire - Scriabin deliberately ran away from the surrounding reality.
So Alexander Nikolaevich needed a new world, alienated from everything else, even if it was a world he had invented. Scriabin filled it with extraterrestrial fragrant smells, unknown sounds and especially refined sensual sensations in order to forget from the frequent shocks that haunted him on the sinful Earth.
Many admirers who were part of his inner circle guessed this. Not wanting to upset their idol, they tried to maintain that atmosphere of constant admiration and admiration for his real and imaginary talents, in which he preferred to be. The household pretended that he was actually able to change humanity with his own “Mystery”.
This situation worried Sabaneev; he understood: by constantly playing giveaway with his adored Alexander Nikolaevich, his friends were finally alienating him from reality, helping him to be in an invented, sweetly intoxicating mythical action. In his memoirs, Scriabin’s biographer frankly wrote:
“Sometimes I wanted to go up to him and just tell him:
— Listen, Alexander Nikolaevich, let's talk seriously. After all, you won’t write any Mystery, and even if you do write it, it will still be nothing more than one of, say, the great ones, but “only” works of art, nothing more. There will not be and cannot be any dematerialization; you will not cause any cataclysm. You are a great Russian composer and will be satisfied with this title.”
The behavior of Scriabin's admirers is understandable. None of them wanted to part with “closeness to the emperor’s body.” If, for example, I were surrounded by Andrei Tarkovsky or Oleg Dahl, whose work I especially admire, I would behave the same way as those who were next to Alexander Scriabin. Well, those who still dared to doubt the composer’s universal insights were immediately made clear that their presence next to the great man was undesirable.
Scriabin became accustomed to excessive exaltation of his abilities and special role in the lives of those around him since childhood. The grandmother and aunt who raised Sasha were delighted with all his undertakings. For a number of reasons, a similar attitude towards young Scriabin persisted in the Second Moscow Cadet Corps, where he was sent to study at the age of eleven. Greenhouse conditions gave birth to a beautiful but pampered plant. The youngest daughter of Alexander Nikolaevich and Vera Ivanovna, Maria Alexandrovna, wrote in her memoirs:
“Aunt Lyuba gave all the tenderness of her ardent love to her own nephew. Made his childhood happy. True, he became pampered, fragile, impractical, unadapted to life’s difficulties...”
The constant feeding of “his undoubted genius” by family, friends and admirers did its job. Scriabin actively deluded himself with the fact that he was able to change humanity - apparently, he imagined himself as a god in whose power the fate of millions of people was in his power.
True, sometimes the composer could not withstand the tension and responsibility that he imposed on himself. One day he complained to Sabaneev: "You don't know how hard it is — how hard it is to feel the whole burden... the whole burden of world history..."
Nevertheless, the “all-star diamond” was proud of such a burden: it proved the importance of the mission entrusted to him. In the last years of his life, Alexander Nikolaevich still began to realize that the upcoming action was difficult to accomplish: in order to captivate humanity, he needed devoted comrades-in-arms, those whom he trusted.
“I can’t do anything alone,” Scriabin was sad . “I need people who would experience this with me, otherwise there can be no Mystery... It is necessary that, with the assistance of music, conciliar creativity be realized...”
However, neither temporary disappointments nor any kind of difficulties could completely break Scriabin’s will. He was not used to retreating, especially from what he had convinced himself of for so long.
“Everyone discovers exactly the idea that was intended for him,” the composer said. — Beethoven was open to the idea of the Ninth Symphony, and Wagner was open to the idea of “The Nibelungs.” And this is for me. I have a number of compelling data to think so, but I can’t say everything and I don’t have the right to say everything.”
Apparently, these “strong data” let him down, since he did not realize his main dream. People were in no hurry to become participants in the magnificent mystical action invented by the composer, who, with manic persistence, continued to believe in his own exclusivity.
Shortly before his death, Scriabin told Schletser:
— I swear to you that if I were now convinced that there is someone else who is greater than me and can create such joy on earth that I am unable to give, I would immediately move away, give in to him, but, of course, I would stop would live.
Fate met him halfway and decided that he would never see the collapse of his own dreams.
Secrets of the Russian Sphinx
In the life of the famous composer - the sphinx of Russian mystical music, positioning himself as a prophet and even a messiah, many troubles and tragedies happened that could affect his worldview. But the strange thing is that the “sound caster” was somehow able to minimize them, almost “not notice”.
The early death of his mother (she passed away when Sasha was only a year old) and his two children (Rimma and Leva), leaving his official wife Vera Ivanovna Isaakovich, which ended in the complete alienation of the spouses - this is just a short list of the hardships and misfortunes that happened in his life. fate. Any person, and even more so as insightful as Alexander Nikolaevich considered himself, had to think about why and why such tests were happening to him.
Take, for example, the death of his children. How did the composer react to these misfortunes? Did you create any special ones? musical works, have you changed your own life positions? After all, the composer’s father N.A. did not hide his attitude towards the death of his grandson Leva. Scriabin, who wrote to Alexander Nikolaevich: “ But what greatly darkened our existence was the death of L e You. It's a pity for the boy, he could have made a good person! I remember him with tears kind soul and the thoughts with which he really touched me during our meeting».
But in the memoirs of Scriabin there are very few details about this. Perhaps because, as Boris Shletser noted: “The core of his personality seemed to be surrounded by strong armor, through which not a single sound penetrated from the outside. Behind this fence he lived, thought, felt, wanted in complete peace and solitude.”
So contemporaries who knew the composer give only a few meager reports about these sad events: “ He came to the funeral and wept bitterly over her (Rimma’s daughter) grave" It is worth adding that Scriabin came to Switzerland for his daughter’s funeral from the Italian town of Bogliasco, where he unofficially lived with another woman, Tatyana Shletser, who was pregnant by him by that time.
Driven by the requests of his new passion to return quickly, Scriabin leaves Vera Ivanovna in a difficult moral state and within a few days returns to Italy to his beloved, where two and a half months later their daughter Ariadne was born.
Sometimes Scriabin did see the light, and it seemed to him that the death of a child was punishment for leaving the family. His teacher Vasily Ilyich Safonov also hinted at this to Alexander Nikolaevich: “ Have you ever looked at the grief that befell us both as an indication from Providence: not to abandon your loved ones, not to take that step that, I think, instead of the expected happiness and freedom, will bring you bitterness and disappointment?
The composer’s father also reacted emotionally to Alexander Nikolaevich’s departure from his wife: “You are infinitely guilty before Verochka for leaving her as a woman, as a mother and as a mother; but if you justify yourself in that crazy hobby of yours, then, thank God, none of your relatives, nor I, responded with any madness and did not forget their duty.”
The composer loved his children with an abstract love, perceiving them as sweet, funny and beautiful “opuses of free creativity,” and the thought that they needed to be raised, fed, clothed and treated, as a rule, caused confusion and helplessness.
So it turns out that every person has their own weaknesses in life. Yes, everyone, but not the one who considers himself a messiah, who is entrusted with a task on a universal scale. Apparently, this is why Alexander Nikolaevich believed that disapproving words addressed to him came from envy or were a consequence of the intrigues of his ex-wife and her entourage. Consoling himself, he wrote: “Love people like life, like your life, like your creation.”.Yes, leaving your legal wife with four children without sufficient means of subsistence and at the same time confessing your immeasurable love for humanity - you really need to be able to do this...
This is probably why such intimately unpleasant incidents in the house of Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin and Tatyana Fedorovna Shl e we tried not to remember, but they described in detail what kind of crackers the genius liked, what kind of beer he preferred.
We write two - three in our minds
Alexander Nikolaevich always fervently believed in the enormous power of his own will. Rosalia Markovna Plekhanova recalled the following incident on this occasion:
“Once during a walk, Alexander Nikolaevich, enthusiastically setting out his idealistic credo, said: “We create the world with our creative spirit, our will, there are no obstacles to the manifestation of will, the laws of gravity do not exist for it, I can throw myself from this bridge and not fall head first on the stones, but hang in the air thanks to this willpower.”
After listening to the composer, Plekhanov politely suggested: “ Try it, Alexander Nikolaevich!“However, for some reason Scriabin did not prove the spectacular theory with practice.
Nevertheless, the “bearer of Light and universal Good” continued to assure his friends that he could control the weather and do other amazing things. He was so confident in his superpowers that he even threatened the heavenly powers.
“Rise up against me, O God, prophets and elements. Just as you created me with the power of your word, Hosts, if you do not lie, so I destroy you with the indestructible power of my desire and my thought. You're gone and I'm free" — Scriabin asserted cockily.
This was also noted by his daughter Maria:
“Scriabin was not afraid of the extreme consequences of his views, which, in the opinion of reasonable people, could lead him to absurdity and insanity, since these beliefs lay on the other side of common sense.”
The duality of existence in the real and fictional world haunted the composer.
“Sweet, gentle, affectionate - that’s how we knew him... Proud, intolerant, selfish - that’s how he seemed later “- Maria Alexandrovna recalled about her father.
Often he said one thing and did another. IN He believed in his good health - and was terrified of diseases, ailments, infections, biting cockroaches and thunderstorms, and complained of headaches:
“...I don’t know why my head hurts; I finally got so scared that I went and completely shaved my head and now walk around with a bare skull.”, he wrote in a letter to his benefactor M.P. Belyaev.
According to Yuli Dmitrievich Engel and Maria Solomonovna Nemenova-Lunts, he was constantly afraid of becoming infected from sick people and dirty objects.
When young Tatyana Shletser first came to the Scriabins’ house and drank tea in their living room, Alexander Nikolaevich did not like her sickly face. He asked his wife Vera Ivanovna: “Wash her cup separately, Vushenka, she looks... consumptive!..”
However, what had to happen happened: no matter how careful Scriabin was, no matter how afraid he was of all kinds of bacilli, he still died from blood poisoning.
The thought that he, like every person, would have to die, terrified the composer, who said about himself: “I am the limit, I am the peak,”; he was terrified of wills.
"Hewas not from the worldthis both as a person and as a musician. Only in moments did he see his tragedy of isolation, and when he saw it, he did not want to believe in it,” - Sabaneev recalled.
When Scriabin died, among those who came were ordinary pickpockets who, taking advantage of the general turmoil, robbed those present.
“Boris Fedorovich’s wife stated that in the commotion some of her things were stolen, and I saw that my watch had disappeared somewhere. Obviously, there were swindlers in the crowd... Somehow it was completely inappropriate, it became nasty and disgusting..."- Sabaneev recalls bitterly.
A sad but symbolic “water cycle in nature” took place. The birth and death of the great composer were accompanied by a grotesque performance in which declassed elements played the role of eyewitnesses.
Two years after the death of the composer, great upheavals began in Russia - revolution, civil war, which claimed millions of lives and fundamentally shook spirituality and culture. However, this destruction of humanity was not a blooming and fragrant Mystery invented by the dreamy Scriabin, but a thirst for power and money desired by the powers that be. But the composer did not understand this, being in a constant state of intoxication. And this was not intoxication with wine, like that of drunkards, but with spiritual delusion, like that of people caught in the net of evil entities seeking to take possession of the human soul at any cost.
Alexander Nikolaevich created for himself the world he wanted, and dissolved in the fragrant incense, seemingly his own, but in fact someone else's invention.
“It is known that since ancient times there have been spiritual practices necessary for the neophyte to adequately complete the chosen path. Being under the constant supervision of a wise mentor, the students increased their spiritual level. Such tests lasted for years, being a litmus test that revealed the hidden, unworthy desires and feelings of the students. The highest authority for Scriabin was only himself. Therefore, Alexander Nikolaevich assumed powers that were not intended for him. As a result, the composer experienced the bitter fate of many impostors and self-appointers..."
The noble desire to correct humanity is highly commendable. However, the greatest Mystery is not enough to correct people. Even if music has incredible power, you still have to make the sacrifice yourself.
Here is what Vladimir Solovyov wrote about this:
“...Christ came into the world not, of course, to enrich worldly life with several new ceremonies, but in order to save the world. By His death and resurrection He saved the world in principle, at the root, at the center, and to extend this salvation to the entire circle of human and worldly life, to realize the beginning of salvation in our entire reality - He can do this not alone, but only together with humanity itself , for no one can really be saved by force and without one’s knowledge and consent. But true salvation is rebirth, or new birth, and new birth presupposes the death of the former false life ... "
Mitrofan Petrovich Belyaev (1836-1904) - Russian music publisher and philanthropist, founder of the Belyaev circle, which united many outstanding musicians.
Posts by A.N. Scriabin // Russian Propylaea: Materials on the history of thought and literature. - M., 1919. T. 6.
Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin.
“When he plays, it smells like ancient witchcraft. It’s as if unknown creatures live in his works, changing shape under the influence of witchcraft sounds.”
Konstantin Balmont
The life and work of Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin (1872-1915), the great Russian composer, is surrounded by many unsolved mysteries and mysticism...
Mysteries
All seemingly supernova ideas in the musical world have long been known to mankind, and among their discoverers an honorable place belongs to the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. Back in 1910, he came up with the idea of combining music with lighting effects and wrote the famous “Poem of Fire”, in which he combined a choir, an organ, symphony orchestra, piano and... a special keyboard for lighting effects. Therefore, any Western delights are just a pathetic imitation of the unique Russian genius. No one has been able to perform this original work in the form in which the author intended, even with the developed technology of the late 20th century - it’s a mystery! Perhaps the performers are held back by some mystical fear? At the beginning of the 20th century, Scriabin was denied lighting support “for technical reasons.”
The first color-light apparatus in history for the performance of “Prometheus, the Poem of Fire.”
Made according to sketches A. N. Scriabina Professor A. Moser in 1911. Memorial Museum A. N. Scriabin.
Keys circle of fifths , located A. Scriabin according to the light spectrum.
Scriabin did not see light music, but actively worked in a different direction, creating a symphony associated with tastes and smells, tactile and visual images and dances that could turn into visible embodiment music.
Monument Prometheus to Rockefeller Center.
Sometimes it seemed to his loved ones that he was an alien from another planet, trying to recreate on Earth the divine music of other worlds, still inaccessible to human understanding. But the time will come and the earthlings will need it, so Scriabin worked as if possessed. The composer had the idea to perform an extraordinary work of “music of the subtle spheres” in India, in a specially built temple, as he said, with “fluid architecture.” What it is, no one can understand to this day. According to the composer's plan, this temple should be so large that all the inhabitants of the Earth would gather in it and become participants-performers of the mysterious work. As a result, the end of the non-plastic physical world and the emergence of a single bright consciousness of the Earth, freed from the painful shackles of gross matter.
In other words, Scriabin dreamed of merging humanity into a single clot of immaterial intelligence and uniting it with the noosphere of the planet; creating a huge intelligent field. What would happen? According to Alexander Nikolaevich, it was precisely in solving such a super task that true meaning his earthly existence and the entire course of human development. He called the work “The Last Accomplishment.”
Some thought he was crazy, but after mysterious death The composer irrefutably proved the existence of the earth's noosphere; moreover, there is a scientifically based hypothesis that our planet itself is a huge and unknown living organism living in a kind of symbiosis with human civilization.
Scriabin was friends with the poet Balmont, who was considered one of the great “three Bs” of the so-called Silver Age of Russian poetry: Balmont, Blok, Bryusov.
“I am the heir to the secret knowledge that came from the darkness of oblivion, lost by humanity,” the composer told the poet. - The magic of music exists: once upon a time the priests lost civilizations could use sounds to dominate the elements.
“When he plays, it smells of ancient witchcraft, it’s as if unknown creatures live in his works, changing forms under the influence of witchcraft sounds,” Balmont, who had a keen sense of the nature of phenomena, said about the composer.
Robert Sterl. Concerto for piano. S. Koussevitzky and A. Scriabin.1910. Dresden.
Scriabin's music remains mysterious and incomprehensible to this day. He believed that he was writing not melodies, but spells with sound, which his astral body conveyed to the listener. Scriabin was a unique performing pianist who toured almost the whole world with concerts, and no one has yet been able to repeat his mysterious playing techniques. Alexander Nikolaevich specifically tried to show them and teach familiar musicians, but... to no avail, although among the “students” there were many world celebrities.
Balmont noted more than once that Scriabin had a hypnotic effect on people, easily subjugating their psyche, but he never caused any harm to anyone. Many admitted that after death genius composer experienced a strange feeling, as if the bright hopes of humanity had collapsed, which were not soon destined to be reborn again.
Alexander Nikolaevich admitted to close acquaintances that he can get in touch with the astral world and sees mysterious images, among which there are images familiar to him parallel worlds. He tried to embody and convey them in music.
“It was as if he was endlessly caressing an unearthly creature with strange and enchanting sounds,” Balmont once said. “It’s as if unknown creatures live in his works, changing shape under the influence of witchcraft sounds.
Scriabin said that he “sees” his works either as luminous spheres or as endless crystal garlands. He believed that he understood how, with the help of music, one could enchant and stop the Great and Unknown Time - by ordering the hostile chaos surrounding a person. In his opinion, space and time represented a single whole, and the main thing was creativity. Apparently, Scriabin simply could not find words to explain to others everything that he saw and felt - he tried to communicate with humanity and other worlds with the help of music. But I didn’t have time to do it completely...
Clairvoyance
Friends noted how the composer loved sunlight and was drawn to him like a plant. Scriabin could look at the luminary without blinking, and then easily read the book. He also always preferred to work in the sun. Perhaps he was charged with energy? Who knows...
More than once Alexander Nikolaevich amazed acquaintances and strangers with an amazing prophetic gift, and this happened naturally, seemingly by accident. While still very young, he accompanied home a fellow student, who later became a famous Russian music teacher, Elena Gnesina, and almost jokingly, accurately described his future work to her. As Gnesina recalled, fifteen years later everything came true exactly!
Once, when Scriabin was giving concerts in New York, an amazing incident occurred. Pianist from Canada A. Laliberte dreamed of meeting Alexander Nikolaevich and becoming his student, but something always prevented him from seeing the composer, and the meeting could not take place.
An upset Canadian was walking down the street and suddenly heard:
- Why don’t you come? I've been waiting for you for a long time!
Raising his eyes, he saw Scriabin standing in front of him. Moreover, before this, the composer had never seen Laliberte, did not know that he had come to New York, and did not even suspect his existence. Scriabin's contemporaries argued that similar cases happened to Alexander Nikolaevich more than once, but he stubbornly avoided any explanations and answered all questions with a joke or referred to the will of blind chance, which created a striking coincidence.
One day, in moments of revelation, he shared with his friends his vision of the future, which should come in the 20th century, literally in some fifty years.
“Humanity,” Scriabin said, “will have to go through a terrible era; all mysticism will disappear, spiritual needs will fade away. The age of machines, electricity and purely mercantile aspirations will come. Terrible trials are coming...
Now, when the world has plunged into the abyss of mercantile aspirations and set off in pursuit of the golden calf, we can be convinced of the prophetic gift of a brilliant composer and a mysterious man of mystery at the beginning of the 20th century.
On April 2, 1915, at his last concert in St. Petersburg, Scriabin performed Prelude No. 2, which he called “the astral desert” and “ecstasy in the world of white rays,” allegorically defining Death, which “has been sounding for millions of years.” He performed it for the first and last time in his life, and eyewitnesses noted that in the hall there was a clear feeling of a terrible death creeping up on the composer and a mystical horror began to hover. Twelve days later Scriabin died.
Scriabin was terrified of infection and opened letters only with gloves on. Perhaps he knew what was destined for him and tried to delay the tragic moment? After all, Alexander Nikolaevich died, according to a medical report, from “infectious blood poisoning”!
An amazing fact - on April 14, 1912, the composer went to the Arbat mansion that belonged to Professor Grushko to rent an apartment there for three years. He had exactly that long to live.
“Let’s conclude an agreement without a deadline,” the landlady suggested, not wanting to miss out on the eminent tenant.
“In three years I won’t live here,” the composer answered her.
- Yes? - the woman drawled somewhat discouraged and surprised, - Where will you be?
“I’ll go to India,” Scriabin smiled softly and sadly...
His largest works for orchestra are three symphonies (the First was written in 1900, the Second in 1902, the Third in 1904), Poem of Ecstasy (1907), and Prometheus (1910). Scriabin included a light keyboard part in the score of the symphonic poem “Prometheus,” thus becoming the first composer in history to use color music.
One of Scriabin’s last, unrealized plans was “Mystery,” which was supposed to be embodied in a grandiose performance - a symphony of not only sounds, but also colors, smells, movements, even sounding architecture. At the end of the 20th century, composer Alexander Nemtin, based on Scriabin’s sketches and poems, created a finished musical version of its initial part - “Preliminary Action”, however, excluding the main part of the text from it.
Scriabin's unique place in the Russian and world history of music is determined primarily by the fact that he considered his own creativity not as a goal and result, but as a means of achieving a much larger Ecumenical task.
Through his main work, which was to be called “Mystery,” A. N. Scriabin intended to complete the current cycle of the existence of the world, to unite the World Spirit with inert Matter in some kind of cosmic erotic act and thus destroy the current Universe, clearing the way for the creation of the next world . Purely musical innovation, which manifested itself especially boldly and clearly after the Swiss and Italian period of Scriabin’s life (1903-1909), he always considered secondary, derivative and intended to serve the fulfillment of the main goal. Strictly speaking, the most important and brightest works of Scriabin - “The Poem of Ecstasy” and “Prometheus” - are nothing more than a preface (“Preliminary Action”) or a description by means of musical language of exactly how everything will happen during the fulfillment of the Mystery and the unification of the world Spirit with Matter.
One of the most prominent representatives of art " silver age“At the time of its rapid flowering, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin appears. For many decades, Russian musicology assessed his work ambiguously - censorship considerations did not allow researchers to reveal the essential aspects of the music of the Russian genius, officially called an “idealist-mystic.”
Like many creators of the “Russian cultural renaissance,” Scriabin had a special, updated worldview and did not seek support in the artistic experience of his immediate predecessors. The ordinariness of the figurative sphere of critical realism, the pochvennik attitudes of the “kuchkists” and the orientation towards folklore sources are alien to him. At the same time, the origins of his music are deeply national. They are associated with the revival in the culture of the “Silver Age” of the lost worldview of man in his cosmic divine essence. Scriabin's faith was not dogmatic. The thoughts and dreams of the composer specifically reflected the traditional Russian search for God with its maximalism and passionate frenzy of feelings, the ideals of unity and conciliarity, refracted through the prism of the intellectual religious seductions of the “border of centuries.”
Scriabin’s “transpersonal” desire to discover 2new worlds2 is intertwined with the religious and aesthetic attitudes of many non-traditional art movements, primarily with symbolism. The keen desire of Russian symbolists to comprehend the “sign of another world in this world” and the “beauty of the transformed cosmos”, to embody the “connection between two worlds” explains the composer’s increased interest in phenomena that go beyond the limits of the objective world and the usual parameters of human existence. This gives rise to the binary, bipolar principles of his music: impulses towards the grandiose, universal, macroscopic and at the same time the desire to delve deeper into the “microcosm” human soul, into its subconscious fundamental principle.
The embodiment of the deep states of the human psyche occurs in the composer’s works as if “by touch”, through changeable, elusive and not amenable to rational analysis sensations. Scriabin's music is full of sophisticated rhythms, extra-tonal "wanderings", textures shrouded in a haze of harmonic figurations. Unconscious volitional impulses, sensual yearnings and vague surreal insights are intertwined in it.
Of all philosophical ideas, poured out by the composer in a touchingly imperfect poetic form, the idea of the divine power of creativity and the artist-theurgist leading humanity to happiness is the most important. Scriabin became a devotee of this teaching. All his intellectual capabilities, all the power of his musical genius were aimed at finding ways to concretely implement the “Mystery” - the act of transforming humanity with the help of the magic of art.
The contours of “Mystery” took over ten years to form in the composer’s mind. He understood that he was taking on a difficult task, but he believed in the realization of a great spiritual act. The initial embodiment of the “Mystery” is called “Preliminary Action”. This is a grandiose cathedral performance, or Service, in which all humanity participates. The music of the “Preliminary Act” has been preserved only in fragments (40 sheets of rough sketches). It constituted the main component of a synthetic act, including a “symphony” of sounds, aromas, colors, dances, processions, moving architecture, rays of the setting sun, ritual clothing of participants - performers and spectators.
The temple in Ancient India, where the “Mystery” was to take place, was conceived by the composer as a gigantic altar, towering above the true plane - the Earth. Scriabin seriously tried to implement his planned project and even, according to some sources, negotiated the purchase of a plot of land in India to build a temple. Thinking about “Mystery,” the composer said: “I don’t want the realization of anything, but an endless ascent creative activity which will be caused by my art."
Scriabin can be attributed to that galaxy of Russian “geniuses and prophets” who seemed not to notice human anxieties, worries and worldly vanity. The composer, separating the mundane from the sublime, created a special world musical expressiveness, ahead of its time, anticipating many innovations in 20th century art. Scriabin's music serves as an example of great art, born on the basis of an optimistic, selfless belief in its all-conquering power.
CONCLUSION
Russian music, like any other cultural phenomenon, reveals to us the appearance of the past. If we don’t “listen” to it, then the past can no longer appear to us in its entirety. “Listening”, and even more so “hearing” Russian music is not easy. But still, Russian music has its advantages in this sense over its Western counterparts. Why? Because in Russia the national origins that fed the new musical system were stronger than in any other European country. Folk, “song streams” decisively broke into the melody, pushing the boundaries of unrelated traditions. This breakthrough has played a significant role since the musical explosion of Russia at the beginning of the 19th century. Only thanks to this was Glinka’s mighty and truly great talent able to flourish. A remarkable galaxy of composers prepared for his arrival.
Three main aspects that determined the meaning of Russian music throughout the entire path of its development are a reflection of the general progress of Russian public life, a leading role in the development of Slavic cultures, the most important link in the development of world art - retained their importance both in the Soviet and modern periods. The formation and formation of the whole modern culture on the basis of new relationships between man and society, they made it possible to further establish the importance of the writer, artist, composer as transformers of life, educators of individuals and the collective as mouthpieces of ideas and feelings of our time.
At the same time, the very perception of the achievements of the past in all areas becomes more intense and deeper artistic creativity, turning them into a stable, organic unity of continuity and innovation is the true path to achieving progress in art, including music.
Music, as the writer S.G. Domashnev believed, is capable of “animating the universe” and bringing truth. And what if not the truth is the criterion for us, peering and listening to the future with the help of the priceless cultural heritage, left by our compatriots!
REFERENCES
1. // History of Russian music: in 10 volumes - M.: “Music”, vol. 9, 1994-452 p.
2. Kovalev K.P./ “The mysterious verb...”: Essays on Russian music of the 18th century - M.: “ Soviet Russia", 1988 – 256 p.
3. Levashova O., Keldysh Yu./ History of Russian music - M.: “Music”, 1980 – 623 p.
4. Nikitina L.D./History of Russian music - M.: “Academy”, 1999 – 272 p.
5. Orlova E.M./ Lectures on the history of Russian music - M.: “Music”, 1977 – 383 p.
6. Rapatskaya L.A./ History of Russian music: From Ancient Rus' before the “Silver Age” - M.: “VLADOS”, 2001 – 384 p.
7. Rozanova Yu.A./ History of Russian music. Second half of the 19th century. P.I. Tchaikovsky-M.: “Music”, 1981 – 310 p.
8. //Pages of the history of Russian music - Leningrad: “Music”, 1973 – 182 p.
9. Tretyakova L.S. / Russian music of the 19th century - M.: “Enlightenment”, 1976 - 207 p.
Mystical creations of Scriabin
On April 14, 1915, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin died suddenly in Moscow. The composer was in his 44th year, his music was heard all over the world. Konstantin Balmont was one of the first to respond to the death of Scriabin: He felt symphonies of light, he called to merge into one floating temple - touches, sounds, incense and processions, where dancing is a sign...
A close friend of Scriabin, Balmont knew about the plans of the mystical musician, who was going to carry out a synthesis unprecedented in the history of art. Components Scriabin’s “Mystery” was supposed to include not only traditional arts (music, poetry, painting, architecture, dance), but also not yet existing, fantastic ones.
Biographer of Scriabin L.L. Sabaneev reproduced in his book “Memories of Scriabin” (Moscow, 1925) the composer’s words about how he imagined his music.
Symphony of light. “I want there to be symphonies of lights... The whole hall will be in alternating lights. Here they flare up, these are tongues of fire, you see, just like there are fires here in music... Light should fill all the air, penetrate it to the atoms. All music and everything in general should be immersed in light waves, bathed in them.”
A symphony of smells. “Everything is there, a symphony of light, and a symphony of aromas, because these will not only be columns of lights, but also aromas.”
Symphony of taste. “I will also have taste sensations in “Action.”
A symphony of touches. “By the end of the mystery, we will no longer be people, but we will become weasels ourselves.”
A symphony of views. “We need to fix not only the line of gestures, but also the gaze. These are the gliding glances, how to record them? This is a very special feeling if, for example, the gaze follows one’s own gesture, as if caressing it.”
A symphony of mental images. “I want to bring into Mystery such imaginary sounds that will not sound in reality, but which must be imagined.”
Involvement of all organs human perception was, of course, not an end in itself, but only part of Scriabin’s grandiose plan to transform the Universe. In his opinion, our civilization is on the disastrous path of technotronic self-destruction: humanity can perish without awakening the divine energies sleeping within itself - psychic forces.
The composer decides to build and implement an alternative path of evolution. According to his plan, in distant India, on the shore of an enchanted lake, a temple should be built from precious stones, incense and sunset colors to perform the “Mystery”. He, Scriabin, will give only the first impetus to the inclusion of fantastic cause-and-effect chains. Mystical bells will ring in the sky over the Himalayas, and in response to their call, all the peoples inhabiting the Earth will go to India to take part in the performance of the majestic symphony of the Transfiguration. On the seventh day of the grandiose synthetic action, the combined power of the mental field of the peoples was supposed to break through the screen of the world Illusion. In artistic ecstasy, humanity would break free from the snares of matter.
The idea of “Mystery” came to Scriabin back in 1903 and finally crystallized two years later, after becoming acquainted with the works of Helena Blavatsky. From that time on, all his work became preparation world holiday Reunification of Spirit and Matter. Absorbed by his idea, the composer willingly told his friends about it, made detailed plans and wrote large number sketches of a future magical act (in essence, all of Scriabin’s later works are sketches for it). The last full-scale sketch of the “Mystery” was supposed to be the “Preliminary Action”, about which the composer said:
“It won’t be a “Mystery” yet, but in that spirit, and there will be a synthesis of arts in it, and it will already be esoteric.. It’s still a work of art, although it will be completely different, there will be a lot of real magic ... It will have mysticism diluted with some symbolism, and this will precisely determine the possibility of repeated performance.”
Scriabin began work on “Preliminary Action” in the winter of 1913, two years before his death, but no one except his closest friends ever heard this mysterious opus. Music died with him - this is not an isolated incident in the musical world, but in the fate of Scriabin it acquires symbolic significance.
It seemed that all the circumstances of Scriabin’s life prevented him from completing the magical score. In recent years, the composer has been deprived of the support of patrons of the arts and is forced to often and for a long time go on tour with solo concerts. But the reason for the death of Scriabin’s main work was not financial difficulties or the burden of family problems. Three days after the funeral, the composer’s student Mark Meichik wrote:
“He did not die, he was taken from people when he began to implement his plan; it is not for nothing that there is a saying that in heaven they make sure that trees do not grow into the sky. Through music, Scriabin saw a lot of things that are not given to man to know, and he wanted to introduce people to this much... He boldly wanted to introduce people into the very kingdom of the gods and therefore had to die!
Indeed, many events of the composer’s earthly life in the context of his plans acquire a transcendental connotation, and not in the realm of legends, but as real events.
Scriabin repeatedly demonstrated the ability to clairvoyance in space and time: he could find a person in a crowd without knowing his face, he talked about the history of long-dead civilizations. I could look at the sun at its zenith without blinking, and then easily read the small print. He had the ability to put his listeners into a hallucinatory state and could change the structure of sound in space, which is why many wrote about the “fantastic, non-piano” timbres of the works he performed. He signed a contract for the lease of his last apartment on April 14, 1912 for a period of three years - exactly the day of his death. The mystical beginning manifested itself even in the dates of Scriabin’s life. He was born on Christmas Day (December 25, 1871, old style), and died on the second day of Easter.
“Music is the path of revelation,” said Scriabin. “You cannot imagine what a powerful method of knowledge this is.” Everything that I think and say now, I know all this through my creativity.” In their latest works he transforms musical structures into magical symbols. He describes his piano miniatures as “living organisms” (energy-informational structures endowed with a “blind thirst for life,” that is, independent existence) and sees in them the “habitat” of creatures from parallel worlds. The composer argued that “music enchants time and can stop it altogether.”
Sabaneev, one of the few who were lucky enough to hear the “Preliminary Action” from the author in piano version, recalls:
“These were mysterious, full of some kind of unearthly sweetness and sharpness, slow harmonies... A delicate, fragile sound fabric, in which some kind of sharp, painfully sultry mood sounded... It seemed that I was in some kind of enchantment, a sacred kingdom where sounds and lights somehow merged into one fragile and fantastic chord. And in all this there was a flavor of some kind of ghostliness, unreality, sleepiness - such a mood, as if you were seeing a sound dream.”
Neither during the composer’s lifetime, nor in so many years that have passed since his death, did he music world never resurrected in its original form. Until now, Scriabin’s ideas have been perceived superficially and have been reduced mainly to attempts at a light and music production of “Prometheus” (his only score with a fixed light line). Unfortunately, the author's instructions were minimal, and almost all experiments were limited to the play of colored rays on one or several screens of various configurations. Meanwhile, Scriabin himself needed “moving forms, so that the incense would form these forms and so that the lights would illuminate them.” In the score of "Prometheus", stored in the Paris national library, Scriabin’s hand includes descriptions of the visual images of the “Poem of Fire”: “lightning”, “stars”, “swell of light”, “sparkles and circles on the water”, “luminous figures”, “streams of light”, “cascades of lights and sparks”, “acute forms”, etc.
Today it is obvious that the composer was trying to embody in his art other “ways of measuring” reality, accessible only to a few people with paranormal abilities. Scriabin believed that these talents are hidden in every person and his music is the key to their awakening. “In general,” he said, “we do not know many of our hidden capabilities. These are dormant forces, and they need to be brought to life... And music, which contains innumerable rhythmic possibilities, is thereby the strongest, most effective magic, only refined, refined magic, which does not lead to such crude results as sleep or hypnosis, but to the construction of certain refined states of the psyche, which can be very diverse.”
The author of the “Poem of Fire” believed that people create the surrounding physical reality with their ideas about it. It is obvious that, freed from the burden of negative emotions that destroy the psyche, a person will gain the strength to see new worlds, other ways of being in himself and the world around him.
In Scriabin's philosophical notes one can find predictions of many scientific discoveries and technologies of the twentieth century, and computer science occupies not the last place here.
I purchased Boris Schlötser’s book, dedicated to the outstanding Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, in a second-hand bookstore a couple of months ago, at the beginning of October this year. Berlin publishing house "Grani", 1923; The book came to Moscow through the library of some Russian union in Cairo (the book has stamps from this library in French). I immediately found the book to be a great treasure in its contents; Moreover, it seems that no one scanned it or posted it on the Internet, except for a number of I purchased Boris Schlötser’s book, dedicated to the outstanding Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, in a second-hand bookstore a couple of months ago, at the beginning of October this year. Berlin publishing house "Grani", 1923; The book came to Moscow through the library of some Russian union in Cairo (the book has stamps from this library in French). I immediately found the book to be a great treasure in its contents; Moreover, it seems that no one scanned it or posted it on the Internet, except for a number of quotes from the book. A doubly unique specimen.
Boris Schlötser is clearly a dialectically and integrally thinking author. He has an evolutionary vision, an understanding of the dialectics of development; as an author, he combines broad knowledge of Western and Eastern philosophy (including theological schools) with a beautiful, one might say elegant, style of presentation of thoughts. From this individual example we can conclude what amazing heights the domestic culture the beginning of the twentieth century (at least in the person of some of its prominent representatives). What a pity that all this spiritual wealth was consigned to oblivion under the yoke of historical processes and large-scale socio-cultural catastrophes; The tasks of our and future generations include remembering this entire heritage.
Schlözer was well acquainted with Scriabin (Schlötzer's sister Tatyana was married to the latter), so he was able to accurately reconstruct the composer's views, providing access to his inner world through dialogue. In Schlözer's presentation, Alexander Scriabin is revealed not as a spontaneous Nietzschean, but as a personality who has gone through a development path from individualism and a radically individualistic view of creativity as an ecstatic path to a rather sophisticated view of synthetic art and a deeply mystical worldview. A cherished dream Scriabin was the realization through his work of a certain Mystery, which was supposed to transform the world and bring closer the general spiritual awakening of humanity. Scriabin's creativity is permeated with intuition of mystical states of consciousness and spiritual vision; all of it, from its earliest examples, represents an attempt at a passionate conjuration of the world and humanity to the ultimate and triumphant self-fulfillment and self-realization.
In his story about Scriabin and his creative process The author, in my opinion, penetrates very deeply into the psychology of creativity and offers an extremely plausible model of the act of creation using the example of the composer’s activity.
He writes about Scriabin as follows: “Completely immersed in the elements of life, he strove not to create beauty as such, but to experience it. He saw his goal not in the creation of aesthetic values, but in the achievement of some, especially intense form of life. He wanted to "be". He longed for real transformation, and not an image or likeness of it. In essence, Scriabin valued life above art; in the latter he saw only a means of enriching, deepening, refining life, and later - mystical power. For him, the person, the artist, his creativity was always in the foreground, and not at all the crystallized products of this creativity” (p. 66).
“He entered the temple of Apollo only to immediately bring to life the images that he saw there. “From this life to another life through art,” he said about himself and his activities” (p. 69).
Over the next months, I will try to write out a number of vivid quotes from the book so that you can get an impression of the material and the meanings raised by both the author and Scriabin in their work.
