This unique collaboration between a musicologist and two pianists – all experts in Russian music – takes a fresh look at the supercharged music and polarizing reception of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. From his Chopin-inspired miniatures to his genre-bending symphonies and avant-garde late works, Scriabin left a unique mark on music history. Scriabin’s death centennial in 2015 brought wider exposure and renewed attention to this pioneering composer. Music lovers who are curious about Scriabin have been torn between specialized academic studies and popular sources that glamorize his interests and activities, often at the expense of historical accuracy. This book bridges the divide between these two branches of literature, and brings a modern perspective to his music and legacy.

Drawing on archival materials, primary sources in Russian, and recently published books and articles, Part One details the reception and performance history of Scriabin’s solo piano and orchestral music. High quality recordings are recommended for each piece. Part Two explores four topics in Scriabin’s reception: the myths generated by Scriabin’s biographers, his claims to synaesthesia or “color-hearing,” his revival in 1960s America as a proto-Flower Child, and the charges of anti-Russianness leveled against his music. Part Three investigates stylistic context and performance practice in the piano music, and considers the domains of sound, rhythm, and harmony. It offers interpretive strategies for deciphering Scriabin’s challenging scores at the keyboard.

Students, scholars, and music enthusiasts will benefit from the historical insights offered in this interdisciplinary book. Armed with this knowledge, readers will be able to better appreciate the stylistic innovations and colorful imagination of this extraordinary composer.

Lincoln Ballard has taught at the University of Washington, University of Puget Sound, Southwestern College, and Cascadia Community College. His dissertation offered the first comprehensive study of Alexander Scriabin’s posthumous reception history.

Matthew Bengtson, assistant professor of piano literature at the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre, and Dance, is critically acclaimed as a leading interpreter of Scriabin’s work.

John Bell Young is the founder and CEO of Identity Marketing for Concert Artists Inc., winner of the 1985 Chopin Foundation Council Prize, and a leading authority on the music of Alexander Scriabin.

Foreword by Stephen Hough
CHAPTER ONE – En Garde or Avant-Garde? Exploding the Scriabin Myth
– John Bell Young
PART I ENCOUNTERING SCRIABIN
– Lincoln Ballard
CHAPTER TWO – Life, Legacy, and Music
CHAPTER THREE – The Solo Piano Music
CHAPTER FOUR – Symphonies and Orchestral Works
PART II TOPICS IN RECEPTION HISTORY
– Lincoln Ballard
CHAPTER FIVE – Madness and Other Myths
CHAPTER SIX – On Synaesthesia or “Color-Hearing”
CHAPTER SEVEN – Scriabin’s Russian Roots and the Symbolist Aesthetic
CHAPTER EIGHT – The Revival in 1960s America
PART III IN PERFORMANCE
– Matthew Bengtson
CHAPTER NINE – From Musical Text to the Imagination
CHAPTER TEN – Technique
CHAPTER ELEVEN – Line and Melody
CHAPTER TWELVE – Harmony
CHAPTER THIRTEEN – The Scriabin Sound
CHAPTER FOURTEEN – Rhythm
Glossary and Pronunciation Guide

Composer Alexander Scriabin (1872–1915) 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 notes—at heart performance instructions—on the general features of Scriabins 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 Scriabin’s 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 angles—historical and musical—to the forefront of Scriabin’s complex music. Although it is aimed at the performer—especially the pianist—it is a must-read for Scriabin lovers and specialists alike, for it provides a complete picture of the enigma that still surrounds Scriabin’s 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-pleasure’s 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 Scriabin’s life and works that places his mystic-erotic fantasies in context. Lincoln Ballard, Matthew Bengtson, and John Bell Young discount the composer’s naysayers and serve as our sympathetic guide to the interpretation and appreciation of Scriabins 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 Scriabins life and compositions, The Alexander Scriabin Companion is also a major contribution to the understanding of Scriabins 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