Thank you Jay for all your hard work and for bringing attention to this truly great composition. I really enjoyed hearing your comments here (Jar Jar is a Sith lord haha). I think your interpretation of this work as the story of the universe/Earth unfolding is as good as any I've ever heard. Very sensible, plausible, and convincing. I would love to hear much more of your thought/ideas about this sonata. If I may add my own perspective to this immense and fascinating discussion. I've spent nearly a decade working on/off this sonata so I can share some of my insights. The American pianist Katherine Ruth Heyman delivered the U.S. premiere in 1916. She helped popularize the idea that the sonata’s five basic motives are elements of fire, water, earth, air, and atmosphere/ether. Where she got this idea from I do not know. While it's a perfectly valid interpretation, none of the primary sources or Scriabin's commentaries discuss this idea. We unfortunately know next to nothing about what Scriabin himself thought when he composed this. It's his most mysterious large work. One of the very few things we know is that Scriabin said "...the varied moods expressed in this sonata are very close to the moods of the 7th sonata...and at the end, there is that same outpouring, dance, vertigo, however, in this sonata, there is even more, much more dance." How would I personally describe the awe-inspiring and incredibly mysterious Sonata No. 8? For me, if Sonata 7 is a mystic ceremony on Earth in a magical bell temple, then Sonata 8 is the sister piece that continues the mystical rituality aspect but uses a very different approach. Sonata 7 is for a group of spectators (hence the name Mass and in my opinion the closest thing we have to a complete stand-alone Mysterium concert), while Sonata 8 is for when you leave the group and go on a solo trip. I would overall describe No. 8 as a sorcerer/art-shaman putting you in a magical ultraviolet trance (starts off slow and hypnotic) and then begins to carry you off on an epic visionary journey into exotic otherworldly realms across the cosmos. During this journey, we seem to encounter scorching astral fires, caressing mists, the intense motion of primal matter, vibrating lights and colors, blissfully hyper-sensual paradisaical realms, places where there are secrets within secrets, and countless other ineffable suggestions. By the time a frenzied cosmic molecular “dance” closes the piece, we are left breathless and Scriabin (the great sorcerer himself) undoubtedly proves his power is real. This madcap finale, by the way, played at the proper speed (which no one has yet to fully honor) is Scriabin's genius totally unhinged. I'll wager you never heard someone play at full "presto" (very fast) and then "prestissimo" (extremely fast) as he asks. Officially, prestissimo is the quickest speed Western music can be played, with presto the second quickest. To play this full prestissimo is likely beyond what is humanly possible. Its perverse difficulty is clearly in the stratosphere...and that's the whole point. While musicologists point out that Scriabin wrote the most important group of piano sonatas since Beethoven, I would add that No. 8 is his most magnificent contribution to the sonata genre. Astonishingly, it is still so little known and tragically often played so flat and with a paint-by-numbers mentality (another discussion with very obvious answers why). Interestingly, though Scriabin wrote 10 sonatas, Sonata No. 8 was actually the last one he finished. Also, Scriabin never played this sonata in public, only fragments for close friends (he especially was fond of the introduction and its 5-voice polyphony passage). It was only given its first performance after his death. Scriabin himself sadly never got to hear it performed. What I would give to have heard him play this! I'll never understand how Scriabin created this vast otherworldly work over a hundred years ago from his little antique desk in the middle of Tsarist Russia- in a country house with no electricity and in an era still run by horse carriages. For someone so obsessed with “the beyond”, it’s too bad Scriabin never even saw a single photo of outer space, lived before radios/available recordings, and likely never seen a single movie (which were anyways very crude, colorless, and soundless before his death in 1915). It’s why this work portraying "the beyond" is so ridiculously pure and utterly extraordinary...it’s completely his own extreme imagination. Only a supreme artist could've done what he did. He really was a sorcerer of art and imagination.
That reminds me of Der Ring des Nibelungen, where Wagner wrote leitmotifs for every element (Valkyres and Donner -- air, Rhein -- water, Loge -- fire, Nibelheim -- earth), the cycle starts with water (Rhein in the first opera) and ends with fire (When Brunhilde burns the Valhalla)
Thank you Jay for all your hard work and for bringing attention to this truly great composition. I really enjoyed hearing your comments here (Jar Jar is a Sith lord haha). I think your interpretation of this work as the story of the universe/Earth unfolding is as good as any I've ever heard. Very sensible, plausible, and convincing. I would love to hear much more of your thought/ideas about this sonata.
If I may add my own perspective to this immense and fascinating discussion. I've spent nearly a decade working on/off this sonata so I can share some of my insights.
The American pianist Katherine Ruth Heyman delivered the U.S. premiere in 1916. She helped popularize the idea that the sonata’s five basic motives are elements of fire, water, earth, air, and atmosphere/ether. Where she got this idea from I do not know. While it's a perfectly valid interpretation, none of the primary sources or Scriabin's commentaries discuss this idea.
We unfortunately know next to nothing about what Scriabin himself thought when he composed this. It's his most mysterious large work. One of the very few things we know is that Scriabin said "...the varied moods expressed in this sonata are very close to the moods of the 7th sonata...and at the end, there is that same outpouring, dance, vertigo, however, in this sonata, there is even more, much more dance."
How would I personally describe the awe-inspiring and incredibly mysterious Sonata No. 8?
For me, if Sonata 7 is a mystic ceremony on Earth in a magical bell temple, then Sonata 8 is the sister piece that continues the mystical rituality aspect but uses a very different approach. Sonata 7 is for a group of spectators (hence the name Mass and in my opinion the closest thing we have to a complete stand-alone Mysterium concert), while Sonata 8 is for when you leave the group and go on a solo trip.
I would overall describe No. 8 as a sorcerer/art-shaman putting you in a magical ultraviolet trance (starts off slow and hypnotic) and then begins to carry you off on an epic visionary journey into exotic otherworldly realms across the cosmos.
During this journey, we seem to encounter scorching astral fires, caressing mists, the intense motion of primal matter, vibrating lights and colors, blissfully hyper-sensual paradisaical realms, places where there are secrets within secrets, and countless other ineffable suggestions. By the time a frenzied cosmic molecular “dance” closes the piece, we are left breathless and Scriabin (the great sorcerer himself) undoubtedly proves his power is real.
This madcap finale, by the way, played at the proper speed (which no one has yet to fully honor) is Scriabin's genius totally unhinged. I'll wager you never heard someone play at full "presto" (very fast) and then "prestissimo" (extremely fast) as he asks. Officially, prestissimo is the quickest speed Western music can be played, with presto the second quickest. To play this full prestissimo is likely beyond what is humanly possible. Its perverse difficulty is clearly in the stratosphere...and that's the whole point.
While musicologists point out that Scriabin wrote the most important group of piano sonatas since Beethoven, I would add that No. 8 is his most magnificent contribution to the sonata genre. Astonishingly, it is still so little known and tragically often played so flat and with a paint-by-numbers mentality (another discussion with very obvious answers why).
Interestingly, though Scriabin wrote 10 sonatas, Sonata No. 8 was actually the last one he finished. Also, Scriabin never played this sonata in public, only fragments for close friends (he especially was fond of the introduction and its 5-voice polyphony passage). It was only given its first performance after his death. Scriabin himself sadly never got to hear it performed. What I would give to have heard him play this!
I'll never understand how Scriabin created this vast otherworldly work over a hundred years ago from his little antique desk in the middle of Tsarist Russia- in a country house with no electricity and in an era still run by horse carriages. For someone so obsessed with “the beyond”, it’s too bad Scriabin never even saw a single photo of outer space, lived before radios/available recordings, and likely never seen a single movie (which were anyways very crude, colorless, and soundless before his death in 1915).
It’s why this work portraying "the beyond" is so ridiculously pure and utterly extraordinary...it’s completely his own extreme imagination. Only a supreme artist could've done what he did. He really was a sorcerer of art and imagination.
Wow, this is such an insightful comment! Love these descriptions and thoughts. I’m posting this on the discord!
Fantastic comment and... yes 👍 ❤
This is really really creative and beautiful interpretation, I’m so appreciated that video like this exists.
Thanks! I appreciate that! There’s some really creative interpretations of it here in the comments section too!
What this video is saying is that... everything was peaceful until the fire nation attacked?
That reminds me of Der Ring des Nibelungen, where Wagner wrote leitmotifs for every element (Valkyres and Donner -- air, Rhein -- water, Loge -- fire, Nibelheim -- earth), the cycle starts with water (Rhein in the first opera) and ends with fire (When Brunhilde burns the Valhalla)
god that stare at the camera is so funny
Gimme your favorite time stamp.
@@jaybeardmusic8074like all of them becaus ethey all look the same haha
😂
AVATAR SONATA😍
Me when religion