Aleksandr Scriabin - Prometheus: The Poem of Fire Op. 60 (GSARCI VIDEO VERSION)
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- Опубліковано 29 лис 2024
- Prometheus: The Poem of Fire, Op. 60 (1910), is a symphonic work by the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. Loosely based on the myth of Prometheus, this was the last orchestral work that he wrote, and it is widely regarded as his most radical large composition and one of his greatest masterpieces. From about 1903 onward Scriabin was drawn toward the study of theosophy, and he gradually became more daring stylistically as well. The Symphony No. 5 reflects his increasingly eccentric artistic persona: it attempts to take the first step toward uniting all art forms, as well as to express certain religious and philosophical ideas. A typical performance lasts about 20 minutes.
The work's harmonic language is advanced -- but this was only another step along the way for Scriabin, who had already fashioned a style well beyond the average listener's comprehension in his own day. The composer never realized a crucial part of his conception: in the score he specifies that certain colors should flood the concert hall during performance, projected by a "clavier à lumières," a keyboard instrument not even in existence at the time. Scriabin associated keys with colors -- F major, for example, he linked with hell and saw as blood-red. At the March 15, 1911 premiere led by Sergei Koussevitsky, the music was given without the accompanying color projections. A 1915 New York performance provided the colors for the audience, but by projecting them on a screen -- a disappointing compromise for the composer. When fellow composer Leonid Sabaneyev initially proposed transcribing the symphonic poem for two pianos (four hands) in 1911, Scriabin was of the opinion that at least eight hands would be necessary, and the composer was reportedly somewhat disconcerted when he realized that his piece could be reduced in this way.
The score also calls for a huge orchestra (eight horns, five trumpets, and other large sections), piano, organ, and chorus, whose members are instructed to wear white robes and sing with closed lips. Scriabin attempts to unify sound and color, as well as to convey his mystical and philosophical ideas via his Prometheus, a mythological character who symbolizes rebellion against God. The composer associates him with Lucifer, called the bringer of light, thereby introducing the element of bright color, infernal images, and much else into the work.
Scriabin bases the composition on a single chord of six notes (A, D♯, G, C♯, F♯, and B -- Sabaneyev will later refer to this chord as the "chord of Prometheus" or "mystic chord"), from which emerges the opening theme on muted horns and virtually all subsequent thematic material. Prometheus begins with music depicting Chaos, and then turns to a variety of other subjects that include joy, eroticism, human passion, and ego. Near the end, when the music reverts back to the gray mists of the opening, there is a section entitled "Dance of the Atoms of the Cosmos." After unrelieved dissonance throughout, the symphonic poem ends with a resplendent F-sharp major triad, the only consonant sonority in the entire composition.
The whole work evokes ethereal and otherworldly images. The music has an aura of the surreal throughout, with thematic development taking unexpected detours and instrumental colors often brighter and more intense than the colors any machine could project in a concert hall. The expressive language of Prometheus lies somewhere between Stravinsky's The Firebird -- a work written at about the same time -- and some of the early 12-tone works. Still, this is tonal music, masterfully crafted and hardly offensive to the modern ear. It is also pure Scriabin from first note to last.
(AllMusic, Wikipedia)
Please take note that the audio AND sheet music ARE NOT mine. Feel free to change the video quality to a minimum of 480p for the best watching experience.
Performance by: Alexander Toradze (piano), assisted by Valery Gergiev conducting the Mariinsky Theater Choir and Orchestra
Original audio: • Scriabin: Promethée - ...
Original sheet music: imslp.org/wiki/Symphony_No.5,_Op.60_(Scriabin,_Aleksandr)
The buildup to 13:54 has got to be the most glorious thing I have ever heard. I have listened to this video dozens of times and I am nowhere near getting tired of it.
Used to be a bit underwhelmed / disappointed with the end of what has been for a long time my personal favorite piece of music. It seems abrupt at first listen. But after listening to it enough times, I realize that it is a good ending. The unexpected resolution to the mysterious and exciting theme is a perfectly hair-raising way to do it justice. Never seen before in the entire piece, but perfectly fitting. The final iteration might be the most memorable. This gives a reverse echo effect. From the perspective of someone who just finished listening to the piece, every previous iteration of the motif is juxtaposed with the most recent (last one) which is the most impactful and completely unique. Was it planned all along? Gives a sense of fate.
One of the most beautiful pieces of music ive ever heard
The harmonic analysis of this piece is very straightforward, even easy to do - Scriabin gives the keys in one of the voices in the color organ part. It takes a genius to work with such a restricted palette and generate over 20 minutes of interesting, captivating music. Amateurs would turn such material into banality within minutes.
I imagine a movie opening to this - thick fog blanketing the place as strange creatures roam a bleak, broken down landscape.
theFredericChopin yes...A movie with 90s quality footage, and lots of picture noise
I imagined this in place of the opening of The Lighthouse (2019):
ua-cam.com/video/FT28_6P4JNc/v-deo.html
This is a personal favorite man... his music and style is some of the best to me - most other composers seem to imitate his ‘moves’ or distill un-tasteful aspects of his sound, while adding something of their own can be unique at times, is usually uninteresting and lacks or loses the ‘freshness’ quality completely.
I was obsessed with this piece when I was in high school. It's truly on another level; first was Beethoven with his 9th, then Liszt with Christus, then Busoni with his mammoth concerto, then at around the same time, this+Mahler's mega symphonies.
I know it may take a while since it's such a long work but you should do a score video of Liszt's Christus.
You are lucky that you discovered this during high school. Took me until after high school before I decided to listen through all of Scriabin's work and discovered this.
YES YES YES! Thank you so much Gsarci!
Indeed, you have a wonderful dog mister.
@@cylnx4174 I know!
Oh yes, masterpiece.
Indeed
By far the best recording of this masterpiece!
the harmony from 5:59 to 6:45 was crazy
Another description of the piece, which complements the one in the description well: "Prometheus, first performed in Moscow on March 2, 1911, with Scriabin as piano soloist and Koussevitsky conducting, forms a distinct chapter in this progression. Across its twenty-minute span, Scriabin attempts to depict nothing less than the development of human consciousness, from primordial formlessness through man’s emerging self-awareness to a final ecstatic union with the cosmos. In Greek mythology (and in Aeschylus and Shelley), Prometheus had been a rebel who battled the gods on behalf of man, but Scriabin saw in Prometheus’ fire the symbol of human consciousness and creative energy. He attempted to depict this musically in his “Poem of Fire,” and he envisioned not simply a “symphony of sound” but a “symphony of color rays.” Toward this end he conceived a new instrument-the tastiera per luce, or “color-keyboard”-that would project light of different colors on a screen behind the orchestra, reproducing visually what the orchestra was dramatizing in sound. It was a visionary conception and one of the earliest early multi-media events (Scriabin would have liked Fantasia a great deal more than Mussorgsky)." (www.theford.com/musicdb/pieces/2988/prometheus-poem-of-fire-op-60)
Yes! I love this piece. Thank you!
What beautiful language...
This is scarier than the corona virus
Xd
In it's own way, maybe yes...
Just wait til you hear Pendrecki's Threnody for the Victims of Hiroshima
@@elektrikhd Rip Penderecki
ua-cam.com/video/-z-IUbwaMC0/v-deo.html
Uncanny and maverick, but at the same time marvelous and even redoubtable
Wtf i cried 4 times in this piece
Sometimes I doubt that Scriabin must have been beyond human.
Had a God-complex, you could say so
He was crazy.
One cannot stand against progress!
22:18 modernist time
Love the Scriabin Sound Worlds
Thanks Gsarci, another great video!
Somewhere (maybe in the Bowers biography?) I read that one person died during the premiere of this, he/she had an heart attack.
Listening to this I really wish that Scriabin didn't had to cut his beard and could finish the Mysterium.
His mustache gave him his divine power. Idk why he did that.
Where did you read he cut his beard? Wasn't he bitten on the lip by a fly?
Lina Beskinn I think you are thinking of Alban Berg.
@@samuelmincarelli5051 I am most certainly not thinking about Alban Berg, we know Scriabin died of blood poisoning because of a pimple on his lip and this pimple was maybe caused by a fly bite, at least that's the version of his death in the Scriabin biography by Manfred Kelkel.
Lina Beskinn Every sorce i have seen it said he cut himself while shaving.
Remember to vote Modernists for Tomsk in ‘62!
Am I nuts or is this interpretation conducted by Gergiev a bit better than Muti's? The one conducted by Boulez is pretty, but not quite as involving. Meanwhile, on UA-cam look up a live concert performance by Alexei Volodin with Vladimir Jurovski featuring a full light show (ends with the houselights turned up full blast) that I adore.
6:00
Really wonderful
4:00 21:20
me when EPIC modernists take control of our beautiful russia.
Damn!! 21:22
19:22
8:42, 10:02 Mystic chord!😍
How about 5:56 ?🙂
@@いつかきたみち-m4n yep! That's right!
@@fredericscriabinoff7612 Thank you for answering.😃🌷
J'AI BESOIN DE PLUS DE COULEUR
I swear one of the motifs in there sounds like Kronos unveiled from the Incredibles
here from the wikipedia article.
Ma che figata è
Increíble
Is that a symphonic poem I see... I wonder who invented those ;)
Berlioz?
The "first" one was composed by César Franck (it's his Symphonic Poem in D minor)... but, it's a well known fact that our big man Franz Liszt developed the form and expanded our horizons of composing music :)
I wonder who...
Andrei Cristian Anghel Wonder who did the best Symphonic Poem 😂
@@alejandrom.4680 rachmaninoff of course
Can't hear the Beautiful B# at the final chord,gives F#M the spice
the spice melange
there's no B# in the score tho?
@@Whatismusic123there is in the right hand of Piano I
Mystical dragon
와..
22:14
scriabin you lied to me where’s my Bb ending
Sounds like a Jerry Goldsmith score.
La partition ne correspond pas
@thenameisgsarci
My name is J. Triumvirate. I am a dedicated musician/composer. I am looking to expand my relationship with other musician/composers on UA-cam. I would like to communicate with you directly via email; however, I could not find any email on your channel page. If you are interested in speaking with me, please go to my UA-cam channel page, under the "About" section. There is an email there that you can use.
first
Using horns for those 4-7 chords in the intro was a poor choice.Maybe a harp or a paino would have served it better----but those horns playing those chords like that, after that wonderful spooky intro? LOL sorry, that was bad. Ruined it for me.
Wtf
For those who thinks scriabin was immaculate. No he was not. His orchestral writing was not the best and in some places kinda poor. In poem of ecstacy his friend L.Sabaneev changed some orchestration(not harmony) at the end before perfomance, in strings so it could sound better as scriabin wanted to hear. Scriabin's table was just full of different scores(La mer and nocturnes of debussy, some rimsky-korsakov just for reference in orchestral writing). I don't speak bad about him. His piano pieces are pure genius works but orchestra was not his best side at least at the moment of writing this work. But i don't find these horns that bad
A genius of colour and orchestration and no amount of snash from know it all commenters can change that.
Lmao this is such a stupid comment. No, neither a harp nor a piano would be better. It would not serve the form of the piece.
@@Whatismusic123 intelligent comments always seem stupid to mediocre minds. Be quiet little boy, your betters are talking.
Eh. . . Its ok
Nah it's amazing.
lol this was my channel from years ago. Years later, im OBSESSED with all Scriabin! His late music will forever hold a special place in my heart! This tonal poem invokes many surreal colors and shapes no other composer or music can elicit. After developing synesthesia as Scriabin did, it all makes sense now…
6:26
5:57
5:58
高校の頃一人校舎の屋上で流れる雲をみながら
遠い未来に思いを馳せたときの曲だった