Arranging diachronically the sounds we obtain the mystic scale: scale:
B is added to complete the sequence. As it was said up in this scale are present two tritones and one only half tone (A#-B half tone, being theorical, is not considered) Skrjabin splits the sequence according to intervallic relations. The tritone supports the harmonic structures. This being the most important harmonic element without any antagonism they represents the unic current harmonic In the cognitive domain it represents the unic-transmitted information to the listeners.
Tritone as informational constant. It’s not a hazardous to say that this chord produces a big loss of sensation. Stumpf e Meissner [1914] showed it on the basis of Helmholtz’s research work [1863], saying that fusion features of sounds depend on the relationship of their oscillation frequencies. Stumpf e Meissner showed that consonances (unisons and octaves at first and fourth and fifth at second) produce a fusion level higher than the level of dissonances. Considering that the human sensibility for beats is concentrated in the range of 125 and 8000 Hz, and that this is the same region of the first 12-16 partials (the most important being in the range of 300-600), it is clear that the sensation of instability produced by two fundamentals in tritone relation. In spite of this, the presence of tritone as unic-harmonic information is perceived during the whole piece as a steady element. In other words, receivers do not frame the tritone neither as an element of rest nor as a motion of harmony; ambiguity is inside the main structure and it’s received as informational constant. It also must to be considered also the context in which harmonic elements take place and the tension that develops on its own. While the physical property of intervals have constant features, their use and meanings change the 1 downstream context . Consonance and dissonance are considered change as well composers change their attitudes.
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Connotation of sound events is truly complex. From the point of view of traducibility of receiver’s reactions, connotation strength isn’t connected to the semantic fields that marks out “qualitative” evaluations but is connected to another closet definable sensation, the “familiarity” [Cifariello Ciardi, 1996, pag.14]
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Different tension levels can be accepted as consonant. It is possible to consider them as elements of motion in a context ruled by dissonances; soft dissonances may seem connected with the sensation of rest in a context ruled by strong dissonances. In Vers la flamme the continued presence of the tritone in a chromatic context gives the sensation that it sounds neuter and, functionally are consonant.
Tritone development in Vers la flamme: harmonic considerations. The tritone is always present in the main piano figures of the piece. In this continuity the tritone is well blended throughout the duration of the piece; it is a focal point of the listeners perception.
Another reason that solidifies the perception of this interval as the main material of the piece is its continuity at the beginning of the composition for the first 17 measures. The left hand plays three tritones; they correspond to three exact transpositions of the mystic scale, always moving a minor third up.
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This transposition is tautological: by adding the intervals of each fundamental we obtain another tritone. This terrace-transposition model is developed during the piece. During the measures 41-76, considering that each sound belongs to the mystic scale, each harmony has an extra note that is corrected in the subsequent measure. Only the last structure has no extra notes inside.
The analysis of the micro-blocks above is valid for the other measures, too. The mystic scale has an original development in the sections of m. 41-76 and 81-96: in the first the fundamentals move of major thirds; their addition gives the chord of augmented fifth – another feature of the mystic chord:
After, fundamentals return to the ascending minor thirds moving; harmonic changes are faster and marked by rapid descending arpeggios:
The initial distribution takes place again in the m. 81-96, with more complex moves and opposite directionality:
Another interesting element found in the piece, also derivable from the mystic chord, is the dominant seventh chord present from in m. 65:
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As stated above, this chord, in an incomplete form, is inside the mystic harmony:
Theoretically the unmissed sound of the seventh chord corresponds to the note added to complete the mystic scale. In the rapid arpeggios of the m. 65-75, this sound appears, as a consequence of the previous trend of the bass. It has not a structural importance for the chord:
The proof that Skrjabin doesn’t consider this sound as structural can be found in m. 81-106; here the fifth isn’t present in the chords. It appears another sound, corresponding with the 6th sound of the mystic chord, transforms the seventh chords into ninth chords:
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Several bass notes have ninth chords; this is the entire succession:
These chords are not used in a pure form but they present other added-notes. In m. 81, for example, chords played by the right hand contain the note G instead of F. G is present also in the melodic line up the chords and creates an interesting effect of heterophony:
The analysis of this measure is valid for the following ones. Listening to the piece it is clear that the composer uses these harmonic structures without any tonal reference; he only makes the most dynamism from their acoustical features. From m. 97, seventh chords appear in the low register, following the beginning harmonic structures. Low tritones become fifths: their acoustical impact gives a lot of stability to the harmony. The tritone is recovered among the notes of the tremolos:
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On this harmony, the composer puts some ribattuto chords by fourth in the high register. (m.97):
The fundamental of these chords is always the third of the seventh chords of the low register: From a structural point of view, chords by fourth are only decorative and they haven’t a harmonic function. They sounds like laid upon harmonies. Even thought it’s too early to refer to them as “sound bands”, it is clear that Skrjabin wants to divide the different piano registers, entrusting to each of them different elements and sensations. Piano texture is evident in this sense. We said that chords by fourth are not structural in the harmony. They have own importance in a functional point of view, especially during the listening activity. Once they have appeared, they rest until the end of the composition, rising their pitch and their frequency. The range is from E5 to C#7. At m. 125 chords in fourth reach their highest pitch; after this moment the composer works on the parameter of frequency. If at their beginning they were two measures each, even with some deregulations, in the last nine bars they form a continuum of ribattutos. From a functional point of view, the saturation of the rhythm spreads the end of the composition. During this process the harmonic structure of the piece stays like its beginning, where the color of the tritone is the primary information. Piano texture recovers with little modifications the m. 1-40. For all these reasons, chords by fourths have their importance during the listening. Being structural and not connected with the main harmony, they are able to rise from the background and transfer themselves to the attention of listeners.
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Dialectic of melodic material In Vers la flamme the first part of the piece contains all the melodic elements that are developed during the piece. The first material opens the piece and ends at m. 5:
All the sounds of the two lines in which we can divide the phrase are included in the mystic chord. This is the lower line:
It has the character of a litany and gives to the whole material some esatonal “taste”. It moves in major seconds for the range of a major third; these three notes form a homogeneous tetrachord with the E of the low register. The semitone of m. 5 marks the end of the first phrase and the changement of harmony; if A# on the first harmony was an “official” note of the mystic chord, over there has the value of an appoggiatura of B, sound of the new chord:
In this way, seeing the immobility of the bass line, harmonic changes are easier and less sudden. The esatonal character is one of the features of the mystic scale; its first for notes ore arranged for major seconds and it’s in this way that we obtain the tritone. We can consider the whole scale as the addition of a homogeneous tetrachord with a trichord:
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The extremes of the tetrachord are used to build harmonic structures, while the other notes are involved in the construction of the lower line of the melody. The semitone between the second and the third note of the trichord s the most important element of the melodic material and is present in the upper voice. This is the upper voice extrapolated from its context with its segmentation:
We can see that the tritone is always put on the main accents of the segments – the reiteration of the bass note also marks this accent – while consonances are always of passage. The minor sixth situated at the begin of m. 5 confirms its function of appoggiatura of the new chord; it’s interesting to see how a consonant interval sounds quite dissonant in a context do minated by tritons. The collocation of the melody and its harmonic background gives a sort of “dulling” sensation of the melodic line that tries to come out. This is a graphical representation of the whole phrase:
The widest interval is of a minor sixth, situated inside ! and c. The attempt of elevation of the lines level in m. 3 is suddenly annulled by the stativity of the lower profile, the too strict relation with the harmony; also, the deepest hollow sudden follows the pick of the profile. The attempt of elevation of the profile works only in m. 5 with the segment c; it melts with the begin of the exact repetition of the material of m. 1-5 in the m. 7-11. In the next steps the material doesn’t have substantial modification and works as a bonding agent among the different sections of the composition. 9
Just with a visual approach, the section of m. 41-76 could be too long considering the proportion of the whole form. In this interpretation, the main segment of m. 70 and 74 have the function of a flashback .
The return of the melodic material is made clear in the following four measures (m. 77-80). The segment b of m. 3 is homogenized in its values –for this reason now we called it b1 – and reiterate it five times like an ostinato. At the same time it starts a tremolo of chords by seconds in relation to the tritone with the lower register chord; it also introduces the piano figure that is featured in the central part of the piece:
In the whole form the material returns again in m. 107-124 with its original values. There is another kind of modification of the line: between the segments b and c the composer sets a segment b1 (m. 110 and 116):
In the m. 13-27 there is a process of liquidation by blocks. All of them are denoting by a descending semitone, which can be explained by dragging of the final part of the melodic profile. We can see, infact, that the profile starts and ends with a semitone, but with opposite directions. During the process of liquidation, a length of approximately 27”, the descending semitone monopolizes the highest part of harmony and forces the listeners to associate its direction like that one which connotes the semitone itself. Even at the same time the melodic material retreats more and more from the scene, melding with the harmony that remains alone at the end: 10
To paraphrase this process, we could say that the melodic material is born and dies in the background; it emerges for a little moment and quickly it sinks, to emerge again in m. 27 with the second melodic idea. This idea starts with a descending semitone, the inversion of the one that opened the piece:
With this analysis we do not see any connection between the two heads but between the end of the first and the head of the second one. The importance of the semitone is fundamental to understand the criteria Skrjabin has used to choose it in the section of m. 41-76. By comparing the melodic materials of the first section is possible make another consideration, relating the micro-distribution of the register between melody and harmony of this section: it is important to underline this aspect because it is difficult move, without create any “fall” in the reception, very temporally dilated materials. Skrjabin uses the distribution of the parts like “fludifying”. As previously stated the first chord of the right hand is active part of the harmony. This means that the first melodic material is integrated into the harmonic background – the highest voice of harmony then clashes with the melodic element. The second one is:
This one, instead, is separated from the chords and is just situated on them, even though voices are still immobile, they start to place themselves like the structure of m. 4 1-76:
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In this section the semitone arrives to a place of main importance. The diatonic descending semitone is associated with the central pedal; the ascending semitone underlines changes in the bass:
The ascending semitone is suddenly repeated with opposite direction one measure after:
It is possible to observe the other features of the role of the descending semitone. The tritones of the central part form every two measure. In a second level of analysis, a descending semitone:
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The harmonic information keeps the same content, but now the tritone also absolves the function of secondary voice. If one considers that only the descending semitones appear in this section, one can see the scheme of echoes that the composer creates:
The other phrases of this section follow the features mentioned above. They are used to move the internal part of the music, keeping the semitone that is found also in other parts of the composition, even though less perceptibly:
From m. 71, the semitone loses its importance and it becomes a descending tone; it carries the composition into a new section by introducing the new pianistic figure:
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The importance of piano figures. One can now make some consideration, about the treatment of the piano figures. It appears interesting how the composer has increased the tension that develops in the texture of the piano. In the second part (m.41-76) the voices, at first quite immobile, begin to move independently from each other; they form a “sandy” polyphony:
It does not appear that the intervals of perfect fourth have any connection with the mystic harmony. The part of the left hand looks like a “disturbance” of the material of the right one. The left hand imitates more slowly what occured in the middle register using an interval that works in two ways: it does not meld with the tritones of the right hand, but works in the background and “swells” the resonance of the passage, while considering the acoustic features of the perfect fourth. The movement of the right hand is developed throughout the entire piece. It starts from m. 41 and has its origin in the disposition of the parts found in the measures just before:
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It can be determined that Skrjabin performed three operations until m. 41 on the disposition of the parts: At first harmony is immobile and melds with the melodic profile • Secondly the melodic profile starts to be indepen dent while the harmonies remain immobile; • Third the composer starts to give some movement to the harmonic parts. • The alternate movements of eighths swell from m. 81. The two sounds become four, always keeping the tritone; the eighths become sixteenths:
The next step in development of the alternate chords is the transformation in the tremolos, written in 32nd and close among them selves. The tremolos appear at the same time of the chords by fourths and they are always associated:
This representation synthesizes the transformation described above:
If the transformation of piano figures cannot be theorized (depending on the taste and sensibility of composers), passing to shorter values follows the notion of A. Schoenberg about the tendency to shorter values. We think that Schoenberg’s point of view explains the diachronic transformation of values in the piece well. 15
At m.65 some rapid arpeggios appear in the left hand:
The introduction of a new element underlines that something is changing in the music, even though the harmonic structure is still the same. The sequence of chords in the form of arpeggios don’t create, from a technical point of view, an harmonic progression, but it absolutely has the feature of it: especially from m. 66, the tendency to the shortest values give the music the sensation of becoming faster. Rapid arpeggios are rhetoric in the production of A. Skrjabin. Here are some excerpts from his other works:
Analysis of the whole form Considering the “official” return of the melodic material in the last part of the piece it should be possible to divide the piece in the classic ABA form:
A (m. 1-40)
B (m.41-106)
A1 (m.107-133)
Section B is more curious.
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In ABA form, the middle section must works to remove the starting material from an harmonic and melodic point of view. It builds a temporal bridge more or less long and deep, with the final aim to connect itself with the starting structures again. Postulated these points, it is clear that the central section of Vers la flamme does not respect them for the following reasons: • Harmonic structure is the same as that of the beginning and it does not support any function of contrast considering beginning and final parts; Melodic material is not elaborated upon; it is “cut” and arranged in different ways; • • Even though some materials of the beginning return in the third part, the listener does not care for them but follows the progressive increase of the register and of the speed of music, living the piece as a monodirectional experience. Since it is not in ABA form, we should try to consider the piece as an example of polisectional music. Certainly this conclusion must be drown; if we consider that the adjective “polisectional” is applied to pieces like the Kammekonzert of G. Ligeti or Le Sacre di Stravinsky, it is clear that the use here of this word is just metaphorical. We should split the piece in four micro sections: A: batt. 1-40 B: batt. 41-80 C: batt. 81-106 D: batt. 107-137
Now it is clear that this consideration of the form is also not right: the four section are too close to each other and the typical succession of different “scenes” present in all the polisectional pieces is too feeble here. Each pat has too material and parameters in common with the other parts to permit to consider itself like independent. In these sections, instead, there is a dense network of melodic relationships within the structure of the composition. A A1
A2
B
C
D
Letter A is divided into two parts because, as was seen during the analysis, there are two main melodic materials. Therefore, a good way to consider the whole form of the piece, for a higher level of analysis, is as a monodirectional process of accumulation, respecting homogeneous directionalities: from low register to high register; from slow to fast; from being calm to being exited; from the dark to the light. This homogeneity works well during the listening; the listeners may focus their attention on them, finding a clear way to elaborate the informations transmitted by the piece.
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Some flashes of Schenker analysis: intellectual sin? Since that Schenker analysis methods foresee other kinds of applications in such different stylistic and harmonic conditions, it could be interesting to investigate the role of the tritone in this perspective too. If we consider m. 81 from the beginning of the central part of the piece, we can see how its bass note, Bb, forms an interval of a tritone with the bass of the first and last sections of the piece:
The composer changed the dialectic relationship between tonic and dominant to that one between first and fourth note of the mystic scale, thus changing then the dialectic inside the Ursatz : the musical noumenon. Considering only the movement of fundamentals of the Ursatz, Skrjabin changed it in this way:
All this remains a truly theoretical speculation… … But it is interesting to see at the beginning of the 1900s how the composers, step by step, started to reject the tonal constructions following a personal and innovative way to building their own compositional project.
Researching the color The original purpose of this work was to find in Vers la flamme an interpretative clue to understanding the nature of the compositional decisions taken by the composer and their related effects. It could be interesting see the entire piece in terms of the color suggested by the sections of the piece The pilot function of the title 2 creates a strong image in the listeners’ imagination. It is not possible to leave out of consideration the reception of the piece from the metaphor that the composer suggests and its compositional connotation from its choise Like Sciarrino says, [Sciarrino, 1998, p.45-47] S krjabin has a nature sensibility, like Wagner’s: the composer addresses nature and becomes receptive to its solicitations. During his life Skrjabin never denied his love for synesthesia (semantic figure that consists in the association of two phenomena referred to different sensorial experiences, in this case color and music). He himself declared in 1907 together with N. Rimsky Korsakov his attempt to work in this way. Skrjabin worked also with Mozer, silently, finding common features between music and colors and he notated how at a cognitive level these sensory spheres are so subjective that it is not 2
This definition seeks to indicate the property of a title to synthesize the subject that the music wants to suggest and relate all the process of the piece with the general metaphor of the text or the music. The listener-receiver interprets all the meaning in function of the pilot-concept, trying to make a logical reception of the perceived symbols [Caprettini, 1996].
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possible to study them with the necessary scientific rigor. He limited his research to the suggestion to connote the music using other sensory experiences. In this sense he uses colors, like in his orchestral works, to reduce the subjectivity edge of the public comprehension. 3 This conception was to be developed years later by the main authors of the hermeneutic tradition, especially Gadamer [1960], Ricoer [1970-79] and Geertz [1973]. Through these considerations we can say that in music the attempt to use synesthesia does not mean recovering practical experiences or stimulations; it means suggesting the memory of sensorial experiences different from the audo ones working on the connotation of the symbols meaning. “Harmonic feeling in Skryabin’s music is strongly suggestive of slow passages from one color to another one…” [Macdonald] It is now necessary to make some empirical considerations about how the composer tried to use musical parameters to stimulate other sensorial spheres not directly connected. As stated above, synesthesia starts just from the pilot function of the title, indicating the symbol of the flame. . Cognitive psychology tradition says that reception of a symbol presupposes its interpretation in its natural context; than it’s normal the association of the flame to the fire and its related colors. This is the synesthetic run on which the composer works. At the beginning of the piece the composer indicates, after the dynamic ( p), another indication: dark . At m. 81, instead, the dynamic f is associated with the words brilliant, bright. But how can sounds suggest the idea of dark or bright? We can give three answers: Analyzing the piece from an acoustical point of view, at its beginning the harmonics overlapping of the close sounds in the low register create an implosion of the whole resonance of the passage; in an opposite way, where the composer writes bright the bass note is doubled at the octave and all the “weft” is resonant, respecting the harmonic disposition:
Dark and bright are also suggested by the choosing of register: low at first, higher and higher during the piece until the end. The third way to explain the synesthesia refers to the live performance of the piece. At the beginning we will see the pianist stays on the keyboard, almost without any movement. Little by 3
Hermeneuti c tradi tio n works on the c ontextua lize d recept ion o f symbols. Thi s tradition works on the postulate that symbols reception always presupposes a contextualized and creative interpretation, depending from the own cultural background of each listener-receiver. 19
little, movements of the pianist become more and more concitated: the composer precisely indicates on the score all the hands crosses. The shifting of both hands in all the zones of the keyboard is more and more evident and faster and compels the player to play some passages con bravura; the final result is really suggestive: hands shifting is large and fast and ends when the fingers arrive to play in the last octave of the keyboard. The metaphor from dark to bright is given also by the passage from slow to fast and from staying to moving . If we relate all these considerations to the Schoenberg’s tendency to the shorter values, we see that it is not only a compositional choice but also a physiologic necessity: more density corresponds to bigger audio solicitations, and bigger cerebral activity correspond to more use of player energies. Then, synesthesia is also expressed by variations of density. We can synthesize all these consideration saying, then, that color in music is a sort of synesthesia given by the association of particular audio stimulations to situations and phenomena not directly related to each other, but causes of common effects. Synesthesia will be strongly expressed if associations are perceptible from all people, that is if they take part of a common repertoire of background experiences. It is important to underline the importance of hermeneutic tradition in this definition; in this sense, music is only a signifier and referential only for itself ; objective meaning will be built personally by each listener, depending on his own cultural and personal background. Alexandr Skrjabin lived following mysticism, sometimes Apollonian, sometimes Dionysian. We cannot know what the composer thought in his privacy. However, we scan ee how the flame was imagined by Alexander Skrjabin at first, after built, then reached through his music.
Maurilio Cacciatore
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Main Bibliography Caprettini, G.P.: SEGNI, TESTI, COMUNICAZIONE Gli strumenti semiotici Utet, Torino, 1997 Cifariello Ciardi, F.: LA CONNOTAZIONE DELL'EVENTO SONORO: UN PARAMETRO PER LA COMPOSIZIONE MUSICALE? In: "Psicologia Cognitiva e Composizione musicale: punti di intersezione e prospettive comuni". Ed. Kappa, Roma, 1996 Macdonald: A.SKRJABIN in: DEUM, Utet Persichetti, V.: ARMONIA DEL VENTESIMO SECOLO Guerini Studio, Milano, 1993 Piston, W.: ARMONIA E.D.T., Torino, 1989 Schoenberg, A.: ELEMENTI DI COMPOSIZIONE MUSICALE traduz. italiana di G. Manzoni Ed. Suvini Zerboni, Milano, 1969 Sciarrino, S.: LE FIGURE DELLA MUSICA da Beethoven a oggi Ricordi, Milano, 1998 Stuckenschmidt, H.H.: LA MUSICA MODERNA da Debussy agli anni '50 Einaudi, Torino, 1960 Thompson, J.B.: MEZZI DI COMUNICAZIONE E MODERNITA' Ed. Il mulino, Bologna, 1995
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