Promethée. Le Poème du feu

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Promethée. Le Poème du feu , op. 60, (German roughly: "Prometheus. The Seal of Fire") is a symphonic poem by the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin for a large orchestra, piano, organ, choir and color piano (also known as the "light piano") . The title of the work, composed in 1909/10, refers to the ancient Prometheus myth.

The world premiere (without a light voice) took place on March 15, 1911 under the direction of Sergei Kussewizki in Moscow . With the light voice it was performed for the first time in March 1915 under Modest Altschuler in Carnegie Hall with the help of the so-called “Chromola”, a “color organ” invented by Preston Millar. The pianist was Marguerite Volavy, accompanied by the Russian Symphony Orchestra. The colors were projected onto a screen above the orchestra. The mystical atmosphere or intensification of the music sought by Scriabin could only be achieved with very simple technical means during the composer's lifetime. The Moscow-based Alexander Moser (chemist) constructed a light piano that was presumably used in private preview performances of a piano version of the Prométhée in Scriabin's apartment. A model of this device has been preserved in the Moscow Scriabin Museum. Even today the work is mostly performed without additional lighting effects.

The playing time is about 20 to 25 minutes.

occupation

The score provides for the following scoring : piccolo , 3 flutes , 3 oboes , English horn , 3 clarinets , bass clarinet , 3 bassoons , contrabassoon , 8 horns , 5 trumpets , 3 trombones , tuba , kettledrum , bass drum , cymbals , tam-tam , triangle , 5 Bells , glockenspiel , celesta , 2 harps , organ , piano, four-part choir (only vocalise ) and strings . There is also a color piano.

With this orchestral apparatus, the demands that Scriabin made in his previous orchestral work Le Poème de l'Extase are even exceeded.

Connection of music and light

As a composer, Scriabin assumed that there are six different arts: music, words, plastic movement, the play of scents, light and painting. Music, words and plastic movement are among the dominant arts, light and fragrance among the accompanying arts.

For the composer, art represented a mystical-religious ritual process that can only be achieved by combining all of these arts in one work. Scriabin's aim was to create such a mystical-religious ritual process. However, since it did not seem possible for him to combine all these arts at the time, he started with only two arts: music and light. The light should amplify the music and contribute to its intensification. To this end, the composer , who was gifted with color synesthesia , assigned a color to each key by intuition, in which the concert hall should shine.

Luce voice

In the score of the piece a separate part, labeled “Tastiera per luce”, appears for a specially constructed color piano. This Luce part is notated in two parts so that colors can be mixed. Each tone is assigned the color of the key for which it is considered the basic tone. The exact lighting sequence in the piece is determined by the Luce voice. The upper Luce voice is the more active one. It indicates the fundamental tone of the sound center. The lower part runs parallel to the structure of the symphony. During the exposition it stands for the color blue, the development shines in red and yellow and the recapitulation in blue again.

The harmony

Mystic accord after Scriabin

"The mystical-religious art, which serves to express all of man's secret abilities and to achieve ecstasy, has always and always needed all means to have an effect on the psyche."

Scriabin was very conscious of nature and strove for ecstasy in music. There is a corresponding color for every key, a corresponding color change for every change in harmony.

Alexander Scriabin composed purely intuitively. The harmonies that he chooses without any theoretical intention are often described as “deeply mystical” and “strangely flattering”, and emerged from the color impressions that the composer felt. But despite this arbitrary choice of harmonies, they are subject to a strict law, as they follow the limits of a certain scale . This scale (cde f sharp ab) consists of six tones that form the basic chord of the Prométhée , arranged in layers of fourths in the sequence c-f sharp-bead, the so-called mystical chord , which can be transposed to all 12 levels of the chromatic scale . The Prométhée thus leaves the framework of the conventional major-minor tonality . A great variety can be found in the harmonies and in the distribution. He often uses pure, augmented, and diminished fourths.

The scale on which the harmonies are based is justified acoustically, since these overtones form the so-called harmonic series of sounds. The resulting sounds are the overtones 8, 9, 10–13, 14. Such chords can be called "consonance chords" because they do not strive for resolution. These harmonies create a mystical-nervous atmosphere, but also a transparency and simplicity of the music. Scriabin avoids passing notes or alternating notes that are not included in the harmony. The melodic voices and counterpoints are built on the harmonies. Only through this structure of the composition can five to six themes appear at the same time .

The Prométhée is thus a polyphonic and at the same time transparent work. Only the end of the work that follows a free sonata form leads to a F sharp major triad.

Others

In 1911 Leonid Sabanejew made a transcription of the work for two pianos.

Recordings

Several recordings of Scriabin's Prometheus are available, for example with:

literature

  • Jörg Jewanski: From the color-tone relationship to colored light music. In: Jörg Jewanski & Natalie Sidler (eds.): Color-Light-Music: Synesthesia and Color-Light Music (pp. 131–209). Bern (et al.), Lang, 2006
  • Wulf Konold (Ed.): Lexicon Orchestermusik Romantik. SZ . Piper / Schott, Mainz 1989. ISBN 3-7957-8228-7
  • Friedemann Kawohl: Alexander Moser - chemist, artist photographer and designer of a light piano for Alexander Scriabin's Prométhée. Le Poème du feu. In: Writings of the Association for History and Natural History of Baar 56 (2013), 71–90.
  • Josef-Horst Lederer: The function of the Luce voice in Scriabin's op.60 . In: Otto Kolleritsch (Ed.): Alexander Skrjabin (pp. 128–141). Graz 1980, Universal Edition (= studies on valuation research; 13)
  • Leonid Sabanejew ([1912] 2004): Prometheus von Skrjabin. In: Wassily Kandinsky & Franz Marc (eds.) (1912/2004): The blue rider. Munich, Piper, 1912/2004, pp. 107-124
  • Sigfried Schibli: Alexander Scriabin and his music . Piper, Munich / Zurich 1983, ISBN 3-492-02759-8
  • Horst Weber: On the history of synesthesia. Or: About the difficulties of interpreting the Luce voice in Prometheus . In: Otto Kolleritsch (Ed.): Alexander Skrjabin (pp. 50–57). Graz 1980, Universal Edition (= studies on valuation research; 13)
  • Sebastian Widmaier: Scriabin and Prometheus. Hanke-Verlag, Weingarten 1986. ISBN 3-925338-01-2

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Library of Welte-Mignon (Licensee) Recordings . De Luxe Reproducing Roll Corporation, New York (NY), 1927, p. 219
  2. ↑ http://baarverein.de/schriftenarchiv/2013_56.pdf

Web links