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Scriabin's Octatonic Sonata

1996; Cambridge University Press; Volume: 121; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1093/jrma/121.2.206

1471-6933

Wai-Ling Cheong,

Historical and Literary Studies

The first of an uninterrupted series of piano works to follow the orchestral Prometheus , op. 60 (1908–10), Scriabin's Sixth Sonata, op. 62 (1911), is a striking example of what may be termed an ‘octatonic sonata’. Indeed, the Sixth Sonata shows Scriabin experimenting with the octatonic at its most rigid and is unique in containing long spans of pure octatonic writing where not a single extraneous note is invoked. In contrast to the Fifth Sonata, op. 53 (1907), which is closely associated with the Poem of Ecstasy , op. 54 (1905–8), the Sixth Sonata has only loose ties with Prometheus .