They are often compared! My viewers tend to have a particular favorite among the two. Scriabin’s harmonies are indeed wicked 👻

scriabin and rachmaninoff, my 2 favorite composers lol

Interesting! You have a decent argument that the mystic chord comes from extensions of the #11 13, as 37/3 has a similar chord functioning as a dominant. However, I wouldn’t be so sure, as the C# #11 13 chord I think you’re referring to doesn’t have a 7th and thus technically isn’t a mystic chord. The example I showed of its first use goes from whole tone to mystic, so it’s possible that was his thought process. Can you explain what you mean by 5th inversion? (Maybe spell out an example) You’re right that he moves the phrase up a 4th shortly afterwards, but I would be curious how you would explain the tritone movement that is central to the motif.

​@@jaybeardmusic8074 We're talking about the same chord there, but the 7th, B, is held from the beat before. To be fair, the degree to which it can be heard varies wildly between performances. The 5th inversion is an 11 or 13 chord with the 11th as the lowest note. Like the 1st (over 3), 2rd (over 5), and less common 3rd (over 7) inversions; 4th, 5th, and 6th inversions are over the 9th, 11th, and 13th respectively. One voicing of a C13 in 5th inversion is: *F* C E G Bb D A. Then there's the particular chord in Sonata 5, the F13#11 in 5th inversion, *B* F Eb A D (et. al). Scriabin tends to spell the #4 as a b5 below the root in this work and ones shortly after it, likely due to some vestige of romantic era practice, but eventually stops doing so. Scriabin knows the dominant chord strongly implies motion by a 5th, but he would like to avoid such an assertive resolution, and in this relaxed section probably finds movement by 3rds or 2nds to be too exciting and out of character. To not abandon the concept of conflict and resolution entirely, he exploits small changes to his highly extended harmony for variety while holding still, to distract from "the tonic issue". These are things like resolving the whole-tone chord (b13) to the barely more consonant mystic chord (13), and using the 5th inversion over the tritone. I like to think of the 5th inversion as kind of a "mystic dominant". It being the highest inversion of the chord without creating a minor 9th (if the fifth is dropped) it has the sound most distinct from the root position chord, but because none of the notes have been directly changed, any tonal reanalysis done by the listener's ear is still pretty slight. It's definitely reasonable to hear this inversion as a C-flat 7#9-ish in isolation, but when you compare the F -> Cb in the beginning to the B -> F later in the section, it's clear that in the first instance, the resulting movement is significantly more subtle, because no _true_ harmonic motion has been made. He uses a similar concept in Op. 73/1, now bouncing between the 2nd and 5th inversions, and further distracting from the tonic (D, kind of) by contrasting the 9 with the b9, and sprinkling in some bright false relations.

This is an actual picture of Scriabin during the Mysterium.

@@jaybeardmusic8074 Does not look like scriabin.

​@@daviddivad4461 Yeah, for some reason ai doesn't draw Scriabin as good as other composers who look like themselves in AI-generated images

@@Contempl Would be a better result spending a minute in photoshop with a original pic. Its not like this would be hard to do, so i dont get it why so many creator using ai thumbnails when they look like trash. If the result would be passable i would understand but it just isnt.

Thanks! I would, but I have difficulty remembering what I need to say, so I kinda need to read it off the script. I need one of those AI editing tools that makes it look like you’re looking at the camera.

@@jaybeardmusic8074 another option could be setting up your script right next to the camera so at least your looking close to it

@@ethanduran7750oh yea, that’s what I do. My phone with the script is like an inch away from the camera.

@@jaybeardmusic8074 I like the way you stare at the phone. It gives you a charismatic autist kind of vibe. Its very entertaining and unique

Haha thank you! I am indeed openly autistic! What I lack in short term memory I make up for with a unique perspective of music theory and a special interest in Scriabin.

his music is hard to understand... i think that makes people avoid listening to his music. they sure are missing out a lot tho 🥲🥲

Yea, he doesn’t get as much respect as he deserves! That’s why I took it upon myself to build a Scriabin community! Join the discord server to hear from fellow Scriabin fans!

@@jaybeardmusic8074 wait which one?

@@user-yl5ed1ur3r fr and I also mean like no one knows him, too

Because people like this guy constantly lump him in with the incompetent composers of the 20th century. No, scriabin is not atonal. You cannot analyze his music through a non-tonal lens. Noone even attempts listening to scriabin because of the bad rep he has from being lumped in with the likes of schoenberg and boulez.

Why?

@jaybeardmusic8074 While I wouldn't tell you what you should or shouldn't use, I do think that ai generated images are generally very uninspiring, to the point of being obnoxious. They kinda give a low quality/effort content vibe. I tend to avoid videos and articles if they have this kind of images/thumbnails. I clicked on this video only to see if someone commented about the thumbnail. But that's me, maybe most people like ai images just fine so..

@@jaybeardmusic8074 To be fair, this fake Scriabin blasting lasers with his eyes is funny to me, I don't know why people are upset. Not all AI is bad. That one made me laugh.

@@PianoGuy954yeah its funny but this does not remotely look like scriabin

Not sure how you’re getting that. The F# gives us #11, the A gives us 13.

You’re right. Thank you

Mmm yea there was some colorful harmony going on around then. By pioneering I mean that he specifically pioneered the mystic chord. Bartok and company started playing with novel harmony more so around the 1910’s I believe. Sonata 5 is from 1907. Debussy’s Faun piece is certainly innovative especially with the use of whole tone, but it’s much more tonal/traditional than Scriabin’s late era. Perhaps someday I’ll make a video about that piece! Thanks for the input!