Help in choosing Scriabin pieces

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Flying monkeys, hunh? ... I'll have to meditate over the meaning of this and get back to you on the meaning. You can begin the analysis of your dreams by making sure that you write them down in great detail as soon as you wake up. Think about what the symbols mean to you, rather than just reading an interpretation in a psychology textbook. By thinking about your dreams after making a careful record of them, it will become easier over time to understand their messages.

BTW, I listened to the first movement of this version of Op.20 Piano Concerto - Nasedkin and it seems fairly decent. This might help with overcoming any fear reaction towards Scriabin. YouTube probably has the other 2 movements as well. This might be useful, too!

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If the dreams continue (and even if they do, there's no reason to fear them - they're just images of your own subconscious mind - religiously stated: they're your Higher Self revealing yourself to yourself) try to picture yourself inside a bubble of sharp crystal, or some impenetrable substance. And if you're able, picture yourself in your mind armed with a sword (or a bazooka; 8) your choice), and if the monkeys return summon your courage to stand up to them - draw power from the Goddess within you, that IS you. Do this right before you go to sleep. Then when you wake up, picture yourself completely entering back into your body as if it were a larger slip-on full body suit. (Like putting on gloves and feet-socks only for the whole body.) Let me know either here or in a private message/e-mail if anything unusual happens. Always write down anything of this nature as soon as you can - it would be a good idea to invest in a blank book/diary/journal for this purpose. This can be VERY useful. :wink:
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The Op.20 shows a completely different side of Scriabin - his overflowing passion!!! After listening to this (preferably following along with the music, maybe the second time - you'll probably be blown away the first time :wink you will begin to understand the depth of Scriabin's beauty. All of his songs contain this same passion, he just hides it under a different mask of tonality or structure, whether playful and mischevious, or languid and ecstatic, or ______...

Love is the law, love under will.
Aryobrand

 

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

I was going to suggest to you for the first time you listened to Op.20 to light some candles and pour a couple of glasses of wine for you and your husband, then listen to it ... but wasn't sure if you would like Scriabin's Concerto so ... It is just absolutely beautiful - truly one of the most beautiful songs ever written (if played correctly :lol.

Not only is the Piano Concerto beautiful, but it's also one of Scriabin's most difficult pieces to play correctly, he uses a lot of subtle polyrhythms throughout the piece. Unfortunately many pianists just do their own editing job and replace the written rhythms with their own 'simplified' versions. :roll: Sometimes it makes me roll my eyes so much, my eyes hurt! :lol:

Also about the Prometheus ... since you've listened to both versions, go back and listen to just the first three minutes of both versions side-by-side. This will demonstrate to you the vast difference that it can make in someones interpretation of Scriabin's music :!: :roll: :wink:

I don't think Scriabin's style or approach changed as much as most people think. Even up to the last of his compositions you can still find the deep passionate romanticism - it's just that if he had written something based on (say for example) the whole-tone scale, then Scriabin would immerse himself totally into the tonality of the whole-tone scale to find that same kind of passionate expression. However, if someone totally ignores what Scriabin wrote, then all phrasing, all dynamics, all touch and tone, all rhythm, even all melodies tend to get lost into a swirl of dispersion. Enough on that, since I'm starting to repeat myself, I think.

As for your dreams... it might not necessarily be the Scriabin music that's the cause of the dreams. A lot of times Scriabin's music can serve as a catalyst to bring out deeper subconscious issues, since he dealt with deep issues that spring from the subconscious. To demonstrate what I mean, try this little experiment (you may have done this before so humor me) ...

Go to your piano (it should be an acoustic, since it's important that the strings are able to vibrate freely), and without playing any notes press and hold down the sustain pedal (the right one). Now, while centering the tone as well as you can, sing out loud a single note. If the tone is centered upon the same pitch to which your piano is tuned, when you cease singing, the note should begin to vibrate the strings on its own. If not, then try again singing the pitch slowly higher or lower until you achieve this affect. You should notice that the note will cause the strings to vibrate fully when the pitch is sung at the same Hz to which the string has been tuned. If you continue in doing this exercise and get really really good at matching the exact pitch, you might also begin to be able to vibrate some of the strings for the harmonics of the tone at the same time (while singing only the single pitch).

... now (with this in mind), Scriabin's music can have a tendency to act in the same manner. Actually any composer that delves deeply into emotional subconscious strata will have a similar effect. The difference is that Scriabin immersed himself so completely that hearing his music played correctly will have a tendency to cause the 'strings' of your subconscious urges, issues, feelings to vibrate. If the performance is REALLY good then some of the overtones/harmonics might begin to vibrate as well.

Now that I've given this long-winded explanation for what I mean, let's get back to the subject of your dreams. The fact that you're having nightmares of late is indicating that there is some aspect of your life that's not quite right with you. You don't have to tell me (or anyone else for that matter) what is the issue, just try to make yourself aware it. This issue doesn't 'sit right' with you, and your subconscious mind is presenting that issue as a horde of giant monkeys chasing you. If I was having this dream, it might possibly be a Darwinian reference to the masses of humanity, and their ideology, or something along this line. However (and this is actually really important to understand), if you normally don't utilize and think about Darwin or evolution (etc) then this symbol (monkey horde) might mean something totally different to you (you did mention 'The Wizard of Oz', so that might be a good place to start analysis). This is what you should strive to understand. What do these symbols represent to you? Was the large house unknown to you, or had you been there before in previous dreams? What feelings did the house give you? Was it spooky, or elegant, or decrepit, etc? Think about the seasons. Was the dream in Winter, or Summer? What do these seasons mean to you? Spring usually means love to most people, whereas Winter usually means Christmas/Solstice/Saturnalia/etc and holidays to others. It is this collection of individualized symbols that your Higher Self is utilizing to attempt to make you "sit up and take notice" of some important message. Usually the more vehemently a dream affects you, the more important is its message.

One excellent source for further exploring some of these concepts is from the book Liber Aleph: The Book of Wisdom or Folly by Aleister Crowley, the Beast 666. He writes a few interesting and fairly clear sections upon the subject of dreams and dream interpretation. You should notice that these 'occult' interpretations of dreams are not dis-similar to psychological interpretations (cf. Sigmund Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams, or Carl Gustav Jung's works concerning the projection of the archetypes). I've posted two links which should lead to the same book in different formats. The first is a .pdf file that you would need Adobe Acrobat Reader to look at, the second can be accessed from any web browser. The .pdf has a table of contents with it and can be downloaded to your computer (by right clicking on a PC, etc - I think you know the procedure), whereas the .htm version is listed in long pages with chapters separated into groups. You should especially look at the sections/chapters that refer to dream interpretation which I've listed below each link.

Liber Aleph - pdf version

9. HOW ONE SHOULD CONSIDER ONE’S NATURE
10. ON DREAMS (ACCIDENTAL)
11. ON DREAMS (NATURAL)
12. ON DREAMS (CLOTHED WITH HORROR)
13. ON DREAMS (CONTINUATION)
14. ON DREAMS (THE KEY)
15. ON ASTRAL TRAVEL
16. ON THELEMIC CULT
17. ON THE KEY OF DREAMS

Liber Aleph - htm version

This version uses the original chapter titles (Greek letters with Latin Titles), so the sections would be under "Chapters alpha-omega". You can also search on "Somniis" which is "Dreams" in Latin.

{theta}
QUO MODO NATURA SUA EST LEGENDA.
... through ...
{pi}
DE CLAVICULA SOMNIORUM.

Let me know if you care to discuss the dreams any more or if you have any questions about the 666 materials, or if you just want to vent/etc. I'm rather enjoying our conversation here.

Love is the law, love under will.
Aryobrand

P.S.: Scriabin wrote his Second Piano Sonata, Op. 19 right before writing this and it is similar in style ... (although someone has already recorded it for Piano Society so you might want to contribute a Piano Sonata that nobody's recorded, yet. - I'm currently working on No.10 when I have time to practice (about once every two weeks :cry)

P.P.S.: The phenomenon of sympathetic vibration can be demonstrated with echoes and the like as well. When I was last in Pisa, Italia, there's a cathedral there whose acoustics are so 'precise' that you can sing a single note, then when you release that note it sustains for a while and you can sing a different pitch, and another, and another. In this way you can get whole chords going at the same time - singing by yourself!!! It's an amazing phenomenon.

 

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

Sheesh!! Can't you change out his music-appreciation chip-set or at least have it serviced? :lol: What I meant, but I guess I was dancing around the issue too much, was that the Opus 20 is perfect, shall we say, "mood" music ... I really really hope you get it this time ... :roll: ... :lol:

Please don't sign the notes on your piano!!! The ink will get all over your hands when you play creating a most untidy mess. Please sing the notes instead. :shock:

That's half of the equation. I was hoping that the piano might be slightly out of tune, or that you were an awful singer, cause now we have to modify the technique ...

What you should try to do is sing a note intentionally off-key - the worst job you can do (I'm already picturing in my mind, your husband running from the room, the cat burying its head under its paws, dogs in the neighbor's yard howling ...). Do this with the pedal down as before. The point is that if the note is not centred right to coincide with the tuned pitch, then its response (the amount of its vibration) should be much less. This was actually an exercise I learned back in high school playing the piano for the choirs. The singers could practice pitch control by slowly altering the pitch until they achieved the greatest response from the vibrating string(s). The more centred the tone is, the greater the response until if you're singing the note precisely at the same level of vibration as the string, you should begin to also hear some of the harmonic pitches as well. Basically by singing one note only, you can get four, five, maybe more strings all vibrating through sympathetic vibration. The reason why this exercise wasn't as plain was that you sang in-tune the first time (while autographing the keys), so try to intentionally sing off-key, then compare the response to the response while singing on-key. This was the point I was trying to make.

That Scriabin's music (or any composer's who wrote with deep passion, etc) tends to hit all the right pitches so that it sets up a system of sympathetic vibrations within your emotions and sometimes even deeper into the subconscious mind. (This is also the psychological reason why certain things tend to "set people off" more than others. If you find the right 'button' to push, some people will explode! :shock What I'm thinking is that some of the fear reaction is combining with some other issue that's affecting your life right now, and Scriabin's music is making certain emotional 'strings' vibrate, having a tendency to amplify the original signal - the same way that the sounding board amplifies the vibrating strings. I should mention (just to make sure you understand me) that what I was referring to as "walking on the dark-side" was that, as you are probably aware, Scriabin was known as a Satanist or a blasphemer since he delved into the mystical side of reality. He himself was not really "dark" at all (as you can see from his music) many of his themes actually are immersed in light (e.g. Le Poeme Divin), I just like to poke fun at people who see the world in terms of only "light" and "dark". Scriabin was extreme technicolour! I didn't want to say this before, but the reason I wanted to make sure that it was truly your choice to begin the study of Scriabin was the following:

Back when I was in high school and at the University, I adored Chopin. He was one of my all time favourite composers - hands down. One of my "signature songs" was his "Raindrop Prelude" Op28 No15. Then I was introduced to the music of Scriabin. At first I wasn't really all that impressed with everything, since I was basing my opinion mostly upon the recordings of his music by other pianists. When I began to actually study his works from the exclusive point of view of only what He wrote on the score, my opinion of him slowly began to change drastically. I ended up totally immersing myself in his music, in his mindset, even in some of his ideals. Now, after having gone through the Scriabin transformation, where I can hear his music just by playing a few bars here and there from the score, my musical tastes have changed drastically. Sometimes some of the songs written by other composers that I used to absolutely adore, now seem flat, unimaginative, and trite to me. (and here's the part I was trying to spare you from) ... even some of the songs of Chopin of which I previously thought the world. Today if I want 'raindrops' I must promenade through a Jardin sous la pluie. The only things by Chopin I can listen to anymore are some of his ballades, and a few other pieces. I no longer have 'the patience' to go through many of his preludes and mazurkas and so forth since Scriabin had changed my point of view towards music so drastically. I was wanting to make sure that in case Scriabin had the same effect on you, you wouldn't come back at me blaming me for ruining Chopin for you. Scriabin doesn't necessarily affect everyone the same way, so this might not be an issue. I just had to make sure that it was your choice. There's nothing really scary or anything to really fear from Scriabin's music, it's just that sometimes it can have a deep and profound effect upon you, especially in terms of how you look at tonality and expression. Through the Mysterium, Scriabin was attempting to create a transcendent form of artistic expression which included not only sound, but light, and colour, and scent, and touch, and vibration, etc. You're probably aware of how Scriabin wanted to use even the clouds in the sky in his music. Scriabin was in search of a transcendent reality of divine natural ecstasy and brilliant scintillating joy... So you really don't need to fear Scriabin's music at all, it may change the top-ten list of your favourite music drastically, though. :wink:

Love is the law, love under will.
Aryobrand

 

Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

No, silly! I was being sarcastic. :roll: I was making fun of people who think that everything that Scriabin wrote above opus 30ish is only atonal noise. I guess if you have to explain a joke, it wasn't that funny ... Sheesh! :roll: ... :shock: ... 8)

I actually LOVE Opus 52, the entire thing. It has some wonderful (what would later be called) "tasty" Jazz-style chords in it. I can hardly wait to hear your performance.

With this piece, you've now experienced Scriabin's first period and his semi-last period. I'm calling this 'semi-last period', since Opus 52 has a feel that's sort of in between his middle and last periods. I think you mentioned that you wanted to play something from each of his periods, which would leave the middle period (or his late final period, or both). I had previously suggested for you to look at some other pieces and right now (it's 4:00 am) I can't remember what they were ... Perhaps a bit later in the day I'll look these up and post them here, then I can listen to the Op.52, No. 1.

Until then ...

Love is the law, love under will.
Aryobrand