[Dixielandjazz] The mind of Scriabin

[Bill Gunter]

Hello music lovers,

Edgerton wrote:

>Just to further muddy the waters, what was the pitch standard used in
>Scriabin's time and what was Rimsky-Korsakov's?  I bet it wasn't A=440
>in both cases.

They had an "International Tuning Fork" stored in a guarded vault in Paris 
(France). Only authorized oboe players were allowed in to tune their oboes 
to the correct pitch (A) so that they could then be sure the symphony would 
be tuning up to the universal standard.

Scriabin, or his alternate, Rimsky-Korsakov, would make periodic visits to 
make sure the International Tuning Fork evoked the correct visual color 
(green if it was Scriabin or more rosy if Korsakov popped in).

If the oboe player couldn't conveniently get to Paris and back he would 
phone either Scriabin or Rimsky except that the phone wasn't in general use 
until about 1920 and by that time both composers had gone on to that 
orchestra pit in the sky.

For an interesting insight into the mind of Scriabin, here is a bit from his 
biography which I have gleaned from the vast library out there in google 
land:

----> commence clip

"Scriabin considered his last music to be fragments of an immense piece to 
be called Mysterium. This seven-day-long megawork would be performed at the 
foothills of the Himalayas in India, after which the world would dissolve in 
bliss.

Bells suspended from clouds would summon spectators. Sunrises would be 
preludes and sunsets codas. Flames would erupt in shafts of light and sheets 
of fire. Perfumes appropriate to the music would change and pervade the air.

At the time of his death, Scriabin left 72 orchestral-size pages of sketches 
for a preliminary work Prefatory Action, intended to "prepare" the world for 
the apocalyptic ultimate masterpiece."

-----> conclude clip

Respectfully submitted,

Bil "Hey, I don't make this stuff up" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com


>From: "Edgerton, Paul A" <paul.edgerton at eds.com>
>To: "Bill Gunter" <jazzboard at hotmail.com>, <dixielandjazz at ml.islandnet.com>
>Subject: RE: [Dixielandjazz] Delete if you're not interested in key/tone 
>color
>Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 15:08:55 -0500
>
>Just to further muddy the waters, what was the pitch standard used in
>Scriabin's time and what was Rimsky-Korsakov's?  I bet it wasn't A=440
>in both cases.
>
>-- Paul Edgerton, who apologizes for all this pedantry.