MUSC 4181 Assignment 9a

Date assigned: Thursday, 28 February

Date due: Tuesday, 5 March (submission, Friday, 8 March, 4:00pm)

On the next two pages is the score of Alexander Scriabin’s Prelude op. 74, no. 2. Scriabin wrote the
five brief Preludes of op. 74 in 1914. They were his very last works, and by the time he wrote them, he
had developed his own musical language influenced by his idiosyncratic, theosophical mysticism and by
his synaesthesia.
When you listen to op. 74, no. 2 – there is a recording on Moodle – and follow the score, it will be im-
mediately apparent that the music is grounded in an Fƒ bass pedal-tone, and the opening harmony is an
Fƒ-minor triad. It’s also an oddly static, repetitive piece. (Scriabin, who was dying of sepsis, apparently
said “You know, this Prelude gives the impression as if it would last for centuries, even eternally, mil-
lions of years.…This is death…this is the abyss… this is the Mysterium.” 1.)
Let’s see if we can figure out something about what might make this little (or possibly eternal) piece
tick! I haven’t provided you with pre-done segmentation this time, so you’ll have to come up with your
own. Pc-set analysis should help, as should considering tonal centricity (is Fƒ the only tonal pole?),
melodic contour, perhaps the role of certain intervals.
My advice, as always, would be to get together with a few fellow analysts in tackling this piece.

1You’ll want to read up on Scriabin’s grandiose, unrealized plans for his world-transforming synaesthetic piece
Mysterium!
Scriabin, Prelude, op. 74, no. 2

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