On an Unknown Draft Notebook in the Literary Heritage of Alexander N. Scriabin
Abstract
This article presents a draft notebook of literary sketches by Alexander N. Scriabin, associated with the early stages of his work on Mysterium. The materials in this notebook, which were not included in the well-known publication of the composer’s literary legacy in Russkie Propilei (1919), indicate that Scriabin began creating texts for Mysterium (which later evolved into the Preliminary Action) not in the final years of his life (1913–1915), as previously thought, but much earlier. Based on one of the composer’s letters, it can be argued that this process should be correlated with the creation of the Poem of Ecstasy, i.e., no later than 1908. During these years, the composer was developing a general philosophical conception of the universe and a system of concepts and categories reflecting their relations and interconnections. This conception, in the Mysterium project, was intended a priori to manifest in the action of certain symbolic images, and in this notebook, Scriabin first sketches such leading image-symbols of the mystical action. Their characteristics are interspersed with philosophical texts, helping to clarify the semantic and dramaturgical significance of these symbols.
Keywords: Alexander N. Scriabin, composer’s literary heritage, Mysterium, Preliminary Action, textual studies
For citation: Rubtsova, V. V. (2025). On an Unknown Draft Notebook in the Literary Heritage of Alexander N. Scriabin. Contemporary Musicology, 9(4), 82―102. https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2025-4-082-102References
Makarova, S. A. (2021). “Predvaritel’noe dejstvo” A. N. Skryabina: idejno-soderzhatel’noe i khudozhestvennoe svoeobrazie stikhotvornogo prologa “Misterii” [Scriabin’s L’acte préalable: Ideological, Content and Artistic Originality of the Poetic Prologue for Mystery]. In V. V. Rubtsova, & V. V. Listochkina (Eds.), Uchenye zapiski Memorial’nogo muzeya A. N. Skryabina [Scientific Notes of the A. N. Scriabin Memorial Museum] (Vol. 10, pp. 125–169). A. N. Scriabin Memorial Museum. (In Russ.).
Subbotina, N. M. (2023). “The Mystery of Dream Captivity” (on the Philosophical and Aesthetic Foundations of the Work of A. N. Scriabin). Music in the system of culture: Scientific Bulletin of the Ural Conservatory, 33, 7–19. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.24412/2658-7858-2023-33-7-19
Nicholls, S. (2022). Scriabin as a Writer: The Development of Scriabin’s Thought as Shown in a Lifetime’s Writings. In K. Smith, & V. Kallis (Eds.), Demystifying Scriabin (pp. 46–63). Boydell & Brewer. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv24tr735.8
Rubtsova, V. V. (2023). On the Poetic Text Structure of Alexander Scriabin’s L’acte préalable. Scholarly papers of Gnesin Russian Academyof Music, (4), 33–38. (In Russ.). https://doi.org/10.56620/2227-9997-2023-4-33-38
Makarova, S. A. (2024). Utopicheskie idei russkogo kompozitora, filosofa, poeta A. N. Skryabina v ehpokhu revolyutsionnykh ozhidanij nachala XX veka [Utopian Ideas of the Russian Composer, Philosopher, and Poet A. N. Scriabin in the Era of Revolutionary Expectations of the Early 20th Century]. In Utopicheskie proekty v istorii kul’tury [Utopian Projects in the History of Culture]: Proceedings of the Conference “Socializm mezhdu utopiej i antiutopiej” [“Socialism between Utopia and Dystopia”] (pp. 281–285). Southern Federal University. (In Russ.).
Shatskiy, P. (2022). Studying Scriabin’s Autographs: Reflections of the Creative Process. In V. Kallis, & K. Smith (Eds.), Demystifying Scriabin (pp. 81–96). Boydell & Brewer. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv24tr735.10
Bandura, A. I. (2022). Misticheskij materializm A. N. Skryabina [Mystical Materialism of A. N. Scriabin]. In V. V. Rubtsova, & V. V. Listochkina (Eds.), Uchenye zapiski Memorial’nogo muzeya A. N. Skryabina [Scientific Notes of the A. N. Scriabin Memorial Museum] (Vol. 11, Book 1, pp. 76–100). A. N. Scriabin Memorial Museum. (In Russ.).
DOI: https://doi.org/10.56620/2587-9731-2025-4-082-102
Copyright (c) 2025 Valentina V. Rubtsova
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/