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Projects Funded by the Arts Research Institute: 2011

Projects Funded by the Arts Research Institute: 2011

Anatole Leikin: "The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin"

"The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin" (New York: Routledge, 2011)

When Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin's music was performed during his lifetime, it always elicited ecstatic responses from the listeners. After the composer’s death in 1915, however, his music steadily lost the captivating appeal it once held. Apparently, what Scriabin's audiences heard at the time was significantly different from, and vastly superior to, modern performances that are based primarily on published scores. Scriabin recorded nineteen of his compositions on the Hupfeld and Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos in 1908 and 1910, respectively. Full score transcriptions of the piano rolls, which are included in the book, provide many substantial features of Scriabin's performance: exact pitches and their timing against each other, rhythms, tempo fluctuations, articulation, dynamics and essential pedal application. Using these transcriptions and other historical documents as the groundwork for his research, Anatole Leikin explores Scriabin's performing style within the broader context of Romantic performance practice.