An Orchestration of Scriabin's Opus 74 Preludes, Nos. 2 and 3

 “…I am God!
I am nothing, I am play, I am freedom, I am life.
I am the boundary, I am the peak…”
  -Alexander Scriabin (notebook entry), 1905

At the turn of the century, megalomaniacal Russian composer Alexander Scriabin set about a most ambitious project. He began composing a work for very large orchestra, solo piano, chorus, and vocal soloists entitled Mysterium. In this piece, he envisioned that all five senses would be involved — dancers, a light show, and even incenses were to be included in the mammoth work, which was to be premiered in the foothills of the Himalayas in a temple especially constructed for the performance (he even purchased a plot of land, despite his constant financial problems). The show was to last seven days long and on the last day, the human race was to be replaced by nobler beings. In Scriabin’s own words,

"There will not be a single spectator. All will be participants. The work requires special people, special artists and a completely new culture. The cast of performers includes an orchestra, a large mixed choir, an instrument with visual effects, dancers, a procession, incense, and rhythmic textural articulation. The cathedral in which it will take place will not be of one single type of stone but will continually change with the atmosphere and motion of the Mysterium. This will be done with the aid of mists and lights, which will modify the architectural contours.”

Unfortunately, he only managed to finish the first 40 minutes of the work — a prelude called Prefatory Action. Beginning in the 1970s, Alexander Nemtin began restoring the sketches into a three-hour-long work, taking him over 25 years to complete.

The Five Preludes, op. 74 is Scriabin’s last set of pieces he composed before his relatively sudden death from blood poisoning at age 43.

I orchestrated the 2nd and 3rd preludes from this set, renaming them Two Epigraphs for Orchestra (to avoid confusion with Scriabin's earlier Two Preludes, op. 67). The orchestrations are inspired in part by the first 40 minutes of Mysterium (in fact, the 3rd prelude is quoted in the Mysterium about halfway through) as well as Arnold Schoenberg's expressionistic Five Pieces for Orchestra.

There are a few changes I made to Scriabin's original score, including a chord at the end of the 1st movement (played by low strings and solo violin harmonics). At the two climaxes of the 2nd movement, I added a canon between the violin sections and the return of the 1st movement theme, ominously blaring in the low woodwinds and brass sections.

Canon between 1st and 2nd violins.

Theme from 1st movement, as played by oboe in the 1st movement.

Return of theme from the 1st movement at climax of 2nd movement.