Scriabin: Órgano De Luz

Dead medium: Scriabin's Color Organ
From: philip@bestnet.org (Philip Downey)

Source(s): The Lives of the Great Composers, by Harold C. Schonberg. 1970. George J. McLeod Limited.
ISBN 0 393 021467

"...Scriabin considered 'The Divine Poem' the turning point in his career. "This was the first time I found light in music, the first time I knew intoxication, flight, the breathlessness ofhappiness." His scores became peppered with such markings as "Luminously and more and more flashing." It might be that Scriabin also suffered from a rare genetic peculiarity known as synesthesia, in whichsound is translated directly into color. People with synesthesia cannot hear music without seeing colors...
"...Faubion Bowers relates in his biography of the composer, 'he overflowed with plans. Hespoke of tactile symphonies. He called incense an art which joins earth and heaven. He described the 'Mysterium' [a work about which Scriabin had been thinking for many years). He explained thisgreat final, cataclysmic opus as synthesizing all the arts, loading all senses into a hypnoidal, many-media extravaganza of sound, sight, smell, feel, dance, decor, orchestra, piano, singers, light,sculptures, colors, visions...'
"...one work was the Fifth Symphony, which Scriabin named 'Prometheus: The Poem of Fire.' This had an elaborate program, ending with the world's beginning and a cosmicdance of the atoms. In addition to the full symphony orchestra, 'Prometheus' used a piano, a chorus, and a color organ. It was Scriabin's first actual attempt to synthesize music and colors, and he workedout a chart:

Note Vibrations per second Color
C 256 Red
C sharp 277 Violet
D 298 Yellow
D sharp 319 Glint of Steel
E 341 Pearly white and shimmer of moonlight
F 362 Deep red
F sharp 383Bright blue
G 405 Rosy orange
G sharp 426 Purple
A 447 Green
A sharp 469 Glint of steel (for some
reason, the same as
D sharp)
B 490 Pearly blue

"Koussevitzky conducted the world premiere of...