Percy Alfred Scholes

“ The emancipation of the human soul through ceaseless striving, and its achievement of self-expression, may be said, very roughly, to represent the general sense of the spiritual basis of Scriabin’s musical works. ”

“ Seizing the main idea of a book or a creed, he would neglect the details, and his imagination would quickly develop a huge scheme of thought having little relation to what he had read. The titles of many of his works and of their separate parts, and the marks of expression affixed to particular passages, indicate plainly the existence of a spiritual “programme.” ”

“ SCRIABIN, ALEXANDER NICHOLAEVICH (1871–1915) , Russian composer, was born at Moscow on Christmas day 1871 (O.S.) . His father was a lawyer; his mother, a good pianist and pupil of Leschetitsky, died when he was one year of age. His schooling was received in the Moscow Cadet Corps, but he never showed any liking for the military career for which he was intended, and at 18 entered the Moscow Conservatory of Music where he was a pupil of Safanov and Tanier. ”