Scriabin, a Biography

This definitive biography of Alexander Scriabin (1871-1915), newly revised and updated by the author, incorporates many confessional letters and personal reminiscences in a vivid, highly personal portrait of the controversial Russian composer. One of the visionary pioneers who sought a new musical language -- at least a full decade before the advances of Stravinsky and Schoenberg -- Scriabin immersed himself in a search for a way to express, in sound, the mystical and theosophical ideals that obsessed him.

This monumental biography probes the complexities of the composer's personal revolution as it chronicles the turbulent events of his upbringing, marital life, and career: his tours of Europe and America, abandonment of his wife, brushes with homosexuality and madness, and the flowering of an unrealized vision to synthesize all of art and life in an all-encompassing final work. Originally published in two volumes, the work is republished here in one volume unabridged, complete with a catalog of Scriabin's works and 49 rare photographs.