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The Development of Expressionism in Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonatas

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2018, DMA, University of Cincinnati, College-Conservatory of Music: Piano.
When discussing Alexander Scriabin’s music, it is impossible not to mention his expressionism, for it takes center stage. Especially, the piano sonata by Alexander Scriabin is an important genre that shows the development in his expressionism. Among his ten piano sonatas, the Fifth Sonata Op. 53 (1907) is unequivocally significant in that the work indicates Scriabin’s transition to his expressionist music. In his later piano sonatas, Scriabin explored and built more complex and highly individual styles, which are characterized by expressionism; however, according to the prevailing opinion among critics, it is difficult to say that the Fifth Sonata represents Scriabin’s matured expressionism. They claim that Scriabin’s expressionist phase begins with the Sixth Sonata, and the Fifth Sonata lacks the expressionist qualities found in Scriabin’s late sonatas. This dissertation will respond to this existing suggestion by comparing it with the following five late piano sonatas that has widely been considered as the expressionist music. Also, in order to show how expressionism comes to play itself in musical language of the sonatas, it will look at Scriabin’s four early sonatas prior to the Fifth Sonata that show the beginnings of expressionist languages. In the end, it will take into account the development of Scriabin’s expressionism focusing on the Fifth Sonata that is filled with the features of expressionism and it will assert that Scriabin’s expressionism already began in his Fifth Sonata.
Christopher Segall, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Samuel Ng, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
James Tocco (Committee Member)
70 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Song, S. (2018). The Development of Expressionism in Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonatas [Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1535701694022433

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Song, Soomi. The Development of Expressionism in Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonatas. 2018. University of Cincinnati, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1535701694022433.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Song, Soomi. "The Development of Expressionism in Alexander Scriabin’s Piano Sonatas." Doctoral dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2018. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1535701694022433

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)