Compositional History

In the winter of 1912, Scriabin simultaneously began work on Piano Sonatas Nos. 8, 9, and 10. Sonata No. 8, completed in June 1913, was the last of the three to be finished. Although its number is low, it stands as the culmination of Scriabin's ten sonatas. The score was published by Jurgenson in 1913. Unlike Sonatas Nos. 9 and 10, which Scriabin premiered himself during his lifetime, the public premiere of Sonata No. 8 had to wait until after his death, performed by his devotee, supporter, and friend, Bekman-Shcherbina, on November 5 (Old Style) / 18 (New Style), 1915.

This means Scriabin never performed this sonata publicly. However, he held a strong affection for the piece, often presenting fragments and providing musical explanations to friends gathered at his home. It is speculated that the reason the composer himself did not perform this work publicly lies in its complexity, stemming from the skillful counterpoint already noted in 1913, and its considerable length (spanning 499 measures) resulting from the meticulous development of each motif in the development section. Furthermore, perhaps due to its generally dark tonal color and the absence of a grand climax like those in the codas of Sonatas Nos. 7 and 9 or the development section of Sonata No. 10, it remains the least frequently performed among Scriabin's ten sonatas even today. On the other hand, to borrow Stravinsky's words in his assessment of this work, its "unparalleled" beauty of chordal sonorities, the exquisite artistry of its shifting colors, and the density created by the combination of various materials will reveal the piece's charm more deeply the more one experiences it.

As is well known, in his final years, he conceived of Mysterium, a monumental work intended as the culmination of his philosophical and aesthetic beliefs and musical language, and began sketching Prefatory Act, a lengthy oratorio-symphonic prelude to it. When Scriabin passed away in 1915 at the age of 43, only fragmentary sketches of Prefatory Act for Mysterium remained. Piano Sonata No. 8, like the Two Preludes Op. 67, Two Poèmes Opp. 69 and 71, Two Dances Op. 73, and Five Preludes Op. 74, was composed using material drawn from sketches. In this sense, this work strongly reflects Scriabin's ambitious late-period conceptions.

Content

Like other late piano sonatas from No. 6 onwards, this work lacks a key signature, fully showcasing Scriabin's unique harmonic language, which moved beyond traditional tonality. On the other hand, regarding its structure, it retains the framework of traditional sonata form that had been cultivated up to that point. Furthermore, while programmatic indications, seen in other late sonatas, are suppressed to the extreme in this work, this is interesting considering that the content of this work relates to the sketches for the symphonic poem Prefatory Act, one of the culminations of Scriabin's thought.

The piece begins with an introduction in a slow tempo. Here, primarily four motives are presented:

• The uppermost voice of the harmony presented in a wide range in measure 1.
• A wave-like melody played in the middle voice at the beginning of measure 3.
• A figure from the quadruplet in measure 4 leading to an octave + tritone harmony.
• A chord progression appearing in the bass in measure 5, consisting of an eighth note + a long note value.

These four motives develop contrapuntally in combination.

The exposition, marked Allegro agitato, first presents the first subject, where motive ④ alternates with a descending figure in parallel fourths and a long, undulating melody. Subsequently, from the section marked "Tragique," the second subject begins, an expansion of motive ②. While the introduction was meticulously constructed contrapuntally, the exposition is built with a melody in the right hand and accompaniment in the left.

The lengthy development section, spanning from measure 122 to measure 320, extensively utilizes all previously introduced themes and motives, and is meticulously structured with varying tempos.

After a fanfare-like repeated figure at the very end of the development section, the recapitulation begins. The two subjects are successively restated, but unlike in the exposition, both are reconstructed with a polyphonic and complex texture. From the Più vivo at measure 429, the piece enters a very light and dizzying coda, gradually increasing in speed and concluding with a wide chord, including the lowest A on an 88-key piano, leaving a beautiful resonance.