mystic chord - wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mystic chord on C. Play .

Component intervals from root

major second

major sixth

major third

minor seventh

augmented fourth

root

Forte number or Tuning

6-34

Mystic chord

Mystic chordFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In music, the mystic chord or Prometheus chord is a six-note syntheticchord and its associated scale, or pitch collection; which loosely serves asthe harmonic and melodic basis for some of the later pieces by Russiancomposer Alexander Scriabin. Scriabin, however, did not use the chorddirectly but rather derived material from its transpositions.

It consists of the pitch classes: C, F♯, B♭, E, A, D. This is ofteninterpreted as a quartal hexachord consisting of an augmented fourth,diminished fourth, augmented fourth, and two perfect fourths. However,the chord may be spelled in a variety of ways, and it is related to other pitchcollections, such as being a hexatonic subset of the Overtone scale, lackingthe Perfect Fifth.

Contents

1 Nomenclature2 Qualities3 Use by Scriabin4 Use by other composers5 See also6 Notes7 References8 Further reading9 External links

Nomenclature

The term "mystic chord", appears to derive from Scriabin's intense interest in Theosophy, and the chord isimagined to reflect this mysticism. It was coined by Arthur Eaglefield Hull in 1916.[1]

It is also known as the "Prometheus chord", after its extensive use in his work Prometheus: The Poem of Fire,

Op.60. The term was invented by Leonid Sabaneyev.[1]

Scriabin himself called it the "chord of the pleroma" (aккорд плеромы - akkord pleromy),[1] which "wasdesigned to afford instant apprehension of -that is, to reveal- what was in essence beyond the mind of man toconceptualize. Its preternatural stillness was a gnostic intimation of a hidden otherness."[2]

Qualities

Jim Samson [3] points out that it fits in well with Scriabin's predominantly dominant quality sonorities andharmony as it may take on a dominant quality on C or F♯. This tritone relationship between possible resolutions

Mystic chord - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mystic_chord

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Synthetic chord's dominant quality[3]

The Mystic an example of a synthetic chord, and

the scale from which it derives its notes, sometimes

called the Prometheus scale, is an example of a

synthetic scale. Play .Rare example of a complete, quartal voicing the

Mystic Chord in Scriabin's work. Piano Sonata

No.5, Op.53. Mm. 262-263.

is important to Scriabin's harmonic language, and it is aproperty shared by the French sixth (also prominent in hiswork) of which the synthetic chord can be seen as anextension.

The pitch collection is related to the octatonic scale, thewhole tone scale, and the French sixth, all of which arecapable of a different number of transpositions.[4] Forexample, the chord is a whole tone scale with one noteraised a semitone (the "almost whole-tone" hexachord,sometimes identified as "whole tone-plus"), and thisalteration allows for a greater variety of resources throughtransposition.[5]

The notes of the chord also conform to a Lydian Dominant quality, the fourth mode of the melodic minor scale.

Use by Scriabin

Somesourcessuggestthatmuch of

Scriabin's music is entirely based on the chord to the extentthat whole passages are little more than long sequences ofthis chord, unaltered, at different pitches; but this is rarely

the case. More often than not, the notes are reordered in order to supply a variety of harmonic or melodicmaterial. Certain of Scriabin's late pieces are based on other synthetic chords or scales that do not rely on themystic chord.

There seems today to be a general consensus that the mystic chord is neither the key nor thegenerating element in Scriabin's method.

—Jay Reise (1983)[6]

Other sources suggest that Scriabin's method of pitch organization is based on ordered scales that feature scaledegrees. For example, a group of piano miniatures (Op.58, Op.59/2, Op.61, Op.63, Op.67/1 and Op.69/1) aregoverned by the acoustic and/or the octatonic scales.[7]

Contrary to many textbook descriptions of the chord, which present the sonority as a series of superposedfourths, Scriabin most often manipulated the voicings to produce a variety of melodic and harmonic

intervals.[note 1] A rare example of purely quartal spacing can be found in the Fifth Piano Sonata (bars 264,268). Incomplete versions of the chord spaced entirely in fourths are considerably more common, for example,in Deux Morceaux, Op.57.


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Example of the use of the mystic chord as a dominant chord in Duke

Ellington's piano piece Reflections in D (1958).[citation needed] In this

case, as V/V. The E dominant 9th chord has #11th and 13th

appoggiaturas added, which resolve conventionally.[citation needed]

According to George Perle, Scriabin used this chord in what he calls a pre-serial manner, producing harmonies,chords, and melodies. However, unlike the twelve tone technique to which Perle refers, Scriabin did not use hisMystic chord as an ordered set and did not worry about repeating or omitting notes.

Use by other composers

With the increasing use of more dissonantsonorities, some composers of the 20th and21st centuries have used this chord invarious ways.

See also

Elektra chordPetrushka chordPsalms chordTristan chord

Notes

^ In the same manner that a dominant seventh, built on superposed thirds, will deploy intervals of a sixth, fourth,and/or second under inversion.

1.

References

^ a b c "Skryabin and the Impossible", p.314. Simon Morrison. Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol.51, No. 2. (Summer, 1998), pp. 283-330.

1.

^ "Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic Sorcery; Or, Stravinsky's 'Angle'". Richard Taruskin. Journal of the AmericanMusicological Society, Vol. 38, No. 1. (Spring, 1985), pp. 72-142. Cited in Morrison (1998).

2.

^ a b Samson, Jim (1977). Music in Transition: A Study of Tonal Expansion and Atonality, 1900-1920. W.W. Norton& Company. pp. 156–7. ISBN 0-393-02193-9.

3.

^ "Orthography in Scriabin's Late Works", p.60. Cheong Wai-Ling. Music Analysis, Vol. 12, No. 1. (Mar., 1993), pp.47-69.

4.

^ "The Evolution of Twelve-Note Music", p.56. Oliver Neighbour. Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association,81st Sess. (1954 - 1955), pp. 49-61.

5.

^ "Late Skriabin: Some Principles behind the Style", p.221. Jay Reise. 19th-Century Music, Vol. 6, No. 3. (Spring,1983), pp. 220-231.

6.

^ "Principles of Pitch Organization in Scriabin's Early Post-tonal Period: The Piano Miniatures". Vasilis Kallis, MusicTheory Online, Vol. 14.3 (Sep 2008)

7.

Further reading

Hewitt, Michael. Musical Scales of the World. The Note Tree. 2013. ISBN 978-0957547001.

External links

Some occurrences of the Mystic chord in the scores of the Petrucci Music Library


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(http://www.peachnote.com/#!nt=chordAffine&npq=48_6_4_6_5_5)

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