PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Keprt, Marek
TI  - Structure of Chords in Compositions of Scriabin's Middle Period
DP  - 2009 Jun 11
TA  - Musicologica Olomucensia
PG  - 59--78
VI  - 10
IP  - 1
IS  - 27879186
AB  - The study deals with the structure of chords in Scriabin's middle period, comprising the years 1903-1910 and bounded by compositions op. 30-58. First the Promethean chord is treated as the final stage in the preceding development of the composer's harmonious speech and the varieties of the theoretical interpretation of this chord are discussed. Next, the tendencies leading to it are gradually analyzed. The most significant alterations are those of the pure fifth in the dominant sixth chord and the great dominant ninth chord. These changes are done in two ways. The first is the replacement of the dominant pure fifth by neighbouring melodious tones of the enlarged fourth, or the small or great sixth, while the great sixth plays the key role. The second way is alteration of the dominant fifth either down or up or in both directions at the same time (double alteration). Other tendencies are the raising of thirds above the dominant ninth chord while omitting its fifths and thirds, or a change of the thirds to the fourths in dominant harmony. Finally there is a transposition of these altered dominant chord structures to the rest of the degrees and functions. A special case is the bifunctional combination of dominant and tonic functionality and subdominant-tonic functionality.