Scriabin’s Symphonic Poem of Music, Color and Fire

Don’t ask me how I managed to avoid discovery of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin until just this week.  This is amazing, mystical stuff.

Scriabin composed music that was based on Gnostic and Theosophical concepts, and it was written to be performed on equipment that had not yet been invented in his day.  From what I’ve read, he used the best available at the time — color organs and such.

The colors and sounds of Prometheus: Poem of Fire are nothing short of mesmerizing.  Video below.  From the YouTube recap:

“In February 2010, Anna Gawboy, a doctoral candidate at the Yale School of Music and scholar of Russian composer Alexander Scriabin, attempted to realize the composer’s final work: a symphony of sound and light called “Prometheus: Poem of Fire”. To accomplish this, Anna worked closely with Toshiyuki Shimada, conductor of the Yale Symphony Orchestra, and Justin Townsend, an award-winning lighting designer.

Anna and Justin spent a year developing ideas and preparing for the performance, but a majority of the lighting work was done just days before the concert. This documentary covers the events of that week and the performance itself.”