Mystic chord

Mystic chord on C.

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Mystic chord
Component intervals from root
major second
major sixth
major third
minor seventh
augmented fourth
root
Forte no.
6-34

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

It consists of the pitch classes: C, F♯, B♭, E, A, D. This is often interpreted 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 pitch collections, such as being a hexatonic subset of the Overtone scale, lacking the perfect fifth.

Nomenclature

The term "mystic chord", appears to derive from Scriabin's intense interest in Theosophy, and the chord is imagined 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 "was designed to afford instant apprehension of -that is, to reveal- what was in essence beyond the mind of man to conceptualize. Its preternatural stillness was a gnostic intimation of a hidden otherness."^[2]

Qualities

Synthetic chord's dominant quality^[3]

Jim Samson ^[3] points out that it fits in well with Scriabin's predominantly dominant quality sonorities and harmony as it may take on a dominant quality on C or F♯. This tritone relationship between possible resolutions is important to Scriabin's harmonic language, and it is a property shared by the French sixth (also prominent in his work) of which the synthetic chord can be seen as an extension.

The pitch collection is related to the octatonic scale, the whole tone scale, and the French sixth, all of which are capable of a different number of transpositions.^[4] For example, the chord is a whole tone scale with one note raised a semitone (the "almost whole-tone" hexachord, sometimes identified as "whole tone-plus"), and this alteration allows for a greater variety of resources through transposition.^[5]

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

Use by Scriabin

The Mystic is 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.

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Rare example of a complete, quartal voicing the Mystic Chord in Scriabin's work. Piano Sonata No.5, Op.53. Mm. 262-263.

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Some sources suggest that much of Scriabin's music is entirely based on the chord to the extent that whole passages are little more than long sequences of this 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 melodic material. Certain of Scriabin's late pieces are based on other synthetic chords or scales that do not rely on the mystic chord.

There seems today to be a general consensus that the mystic chord is neither the key nor the generating 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 scale degrees. For example, a group of piano miniatures (Op.58, Op.59/2, Op.61, Op.63, Op.67/1 and Op.69/1) are governed 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 superposed fourths, 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.

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 his Mystic chord as an ordered set and did not worry about repeating or omitting notes or aggregate combinatoriality.

Use by other composers

Example of the use of the mystic chord as a dominant chord in Duke Ellington's piano piece Reflections in D (1958). In this case, as V/V. The E dominant 9th chord has #11th and 13th appoggiaturas added, which resolve conventionally.

With the increasing use of more dissonant sonorities, some composers of the 20th and 21st centuries have used this chord in various ways.

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.

References

1 2 3 "Skryabin and the Impossible", p.314. Simon Morrison. Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 51, No. 2. (Summer, 1998), pp. 283-330.
↑ "Chernomor to Kashchei: Harmonic Sorcery; Or, Stravinsky's 'Angle'". Richard Taruskin. Journal of the American Musicological Society, Vol. 38, No. 1. (Spring, 1985), pp. 72-142. Cited in Morrison (1998).
1 2 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.
↑ "Orthography in Scriabin's Late Works", p.60. Cheong Wai-Ling. Music Analysis, Vol. 12, No. 1. (Mar., 1993), pp. 47-69.
↑ "The Evolution of Twelve-Note Music", p.56. Oliver Neighbour. Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association, 81st Sess. (1954 - 1955), pp. 49-61.
↑ "Late Skriabin: Some Principles behind the Style", p.221. Jay Reise. 19th-Century Music, Vol. 6, No. 3. (Spring, 1983), pp. 220-231.
↑ "Principles of Pitch Organization in Scriabin's Early Post-tonal Period: The Piano Miniatures". Vasilis Kallis, Music Theory Online, Vol. 14.3 (Sep 2008)

External links

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

Chords

By form

Triad	Major Minor Augmented Diminished Suspended

Seventh	Major Minor Dominant Dominant seventh flat five Diminished Half-diminished Diminished major Minor-major Augmented major Augmented minor Altered seventh Nondominant Harmonic seventh

Extended	Ninth Eleventh Thirteenth Upper structure Dominant 7♯9 Polychord Tone cluster

Added / omitted	Sixth Augmented sixth Lydian Seven six

Specific	Alpha Bridge Complexe sonore Dream Elektra Farben Grandmother Magic µ Mystic Northern lights Petrushka Psalms So What Tristan Viennese trichord

General	Mixed interval Secundal Tertian Quartal Synthetic chord

By function

Diatonic	Tonic Dominant Subdominant Supertonic Mediant Submediant Leading / Subtonic

Altered	Approach Borrowed Chromatic mediant Neapolitan Passing

Secondary	Secondary dominant Secondary leading-tone Secondary supertonic

Other	Common Contrast Primary triad Subsidiary

Techniques

Other

Atonality and post-tonality

Scales and tuning	Equal temperament Modes of limited transposition Mystic chord Octatonic scale Whole tone scale

Genres and schools	Twelve-tone technique Row List Second Viennese School Serialism Spectral music

Techniques and concepts	Chromaticism Cyclic set Dissonant counterpoint Dynamic tonality Emancipation of the dissonance Klangfarbenmelodie Polymodal chromaticism Distance model Quartal and quintal harmony Tone Clock Tone cluster Unified field

Compositions	List of atonal compositions

Pitch segments by cardinality

Monad Dyad Trichord Viennese Tetrachord All-interval Pentachord Hexachord All-trichord Chromatic Diatonic Mystic "Ode-to-Napoleon" Petrushka Sacher Schoenberg Aggregate

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