The D5 Not Existing
January 8th, 2009 Posted in classical music, theory
The ultra-high Scriabin D8 (or… D5, see Zoltan’s comment below) is really real:
Thanks to Zoltan for finding a link to the score (the piece is Scriabin’s Op. 62, the 6th Sonata). It’s on the last page. At the end of the score there is a note which reads:
The D5 not existing on the piano keyboard was substituted by Scriabin, according to contemporary witnesses, by substituting the C5
So, errr, anyone care to hazard a guess why he put it in in the first place? Poor pianists, practicing each page until it’s perfect, and then they reach the last few bars to find a note which exists only in piano fantasy land. It’s a bit like being in a spelling bee where the winning word is just a bunch of clicks and squeaking noises.
Is it because it “should” be there, according to the harmony or something? That doesn’t seem like a very convincing reason.
Tags: classical music, scriabin
January 8th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
It’s been a long time since I was a piano student, but I still play guitar, and the practicing principles are about the same, I think. At any rate, I don’t think musicians generally practice each page until it is “perfect” and then go on to the next one. Usually one plays the whole piece until it is reasonably good, and then concentrates on improving the hard parts.
In any case, why the missing D? I’m not a Scriabin expert either, but possibly he wrote it in because the logic of the piece required it, even though it couldn’t actually be played. Perhaps he then changed it to a C in order to give players something they could actually play.
January 9th, 2009 at 4:11 am
Two small notes Ben (no pun intended):
- the small picture you gave is actually the the chord with the C5. The one with the D5 is in the score on the last page, second row where the “star” for the comment is.
- you wrote in the original message that it’s a D8 while now you wrote D5. Both are correct — in a way. The score example is from an “Edition Peters” score, coming from Germany. The names for notes are a different in German. Here’s a comparison: http://www.ingovogelmann.com/2006/04/06/klaviatur-frequenzen-notennamen-pianotastatur/
Now, since an English D8 would be written as d””’ in German, it’s easier to write d5 (note the small “d”). Of course, Edition Peters forgot to mention that in the English translation in the score.
January 9th, 2009 at 7:12 am
Plain old sloppy editing perhaps? It’s notated with the “octave” sign, so if both composer and the publisher’s music editor weren’t paying sufficient attention then it could slip through – after all it doesn’t “look” too high as far as its physical presentation on the page goes.
Why did he write it? Sheer musical logic and what he was striving for in his head does in fact seem to be the most plausible answer. (I don’t know whether Scriabin composed at the keyboard or not – that’s a very pertinent question here. You’d expect him to, being a pianist although not a concert pianist, but maybe not…)
January 14th, 2009 at 12:37 am
Yo dudes, thanks for the comments.
If someone ever goes back in time to chat with Scriabin, they should *totally* throw in a question about that D. Maybe we could dramatize it….