The Piano Sonata No. 8, Op. 66, by Alexander Scriabin, was composed between 1912 and 1913. The work is intricately constructed and completely tonal, according to the tonal system of Scriabin's late works.
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The eighth sonata consists of a single movement, and takes 13 minutes to perform:
It is one of Scriabin's most difficult Sonatas. It has more pages of music than any other of his piano works, and many parts of the piece are written on three and four staves, as opposed to the typical two staves, to accommodate the intertwined themes. The character of the eighth sonata is more subtle than that of the Sixth and Seventh. There are fewer aggressive dissonances and no violent climaxes.[1]It was the last sonata that Scriabin completed, and the lack of the numerous explicative markings characteristic of Scriabin, and even of dynamic markings for long stretches, indicate that Scriabin may have not completely finished notating it.
The sonata begins with a hypnotic and contrapuntally intensely complex introduction which presents all of the themes of the piece, and then proceeds to move along with quite some energy, as if propelled by some mysterious and nervous force. It is constructed in strict sonata form, with increases of textural complexity in the returns. The coda atomizes the themes and scatters them spinning off into space, as Scriabin envisioned the evolution of humanity from the physical to the purely spiritual: "But you will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me" - (Jesus, Gospel of Judas).
Scriabin never performed this sonata (nor the sixth sonata) in public. He considered parts of it "the most tragic episode of my creative work", and described its harmony as "drawn from nature, as if it had existed before".[1]
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