Scriabin for Neuroscientists: A Study in Syn-Aesthetics

The book explores the coloured tonality in the music of the avant-garde Russian composer and pianist, Alexander N. Scriabin (1872-1915). It reviews his biographies and direct testimonies, especially the willful inditing of auditory, visual, olfactory and tactile elements into his late composing act towards a multisensory integration. A special reference is made to Scriabin’s 1914 encounter with the physician and psychologist Charles S. Myers (1873-1946) at the University of Cambridge. Inborn synaesthesia is disentangled from the consciously contrived syn-aesthetics. In Scriabin’s case, the term ‘synaesthesia’ - often associated with the composer - may more accurately pertain to philosophical aesthetics (aisthetike) than psychophysiological sensation (aisthesis). Scriabin’s amalgam of music, spectacle and intuition at the dawn of the previous century antedates the multimedia actuality of our era.