Alexander Scriabin was one of a few major composers who revolutionized musical style in the first decade of the twentieth century by eliminating key as a structural principle and by establishing a new use of dissonant harmonies. This book by James M. Baker is a study of Scriabin's twentieth-century music, the first thorough analysis of the composer's evolution from conventional tonality to his later atonal structure. Baker demonstrates that in Scriabin's transitional music, tonal and atonal procedures--generally considered mutually exclusive--work together to create unified compositions.

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This collection of nineteen essays, all by leaders in the field of music theory, reflects the rich diversity of topics and approaches currently being explored. The contributions fall within three principal areas of study that have remained at the heart of the discipline. One is historical research, which includes efforts to trace the development of theoretical ideas and their philosophical bases. Representing this broad category are essays dealing with issues like Scriabin's mysticism, neoclassicism, modern aesthetics, and the development of the concept of pitch collection in...