Alexander Scriabin, the great Russian tone poet, was particularly fond of a 6-note chord that his disciples dubbed “the mystic chord.” Drag horizontally over the bass and treble to hear the top 3 and bottom 3 notes separately, or drag vertically and lickety-quickly to hear the full 6-note chord.
The Mystic Chord is known as a C13 (augmented 4th, add 16). Author A. Eaglefield Hull writes of the chord: “Play it over forte, then piano; then sprinkle it very softly; try it in various keys. We have the splendid vitality of the augmented 4th, the soft mollity of the diminished 4th, the sweet firmness of the perfect 4th, and so on. Reckoning everything from the root, we get the augmented 11th, the minor 7th, the 3rd, the I3th, and the 9th.” [1]
The Mystic Chord is derived from the Harmonic Series. In the beginning, there was the Tone, and the Tone was with Chord. Every note that you hear is actually made up of a series of overtones. Though they are not quite audible, the arrangement of overtones determines the timbre of the note you hear, allowing you to distinguish between a piano and a flute playing the same tone.
The Harmonic Series arranged horizontally results in a scale known as Lydian Dominant. It is a natural scale—the genome of music. Just as every cell contains DNA, each tone contains the Lydian Dominant scale sounded at the same time in a chord—a mystical chord.
The Mystic Chord bares some resemblance to Stravinsky’s Petrushka Chord.
Instead of relying on the weight of the Perfect Fifth (C, G) as heard in 99.9% of music, Scriabin favored the Augmented 4th (C, F#)—the Flat Five or Tritone. For a little taste, check out Scriabin’s sexy evil composition “Prometheus”.
For more on Scriabin and colored music, go here.
Note:
[1]
A great Russian Tone poet, Scriabin by A.Eaglefield Hull
One of my favorite books ever. The quaint flowery passages on music and the author’s excitement for motion pictures coupled with sound are not to be missed.
