A short list of great composers who died in their mid-thirties would include Bizet, Chopin, Gershwin, Mozart, Purcell, Schubert, Weber … and Charles Griffes.

Despite a short life, Griffes purchased his immortality by leaving a fair amount of music behind. His compositions stand out in early 20th-century American Art Music because of his French impressionist flavor (most composers at this time were modeling German styles), and his taste for the exotic scales and sounds(very much related to impressionism.)

His Poem for Flute and Orchestra is just beautiful; perhaps it is an homage to Debussy‘s Afternoon of a Faun. I think its success is due to 1) the use of the low register of the flute, which gives the piece a dark, mysterious color and 2) the aforementioned impressionist harmonies that keep us suspended over ever-changing tonal centers. What else is there to say?

I’m a decent musician. When I see a pianist like this perform, I am floored. How can anyone play this fast while remaining accurate and expressive?

There’s only one way. They sold their soul to the devil!

It all started with Franz Liszt, who lived quite the life. He was by far the most talented pianist of his time, and pushed the instrument to new levels. He was also an international playboy and possibly the first musical superstar. But what really convinces me of his deal with the devil is that he joined a religious order late in life, perhaps as an attempt to buy out his unholy contract. Or, perhaps it was just an attempt to atone for his multiple affairs with numerous women in various European courts.

Perhaps, shortly after he sold his soul, Liszt regretted the decision and wrote his Totentanz – dance of the dead. This is a symphonic poem (a free-form style of composition which Liszt invented) which uses the ancient Dies Irae (Day of Judgment) chant (a popular chant for Halloween). It’s a spooky piece which shows off the legendary piano technique of the great master. The skill required to play this is inhuman … the devil has to be at work here!

Joking aside – these great pianists (and composers) are simply great, and have no unholy dealings; I celebrate them!

Don’t do drugs, kids. But if you do, do it like Scriabin.

Alexander Scriabin wrote plenty of perfectly normal pieces; he was a brilliant pianist who wrote his own set of piano preludes and etudes, similar to the great Chopin and Liszt. But once he turned 25, things began to get weird. He developed his own system of harmony based on the whole tone and octatonic scales. At the time, this was edgy, but not groundbreaking; it makes his music sound similar to French impressionism. What sets Scriabin apart is his synesthesia, the “color organ” he invented, his devotion to Theosophy, his rambling writings, and his wild music inspired by religious visions. His two most famous pieces are the Poem of Fire and the Poem of Ecstasy.

Scriabin himself approved this description of The Poem of Ecstasy, which will describe it far better than I:

The Poem of Ecstasy is the Joy of Liberated Action. The Cosmos, i.e., Spirit, is Eternal Creation without External Motivation, a Divine Play of Worlds. The Creative Spirit, i.e., the Universe at Play, is not conscious of the Absoluteness of its creativeness, having subordinated itself to a Finality and made creativity a means toward an end. The stronger the pulse beat of life and the more rapid the precipitation of rhythms, the more clearly the awareness comes to the Spirit that it is consubstantial with creativity itself. When the Spirit has attained the supreme culmination of its activity and has been torn away from the embraces of teleology and relativity, when it has exhausted completely its substance and its liberated active energy, the Time of Ecstasy shall arrive.

I’ll say it again, kids: don’t do drugs.