Alexander Scriabin was an enigmatic figure sometimes considered the first of the modern composers. He composed piano and orchestral music noted for its unusual timbres through which he sought to explore musical symbolism.

Scriabin was born in Moscow on January 6, 1872. He was raised by his great-aunt when his mother died when he was only a year old. In 1994 Scriabin joined Rachmaninoff as a pupil of Zverev, entering the Moscow Conservatory in 1888, graduating with the second highest medal in 1892. While practicing at the keyboard, an injury to his right hand hampered his career as a pianist.

In 1897, Scriabin married a young pianist, but by 1903 his life had taken a new turn. He left his teaching post at the Conservatory and Russia for Europe and abandoned his wife Vera and their four children for a devoted young admirer, Tatyana Schloezer, an addict of cult philosophizing who encouraged him in his fantastic belief in himself as a godlike fount of creativity. He settled in Switzerland and devoted himself to composition.

Scriabin's preoccupation with mystical philosophy filled his composition. His First Symphony has a chorale finale glorifying art as a form of religion. The Third Symphony, The Divine Poem (1903), was based on Theosophical ideas, as were The Poem of Ecstasy (1907) and Prometheus, The Poem of Fire (1910). He also composed sensitive, exquisitely polished piano music, including his 10 sonatas, a concerto, as well as many preludes and short pieces, Scriabin dreamed of redeeming humanity with an all-embracing, mystical fusion of the arts. His absurd death stands in almost absurd contract to the vastness of his final plans.