Scriabin’s last set of etudes, divided into three pieces each one centred around a precise interval :

No.1 : Allegro Fantastico (Minor 9th)
No.2 : Allegretto (Major 7th)
No.3 : Molto Vivace (Perfect 5th)

An amusing letter was sent by Scriabin to one of his friends, in which he wrote: “A composer that you know very well has decided to write three new etudes in fifths (horror!), in ninths (how decadent!), and in major sevenths (total abomination!). What will the world have to say?”—a rare display of humour in Scriabin’s personality, already anticipating the possible backlash against his revolutionary music.

The three etudes share impressionistic textures, in line with his contemporaries Ravel and Debussy. Debussy himself wrote a set of etudes based on intervals, but precisely avoided the three impossible ones Scriabin chose to compose with (parallel fifths give an empty quality to the harmonies, and both the major seventh and minor ninth are utterly dissonant when overused).

The first etude is an obsessive hammering of chromatic ninths, all with mockery and weightlessness. The constant repetitions are reminiscent of Prokofiev’s percussive style. The second is a languid and nocturne-like musical atmosphere, intertwined with timid ascending flights in the highest part of the keyboard. The music is surprisingly consonant, considering the intervals used. The last is passionate, imperious—a sort of epic Russian poem with harmonies of the new century. The sonorities of the Sonata No.7 Op.64 are still present. The piece ends in total exasperation, in a gesture analogous to the very start of the first etude, closing the cycle of etudes on itself.