This small contrapuntal piece was written for his composition professor Sergueï Taneïev while he was studying at the Moscow military school. It was published posthumously, like all the works on the “WoO” list, which stands for the German Works ohne Opuszahl - translated as “Works without Opus Number.”

It is the earliest known piece by Scriabin, excluding a prelude also in D minor that introduced the canon and remains lost to this day. Scriabin wrote it at the age of 11, and it is his only attempt at the canon form. The fact that he began his compositional life with counterpoint (a few years later, he also composed four fugues) probably reflects the influence of George Conus, his counterpoint teacher. Conus also taught other composers such as Nikolaï Metner, and left Scriabin with an organic view about the musical architecture.

Despite its simplicity, the canon already possesses a nostalgic feeling typical of Russian romanticism. Like a perpetual cycle, the prelude that introduced the canon belongs to the same genre of the pieces concluding Scriabin’s entire output (Prelude No.5 Op.74, in 1915).