MovieChat Forums > The Caveman's Valentine (2001) Discussion > What's the deal about beating on Skrjabi...

What's the deal about beating on Skrjabin (Scriabin)?

posted 18 years ago by riishans
11 replies | jump to latest

Jackson is asked about his knowledge about Skrjabin. The person asking him clearly pronounces Skrjabin's name wrong which leads to a misunderstanding. I get it so far.
Then Jackson's character starts tearing down on Skrjabin who must be the greatest writer of piano music since Chopin.
Am I biased or does the story writer have no idea of how ground breaking Skrjabin's music was/is? I play and listen to Skrjabin's piano music almost every day, and it still seems to amaze me. Like Chopin (who Skrjabin clearly admitted being inspirated by) I always find a new aspect in the music every time I listen to it.

So why make Jackson's character put down Skrjabin? To prove that he's beyond him? I can't think of any composer contemporary to Skrjabin who was able to write such brilliant music.

Maybe it's just me being a big fan of Skrjabin but to me it ruined Romulus' credibility as being a musical genious.

If in doubt, listen to Skrjabin's Etudes (or Sonatas for that sake). Preferably with the music sheets beside you to see how intense and complicated the music really is.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Marlon_Bogart 18 years ago

I think the magical atmosphere of the character was suposed to be reinforced by the idea of an irreal or subjective superiority of Romulus over any other composer.

-No pierdas tiempo y sé tú mismo-

[–] TubaMel 18 years ago

While Scriabin's music may be groundbreaking, it doesn't mean everyone has to like it. In the history books the music of Ives and Babbitt is also groundbreaking, but it is also physically painful for me to listen to. Most 20th century music has something "groundbreaking" about it, but not everyone likes all of it. To each their own. While I have nothing against Scriabin, I'd still listen to Amanda Palmer first. Anyways, Sammy's character is psychotic, so don't take his opinion on your favorite piano man to heart. One's man's brilliance is another man's noise, don't take others' opinions on music too seriously.

[–] acid-bath 18 years ago

I don't think the director knows much about art or music. The photographs weren't particularly good, and the songs Jackson played weren't too complicated.

[–] RyanCarell 17 years ago

The point is that Romulus was making a point about a composer. He could have said it about anyone from Beethoven to Billy Joel. He didn't appreciate the lack of trust the song puts in itself. He basically claims, if you take to try to try and actually understand what he says, that because there is so much complication, and because it's so groundbreaking, that it loses it's devinity. Romulus seems to believe that by making it so over-powering and forceful that Skrjabin loses trust in simplicity.

As is evident by his very elegant and simple songs (which are beautiful, regardless of how complex they are), Romulus values simplicity, citing it as faith in ones on essential and core divinty.

"Divinty comes from within" or what ever means that it's the notes that make it, not how teeth-grattingly complex the song is.

[–] josh1116 17 years ago

While I can understand your irritation if you like that composer (I've never personally heard his material), I think the entire point of that scene was Bob was trying to prove him as a fraud. And instead, Rom comes back with expansive knowledge of the composer......I think it was just to reinforce that while he WAS crazy, he DID really know about music (because from their first meeting, Bob didn't believe he was ever at Juliard).

They coulda picked anyone, I think they just picked that guy because to the casual person (like myself), it's a relatively unknown composer (unlike say, Beethoven), and Rom wouldn't know jack shi_t about him if he wasn't really versed in music.

[–] KoivuTheHab 17 years ago

Oh my... what has this world come to?

[–] mikainen 17 years ago

Yes, well, most of the viewers of the film probably are not familiar with Skrjabin. I'm not, he's just some composer.

[–] josh1116 17 years ago

Exactly...I wasn't familiar with him at all.

So it'd be alot harder to BS knowing about him than if the guy had suggested Mozart or Beethoven, names that are more well-known to the average layman

[–] Theora23 16 years ago

Scriabin is also thought by many to have produced some truly hallucinatory music. His Sixth Sonata was hardly played in public because even the composer was freaked out by it. Maybe Romulus got all of the darkness from Scriabin's work and just didn't appreciate that intensity and complexity. For all we know, his illness was in its inception while he was studying, and Scriabin's music was too much more madness.

I'd say it's less to do with genius and more to do with sensitivity. Not all music resonates the same with everyone.

[–] Ruby_Quincunx 15 years ago

Glenn Gould, a pianistic genius if ever there was one, didn't particularly care for Chopin (although he did for Scriabin), but he recognized his formidable talent. The point of Ledbetter's attitude towards Scriabin is no doubt to delineate his character--he has both broad knowledge & individual tastes--not to run down Scriabin.

RQ

IMDb profile: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm3191299/