Contrapuntal Aspects of the Mystic Chord and Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5

Abstract

We present statistical evidence for the importance of the “mystic chord” in Scriabin’s Piano Sonata No. 5, Op. 53, from a computational and mathematical counterpoint perspective. More specifically, we compute the effect sizes and perform $$\chi ^{2}$$ tests with respect to the distributions of counterpoint symmetries in the Fuxian, mystic, Ionian and representatives of the other three possible counterpoint worlds in two passages of the work, which provide evidence of a qualitative change between the Fuxian and the mystic worlds in the sonata.