"Pathos" in Aleksandr Scriabin’s "Étude Patetico"

Abstract

Music as an artistic expression hides meanings that transcend aesthetics, which can be analyzed from other disciplines and fields of study. Rhetoric as the art of discourse and as a tool of language can be found in musical composition as a persuasive element, which uses pathos to produce emotions in the listener. The present paper analyzes the Étude Patetico Op. 8 No. 12 of Aleksandr Scriabin from the perspective of discourse, in order to find the rhetorical figures associated with the greek concept of pathos, using as references previous analysis to musical works with the pathetic adjective. The text also looks to provide clarity around the concept of the pathetic, whose meaning has undergone transformations over the centuries, altering its original greek conception. The present analysis proposes to approach musical works from the perspective of rhetoric, in order to achieve a greater understanding of the composition and a better interpretation by the performer.