On his return he was promoted captain and commanded first the “Victorious,” flagship of the Channel Squadron, and subsequently the “Essex” and the “Bulwark.” He was awarded the gold medals of the Royal Geographical Society and of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society, and received medals from the geographical societies of many foreign countries, and an hon. degree from Cambridge. During part of 1909 he was naval assistant to the Second Sea Lord of the Admiralty, and in June 1910 he again set out for the Antarctic in the “Terra Nova” in command of a new expedition, financed partly by private individuals but aided by a Government grant. He arrived at Lyttelton, N.Z., in Oct. and reached McMurdo Sound at the end of the year. On Nov. 2 1911 he started on his journey of 850 m. to the Pole, accompanied all the way by Dr. E. A. Wilson, Capt. L. E. G. Gates, Lt. H. R. Bowers, and Petty-Officer Edgar Evans. He reached the Beardmore glacier on Dec. 10 and on Jan. 4 1913 left behind him his last supporting party in lat. 87 32′ S. When last heard of he was about 150m. from the Pole, which his record shows that he reached Jan. 17 only to find Amundsen’s tent and records left there one month earlier. On the return journey Evans fell (Feb. 17) in descending the Beardmore glacier and died shortly after. Blizzards were encountered and progress was slow. Food ran short, and on March 17 Oates went out alone to die. Three days later a fresh blizzard checked the survivors, whose supply of oil-fuel was exhausted and their food-supply very low. Scott’s last entry in his diary was made on March 24. He was then only 11 m. from One Ton depot and a supply of food; but he was unable to reach it and died, with Wilson and Bowers, on or about March 27 1912.
A search party, sent out from the base in March 1912, had been driven back from One Ton depot by the weather, and it was recognized that there was no chance of Scott’s party surviving the winter. Nothing further could be attempted until Oct., when search parties went out, and on Nov. 12 Dr. Atkinson and Mr. Wright found Scott’s tent with the bodies of Scott, Bowers and Wilson and the valuable scientific records. Capt. Scott had a warm sympathy for scientific research and a good knowledge of many branches of science qualifying him for the leadership of an expedition, the main results of which were obtained by the labours of his scientific colleagues. The news of the disaster did not reach England until the survivors landed in N.Z. Feb. 10 1913. A memorial service, held in St. Paul’s cathedral, London, Feb. 14, was attended by King George, and by royal warrant the rank and precedence of the wife of a K.C.B. were conferred on Capt. Scott’s widow. A fund was raised as a memorial of Capt. Scott, from which ample provision was made for the surviving relatives of the lost explorers, and the balance was devoted to the promotion of polar research, a substantial amount being granted in 1921 towards the endowment of the Polar Research Institute of the Geographical department of the university of Cambridge.
On Sept. 2 1908, Scott had married Miss E. A. Kathleen Bruce, daughter of Canon Lloyd Bruce. Lady Scott had attained some reputation as a sculptor, and, later, executed statues of her husband, which have been erected in Waterloo Place, London, and at Portsmouth. Her other works include a statue of his companion, Dr. Wilson, at Cheltenham, one of Capt. Smith of the “Titanic” at Litchfield, and portrait busts of Mr. Asquith, Lord Knutsford, John Galsworthy, Granville Barker, and other well-known contemporaries. She was one of the first women to undertake munition making, and in 1916 she became private secretary to the secretary of the Ministry of Pensions. In Jan. 1922 her engagement to Lt.-Comm. Edward Hilton Young, D.S.O., M.P. (b. 1879), financial secretary to the Treasury, was announced.
SCOTT-GATTY, SIR ALFRED SCOTT (1847–1918), British herald
and genealogist, was born at Ecclesfield, Yorks, April 26 1847,
the son of the Rev. Alfred Gatty, vicar of Ecclesfield and sub-dean
of York, by his wife Margaret Scott (see 11.530), a popular writer.
One of his sisters was Juliana Horatia Orr-Ewing (see 10.40), the
writer of children’s books. The additional name of Scott was assumed
by him by royal licence in 1892. He was educated at Marlborough
and Christ’s College, Cambridge. In 1880 he entered the
Heralds’ College and became Rouge Dragon pursuivant, and in
1886 was appointed York herald. In 1899 he became registrar of
the college, and in 1904 was made Garter principal king-at-arms
and knighted. Sir Alfred Scott-Gatty was an authority on heraldry
and genealogy, and presented many copies of records to the
Heralds’ College. He was also an accomplished musician, many
of whose songs became popular. In 1911 he was created K.C.V.O.
He died in London Dec. 18 1918.
SCRIABIN, ALEXANDER NICHOLAEVICH (1871–1915), Russian composer, was born at Moscow on Christmas day 1871 (O.S.). His father was a lawyer; his mother, a good pianist and pupil of Leschetitsky, died when he was one year of age. His schooling was received in the Moscow Cadet Corps, but he never showed any liking for the military career for which he was intended, and at 18 entered the Moscow Conservatory of Music where he was a pupil of Safanov and Tanier. On leaving the conservatory Scriabin was greatly helped by the patriotic music publisher Belayef, who brought out his earlier works and arranged a European piano recital tour for him. At 20 he returned to Moscow and joined the conservatory staff. Later he again travelled, this time for six years, visiting the United States amongst other countries. He then settled in Brussels for some time, and in 1910 returned to Moscow. In 1914 Scriabin visited England, giving two piano recitals, playing his own Concerto and appearing as pianist in his Prometheus. He was then suffering from a tumour of the lip, from which, soon after his return, he died, April 14, 1915.
As a composer Scriabin represents what may be called the classical school carried forward to its most advanced point. The form of his sonata and symphony movements he derives from Mozart, through Beethoven; however bewildering these may at first sound, they will be found, on a second or third hearing, to be laid out on essentially the Mozart-Beethoven lines. In his pianistic idiom and general pianistic qualities of style, Scriabin derives largely from Chopin, of whose work he was a great admirer. All this then indicates a conservative side to his composition, but he was more radical in his harmonies, and it was, probably, largely the novelty of these that retarded appreciation of his later works. Gradually he evolved what may be called a new scale or, from another point of view, a new chord. It consists of the upper partials of the fourth octave from the fundamental note, less two (taking C as the fundamental note—C, D, E, F♯, A, B♭ or, arranged as a superposition of fourths, as Scriabin most frequently uses them, C, F♯, B♭, E, A, D). The hint of this new harmonic scheme may be seen in the earliest compositions, and its development was fairly regular and consistent, until it came to dominate his later output. In his later works he discards entirely the old key signatures. In his orchestration Scriabin calls for a large force, and uses it very freely : his scores are excessively contrapuntal in texture, the various instruments moving very independently and weaving together their respective themes : muted brass plays a large part in his orchestral colour scheme. In the First Symphony a chorus is used in the finale ; the “Poem of Fire” also uses a chorus, but in an orchestral way, no words being supplied. For the last-named work the composer also wrote an optional part for a “Tastiera per luce,” or keyboard of light, the intention being that varying colours should play upon a screen as the work was being performed. The composer was greatly interested in theories as to a correspondence between the musical scale and the scale of colours. In his great Mystery (left unfinished at his death) music, dance, speech, perfume and colour were to be combined; this work was to be rather a work of ritual than of art, and was to express its author’s idealistic mysticism through the medium of 2,000 participants.
It is usual to look upon Scriabin’s musical work as largely the expression of theosophical views, and undoubtedly much of his inspiration was drawn from the works of Blavatsky and others. He was not, however, a close reader, or a careful thinker. Seizing the main idea of a book or a creed, he would neglect the details, and his imagination would quickly develop a huge scheme of thought having little relation to what he had read. The titles of many of his works and of their separate parts, and the marks of expression affixed to particular passages, indicate plainly the existence of a spiritual “programme.” The emancipation of the human soul through ceaseless striving, and its achievement of self-expression, may be said, very roughly, to represent the general sense of the spiritual basis of Scriabin’s musical works.
The works of Scriabin have been variously classed into periods. A logical classification is into four periods as follows: 1st period, with a strong Chopin influence; the dividing line between this and the 2nd period runs through the First Symphony, and the 2nd period shows some Wagner and Liszt influences; the dividing line between this and the 3rd period runs through the Fifth Sonata, and a 4th period begins with the “Poem of Fire.”
Works.—Orchestral: Revery (op. 24); Symph. I. (26); Symph. II. (29); Symph. III., or Divine Poem (43); Symph. IV. (54): Prometheus, or “Poem of Fire” (60). Piano: Sonatas I. (op. 6);
