Four Notes and a Missing Link: Dvořák, Scriabin, and the Evidence for Melodic Influence

Abstract

A four-note pitch correspondence links the opening of the second movement of Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, with an interior segment of Horn I at rehearsal 4 in the first movement of Alexander Scriabin's Piano Concerto in F-sharp minor, Op. 20. Dvořák's A clarinet sounds D5–E5–C5–D5; Scriabin's F horn sounds E4–F♯4–D4–E4 across measures 84–86. The cells share the interval sequence +2, −4, +2 semitones and the local major-key scale degrees 5–6– 4–5. Their correspondence is exact in pitch class under transposition, with an octave displacement in register, but their attack spacing, local harmonization, and formal positions differ. Dvořák's phrase begins a movement; Scriabin's cell is selected from an ongoing orchestral line. Publication and composition dates permit transmission from Dvořák to Scriabin, although the sources examined here do not document Scriabin's encounter with Op. 104. This analytical case study distinguishes a verifiable resemblance from a historical claim of borrowing. Independent generation within tonal practice and remembered influence remain possible explanations; the available evidence does not establish either causal account or deliberate allusion.