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Scholarly Works (3 results)

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UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations (2024)

Alexander Skryabin was a composer, poet, and mystic philosopher who sought to unify these three endeavors in his artistic works. He sought means of influencing and enlightening the human spirit through multimodal artistic expression, with his ultimate goal being the enactment of an omnisensory performance called The Mysterium that was to bring about the apocalypse by raising the spiritual consciousness of all humankind beyond our earthly forms. The music and writings that Skryabin produced have mystified audiences and critics for over a century due to their highly idiosyncratic construction. This dissertation seeks to bring the music and mysticism closer together, and explore their complex interrelationships.Skryabin’s philosophical outlook is difficult to discuss due to its ever-shifting nature; Skryabin frequently wrote and stated contradictory beliefs in sometimes shockingly close proximity. This dissertation argues in favor of understanding Skryabin’s philosophy as an ongoing work-in-progress that is nonetheless structured by a handful of core ideas that underpin all of the changing superstructure. This dissertation seeks to understand Skryabin’s music and mysticism by analyzing it through the lens of phenomenology, as this methodology allows for analysis of far more musical characteristics than only looking at harmony or form. The phenomenological method outlined here focuses particularly on the experience of musical time, musical space, and the embodied motions of the pianistic performer. Skryabin was a pianist-composer who primarily wrote for and at the piano, and this dissertation finds myriad connections between Skryabin’s philosophical outlook and the ways that he encourages a pianist to move. A recurrent theme throughout this dissertation is a distinction between the exoteric and esoteric, which is most readily apparent in the two primary musical analyses – Prometheus: The Poem of Fire (1910) and Piano Sonata No. 10 (1913). Prometheus is a grand, exoteric expression of Skryabin’s philosophy intended to communicate outward with the masses, while in contrast, Piano Sonata No. 10 is an inwardly-focused esoteric expression of hierophantic ritual.

    Cover page: The Impulse to Apocalypse: The Late Works of Alexander Nikolayevich Skryabin, 1910-1915
    • Article
    • Peer Reviewed
    UC Berkeley Previously Published Works (2019)
    The Great Unconformity, a profound gap in Earth's stratigraphic record often evident below the base of the Cambrian system, has remained among the most enigmatic field observations in Earth science for over a century. While long associated directly or indirectly with the occurrence of the earliest complex animal fossils, a conclusive explanation for the formation and global extent of the Great Unconformity has remained elusive. Here we show that the Great Unconformity is associated with a set of large global oxygen and hafnium isotope excursions in magmatic zircon that suggest a late Neoproterozoic crustal erosion and sediment subduction event of unprecedented scale. These excursions, the Great Unconformity, preservational irregularities in the terrestrial bolide impact record, and the first-order pattern of Phanerozoic sedimentation can together be explained by spatially heterogeneous Neoproterozoic glacial erosion totaling a global average of 3-5 vertical kilometers, along with the subsequent thermal and isostatic consequences of this erosion for global continental freeboard.
      Cover page: Neoproterozoic glacial origin of the Great UnconformityCreative Commons 'BY' version 4.0 license
      • Article
      • Peer Reviewed
      UC Davis Previously Published Works (2024)
      Due to the scarcity of rock samples, the Hadean Era predating 4 billion years ago (Ga) poses challenges in understanding geological processes like subaerial weathering and plate tectonics that are critical for the evolution of life. The Jack Hills zircon from Western Australia, the primary Hadean samples available, offer valuable insights into magma sources and tectonic genesis through trace element signatures. However, a consensus on these signatures has not been reached. To address this, we developed a machine learning classifier capable of deciphering the geochemical fingerprints of zircon. This allowed us to identify the oldest detrital zircon originating from sedimentary-derived S-type granites. Our results indicate the presence of S-type granites as early as 4.24 Ga, persisting throughout the Hadean into the Archean. Examining global detrital zircon across Earths history reveals consistent supercontinent-like cycles from the present back to the Hadean. These findings suggest that a significant amount of Hadean continental crust was exposed, weathered into sediments, and incorporated into the magma sources of Jack Hills zircon. Only the early operation of both subaerial weathering and plate subduction can account for the prevalence of S-type granites we observe. Additionally, the periodic evolution of S-type granite proportions implies that subduction-driven tectonic cycles were active during the Hadean, at least around 4.2 Ga. The evidence thus points toward an early Earth resembling the modern Earth in terms of active tectonics and habitable surface conditions. This suggests the potential for life to originate in environments like warm ponds rather than extreme hydrothermal settings.
        Cover page: Sediment subduction in Hadean revealed by machine learning.
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