Nemtin began the job of completing this unfinished composition of Scriabin in October 1970 and worked on it for nearly 26 years of his life. The Prefatory Action remains a work as much of Nemtin as it is of Scriabin. The initial conception of the work as well as the literary text and the main themes and motives of the work, written down in disjunct sketches on fifty-five pages indeed belong to Scriabin. Though Nemtin followed to the utmost degree Scriabin's initial conception as well as Scriabin's musical style, manner and formal and harmonic language, not to mention his orchestration, nevertheless he carried out the project quite independently and in an original manner, creating a large-scale dramatic work for orchestra, piano, chorus and color organ in three huge parts, which altogether sound more than two and a half hours in time. When hearing this composition, one can immediately perceive that this quite Scriabinesque composition carries in itself original and musical features of Nemtin, his own personal manner of musical expression, the expression of his own individuality as well as a certain sense of experience of the cataclysms of the subsequent decades of the 20th century, which Scriabin did not live to witness.

It is well known that Alexander Scriabin towards the end of his life planned a grandiose mystically inclined composition - the Mysterium - which was supposed to be a mystical, theurgical action, the performance of which was supposed to take place in India with huge bells hanging from clouds, the final outcome of which would be a worldwide transformation of humanity, according to some versions, the latter was supposed to be tied with its willing extinction. Throughout the course of time, Scriabin thought of preceding this grandiose cosmic event with a smaller theurgical action, called the "Prefatory Action," which was meant to prepare humanity for the "Mysterium," meant to follow the "Prefatory Action" immediately after it. In the long run, Scriabin stuck to the thought of the "Prefatory Action," which he finally thought of composing without the Mysterium.

These plans all came to an unexpected end with Scriabin's premature decease at the age of 43 from a pimple on his lip as a result of blood poisoning. Upon his death, Scriabin has left the literary text of the "Prefatory Action" and 53 pages of loosely scattered sketches and many reminiscences of his many philosophical and mystical discourses and plans for the "Prefatory Action" as notated in his diaries and notebooks and in memoirs of his friends; one of the best examples of the latter is the book "Remembrances of Scriabin," written by composer and music critic Leonid Sabaneyev, a close friend and follower of Scriabin. The text of the "Prefatory Action" has been published for the first time in 1919 in an edition called "Russian Propylaeum" ("Russkiye Propilei").

More than half a century later, the idea came to a young Russian composer, living in Moscow, Alexander Nemtin, to complete this giant torso of Scriabin. Alexander Nemtin was born in the city of Perm in 1936. He studied in Moscow Conservatory in the composition class of Mikhail Chulaki. At the time of the beginning of his work on the "Prefatory Action," Nemtin was already an established composer, the author of two piano sonatas, two symphonies, a numerous amount of songs, including a song cycle and other solo, chamber and orchestral music. Among his own compositions one can first of all mention his two piano sonatas, among which the First Sonata immediately strikes the listener with its impetuous, dramatic piano textures and mood, a complex compound formal scheme behind it as well as an interesting tonal plan - the composition modulates simultaneously throughout the entire cycle of fifths upwards and downwards, which results in some interesting polytonal harmonies, which greatly enhance and complement the essentially Romantic trend of the piece. One can also trace in the heroic, impetuous quality of the First Sonata the strong, heroic will of its author, a will which ultimately was put to the test and which enabled the author to complete the "Prefatory Action", overcoming all the innumerous obstacles in the way. The Second Sonata, subtitled as "The Irish" is a humorous stylization of a late-Classical, early-Beethovenian piano style, presented purposely in a very low-keyed manner; it was written around the same time as Schnittke's "Suite in Old Style" and in a similar manner, both pieces witnessing a revival of interest for early authentic music "on original instruments" in Russia in the 60's.

Also noteworthy among the composer's output is the forty minute song cycle for baritone voice and piano, titled as "The Stars are Falling from the Sky onto the Earth," written on the texts of 19th Hungarian poet, Sandor Petefy, a friend of Liszt, in Russian translation. This song cycle, being essentially traditionally tonal and Romantic in harmony and style, has an extensive cyclic development with several important regularly recurring themes and motives, functioning as leitmotifs. These themes are developed in an extensive, almost symphonic manner, extending the type of development, present in usual 19th century lieder or art songs; they do even more than provide a great sense of unity and completeness to the twenty numbers of the song cycle, consisting of fourteen songs for voice and piano and six interludes for piano. Other piano music of Nemtin include small sets of piano pieces, usually in two or three, the most prominent of the latter being his "Three Poems" for piano, written in 1987 and dedicated to the memory of Scriabin. These "Three Poems" were published in 1993 by Gunmar Publications in Massachusetts. They were in a sense written as "studies" for the work on the "Prefatory Action" at the time when the author was in the midst of working on the third and final part; nevertheless they transcend this simple function and manifest themselves as independent and original compositions, very contrasting among each other, and providing a contrast of Romantic emotional moods, brilliantly realized in virtuosic piano technique.

Nemtin's output also contains a number of works for large orchestra, including a Symphonietta for Strings and two symphonies, among which the Second Symphony clearly stands out in its musical and literary-programmatic importance. The Second Symphony has the subtitle "War and Peace," though it was not written out of inspiration derived from Leo Tolstoy. It was composed from 1963 until 1974 and performed by the Kharkov Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Gennady Provatorov at the "Moscow Autumn" contemporary music festival in Moscow in October, 1983. It is a large-scale dramatic work in one movement, containing five sections, organically combining loose reminiscences of sonata form with a pungent literary, programmatic content, continuing the Romantic legacy of Berlioz and Liszt in a more grotesque, apocalyptic vein, pertaining more to the 20th century. The program of the symphony deals with the contemplations of the composer on the history and fate of the world and humanity and depicts two alternative futures for mankind - either one ending in a war of total annihilation or an alternate one of a general overcoming of all wars and conflicts and a resolution towards a lasting world piece and improvement of human relations. In the structure of the work, the first section, being the "first theme group" of the "exposition of the sonata form" depicts all the wars of humanity of the past, the second section, the "second theme group" depicts a longing for an alternate road towards peace, the third section, being the "development" presents a devastating picture of a war leading to total human annihilation, the fourth section, joining both the first and second theme groups in a "quasi-recapitulation" presents a recurrence of the moods of the first two sections with a slant towards the second, namely the longing for world peace and the fifth section, being the coda, depicts the happy second alternative of overcoming of human feuds and hostilities and of humanity achieving a lasting world peace.

One of the most interesting phases of Nemtin's development was his active participation in the Moscow Electronic Music Studio, which was opened up in the 60's under the auspices of the Scriabin Museum in Moscow in the building of the Museum. The electronic studio had one single electronic instrument - the only one available in the Soviet Union at that time - which was called the ANS. The ANS synthesizer was invented by the famous scientist Yevgeny Murzin in 1958 and was named after Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, a favorite composer of Murzin's whose musical ideas provided the necessary inspiration for Murzin to invent the instrument. The Electronic Studio in Moscow was an exciting meeting place for composers and many composers actively worked there and composed some of the first electronic pieces in the USSR, before the Studio was forcefully closed by the Soviet authorities in 1975. Among such composers who wrote pieces for the ANS synthesizer were Alfred Schnittke, Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina, Eduard Artemiev, Andrei Volkonsky and Stanislav Kreichi. Alexander Nemtin, an active participant in the studio, wrote a number of brilliant electronic compositions for the ANS synthesizer. His composition "Tears" was included in the first of two LP records of pieces by contemporary Russian composers, written for the ANS, published by the "Melodiya" LP record company. Another interesting electronic composition of Nemtin's is called "Voice", which includes a recording of a soprano singing. In the piece, Nemtin cut out all the parts of the tape with the pauses, where she takes a breath, this way creating an illusion that she is singing for twelve minutes without taking a single breath. It was his regular visits to the Scriabin Museum which were the chief factor for Nemtin's coming up with the idea of completing Scriabin's incomplete "Prefatory Action." After the director of the Scriabin Museum, Tatiana Shaborkina, a benefactress of the young electronic composers, provided Nemtin with the manuscripts of the unfinished sketches, Nemtin set out to work on this project. He began with assembling the loose sketches as well as the loose pages, which were left by the composer without the least bit of order. Nemtin was greatly aided and guided by the literary text of the "Prefatory Action," on which Scriabin worked for two years of his life, the plot of which provided the foundation for the form of the composition. Nemtin's profound knowledge and insight of Scriabin's style of form and harmony of his late style, especially manifested in the part of the color organ of his "Prometheus" - which virtually provided the analysis for the whole piece - gave him invaluable hints of inferring the place of a certain motive and unfinished fragment of music within the total framework of the piece, judging by its harmony. One interesting feature of the sketches was that they contained fragments of music used by Scriabin in a number of his late pieces - some of the Preludes, opus 74, the two pieces opus 73, the Eighth Sonata, etc. The reason for this was not a quotation of these pieces in the "Prefatory Action," but just the opposite - during the last years of his life, Scriabin was engrossed into his idea of the Prefatory Action and was busy writing sketches for it. Nevertheless he had a contract with his publishers and had to write a certain amount of compositions per year. The result of this contract was that he "recycled" some of his sketches and ideas, originally conceived of as being music for the "Prefatory Action" and used it in some of his smaller-scale compositions.

Guided by these and other helpful factors, Nemtin gradually completed the three giant parts of this totally grand work. Following Scriabin's text Nemtin originally planned his version to be in two parts, with the respective titles of "Universe" and "Humanity", but during the course of the work, it became apparent that the work required a separate third part, which was finally given the title of "Transfiguration." The first part of the "Prefatory Action" was finished rather quickly - in October of 1971 and was premiered on October 12, 1973 in the Big Hall of the Moscow Conservatory with the USSR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirill Kondrashin, with Alexei Lubimov at the piano. The work was immediately issued on a record by the "Melodiya" firm in Moscow and by "Angel Records" in the USA. The second part was completed in 1980, while the third part took the longest amount of time, but was finally finished on September 1, 1996. After the completion of the entire work, Nemtin received some duly deserved success in the sense that his completed version of the "Prefatory Action" started to receive performances throughout many countries of the world, both in its entire length of the three parts played together one after the other, or the individual parts being played separately. The premiere of the Third Part of the Prefatory action took place in Berlin on September 21, 1996, three weeks after the ultimate completion of the work, and it was performed by the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy. The premiere of all three parts of the "Prefatory Action" took place on February 7, 1997, when it was performed by the Finnish State Symphony Orchestra, conducted by the enterprising Swedish composer, Leif Segerstam with Alexei Lubimov at the piano. After that separate parts of it were performed in various countries including Holland, Poland and the USA. The last performance of the "Prefatory Action" during Nemtin's lifetime - namely that of its Second Part - took place in Amsterdam, Holland in the Het Concert Hall on November 29, 1998 by the Amsterdam Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy and Valery Polyansky, joined by the Amsterdam Artistic Choir Capella, under the direction of conductor Rob van der Poel, pianist Alexei Lubimov, and Hakon Austbe performing on the light keyboard. The two latest performances of the second part of the "Prefatory Action" took place in San Francisco in February 1999 and in Poland in April 1999, both performances under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy and with Alexei Lubimov at the piano. Unfortunately the composer did not live to witness these two performances, having himself passed away in early February of 1999 from a heart attack at the premature age of 62. There will be further performances planned of the "Prefatory Action" in various countries, including a possible performance in Russia. A CD of the first part is available in CD stores in the USA and the entire "Prefatory Action" is expected to come out on CD sometime in the near future on the Decca Records label, performed under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy, with Alexei Lubimov at the piano. In experiencing the music of the "Prefatory Action" it is especially worthwhile to follow the subject or plot of the written literary text by Scriabin, which served as a chief guideline for Nemtin to assemble his completed version, which determined both the form and the dramatic content of the entire work. In the first part, titled as "the Universe," the world appears, together with all the living things, the plants and animals and finally the humans - the music emphasizes the appearance of humans with the triumphant entry of the choir, starting to sing at the end of the first part. The second part, titled as "Humanity," depicts the primary age of existence of humanity, symbolizing its "age of gold", when it lived a happy, innocent life, without sin and without misfortunes. Towards the end of this second part, humanity's fall from grace occurs and thus the music looses its ethereal quality and becomes heavy and gloomy in mood - the end of the second part features a grotesque, morbid dance of the fallen humanity. The beginning and the greater portion of the third part, titled as "Transfiguration" continues the dark, gloomy mood of the end of the second part, as it depicts the continuation of humanity's existence in sin and falsehood. It is here that a prophet is sent to the erring mankind. Staying aloof from society, hiding in a desert the prophet hears mysterious divine voices from Above, preaching truth and goodness to him and commanding him to go to the erring humans and try to turn them away from their sinful existence. The music depicts this in a brilliant way, presenting a "theme of questioning" (of the prophet's asking the Divinity for instructions) and of the voice of the Divinity in a celestial, mysterious solo soprano voice, accompanied by a lyrical orchestral accompaniment. Receiving this revelation from the Divinity, the prophet goes to the sinful humans and tries to turn them away from their sinful life, onto a life of truth and virtue. The people do not want to hear the prophet's sermon, preferring to remain in their life of evil - they merely laugh at the prophet. At the end, when the prophet persists to reprimand the people for their evil, they lose their patience with the prophet and kill him. This place marks the turning point in both the text and the music. Following the previous episode (though the in text and the music all of this happens very fastly, marking the approaching end of this dramatic narrative, in reality this may happen after a long historical era, possible even of a million years or so), humanity acquiesces its guilt and its sin and repents of its evil, gradually starting to turn back to its primary state of innocence and virtue. At the very end of the work the long-desired "transfiguration" of humanity, which Scriabin called for, which the title of the third part indicates, finally happens and humanity is transformed into a higher state of existence. Following Scriabin's own philosophy as well as its sources in ancient Indian philosophy and religion, "transfiguration" is tied in with "evaporation" and "extinction" and there is a direct suggestion that the final transfiguration of the world is passing back into the nothingness from which it came, which, according to Scriabin's scheme, is the highest form of bliss. The music brilliantly describes it, after the final triumphantly transfigured coda, by gradually dissipating and the entire musical material gradually condensing into one note of F# on which the entire "Prefatory Action" ends.

Alexander Nemtin, who completed such a heroic task of bringing this great mystical project to life, himself lived a solitary life of a prophet, hermit or philosopher, all of which he was in many senses. He had very few dealings with the Composers' Union of the USSR (and, subsequently, of Russia and Moscow) and almost never promoted his own music - the latter was done chiefly by his wife and by his few faithful friends. He spent most of his time, leading a secluded existence, staying either in his apartment or in his friends' country house during their absence, and concentrating on his great project of finishing Scriabin's "Prefatory Action". He had a very limited number of performances of his own solo, chamber and orchestral compositions in Moscow (mostly on the "Moscow Autumn" Festival) and abroad - in Europe and America. His compositions were performed a limited number of times in the USA - including a performance of his First Sonata by pianist Stephen Gosling on October 29, 1993 at the Bruno Walter Auditorium at Lincoln Center in New York City as part of the Bridge Contemporary Music Series, directed by the writer of this article. Starting from 1985, due to the efforts of his late wife, Larisa Nemtin, he has had a number of his compositions published by the "Sovetsky Kompozitor" music press in Moscow, including his two piano sonatas, his Symphonietta for strings, the Second Symphony "War and Peace" and the song cycle for baritone and piano to the texts of Sandor Petefy. His 3 Poems for Piano, written in memory of Scriabin, were published by Margun Press in Massachussets in 1993. Many knowledgeable musicians have made the observation, when looking at his own music, that if he had not devoted the greater part of his time to the completion of "Prefatory Action", he would have become a prominent composer in the scene of Russian contemporary music. In November 1999 a compact disc of all three parts of the "Prefatory Action" was released by DECCA records, carrying the title "Preparation for the Final Mystery" in a performance by the Deutches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, under the direction of Vladimir Ashkenazy, with pianist Alexei Lubimov, soprano Anna-Kristiina Kaappola, organist Thomas Trotter, the Ernst Senff Choir and the St. Petersburg Chamber Choir. As performances of his "Prefatory Action" are increasing in various countries and as mention of him becomes more frequent in the press worldwide, Alexander Nemtin is gradually beginning to receive the fame that he deserves for his great musical endeavor and a series of concerts dedicated exclusively to his own solo and chamber compositions in various concert venues, which took place in Moscow in the Fall of 1999, had started the process of recognition of his own music, which will gradually evolve to public recognition of this outstanding musician of his time.