COLOR INSTRUMENTS
DEVELOPED AFTER SCRIABIN'S
PROMETHEUS
Many reviewers of Scriabin's color-symphony have remarked that the first performance of Prometheus, the Poem of Fire, given in Moscow on 15 March 1911, did not include color realization because the machine to perform the lighting part would not operate. Additional information has not been located, but it seems reasonable to assume that if such a machine did exist, it was probably a larger version of the model constructed by Scriabin's friend Mozer. Apparently no expense was spared for the original production of Prometheus as Serge Koussevitsky gave the work an unprecedented nine rehearsals. It is puzzling, if such an instrument was available, that no attempt was made to use this Tastiera per luce in subsequent performances.
The first public presentation of Scriabin's symphony accompanied by colored lighting (20 March 1915) was in Carnegie Hall. According to a report published in the New York Times the day before the performance, Modest Altschuler had contacted the president of the Electrical Testing Laboratories for assistance in realizing the color portion of Prometheus. Preston S. Millar, a specialist in electrical lighting, was then assigned to supervise construction of a color-projection instrument later named the Chromola.
Two versions of the Chromola were