GESAMTKUNSTWERK

          Another major point of Shaw-Miller’s studies is the theosophical backgrounds of artists looking to synthesize or transform their art.  Using Scriabin again as the main case study to illustrate this point, Shaw-Miller describes modern artists’ need to examine myth and mystery through art.  For example, Scriabin had plans for a major opera that would be staged in the foothills of the Himalayas, where he believed the sights, sounds, smells, and colors would inspire the feeling of mysticism that he desired (p. 67).  Indian religions, with their emphasis on unity, generosity, and life-breath, enchanted many modern composers, and influenced their desire to unify the arts in a natural, understated way.  Painters, composers, dramatists, and dancers in the modern era synthesized their arts to examine and comment on the strangeness of life and spirituality in their time.  Wagner himself was fascinated with mythology, and chose to set his operas in the larger-than-life world of the Gods to acknowledge a power beyond his own.