Essay on the classification of individual projects in modern composition

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to show how cognitive structures influence the process of form-building in the work of contemporary composers. The proposed methodological basis consists in a procedural substitution of the following sort: it is the finding of sensual “reflections” of various cognitive models, mental schemes underlying the composition, in the text rather than the search for analogies between an artwork and its typological sample. A further path of the interpretation runs from the cognitive structure to the characteristic of the discourse rather than that of the text. Such a procedure may provide additional parameters in characterizing a particular author’s style, because such mental structures as propositions, frames and image schemes influence the choice of a compositional model; or rather, certain formal structures tend to be attached to certain models. Mental schemes in artworks of Sofia Gubaidulina, Salvatore Sciarrino, Helmut Lachenmann will be analyzed as a kind of interface between their sensual and formal structures.

Keywords

Sofia Gubaidulina, Salvatore Sciarrinо, Helmut Lachenmann, form-building in music, mental schemes, cognitive models, semantic syntax