A System of Coordinates in Pierre Boulez’s and Salvatore Sciarrino’s Music: A Problem of Aesthetic Conceptualisation of Musical Composition

Is devoted to the disappearance of tonal system as a unifying principle in various aesthetics and techniques that led Pierre Boulez, Salvatore Sciarrino and other composers to alternative ideas of composition. Boulez’s concept of “gesture” and his two compositions “Rituel: In Memoriam Bruno Maderna” (1974-75) and “Messagesquisse” (1976) are considered within the philosophical and aesthetical contexts. The main tendencies of a new solo music as a “system of coordinates” (new notion of sound, virtuosity, instrumental theatre) are shown on the example of four plays from a cycle of “L’оpera per flauto” by Sciarrino (1977-2000). The new Boulez’s concept of gesture and Sciarrino’s “real field of operations” demand re­thinking the theory of composition as the art.