On the Logical Crossroads in the Music of the East and West

Abstract

The author proposes an analytical approach to the theme of dialogue between the East and West, which is grounded in A.V. Smirnov's theory of logical-semantic structures. This approach is based not on the historical encounter of cultures, direct contacts, or interactions, but on logical intuitions manifested within the context of contrasting cultural experiences. The primary focus is on the comparison of two non-directly related musical phenomena, wherein semantic integrity is formed at the level of a phrase-jumla (the East Asian dastgah composition) and a musical object phrase (European spectral composition). Both phenomena exhibit an irreducible minimum of meaning under conditions of highly contrasting perceptual sensations. The study's findings demonstrate that a procedural logical intuition is expressed through the formula initium↔terminus = motus—temporalities. It is established that pauses within the jumla and musical object serve as semantic events, representing a balance with the movement-sound. The research shows that the logical intersection of cultures arises from the encounter of authentic Eastern thinking and the Western theoretical experiment associated with the emergence of spectral methods in the 1970s, which translated sound-timbre into a fundamental ontological unit of musical language, thereby restructuring musical temporality.