РУСКИЯТ КОМПОЗИТОР ЕДИСОН ДЕНИСОВ – ДАЛЕЧЕН ИЛИ БЛИЗЪК НА ЗАПАДНАТА КУЛТУРА
THE RUSSIAN COMPOSER EDISON DENISOV – FAR OR CLOSE TO THE WESTERN CULTURE

Summary/Abstract: 2019 marks the 90th anniversary of the birth of the Russian avant-garde composer Edison Denisov. He belongs to the second generation of Soviet avant-garde composers, whose work is famous for its innovative thinking and techniques: serialism, aleatory, sonorism and the use of electronics. The most progressive composers among them are Edison Denisov, Sofia Gubaidulina and Alfred Schnittke, who form a group later called “The Moscow Triad”. This article explores the ways in which Eastern and Western culture meet, specifically within works pertaining to the religious perspectives of the three authors – Gubaidulina’s meditative concept, the mystic beliefs of Schnittke, the sublimity of art in Denisov’s works and their different spiritual insight into art. The article also gives specific evaluation of the connection between the members of the Moscow Triad and the way they perceived each other’s personalities and work through a series of their own quotations. Their difficulties in communication with foreign Western composers and the wish to bring their work to the knowledge of the younger generation of Russian composers is observed, as well as the friendship between Denisov and another legendary French avant-garde composer Pierre Boulez. It briefly explores the effect of the contemporary political situation that led to the prohibition of the distribution and performance of the music of the three composers. The article addresses the way the art of Denisov was perceived in the past and today, the reception of his music in the West and in his homeland, his legacy and the future of his music in the context of the global culture.

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