Any work of art is an original bearer of information. At the same time every cultural phenomenon codes a message through the linguistic means reflecting the specific character of the given work of art. In connection with the individualisation of expressive means in the 20th century the tendency to informational isolation appears in all kinds of art the so-called ciphering of the sense that is not lying on the surface. Not only the quantity of breaches of those linguistic norms, which a composer, transferring a message to the listener, uses in his work, is of primary importance for the composer, but to what extent they are important for the listener and aimed at him. Depending on various circumstances (socio-cultural, moral, aesthetic, etc.) the listener can form his own hypotheses concerning deciphering of the concrete text, revealing his cross-initiatives. Resting upon the semiotic investigation, the author of the article tried to mark out the stages of the listener's perception of a 20th-century musical composition through the definitions of codes and subcodes.