Biography
Christian Vassilev is a philosopher of music whose research bridges phenomenology, semiotics, and the humanities. As an FWO Postdoctoral Fellow at KU Leuven, he investigates how early musicology and psychology—as well as early 20th-century musicians—approached problems of musical experience and performance that remain relevant today. His work situates musical creativity within broader philosophical and psychological contexts.
Christian earned his PhD in Musicology at the National Academy of Music “Prof. Pancho Vladigerov” in 2023, where he also completed his Master’s degree.
His research has been published in Philosophy of Music Education Review, Acta Semiotica Fennica, and Bulgarian Musicology, among other journals. He has presented at conferences in Greece, Germany, and Bulgaria, and is a member of several professional organizations. Alongside his research, he edits the Musical Philosophy series at Riva Publishing and has taught courses in musical aesthetics, music psychology, and philosophy.
Research
musical phenomenology, semiotics, music education, psychoanalysis, music psychology
Publications
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“The Whole City Must Never Cease Singing”: Plato and the Community of the Musical Nomos
In: Philosophy of Music Education Review
Abstract
This paper explores the fundamental tenets of Plato’s philosophy of education, particularly his views on a practice of great educational potential: communal musical participation. According to Plato, music can attune the individual and the community to cosmic harmony and this, in turn, is the only way to form and maintain a community. The paper explores how the concepts of ethos and nomos are utilized to explain music’s role in community cohesion. It argues that Plato’s understanding of the power of immediate and pre-reflective participation in music can provide valuable insight for contemporary philosophy of music education. The concept of nomos, in particular, allows music educators to take this frame of thought to better understand the role of music in creating communities.
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Methodological Foundations of Eero Tarasti's Musical Semiotics
Semiotic Society of Finland, Helsinki
Abstract
The book is an introduction to Eero Tarasti’s works on music, as well as musical semiotics in general. It covers a wide range of sources from multiple disciplinary fields in order to familiarize the reader with the basic language and common references of semiotic inquiries in music. Starting with the basics of structural and Peircian semiotics, theories of discourse, topic theory and others, and their application to music, the book moves on to discuss their interpretation in Tarasti’s decade-long oeuvre.
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Музикално-философски анализ на феномена „цялост“ в музиката. Феноменологически подход
Abstract
The thesis examines the phenomenon of “wholeness” in music from a musical-phenomenological perspective, while raising the question of the methodological foundations which make possible music phenomenology’s approach to this phenomenon. The main thesis of the dissertation is that in order to perceive wholeness in music, the I must first identify with it. Musical experience suggests that wholes in music have no musical meaning if the I perceiving them does not identify with them. In this identification, however, the I and music are no longer separate – for example, as poles in a subject-object structure – but are one. Hence, a musical-phenomenological analysis of the phenomenon of “wholeness” in music reveals wholeness not as a property of music as “object,” but as a property of the relation between I and music. Musical wholeness is the wholeness of the relation between I and music. The thesis confirms this position in the lifeworld testimonies of a number of prominent nineteenth- and twentieth-century musical practitioners and theoreticians, and then proceeds to a phenomenological analysis in order to highlight musical wholeness as a fundamental given of musical phenomenology.
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Organic Wholeness in Heinrich Schenkers's Lehre
In: Българско музикознание
Abstract
The theme of organic wholeness in music is central to Heinrich Schenker’s theory. According to the early Schenker, music is not organic, since it lacks causality and logic; yet its entire effect rests on its imitation of natural organicity. In his later works, the theorist perceives music as an organic whole founded upon natural laws. Throughout the development of his theory of wholeness, Schenker conceives of organicity as an “objective” given, essentially independent of any conscious or subjective activity. Consciousness, he argues, can only contaminate the organic whole; therefore, if the composer or performer wishes to grasp musical wholeness, they must approach music instinctively rather than consciously. Instinct, however, is also naturally determined—it is a gift and, ultimately, a matter of genius, but a genius grounded in the laws inherent in objectively pre-given nature. Thus, the role of the I in relation to music—the composer, performer, or listener (including the analyst)—is reduced to the “passive” witnessing of music’s immanent organicity. If a subject perceives wholeness in music, it is the result of their complete (instinctive) “absorption” in the organic whole.
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The Phenomenon of Musical Identification. A View From Heidegger's Early Phenomenology
In: Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology
Abstract
The starting point of the following article are statements by various prominent musical performers of the 20th century who have testified to the life-experience of musical identification, i.e. the experience of unity and oneness with music. The purpose of the article is to explore the phenomenological implications of this experience on the basis of Martin Heidegger’s early phenomenological work. The article compares Heidegger’s early view of phenomenal givenness with that of Edmund Husserl. While Husserl sees phenomenal givenness as constituted by (transcendental) consciousness, Heidegger finds primary givenness in the resonance (Mitschwingen) between the I and its lifeworld. I argue that in Heidegger’s early phenomenology it is not the subject, but rather the relatio between I and world, which “constitutes” givenness. This viewpoint allows for the exploration of musical identification as a life-experience. Musical identification suspends the difference between subject and object. In musical identification, it is the relation between “I” and music, which is constitutive of both. Thus, music cannot be adequately grasped in phenomenological terms if it is regarded simply as an object, which is the premise of more traditional phenomenological approaches to music such as Roman Ingarden’s and Mikel Dufrenne’s. Ingarden and Dufrenne both position music at a distance from the subject, as something to be explored in its objective characteristics, without presupposing the constitutive relation between them. Contrary to them, Hans-Heinrich Eggebrecht, Günther Anders and Ilya Yonchev all recognize that the subject-object divide is insufficient for the exploration of musical experience. However, while Eggebrecht ultimately remains within the subject-object-dichotomy, Anders and Yonchev both develop the idea of musical Mitsein, or Being-with-music, which dispenses with the subject-object premise altogether and interprets musical life-experience as a mode of Being within which the sense of the I and musical sense coincide.
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Introduction
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter introduces the book's central field of inquiry by placing the psychology of musical development at the core of music education. It asks how knowledge about musical ability, experience, and age-related change can be translated into dependable pedagogical guidance rather than remaining a merely theoretical resource. The chapter identifies two persistent difficulties: the distance between the teacher and the contemporary child's musical world, and the extent to which educational choices depend on broader assumptions about development, culture, and environment. It also maps the logic of the chapters that follow and clarifies why research on early perception, enculturation, competence, and emotion matters directly for teachers, psychologists, and researchers. The introduction thus defines the book's purpose as a meeting point between empirical knowledge and responsible pedagogical judgment. -
Searching for Universal Cognitive Structures
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter outlines the philosophical and scientific foundations of cognitive science as the study of thought, cognition, and intelligent action. It asks whether universal cognitive structures can be identified in ways that illuminate the relation between individual experience, culture, and education without dissolving historical and social difference. The chapter reconstructs several key concepts and tensions within the cognitive approach in order to show how they can be brought to bear on musical development. In this way, it establishes the conceptual framework of the book and prepares the later analyses of musical perception, musical thought, and pedagogical practice. It thereby translates the problem of universality into terms that are usable for music psychology and education. -
Behaviorism, Development, Education
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter traces the main principles of classical behaviorism and its influence on psychology, learning, and pedagogy. It reconstructs the internal logic of the approach through the examples of Watson, Pavlov, and Thorndike in order to show how behavior is explained in terms of relations among stimulus, environment, and response. The chapter also examines the way behaviorist models entered educational practice and shaped understandings of training, habit, and control. At the same time, it offers a critical assessment of the approach's limits when the analysis must account for musical development, personhood, inner motivation, and the complexity of pedagogical interaction. In that way, it prepares the transition to richer cognitive and cultural models of musical development. -
Cognitive Theories of Musical Development
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter offers a systematic survey of leading cognitive models of musical development and treats them not simply as age-based descriptions but as competing accounts of musical thought. It discusses the frameworks of Howard Gardner, Keith Swanwick and June Tillman, David Hargreaves and Maurice Galton, together with the concepts developed by Mary Louise Serafine and Jeanne Bamberger. The chapter compares their assumptions about the structure of musical abilities, the role of experience, and the transition from intuitive to reflective musical action. In doing so, it shows how these theories can serve both as a map of musical growth and as a practical guide for educational planning. A key conclusion is that no single model is sufficient on its own, whereas their comparison broadens the pedagogical perspective. -
Musical Perception in the Early Periods of Development
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter examines how musical perception emerges during the prenatal period and early infancy. It describes the main experimental methods through which responses to pitch, intervals, rhythm, tempo, and timbre are studied and shows how these findings gradually produce a more reliable account of early auditory development. The chapter emphasizes that the infant is not simply a passive receiver of sound but develops sensitivity to different musical structures from the outset. In this way, it connects research on hearing, attention, and recognition with the broader question of how musical development begins and what music education ought to take into account. Early perception thus appears not as a peripheral issue but as a foundational theme in the psychology of musical development. -
Musical Enculturation
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter analyzes the processes through which musical perception gradually becomes attuned to a specific cultural environment. It discusses perceptual narrowing, the role of experience in acquiring scales, rhythms, and intonational patterns, and the place of non-Western musical systems within a broader reflection on music education. The chapter shows that enculturation is not simply a matter of restriction but also a condition for orientation, recognition, and participation in a community's musical life. On that basis, it raises a pedagogical question of lasting importance: how can education initiate the child into its own culture while also widening its musical horizons? Cultural situatedness thus emerges not as an obstacle but as a key to more responsible and more open music education. -
Musical Competence and Musical Skill
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter distinguishes and relates the concepts of musical competence and musical skill from both cognitive and educational perspectives. It traces their use in music psychology, in the theories of Gino Stefani, David Hargreaves, and John Sloboda, and in the Bulgarian normative framework for education. The chapter argues that the two terms should not be collapsed into one another: one names a broader capacity for orientation and understanding, while the other refers more directly to performance and practical execution. On that basis, it shows why musical competence should be understood as the outcome of development, learning, and cultural practice rather than as a merely formal category. The analysis also matters for assessment because it resists reducing development to the verification of isolated techniques. -
Musical and Linguistic Ability
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter examines the relations between musical ability and other cognitive abilities, with special emphasis on language. It discusses hypotheses of far transfer, the role of standardized tests of musical aptitude, and the findings of meta-analyses on the effects of music training on language, memory, and intelligence. Rather than repeating the popular claim that music automatically improves every other domain, the chapter offers a more careful assessment of the empirical evidence and its methodological limits. In doing so, it defines a more realistic basis on which music education may be related to broader cognitive development. Its argument therefore defends the value of music education without burdening it with exaggerated promises. -
Music and Emotion
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This chapter examines the emotional impact of music and its importance for musical development and education. It discusses different psychological understandings of emotion, the distinction between emotion perceived in music and emotion induced by music, and the difficulties involved in investigating these processes experimentally. The chapter argues that the emotional charge of music is not a secondary effect but a key mechanism through which musical experience acquires personal significance and motivational force. On that basis, it explains why the relation between music and emotion is crucial for childhood, adolescence, and pedagogical work. It therefore defends the view that emotional participation is a condition of lasting musical interest and meaningful learning. -
Antheil and Musical Wholeness in the Work of A. B. Marx
In: Almanac - National Academy of Music ``Professor Pancho Vladigerov''
Abstract
A major theme in Adolf Bernhard Marx’s work is the idea that music has sense only to one who “participates” in it. According to Marx, musical Antheil – i.e. participatory belonging-to – is at the foundation of every musical activity, such as composing, performing, or listening (including listening analytically and critically), in its authenticity. The German word “Ant(h)eil” reflects on the participatory nature of this relation – the person or I, who relates to music, “has a part” in music, is fundamentally partial to it. In Marx’s thought, musical Antheil embraces both the spiritual and the sensual part of the person, i.e. it engages the totality of the person. Conversely, music also has an “inner”, spiritual side, its content or Idee, and an “outer”, sensual side, its form. The musical whole is, according to Marx, the unity of musical content and form, which, however, always involves the Antheil of the I to this given whole. Thus, Antheil is a fundamental aspect of musical wholeness itself – it is only within the I, which participates in music and is “partial” to it, that music can be “whole”. Thus, Marx’s account of musical Antheil is arguably a reflection of what in the following text is called musical identification – the living, immediate state of identification between the I and music. Musical identification is a primary condition for understanding musical content and, by extension, musical form. Musical wholeness is not just a characteristic of music itself, but a characteristic of the relation between the I and music.
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Music Development and Music Education
Деведжиев, Емил, Василев, Кристиан. Музикално развитие и музикално образование. София: Рива, 2021.
Abstract
This collective monograph examines the relationship between the psychology of musical development and the theory and practice of music education. Its central aim is to establish an interdisciplinary framework that connects cognitive, developmental, and sociocultural perspectives with concrete pedagogical strategies. The volume synthesizes key theoretical models and reviews empirical evidence on early musical perception, enculturation, musical competence, and the interaction between music and language across developmental stages. Methodologically, it combines analytical review, critical comparison of competing positions, and practice-oriented interpretation of research findings. A major contribution of the book is that it translates abstract psychological concepts into usable principles for teachers, students in music pedagogy, psychologists, and researchers. By integrating conceptual analysis with educational implications, the monograph provides a coherent platform for dialogue between research and instructional practice in music. -
Social projections in the music classroom
Издателство НМА "Проф. Панчо Владигеров'', София