Biography
Andrey Diamandiev was born on November 17, 1961 in Sofia. He graduated the National School of Music "Lubomir Pipkov" in piano with teachers Ludmila Chenkova and Olga Kavlakova. He graduated the (then) State Conservatory "Pancho Vladigerov" in composition by Prof. Dimitar Tapkov.
In 1988 he became assistant conductor to Prodan Prodanov in his amateur choir.
Member of the Union of Bulgarian Composers and the Union of Tribologists.
In 1993 he became a part-time Assistant Professor in Harmony at the Academy.
In 1996 he became full-time Assistant Professor in Harmony, and later a full-time assistant in Organology and Orchestration.
In 2003 he defended a doctoral thesis in the Academy on the topic: "Functional Phenomena on the Borders of the Major-minor Tonal System”.
In 2005 he became Chief Assistant Professor in Harmony, Organology and Orchestration.
In 2007 he wrote a habilitation on the topic: "Orchestral and Harmonical Problems of Postmodernism in the Work of György Ligeti".
In November 2011 he published a report "Theoretical Aspects of Functional Harmony in Bulgarian musicology", which became the basis for his habilitation thesis "Theoretical Aspects of Functional Harmony", with which he became a Full Professor in Harmony in 2012.
You can hear compositions by Andrei Diamandiev here:
Research
functional harmony; postmodern musical theory.
Publications
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On the Impossibility of Harmony to Pass Beyond the Musical
In: Интегрална музикална теория
Abstract
Many existing understandings of harmony place it in a sphere beyond the strictly musical—for example, when harmony is linked to the fundamental ground of things, or when we sense in it a possibility of grasping the unity of the whole (τὸ πᾶν, totum). Here such understandings are called into question. The corresponding views of harmony—as a theoretical, pedagogical, and practical discipline, as well as within compositional practice—are examined in the tension between the rational striving for comprehensiveness in harmony and the perception of the consonance of sounds within the musical act.
From the perspective of musical practice, thematizing harmony and its foundations is problematic because it is unclear whether theoretical formulations arise from reflection on something actually heard, or whether they are merely constructs of self-sufficient rationality. Detached from the context of living music, where their prototype lies, musical modes still carry their substance, yet the use of predetermined or abstract theoretical models in creative activity condemns the composer to closedness and limitation.
Conversely, imitation within the tradition—arising from admiration and reverence for that which transcends us—can illuminate the original in tradition in an entirely new way; and our task is only to preserve it without altering it, and to perfect it while safeguarding it. Innovation arises from the unrepeatable manner in which the performer or devotee relates to that which they feel an impulse to imitate. In such a case, for the composer the work becomes an open system, and its goal lies beyond the system itself.
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Тerminological inconsistencies in functional theory in the methodology of its teaching
In: Интегрална музикална теория
Abstract
Function is a fundamental principle of functional theory, not just mapping the musical sense of the unique being that cannot be penetrated from the outside. Terminological discrepancies manifest as either the same term with different meanings or different terms with the same meaning. The issue is not the discrepancy, which is inevitable, but the claim for a more rigorous scholarly approach or stricter taxonomy to resolve the inability to find suitably precise terminology. This essay traces inconsistencies in the work of advocates of functional theory, such as Parashkev Hadjiev, Evgenii Avramov, Hugo Riemann, Herman Erpf and Sigfrid Karg-Elert, by comparing systems with degrees to those with degrees and functions. In practice, scale degrees and their harmonic identities are also functional. I argue that function in musical experience is not an abstract concept but the perception of a particular chord. The mind may determine the existence of a phenomenon in what has already been heard, but it does not have to manipulate it according to related artificial rational schemes. Harmony teaching should therefore take the simplest route and shorten the journey to perception. For example, the dominant first degree (DI) may more appropriately be described as the cadential six-four chord. In this way confusion of the principal harmonies T and D (the first and fifth degree) can be avoided. While questions about proper student guidance and avoiding confusion are considered, they still remain open.
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Modulation as the Basis of Musical Form in the Context of Hugo Riemann’s Doctrine
In: Интегрална музикална теория
Abstract
In the following text the author makes an analogue between the modulation theories of Hugo Riemann and Parashkev Hadjiev as representatives of two different schools of harmony, as well as their different positions concerning the fundamental connection: modulation - musical form, with the focus on Riemann's 'Systematische Modulationslehre als Gmndlage der musikalischen Formenlehre' ('Harmony Simpliüed orthe Theory ofthe Tonal Functions of Chords.') According to Riemann, modulation is no more than functional interpretation (Umdeutung der Funktionen) in the meaning of a new explication, or change of functional meaning, while in Parashkev Hadjiev modulation is a transition to the new; it is fully formed and established with a cadential tonality. For Riemann the genesis of large forms is in small structures, i.e., cadences. Thus, according to Riemann, the difference between intermediate cadences and modulation is only in size but not in content. In a static tonal center as tonic, different tonalities appear only as different levels of extended harmony according to their functional meaning, in Riemann's terminology. The author follows different harmonic phenomena in the meaning of potential or real modulation as: cadence and its different forms of extensions (for example, using intermediate dominants and pedal points), tonal jumps (Tonalitätssprünge) and modulation. The text takes into account the differences with our harmony school - for example, the so-called (Rückgang) in Riemann, which returns us to the original tonality.
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Theoretical Aspects of Functional Harmony
НМА „Проф. Панчо Владигеров“, София
Abstract
With the antennas of his remarkable musical sensitivity, Diamandiev captures the crescendo of a music-theoretical tendency — the tendency to confine harmony within the realm of the rational. Functional harmony is almost the ideal example: from its very definition (“functional”), it shows that it deals with the performance of a role and the handling of meanings, and thus relies on convention, rule, and abstraction — concepts detached from what is actually heard.
What the musician lacks under such conditions is sound itself, the tonal substance. It is precisely the tonal substance that becomes an indispensable condition, a primary point of orientation, and a fundamental concept in the author’s work. Harmony unfolds in the relationship between the tonal substance of the chord and its function, between the sonic reality and its rational interpretation.**
From a review by Kristina Yapova