Stefan Lazarov

Academician Professor Stefan Lazarov (1935-2021) is an art historian and researcher in musicology. His interests cover a wide range of issues in historical and theoretical musicology, in general and in particular aspects of the culture and spiritual movements of different eras. He was interested in the sciences of art, especially those that deal with music in its many aspects.

Born in Sofia in 1935. Graduated in Musicology from the National Music Academy, with a specialization in History and Theory of Music (first generation of students). He is among the disciples of Professor Dr. Stoyan Djoudjeff, and obtains his academic and professional qualifications only in Bulgaria, his country of origin.

Founder of musical paleography in Bulgaria – the science of musical writing, after the successful decipherment of ancient ecclesiastical songs of the Synodics of Tsar Boril.

He taught at the National Conservatory of Bulgaria, at the New Bulgarian University, at the Higher Institute of Theater Arts (now the National Academy of Theater and Cinema), where he taught for the longest: 43 years.

He was a musicologist at the Philharmonic Orchestras of Sofia, Plovdiv and Ruse.

He collaborated with the Bulgarian National Radio for 30 years (1959-89).

Member of the Union of Bulgarian Composers and the Union of Scientists of Bulgaria.

Member of the following international societies: Antonin Dvořak in Prague, Richard Strauss in Berlin and Gustav Mahler in Vienna.

His name appears in the editions of the International biographical Centre – Cambridge. He was honored as Man of the Year 1992-1993 of this same institution.

Member of the Board of Trustees of The Spiritual Heritage of Pantcho Vladigueroff Foundation.

President of the Museum Council of the National Cultural Institute Pancho Vladigerov House Museum in Sofia.

WORKS

Diploma: The Symphonism of Brahms, Bruckner and Mahler (1958-59).

PhD Thesis: Pantcho Vladigueroff and the Theater (1974).

Doctorate: Studies on the Culture of Bogomils and Cathars: Theater, Music (1989).

Manuel: General History of Music, Part I, for the students of the Higher Institute of Theater Arts Krastyo Sarafov (1963).

Books: Brahms (1958), Mendelssohn (1959), Weber (1959), Mahler (1960), R. Strauss (1964), Music (1964), Britten (1965), Origin and Development of Music (1965), Honegger (1966), Shostakovich (1967), The Old Masters (1988), Essays (2018).

Monographs: Marin Goleminov(1971), Pantcho Vladigueroff and the Theater (1974).

Works of Musical Palaeography: History of Music Notation (Monograph, 1965).

Studies: The Synodic of Tsar Boril as a Musical and Historical Monument (1961), Aspects mathematiques de la paleographie musicale (Roma, 1968), The Synodikon of Tsar Boril and the Problem of Byzantino-Bulgarian Musical Relations (Oxford, 1971), A Few Pages from the History of Bulgarian Music (Oxford, 1973), Pictogrammes et ideogrammes dans l’ecriture musicale byzantine (Bucarest, 1976), A Medieval Slavonic Theoretical Treatise on Music (Oxford, 1997).

Medieval Studies: Some Information on the Musical Activity of Cyril and Methodius (1956), The Ancient Gregorian Service for Saints Cyril and Methodius (1957), On the History of Bulgarian Music in the Ninth Century (1962), The Glagolitic Tradition in Ancient Bulgarian Music (1972), The Interpretation of Bulgarian Medieval Liturgical Texts [as Part of the Reform of Evtimiy Tarnovski] (1974). Treaty on Slavic Medieval Music (1980), etc.

Comparative Cultural Studies: Die Altbulgarische Musik und die Kyrillo-Methodianische Tradition (Bratislava, 1966), Die Bogomilen und die Musik (Graz, 1975), The Bogomils, Music and Theater (1985), Troubadours and Cathars (1989), The Bogomils and an ancient musical tradition in Western Europe (1990), The Bogomils and an ancient musical tradition in Western Europe (1990), On the history of the sequence DIES IRÆ (1995), Music literature texts (in 7 languages) in original, and translated with brief explanations, Part I (2003).

Radio broadcasts: Over 600 broadcasts for the Bulgarian National Radio, including the series Pantcho Vladigueroff – a classic of Bulgarian music, a cycle of 10 broadcasts (1979), Music is for everyone, two complete annual cycles of 42 and 44 broadcasts respectively (1981, 1982), Music and literature – 21 broadcasts (1986) etc.

Author of movies and TV programs: about Petko Staynov, Peter Hristoskov and others.

Numerous articles on music and other topics in dailies and periodicals.

Over 2000 public lectures for all audiences in Bulgaria.

Publications in Bulgaria and abroad are in Bulgarian, Russian, French, German and English, and also in Armenian and Turkish.

Stefan Lazarov has participated, in Bulgaria and abroad, in various forums and congresses: the 4th International Congress of Slavic Studies of Sofia (1963), the first two Symposia on the Literary School of Tarnovo (1971, 1976), the 14th International Congress of Byzantology of Bucharest (1971), the 1st International Congress on the Study of Byzantine and Oriental Liturgical Music in Grottaferrata – Rome (1968), the Congress on Ancient Bulgarian and Slavic Music in Bratislava, Munich and Graz , the ISME (International Society for Music Education) Congress in Tunisia, etc.

Guest of the Bayreuth Festival (1967).