Constantin Floros

Constantin Floros ( Greek Κωνσταντίνος Φλώρος , Konstandinos Floros ; born January 4, 1930 in Thessaloniki ) is a Greek - German musicologist .

Life

Constantin Floros studied musicology , art history , philosophy and psychology at the University of Vienna and composition (with Alfred Uhl ) and conducting (with Hans Swarowsky ) at the Vienna University of Music . This was followed in Vienna in 1955 on the subject of Antonio Campioni as an instrumental composer, the doctorate and in 1961 the habilitation. From 1967 to 1995 he held a professorship for musicology at the University of Hamburg . He was awarded honorary doctorates from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki . In the summer of 2005, he was awarded the golden doctoral degree from the University of Vienna. In March 2010 the International Gustav Mahler Society awarded him the Golden Gustav Mahler Medal in recognition of his services to the work of Gustav Mahler.

Constantin Floros, emeritus professor of musicology at the University of Hamburg , deciphered the oldest Byzantine and Slavic notations, demonstrated the Byzantine origin of Gregorian chant notation and developed a method of music semantic analysis, which he exemplified in numerous works by various composers. His main research area is the semantics of music. He works in an interdisciplinary manner and calls for the interdisciplinary opening of musicology. In his writings there are cultural-historical, biographical, aesthetic, philological, analytical, philosophical and psychological discussions.

The focus of his research lies in the music of the Middle Ages and the 18th to 20th centuries. The 30 books he has published include monographs on Beethoven's Eroica, on Johannes Brahms (three volumes), Anton Bruckner, Peter Tschaikowsky, Gustav Mahler (four volumes), Alban Berg (two volumes) and György Ligeti.

His publications also include the three-volume Universale Neumenkunde (Kassel 1970) as well as the books Music as Message (Wiesbaden 1989), Man, Love and Music (2000), New Ears for New Music (Mainz 2006) and Hören und understand. The language of music and its interpretation (Mainz 2008) .

Some of his books have been translated into several languages.

He is a member of the Academy of Sciences in Erfurt , the European Academy of Sciences and Arts , honorary president of the Gustav Mahler Association Hamburg, honorary member of several institutions and multiple honorary doctorates.

Constantin Floros lives in Hamburg .

Fonts

Universal new customer. Volume 1: Deciphering the oldest Byzantine neum scriptures and the old Slavic semantic notation. Bärenreiter, Kassel, 1970. The modal system of Byzantine church music. Contributions to the history of Byzantine church poetry.
Universal new customer. Volume 2: Origin and Interpretation of the Latin Neumes. Bärenreiter, Kassel, 1970. Contributions to the theory of figures and the rhythm of Gregorian chant. The Byzantine origin of the Latin dodecaecho.
Universal new customer. Volume 3: The Byzantine, Slavic and Gregorian clay figures and formulas. Bärenreiter, Kassel, 1970. Documentation.
Gustav Mahler I. The spiritual world of Gustav Mahler in a systematic representation. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf 1977, 4th supplemented edition 2016.
Gustav Mahler II. Mahler and the symphonies of the 19th century in a new interpretation. For the foundation of a contemporary musical exegesis. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf 1977, 2nd supplemented edition Breitkopf 2019
Gustav Mahler III. The symphonies. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf 1985 and more often; 2nd edition Breitkopf 2019; English edition 1993; Japanese edition 2005.
Beethoven's Eroica and Prometheus Music. Subject studies, Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen 1978; second, expanded edition 2008.
Mozart Studies I. On Mozart's symphonies, opera and church music. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf 1979.
Brahms and Bruckner. Studies in musical exegetics. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf 1980.
Introduction to Neumenkunde. Wilhelmshaven: Heinrichshofen 1980; second expanded edition 2000; Greek edition: Saloniki 1998; English edition: Warren / Michigan 2005; Bulgarian edition: Sofia 2006.
Johannes Brahms. Symphony No. 2 in D major, op.73. Pocket score. Introduction and analysis. Original edition, Munich / Mainz: Goldmann / Schott 1984; Reprint of the introduction and analysis in: Johannes Brahms. The symphonies, ed. by G. Schubert, C. Floros and CM Schmidt, Mainz: Schott 1999, pp. 75-138.
Music as a message. Wiesbaden: Breitkopf 1989.
Alban Berg. Music as an autobiography. Wiesbaden / Leipzig / Paris: Breitkopf 1992.
Alban Berg and Hanna Fuchs . Letters and Studies . First publications (Austrian music magazine Special), Vienna: UE 1995.
György Ligeti. Beyond the avant-garde and postmodern. Vienna: Lafite 1996.
with Giselher Schubert , Christian Martin Schmidt : Johannes Brahms - the symphonies. Introduction, commentary, analysis. Schott, Mainz 1998, ISBN 3-7957-8711-4 .
Johannes Brahms. "Free but lonely". A life for poetic music. Zurich / Hamburg: Arche 1997, ISBN 3-7160-3900-4 . English edition, Frankfurt am Main: 2010.
Gustav Mahler. Visionary and despot. Portrait of a personality. Zurich / Hamburg: Arche 1998. Greek edition, Athens: 2010.
Man, love and music. Zurich / Hamburg: Arche 2000; Greek edition: Athens 2003; 2nd edition Athens 2006; English edition: Humanism, Love and Music , New York: Peter Lang 2011.
Alban Berg and Hanna Fuchs . The story of love in letters. Zurich / Hamburg: Arche 2001
Anton Bruckner. Personality and work. Hamburg: European Publishing House 2004.
Gustav Mahler and the Opera. Editor. Gustav Mahler Association, Hamburg 2005, Volume 2 ISBN 978-3-7160-3904-5 .
New ears for new music. Forays into the music of the 20th and 21st centuries , Mainz: Schott 2006.
Peter I. Tchaikovsky. Reinbek: Rowohlt 2006; 2nd edition Rowohlt 2019.
Hear and understand. The language of music and its interpretation. Mainz: Schott 2008.
The Origins of Russian music. Introduction to the Kondakarian notation. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang 2009.
Gustav Mahler. Munich: HC Beck 2010.
The Origins of Western Notation. New York: Peter Lang 2011.
Gustav Mahler. Visionary and Despot. Portrait of a Personality. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2012.
Beethoven's Eroica. Thematic Studies, Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main 2013.
New ears for new music . Peter Lang, New York 2013.
Gustav Mahler and the Symphony of the 19th Century. Peter Lang, New York 2014.
Alban Berg. Music as Autobiography. Peter Lang, New York 2014.
György Ligeti. Beyond Avant-garde and Postmodernism. Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main 2014.
Brahms and Bruckner as Artistic Antipodes. Studies in Musical Semantics. Peter Lang: New York 2015.
Music as Message. An Introduction to Musical Semantics. Peter Lang: New York 2016.
Gustav Mahler 'Intellectual World: A Systematic Representation. Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2016.
Music as Message. An Introduction to Musical Semantics , Peter Lang: New York 2016.
Gustav Mahler's Mental World: A Systematic Representation , Peter Lang, Frankfurt am Main / New York 2016.
L'homme, l'amour et la musique , Editions des archives contemporaines, Paris 2017.
Listening and understanding and how to interpret it . Peter Lang: Frankfurt am Main / New York 2017.
Passion for music. A scientific autobiography , Schott: Mainz 2017.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. A Critical Biography , Peter Lang: Berlin / New York 2018.
Wolfgang Amadé Mozart. Undeserved Gift to Humanity Peter Lang: Bern 2020.
El hombre, el amor y la Música , Ediciones Universidad de Salamance, Salamanca 2020.

Important essays

The music of the Eastern Church. In: The Book of Sacred Chants of the Eastern Church, ed. by E. Benz, H. Thurn and C. Floros, Hamburg 1962, pp. 143-174.
The "program" in Mozart's master overtures. In: Studien zur Musikwissenschaft 26, 1964, pp. 140–186.
The deciphering of the Kondakari notation. In: Musik des Ostens III, Kassel 1965, pp. 7–71, and IV, Kassel 1967, pp. 12–44.
Literary Ideas in 19th Century Music. In: Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft Vol. 2, Hamburg 1977, pp. 7–62
The esoteric program of the Lyrical Suite by Alban Berg. A semantic analysis. In: Alban Berg. Chamber Music I (= Music Concepts 4), Munich: text + kritik 1978, pp. 5–48; Italian in: Com 'era dolce il profumo del Tiglio. La musica a Vienna nell'età di Freud, Monfalcone 1988, pp. 233-277.
The Faust Symphony by Franz Liszt. A semantic analysis. In: Franz Liszt (= Music Concepts 12), Munich: text + kritik 1980, pp. 42–87
Richard Strauss and the program music. In: Ars musica, musica scientia. Festschrift Heinrich Hüschen on the occasion of his 65th birthday on March 2, 1980, ed. by D. Altenburg, Cologne 1980, pp. 143-150.
Weltanschauung and symphony in Mahler. In: Gustav Mahler Colloquium Vienna 1979. A report, ed. by R. Klein, Kassel et al: Bärenreiter 1981, pp. 29-39; Reprinted in: Gustav Mahler, ed. by H. Danuser, Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft 1992, pp. 344–361; Russian in: Muzikalnaja Akademija 1, 1994, pp. 152–157.
Schumann's musical poetics. In: Robert Schumann I (= music concepts, special volume for 1981), Munich: text + kritik 1981, pp. 90-104.
Studies on the Parsifal reception. In: Richard Wagner. Parsifal (= music concepts 25), Munich: text + kritik 1982, pp. 14–57
Carl Maria von Weber. Basics about his work. In: Festschrift Heinz Becker for his 60th birthday on June 26, 1982, ed. by J. Schläder and R. Quandt, Laaber 1982, pp. 116-130; Reprinted in: Carl Maria von Weber (= Music Concepts 52), Munich 1986, pp. 5–21.
Bruckner and Mahler. Similarities and differences. In: Bruckner symposium "The Austrian Symphony according to Bruckner" Linz 1981, report, ed. von Uwe Harten, Graz 1983, pp. 21-29.
About the concept of motif in musicology. In: Studies on Systematic Musicology (= Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft Vol. 9), Laaber 1986, pp. 209–221; Reprinted in: Proceedings of a Symposium held on 8th December 1984 at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, ed. By M. Vanhelleputte and L. Somville, Leuven 1987, pp. 61-75.
Problems of the amalgamation of poetry and music in 20th century art. In: On the relationship between contemporary music and contemporary poetry (= Studies on Valuation Research, Vol. 20), ed. by O. Kolleritsch, Vienna / Graz 1988, pp. 35–50.
The idea of the art religion in Schopenhauer and Richard Wagner. Intended for: Schopenhauer and Wagner, conference report 1983, ed. from D. Schopenhauer Society (not published); included in: C. Floros: Music as a message, Wiesbaden 1989, pp. 39–53.
Bruckner and Liszt. Contribution to the discussion. in: Bruckner Symposium "Bruckner, Liszt, Mahler and the Modern Age" Linz 1986, report, ed. by O. Wessely, Linz 1989, pp. 181-188.
Psychodramas, resounding autobiography and illustrative program music. To Richard Strauss' tone poems. In: Richard Strauss. Life. Plant. Interpretation. Reception, report on the VI. International Gewandhaus Symposium on the occasion of the 1989 Gewandhaus Festival, Leipzig 1991, pp. 36–50.
New theses on Mahler's Tenth Symphony. In: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift 1993, pp. 73–80.
Tragedy and comedy in Mozart's master operas. In: Paths to Mozart. WA Mozart in Vienna and Prague. The great operas, ed. by H. Zeman, Vienna 1993, pp. 12-22.
Thinking about style research. In: Report on the International Musicological Congress Baden 1991, Tutzing 1993, Vol. 1, pp. 93-103.
Public and private messages in music. In: Musical hermeneutics in draft (= writings on musical hermeneutics, vol. 1), ed. by G. Gruber and S. Mauser, Laaber 1994, pp. 117-130; also in: Hudba ako posolstvo, Symposion Bratislava 1993, pp. 97-106.
"A breeze from the stormy flight of our great times". Gustav Mahler's topicality. In: Gustav Mahler - "My time will come". Aspects of the Gustav Mahler reception (= series of publications by the Gustav Mahler Association Hamburg, vol. 1), ed. by G. Borchardt, Hamburg: Dölling 1996, pp. 11-23.
On the history of Mahler's impact. In: Report on the International Gustav Mahler Symposium Utrecht 1986 (= Mahler Studies Vol. 1), ed. By P. Op de Coul, Rotterdam 1991, pp. 181–192.
Music as a commitment. Karl Amadeus Hartmann and his Sixth Symphony. In: Das Orchester 44, 1996, H. 7/8, pp. 2–8.
A world language of music? Multicultural phenomena in new music after 1945. In: Das Orchester 44, 1996, no. 12, pp. 2–9.
Beethoven's late string quartets. In: Music / Revolution. Festschrift for Georg Knepler on the occasion of his 90th birthday, vol. 2, ed. by H.-W. Heister, Hamburg: von Bockel 1997, pp. 49-61.
Schönberg's Gurrelieder. In: Festskrift Jan Maegaard, ed. by NB Foltmann and C. Rollum-Larsen, Copenhagen 1996, pp. 33-42.
A forerunner of Gustav Mahler? - Hans Rott. In: Österreichische Musikzeitschrift 53, 1998, no. 6, pp. 8-16.
Secret messages in Schumann's piano music. In: Das Orchester 46, 1998, H. 9, S. 2–8.
A special kind of father-son relationship. In: "Quite your tender son Johannes". Johannes Brahms' correspondence with his father, Hamburg 1998, pp. 5–12.
Draft of an integral musicology. In: 50 Years of the Musicological Institute in Hamburg. Inventory - current research - outlook, ed. by P. Petersen and H. Rösing (= Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft Vol. 16), Frankfurt am Main: Lang 1999, pp. 15-22.
The creation myth in Gustav Mahler's Third Symphony. In: Music and Myth (= New Aspects of Musical Aesthetics V), ed. by HW Henze, Frankfurt am Main: Fischer 1999, pp. 168–177.
Form and content in music. In: Archives for Musicology . 56, 1999, pp. 71-72.
Music and astrology. "The planets" by Gustav Holst. In: Das Orchester 47, 1999, no. 5, pp. 2–7.
Aspects of the Brahms biography. In: Sources - Text - Reception. International Brahms Congress Hamburg 1997, ed. by F. Krummacher, M. Struck, C. Floros and P. Petersen, Munich: Henle 1999, pp. 43-55.
Max Kalbeck's "curious questions from a Brahms biographer thirsty for knowledge". The questionnaires for Joseph Joachim and Albert Dietrich. In: Report on the International Brahms Congress Gmunden 1997, ed. by I. Fuchs, Tutzing 2001, pp. 359-375.
Arnold Schönberg - fifty years after his death. In: Das Orchester 49, 2001, H. 7/8, pp. 21-25.
Poetic in Chopin. The nocturne after "Hamlet". In: Muzyka w konteksie kultury. Festschrift for Mieczysław Tomaszewski, Kraków 2001, pp. 45–54; Reprinted in: Das Orchester 49, 2001, no. 5, pp. 16-20.
"Whatever came out of his pen is gold". A Schoenberg student in Berlin. In: Neue Zeitschrift für Musik 162, 2001, no. 5/6, pp. 58–61.
Female figures with Richard Wagner. In: Frauengestalten in the opera of the 19th and 20th centuries, ed. by Carmen Ottner , Vienna / Munich 2003, pp. 44–52.
Beyond Schönberg and Debussy. The "32 piano pieces" by Nikos Skalkotas. In: Music in all things. Festschrift for Günther Weiß, ed. by G. Gruber, Tutzing 2003, pp. 99-107.
Transience, consolation and hope as semantic fields in Johannes Brahms. In: Johannes Brahms. A German Requiem. Lectures. European Music Festival Stuttgart 2003 (= series of publications of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart vol. 13), ed. by N. Bolin, Stuttgart 2004, pp. 42-57.
Don Juan in Kierkegaard's interpretation. In: Music & Aesthetics. Volume 11, issue 44, October 2007, pp. 69-75.
“Even the beautiful must die”. Brahms' Nänie op. 82. In: H. Geyer and W. Osthoff (eds.): Schiller and the music (= series of publications of the University of Music FRANZ LISZT , vol. 4). Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 2007, pp. 395–408.
Figure and transfiguration in Mozart. The phenomenon of cantability in his instrumental music. In: A. Dorschel (ed.): Metamorphosis. About composed transfigurations (= Studies on Valuation Research , Vol. 48), Vienna / London / New York, pp. 76–90.
Mozart's Don Juan in Kierkegaard's interpretation. In: Musik & Ästhetik , Volume 11, Issue 44, October 2007, pp. 69–75.
Thoughts on Beethoven. Why there cannot yet be an authentic Beethoven monograph. In: Erika Schuchardt: This kiss of the whole world: Creative leap out of the crisis. Bonn 2008, pp. 233-240.
The second Viennese school in the twenties. In: Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft, Volume 26, Frankfurt am Main 2009, pp. 143–148.
To the Mozart picture by Alban Berg. In: Hartmut Krones and Christia Meyer (eds.): Mozart and Schönberg. Wiener Klassik and Wiener Schule, Vienna / Cologne / Weimar 2012, pp. 301–307.
Thoughts on the depth dimension of music. In: Michael Schwalb (Ed.): Liber amicorum. Thoughts on music, literature, art. Homage to Karl Anton Rickenbacher, Hildesheim, Zurich, New York 2012, pp. 106–112.
"A musical physiognomy": About Theodor W. Adorno's Mahler interpretation. In: Dan Diner (Ed.): Simon Dubnow Institute. Yearbook. Yearbook XI 2012, pp. 235-243.
Music for the regeneration of the world. Love, vegetarianism and pacifism in the late Richard Wagner. In: Das Orchester October 2013, pp. 26–29.
The deciphering of the Old Slavonic kondakarian notation. In: Bulgarian Musicology 1/2013, p. 95 f.
Ligetis le Grand Macabre. About the absurdity of human existence. In: Musik und Ästhetik, Volume 17, Issue 28, October 2013, pp. 24–31.
Wagner and Verdi. Similarities and differences. In: Ars lyrica Volume 21 (2012) pp. 71–87.
Low point of the music? Opinions differ on Tchaikovsky today. In: Das Orchester 2015/6, pp. 40–43.
Gustav Mahler. Böhme, Viennese, "Jewish Christian" . In: MUT No. 570, September 2015, pp. 74-84.
Przesłania muzyki upublicznione i prywatne . In: Teoria Muzyki, Krakau, Vol. 6, pp. 11-25.
Tragedia y comedia en des óperas maestras de Mozart . In: Paulino Capdepón Verdú (Ed.): Mozart en Espana. Estudios y receptión musical , Editorial Academia del Hispanismo 2016, pp. 273–283.
Rachmaninoff - Art or Kitsch? In: The Orchestra January 2017, pp. 27–29.
Article about Anton Bruckner (hermeneutics, semantics, tone symbolism, sixth symphony) . In: www. anton.bruckner.online 2017.
Тайные программы в инструментальной музыке (Secret programs in instrumental music, Russian) . In: Opera Musicologica No. 4 (34) St. Petersburg 1017, pp. 35–43
About Liszt's musical symbolic language . In: Márta Grabocz: Proceedings Liszt. Actes du colloque Liszt (Strasbourg 2011), Editions Herman, Paris 2017
Musical hermeneutics . In: Frank Hentschel (Ed.): Historical musicology. Laaber-Verlag 2018
Marie-Agnes Dittrich: Experiences of an outsider , interview with Constantin Floros, Hamburg, July 18, 2018 (see web links)

Festschriften

Peter Petersen (ed.): Music culture history. Festschrift for Constantin Floros on his 60th birthday. Breitkopf, Wiesbaden 1990.
Gottfried Krieger, Matthias Spindler (ed.): Music as a life program. Festschrift for Constantin Floros on his 70th birthday. Lang, Frankfurt am Main a. a. 2000, ISBN 978-3-6313-5406-3 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME	Floros, Constantin
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	Greek musicologist
DATE OF BIRTH	4th January 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH	Thessaloniki