C O N S T A N T I N F
L O R O S
Constantin Floros was born in Salonica, Greece on 4 January 1930. He is
involved in musicology, culture and history. After studying law at the
University of Thessaloniki, Professor Floros went to the Vienna Music
Academy, where he studied composition with Alfred Uhl and conducting with
Hans Swarowsky and Gottfried Kassowitz, graduating in both subjects in
1953. At the same time he studied musicology with Erich Schenk at Vienna
University as well as art history (with Carl Swoboda), philosophy and
psychology. In 1955 he obtained the doctorate in Vienna with a dissertation
on Antonio Campioni. He continued his musicological studies with Heinrich
Husmann at Hamburg University, where in 1961 he completed his habilitation
in musicology with a work on the Byzantine kontakion. In 1967 Professor
Floros became a supernumerary professor, in 1972 professor of Musicology
and in 1995 professor emeritus at the University of Hamburg. He received
the honorary doctorate from the University of Athens in 1999.
Professor Floros is the co-editor of the Hamburger Jahrbuch für Musikwissenschaft
and in 1988 he became President of the Gustav Mahler Vereinigung, Hamburg.
In 1992 he was elected a member of the Erfurt Akademie der gemeinützigen
Wissenschaften and in 1999 was made an honorary member of the Richard
Wagner-Verband. In 2002 he was elected a member of the European Academy
of Sciences and Arts.
Professor Floros is one of the leading German musicologists and his research
interests are varied. He wrote 22 books and numerous papers. His three-volume
Universale Neumenkunde (1970) overturned previous theories concerning
the origin of Gregorian neumes. He deciphered the oldest Byzantine and
Slavic notations and developed a new method of semantic analysis. In his
three-volume treatise Gustav Mahler (1977-85), and his writings on other
composers of instrumental music in the 18th and 19th centuries, he examined
the semantic meaning of the symphony alongside theories of the dominance
of absolute music. He also carried out pioneering research on the music
of the Second Viennese School, in particular Alban Berg; he discovered
the hidden Programme for Berg's Lyric Suite before the relevant sources
were found. His view of "Musik als Autobiographie" characterises
his books on Berg (1993) and Ligeti (1996) and connects musical aesthetics
with everyday circumstances.
(One Thousand Great Scholars published by the International Biographical
Centre in Cambridge, England, in 2003.)
