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.)