Books by Constantin Floros

The present autobiography sets out from the contrast between "establishment" and "outsiders" in science and scholarship.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky remains to this day one of the most-performed Russian composers. Based on recent studies and source editions, this book demonstrates the close interrelationship between Tchaikovsky's life and his work.

Following general reflections about the art of listening, the volume in hand presents exemplary work analyses. The roster of composers introduced extends from Mozart to Bernstein, that of the genres discussed from the piano piece to the opera. A register and a survey of the chief works referred to make this book a companion for scholars and laymen.

Manuscript sources contain significant hints that Gustav Mahler's symphonies are not "absolute music" but "erlebte Musik" according to his programmatic ideas. A knowledge of the programmatic ideas therefore provides insights which are crucial for an adequate interpretation of his works.

The first part of the book centers on questions of biography, art and music theory, the psychology of creation and general aesthetics and concerns basic traits of Ligeti's personality and work. The more extensive second part comprises discussions of his most representative works, with special emphasis on the processes of creation.

The book is designed as an introduction to the basic questions of musical semantics and represents the quintessence of fifty years of the author's researches into music from Beethoven to Nono.

Modern music notation developed out of the so-called square notation and this out of the Latin neumes. The question of where these neumes came from has long been the subject of scholarly debate. This study aroused a great deal of dispute, recent studies have revealed that relevance of Neumenkunde remains essentially unchallenged after 40 years.

For Alban Berg, personal experience was the indispensable condition of the creative process. His instrumental works are thus lived music, and most of his vocal compositions, too, are in a larger sense autobiographic: the Four Songs op. 2, the Altenberg Songs op. 4, Wozzeck and the concert aria Der Wein (Wine).

The book presents conclusive answers to questions that had occupied critics for more than a century. It makes clear what exactly Beethoven and his contemporaries meant by the term "heroic" and it draws on interdisciplinary researches in the areas of Greek Mythology, Napoleonic History and Comparative Literature.

The subject of this book is the semantics of symphonic music from Beethoven to Mahler. Of fundamental importance is the realization that this music is imbued with non-musical, literary, philosophical and religious ideas.

Johannes Brahms was until now widely regarded as the archetype of the absolute musician. This title shows how close autobiographic and poetic elements are in fact linked to his oeuvre. It includes four chapters that investigate novel aspects by dealing in detail with the First Symphony, the German Requiem, Naenie and the Four Serious Songs.

Where Brahms and Bruckner really antipodes, as believed in the late 19th century or had their contemporaries overestimated the "dimension of their distance"? This book seeks an answer to this question. It is based on the principles of intermediality and on a method of semantic analysis, developed by the author and applied to numerous musical works.

Gustav Mahler. Visionary and Despot

This book provides a survey of the styles and tendencies in 20th-century new music, presenting the most important composers from Schoenberg to Rihm in a series of essays that will appeal to connoisseurs and non-specialists alike by putting music in the context of the social and psychological background of its time.

Music is no mere play of sound, no mere tonal texture, but has a significant psychic, spiritual/intellectual and social dimension. This title investigates the question of how changes in the conception of love are reflected in music and concludes with a warning of a dehumanized world.

While unappreciated and controversial during most of his life, Anton Bruckner is today regarded as the greatest symphonist between Beethoven and Gustav Mahler - in terms of originality, boldness and monumentality of his music. The image of Bruckner the man, however, is still extreme instance of the tenacious power of prejudice.