Constantin Floros

The conribution of Prof. Dr. Constantin Floros in the international society of advanced studies in musicology is uncontested.
Prof. Dr.Floros pursued a universal study of neumes for the first time (Germany, Kassel 1970, Verlag Baerenreiter 3 Bd.) in his three volume work and introduced the oldest neume notations of medieval Europe and compared them in detail in a coherent manner. Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. Constantin Floros examines comparatively the origins and the connections of the byzantine, slavic and latin neumes.

Volume one treatts the deciphering of the oldest Byzantine neume notation and the ancients Slavic znamennny and Kondakarian notation as well as the modal system of Byzantine church Music and the history of the Byzantine ecclesiastical poetry. Proceeding from Slavic and Byzantine musical studies, the author retains two previous results of research and constructs his study upon this: first, the Slavs adopted the Paleobyzantine neume notation. Secondly, only the systematic comparison with the Byzantine system of notation permits a deciphering of the ancient Slavic neume notations. While the ancient Slavic notation remained basically the same up to 14th century, Byzantine neume notation had undergone profound changes by the 13th century.
Both ancient slavic notations show a close similarity with the two palaeobyzantine neume notations, as the author has elaborated, namely the so-called Coislin and the so-called Chartres notation. The deciphering of the znamenny notation which has been considered earlier to be undecipherable, is thus facilitated in that many signs reappear in a similar shape in Paleobyzantine manuscripts. Aside from the interpretation of the neumes, the author also develops a method for the precise dating of Byzantine neume manuscripts, as well as ancient Slavic stichera, through comparison with Greek sources.With regard to the question of origin, the neume notation of both the East and West are based on the Alexandrinian system of accentuation.
The genetic development of the individual neume notations remains unclarified, as does their correlation.

In Volume two Prof. Floros investigates the connexion of the Byzantine and Latin neumes, their origin and interpretation, and the theory of figuration and rhythm of Gregorian chant. For example:The notae semivocales of the latin choral notation should be placed on the same level with the byzantine hemiphona, which indicate a manner of performance with a subdued voice.
It can well be assumed that both the Byzantine grammata and the Latin litterae were used as additional signs in order to remove occasional imperfections in the oldest notations. During the later stages of the development in the West, the litterae were not intergrated, while the alphabetical neumes in the East were an organic part of the notation which, according to the author, could be additional proof that the system of alphabetical neumes had its origin in the East. A grater part of the nomenclature of the Latin neumes are either loan words, loan translations from Middle Greek, or grecianized or ancient greek names. The author demonstrates in addition that the notational technical terminology are loan translations from Middle greek, were taken from Byzantium.
Late Byzantine Chant Style:Mp3 Sound File

Volume three is purely documentation and reproduces in a highly elucidative and well planned manner the Byzantine, Slavic, and Gregorian tonal figures and formulae. Beside this the individual stages of notation in the stichera and the heirmoi are illustrated and compared with each other.