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{{Short description|English composer and academic (1932–2024)}}
'''Alexander Goehr''' (born ], ] in ]) is an ] ].
{{good article}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2024}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Alexander Goehr
| image = Composer Alexander Goehr.jpg
| alt = Colour photograph of a clean-shaven, smiling, white-haired man, resting his chin on his hand, with book shelves in the background
| caption = Goehr in 2007, by Etan Tal
| birth_name = Peter Alexander Goehr
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1932|08|10}}
| birth_place = ], ]
| death_date = {{death date and age|df=yes|2024|08|26|1932|08|10}}
| death_place = ], England
| children = 4, including ]
| parents = ]
| education = {{nobr|]}}
| occupation = {{hlist|Composer|academic teacher}}
| organizations = ]
| works = ]
}}


'''Peter Alexander Goehr''' ({{IPA|de|'ɡøːɐ̯|lang}}; 10 August 1932 – 26 August 2024) was a German-born English composer of ] and academic teacher. A long-time professor of music at the ], Goehr influenced many notable contemporary composers, including ], ], ] and ]<!-- and ]-->.
He was born in ], the son of ]. He studied at the ] in ] (]-]) where he met ], ], ] and ]. Together they formed ], a group dedicated to performances of contemporary music. In ] he went to ] to study with ] at the ], and the same year he went to ] where his 'Fantasia' for orchestra received its first performance. Whilst resident in Paris in 1956-7, Goehr also had private consultations with ].


Born in Berlin, Goehr grew up in London surrounded by musicians, including his father, the conductor ]. Goehr emerged as a central figure in the ] of post-war British composers, including ] and ], in his early twenties. He joined ]'s masterclass in Paris in 1955. Back in England and working for the ], he experienced an international breakthrough in 1957 with his ] ''The Deluge'' in 1957, conducted by his father ]. He composed ''Little Symphony'' in 1963 as a memorial to his father, arriving at a ] that allowed expressive freedom. He combined avant-garde techniques with elements from music history in works of many genres including the Piano Trio (1966), his first opera, '']'' (1966), the music-theatre piece ''Triptych'' (1968–70), the orchestral ''Metamorphosis/Dance'' (1974), and the String Quartet No. 3 (1975). He founded the Music Theatre Ensemble in 1967.
==Early Works==
Goehr's earliest published work is the ''Piano Sonata'' from ], a fluent and idiomatic work which bridges the gap between ] and serialism (Prokofiev had died in March of that year, and the sonata commemorates this fact with a brief quote from his ''Seventh Piano Sonata''). Goehr's works from the middle fifties tend to be more austere and closely adhere to traditional ]ian ]. Goehr's first international success was with his ] cantata ''The Deluge'' (]), which created a considerable stir at its first performance, conducted by his father. It is a tautly constructed yet lyrical work, with more harmonic coherence and considerably more dramatic impact than most serial music of the period. Its impact upon Goehr's colleagues from Manchester seems also to have been considerable: echoes of it, both in terms of vocal writing and instrumental writing, may be discerned in Maxwell Davies' ''Leopardi Fragments'' (]) and, Birtwistle's ''Monody for Corpus Christi'' (]).


Goehr first lectured in the United States, at the ] in ] from 1968 and at ], then at the ] from 1970. He was professor of music at the ] from 1971 and at Cambridge University from 1976 to 1999. Goehr returned to a more traditional way of composing with ''Psalm IV'' in 1976. He wrote the opera '']'' in 1995, setting the ] of Monteverdi's ]. He focused on chamber music in later years.
As a result of the success of ''The Deluge'', Goehr was commissioned to compose an orchestral piece for the ] (''Hecuba's Lament'') and a larger Eisenstein cantata ''Sutter's Gold'' (]) for chorus, baritone and large orchestra. However the premiere at the ] was not successful, provoking an editorial in ] newspaper claiming that it signalled the end of the British choral tradition.


== Life and career ==
Despite this, Goehr continued to compose choral works. Encouraged by his friendship with the choral conductor ], who was strongly committed to new music, Goehr composed his ''Two Choruses'' in ], which used for the first time the characteristic modally inflected harmonic serialism which was to remain his main technical resource for the next 14 years. Briefly explained, parts of a row are overlayed upon other segments of the original row, to produce a limited intervallic vocabulary in which certain pitch classes and harmonic aggregates tend to predominate. The result is euphonious, harmonically consistent and a complete departure from the consistently dense chromaticism of Schoenberg's classial 12-tone pieces.
=== Youth and studies ===
Peter Alexander Goehr{{sfn|British Music Society|2024}} was born in Berlin,{{sfn|Williams|2017}}{{sfn|Peter|2024}} on 10 August 1932.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Clements|2024}} He came from a musical Jewish family; his mother Laelia (née Rivlin), from Kyiv, was a pianist who had appeared with ] at age 12,{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} and his father ] was a ] pupil{{sfn|Schott|2024}} and pioneering conductor{{sfn|Peter|2024}} of Schoenberg, ] and ]. The family moved to Britain a few months after the boy was born.{{sfn|Peter|2024}}{{sfn|Cambridge|2024}} His father became an influential conductor in London, leading the world premiere of Tippett's '']''.{{sfn|Clements|2024}} The boy attended ] in Hertfordshire, where he was known as "an anti-establishment political activist, flirting with the ]".{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} He received lessons from a composer colleague of his father, ].{{sfn|Amersham Museum|2024}} Although these premises pointed to Goehr's future in music, his efforts as a composer were not encouraged by his father.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Clements|2024}}<!--, and he initially intended to study classics at ], -- source?-->


Goehr worked for the music publisher ] after leaving school. A girl he met on the train to work recruited him for a left-wing Zionist party, and he spent two years in a training ] in Essex. He was then sent to ] for political work, where he wrote his first piece, described as "a sort of Zionist pageant with songs".{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}
Both as a technical procedure and in its harmonic results, Goehr's rotation technique has much in common with Boulez's idea of the 'bloc sonore' derived from segmenting rows into smaller units which are multiplied with each other. But unlike Boulez, Goehr retains a strong and lasting link with the precepts of Schoenberg as expressed in the latter's writings (as found in the anthology 'Style and Idea', for instance). Like Schoenberg, Goehr is committed to the revivification of traditional Western forms such as sonata, symphony and fugue. This makes his music difficult to pigeonhole as it is not purely traditional in outlook, but neither does it spurn certain features of post-War avant-garde aesthetics. This has led to views like that of composer and critic ], who has termed Goehr a "raidcal conservative".


Goehr studied composition at the ] from 1952 to 1955, with ].{{sfn|Schott|2024}} He became friends there with ], ], trumpeter ] and pianist ].{{sfn|Clements|2024}} He influenced Davies, a clarinetist, and Birtwhistle who studied to teach, to focus on composition.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} The five founded the ],{{sfn|Williams|2017}}{{sfn|Peter|2024}}{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} a "distinctive, progressive force in what was the generally parochial and conservative world of British music in the early 1950s", as Andrew Davies phrased it in 2024.{{sfn|Clements|2024}} The group performed not only works by its members but also introduced compositions of the European ].{{sfn|Clements|2024}}
The first large scale application of Goehr's new modal serialism came in his ''Little Symphony'' of ]. It is a memorial to Goehr's conductor/composer father, who had unexpectedly died, and in consequence it is based upon a chord-sequence subtly modelled upon (but not quoting) the ''Catacombs'' movement from ]'s '']'' (Goehr senior had made a close harmonic analysis of this unsual movement; he had also published his own orchestration of 'Pictures' - although he excluded 'Catacombs' from it). Alexander Goehr's own choral sequence is richer than Mussorgsky's original, with strongly predominant thirds and sixths, and prominent false relations between adjacent chords. It comprises the entire first movement of the ''Little Symphony'' for strings. What follows is in effect a gigantic sequence of variations upon this chord sequence, though in fact only the following, second movement is actually designated 'variations' as such. The scherzo third movement offers a sharp contrast with its skirling woodwind writing, but close echoes of the basic chord sequence return in the slow trio. The finale alternates two very contrasted types of music, both based upon the chorale - a slow lament, and much faster music featuring dotted-rhythm cadences which have remained a typical feature of Goehr's mature style. The coda clinches the argument in a final variant of the opening of the whole symphony.


A seminal event in Goehr's development was hearing the UK premiere of Messiaen's '']'' in 1953,{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} conducted by his father.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Clements|2024}} The interest in non-Western music (for instance Indian ]) sparked by the meeting with Messiaen's music combined with the interest in ] shared with Davies and Birtwistle largely influenced Goehr's first musical imaginings. His first acknowledged compositions date from these years: ''Songs for Babel'' (1951) and the Piano Sonata, Op. 2, which was dedicated to the memory of ].{{sfn|Schott|2024}} The piano sonata in one movement was played at the ] in 1954 by Hedi Stock-Hug<!--, ''Fantasias'' for clarinet and piano, Op. 3, in 1957 and the world premiere of ''Fantasia'' for orchestra, Op. 4, in 1956-->.{{sfn|Internationales Musikinstitut|2024}}
==Later Works==
Goehr's subsequent output from the sixties included one further symphony (in ]) which fuses sonata, fantasia and variation principles in a half-hour discourse. The harmony is some of Goehr's most lush and articulate, with richly detailed orchestration to match. The strikingly discursive coda to the work deliberately leaves the harmonic threads hanging unresolved on a luminous brass chord. During this period, Goehr also composed the ''Romanza'' for cello and orchestra premiered by ], under the direction of her husband ]. She said it "suited her down to the ground" and it remained the only contemporary music she ever played (and has since appeared unofficially on CD). Though highly melodic, the work also has its darker, more ominous overtones, and it proved further the expressive viability and flexibility of Goehr's modal serialism.


In 1955, Goehr left Manchester to go to Paris and study with Messiaen{{sfn|Cambridge|2024}} at the ],{{sfn|Williams|2017}}{{sfn|Peter|2024}}{{sfn|Clements|2024}} and he studied counterpoint privately with ].{{sfn|Clements|2024}} He remained in Paris until October 1956, becoming friends with ] and involved in the ] avant-garde movement of those years.{{sfn|Clements|2024}} Goehr experimented with Boulez's technique of ''bloc sonore''.{{sfn|Grünzweig|2012}}<!--, particularly in his first String Quartet of 1956–57.--><!-- Boulez was a sort of mentor to Goehr in the late fifties, programming his new compositions in his concerts at the ] in Paris.{{cn|date=September 2024}} - by now refs pointed out by Dmass, but in too much detail to use at this point. GA 2025--> Eventually Goehr left pure serialism, which he came to consider a cult modelled after ] works by ], forbidding references to any other music:
Goehr's first opera, ''Arden Must Die'', was also composed during this period and proved to be a powerful setting of a Jacobean morality play which had uncomfortably contemporary political and social resonances. Though very successful at its Hamburg premiere, and revived more than once in the years that immediately followed, has not been performed in Britain since.
{{blockquote|Choice, taste and style were dirty words; personal style, one could argue, is necessarily a product of repetition, and the removal of repetition is, or was believed to be, a cornerstone of classical serialism as defined by Webern's late works All this may well be seen as a kind of negative style precept: a conscious elimination of sensuous, dramatic or expressive elements, indeed of everything that in the popular view constitutes music.{{sfn|Goehr|1998}}}}


=== Return to the UK, 1956–76 ===
Goehr's chamber music output has included a Piano Trio commissioned by ]. It is a two-part work whose dance-based theme-and-variations first movement is counterbalanced by an intense slow movement which opens with a germinal cello melody and proceeds through haunting passages of near-stasis to a poised conclusion. The second and third string quartets (]) and (]) respectively, are no less successfully executed as regards combining harmonic innovations with traditionally anchored large-scale form.
{{For LMST|Alexander|Goehr}}


Upon his return to Britain, Goehr experienced an international breakthrough as a composer with the performance of his ] ''The Deluge'' in 1957, conducted by his father.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} The work was inspired by writings of ]. While the music could be seen as derived from Webern's twelve-tone cantatas, it strives for the harmonic tautness and sonority of ]'s cantatas based on Eisenstein. It was regarded "to have more harmonic coherence and considerably more dramatic impact than most serial music of the time", as his obituary in '']'' noted.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}
The third quartet (1976) was the last Goehr composed using his personal form of serialism. With ''Psalm 4'' he abandoned serialism for a purely modal harmonic world (the work has long passages almost entirely using the white notes of the keyboard), but this was no 'spiritual modalism' such as would become fashionable some years later. The counterpoint is austere, yet sonorous and not lacking in tension.
From ] to ] he was Professor of Music at the ].


Goehr worked for the ] as a musical assistant from 1960 to 1967.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Clements|2024}}{{sfn|Schott|2024}} He received two more cantata commissions from the BBC;{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} ''Sutter's Gold'' for choir, baritone and orchestra was no success.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} Singers found it impossibly difficult to perform, and critics dismissed it{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} when it was first performed at the 1961 ]. Goehr listened to criticism and described his position:
He delivered the ] in ] entitled ''The Survival of the Symphony''.


{{blockquote|If one wishes, one can just say that music has to be autonomous and self sufficient; but how to sustain such a view when people who sing for pleasure are deprived of true satisfaction in the performance of new work? We can talk about music in terms of the ideas that inform it; we can talk about structure and techniques; we can talk about aesthetics or ethics or politics. But we have to remember that while all this, realistic or not, is of great importance to composers and to anyone who likes to follow what composers are doing, what is being discussed is not the music itself but the location of the music, the place where it exists.{{sfn|Goehr|1998|p=5}}}}
]

]
Goehr was encouraged by his friend, the choral conductor ], to compose more choral music such as ''Two Choruses'' in 1962, which used a combination serialism and ], to become an approach for years to come.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} His quest for expressiveness led him to his ''Little Symphony'', Op. 15 (1963), composed as a memorial to his father who had unexpectedly died. It is based upon a chord-sequence derived from music from Mussorgsky's '']'', "Catacombæ" and "Cum mortuis in lingua mortua", of which his father had written a harmonic analysis.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Goehr|1998|pp=291–292}} Boulez, who had facilitated performances of Goehr's works, refused to program ''Little Symphony''. Goehr composed works of many genres including the Piano Trio (1966).{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} He wrote ''Romanza'', a cello concerto, in 1968 for ] and ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}} The orchestral ''Metamorphosis/Dance'' was premiered in 1974 by the ] conducted by ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}} He composed the String Quartet No. 3 in 1975–76.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}
]

]
]'']]
]
Goehr founded the ] Summer School in Wiltshire with Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle in 1964, which led to a focus on opera and ]. In 1966 he wrote his first opera, '']'', based on a compilation of a ] morality play by ].{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Schott|2024}} The opera was premiered in German at the ] in 1967.{{sfn|Schott|2024}}
]

]
In 1967 he founded the Music Theatre Ensemble,{{sfn|Peter|2024}}{{sfn|Clements|2024}}{{sfn|Cambridge|2024}} as a pioneer of musical theatre in England;{{sfn|Clements|2024}} in 1971 he completed a three-part cycle for music theatre ''Triptych'' of three works, ''Naboth's Vineyard'' (1968) and ''Shadowplay'' (1970), both explicitly written for the Music Theatre Ensemble,{{sfn|Clements|2024}} while the third part, the cantata ''Sonata about Jerusalem'' was commissioned by Testimonium in Jerusalem and performed there in 1971 by the ], conducted by ].{{sfn|Schott Jerusalem|2025}}
]

{{UK-composer-stub}}
From the end of the 1960s Goehr held prestigious academic appointments. In 1968–69 he was the first composer-in-residence at the ] in ],{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} and went on to teach at ] as an associate professor of music.{{sfn|Peter|2024}} Goehr returned to Britain as a visiting lecturer at ] (1970–71). In 1971 he was appointed West Riding Professor of Music at the ].{{sfn|Cambridge|2024}} In 1976 Goehr became Professor of Music at ]{{sfn|Peter|2024}} and taught there until he retired in 1999.{{sfn|Cambridge|2024}} His students included some of England's most notable composers to come, such as ],{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} ],{{sfn|Clements|2024}} ] and ].{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} In Cambridge he became a fellow of ].{{sfn|Cambridge|2024}}

=== 1976–1996 ===
In 1976, Goehr composed ''Psalm IV'' in a "bright modal sonority",{{sfn|Peter|2024}} in a departure from serialism, towards more transparent sounds. He found a fusion of modal harmonics and the tradition of ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}} Over the following twenty years he applied this approach to traditional genres such as symphonies, composing ''Sinfonia'' in 1979 and ''Symphony with Chaconne'' in 1987. In 1985 he composed ''... a musical offering (J. S. B. 1985) ...'', written in memory of ]. It was premiered by ], who remained a close collaborator.{{sfn|Peter|2024}}

Goehr focused especially on vocal music,{{sfn|Schott|2024}} with many works reflecting socio-political themes.{{sfn|Schott|2024}} ''The Death of Moses'' (1992) uses ]' refusal to die as an allegory for the victims of the ], while the opera '']'' (1985){{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} deals with the violent revolution of the ]s in ] of 1543. Non-political vocal works include ''Sing, Ariel'', recalling Messiaen's ] setting ], and the 1995 opera '']'' to ]'s historic libretto for Monteverdi's lost '']'', exploring the sounds of Italian ].{{sfn|Clements|2024}}{{sfn|Schott|2024}} The opera was first performed at the ] in London.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Schott|2019}} His engagement with Monteverdi's music dates back to the cantata ''The Death of Moses'', which he described as "Monteverdi heard through ]".{{sfn|Goehr|1992}} He described his process for ''Arianna'':
{{blockquote|The impression I aim to create is one of transparency: the listener should perceive, both in the successive and simultaneous dimensions of the score, the old beneath the new and the new arising from the old. We are to see a mythological and ancient action, interpreted by a 17th-century poet in a modern theatre.{{sfn|Goehr|1995}}}}

In 1987 the BBC invited Goehr to present the ]. In a series of six lectures, titled The Survival of the Symphony he traces the importance of the symphony, and its apparent fall from grace in the 20th century.{{sfn|Clements|2024}}{{sfn|Schott|2024}}

Goehr's ''Colossos or Panic'' was premiered in 1992 by the ] conducted by ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}}

=== 1996–2024 ===
Although the last fifteen years of Goehr's output received less coverage in both academic analysis and performances, they represent an interesting phase of his work. He wrote the opera '']'' in 1999,{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} premiered at the ].{{sfn|Schott|2024}} It combined two plays from the Japanese ] theatre tradition, with a short ] humorous interlude; he adapted the Japanese texts that date back to the 15th century.{{sfn|University of Cambridge|2002}}{{sfn|British Music Collection|2024}} The music is inspired by the relationship between music and drama found in Noh theatre.{{sfn|University of Cambridge|2002}}

In the years following, Goehr focused on ],{{sfn|Schott|2024}} composing works of "unprecedented rhythmic and harmonic immediacy",{{sfn|Peter|2024}} such as the Piano Quintet in 2000 and the Fantasie for cello and piano in 2005, with sonorities reminiscent of ]. ''Marching to Carcassonne'' was written in 2003 for pianist ] and the ], alluding to ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}} A set of piano pieces, ''Symmetry Disor.der Reach'', recalling a Baroque ], was premiered bv ] in 2007.{{sfn|Peter|2024}} ''Manere'' for violin and clarinet (2008) is based on a fragment of medieval ] and explores musical ]ation. ''Since Brass nor Stone'' for string quartet and percussion was inspired by ] of the same name; it was written in 2008 in memory of ] for percussionist ] and the ]. It achieved the chamber category of the 2009 ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}} Goehr wrote ''…between the lines…'' in 2013 for the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin.{{sfn|Peter|2024}}

After a hiatus of almost ten years, Goehr returned to opera again with ''Promised End'' (2008–09), based on Shakespeare's ]. It was first performed by ] in 2010.{{sfn|Hoffman|2010}} He wrote ''When Adam Fell'' simultaneously, a ] commission for orchestra based on the chromatic bass from Bach's ] "]", BWV 705, that Messiaen had pointed out to him. ''To These Dark Steps/The Fathers are Watching'' was written for tenor, children's choir and ensemble in 2011–12,{{sfn|Peter|2024}} setting texts by the Israeli poet ] about the bombing of the ] during the ]; it was premiered in a concert of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Knussen marking Goehr's 80th birthday.{{sfn|Birmingham Contemporary Music Group|2024}}

''Largo Siciliano'' (2012) was a trio praised for its balance between violin, horn and piano. The chamber symphony ''...between the lines...'' (2013), written on a commission from the ], is a monothematic work in four movements played without break, inspired by Schoenberg's ], Op. 9. ''Two Sarabandes'' was composed for the ] who premiered it conducted by ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}} A string quartet ''Ondering'' was premiered by the ] at the ] in 2023.{{sfn|Peter|2024}}

Goehr died at his home in ] on 26 August 2024, at the age of 92.{{sfn|British Music Society|2024}}{{sfn|Peter|2024}}{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Clements|2024}}

== Works ==
{{Main|List of compositions by Alexander Goehr}}

=== Musical style ===
Many of Goehr's works are studies in the synthesis of disparate elements.{{sfn|Clements|2024}} Examples include ''The Deluge'' (1957–58), which was inspired by Eisenstein's notes for a film, itself based on a writing by ]. Other works' inspirations range from the formal proportions of a late ] piano sonata (''Metamorphosis/Dance'', 1973–74) to a painting by ] (''Colossus or Panic'', 1990), to the sinister humour of ] (''Arden Must Die'', 1966) or to the Japanese Noh theatre (''Kantan and Damask Drum'', 1999).{{sfn|Holloway|2003}}

Just as ''The Deluge'' takes its cue from an unfinished project (Eisenstein never finished the planned film), many of Goehr's works include a synthesis of fragments or unfinished projects left by other artists. The cantata ''The Death of Moses'' resonates with Schoenberg's unfinished '']''; the opera ''Arianna'' (1995) is the setting of the libretto of a lost opera by Monteverdi, and posthumously published prose fragments by ] inspired or appear in ''Das Gesetz der Quadrille'' (1979).{{sfn|Schott|2024}}<!--, ''Sur terre en l'air'' (1997) and ''Schlussgesang'' (1990).-->

On a strictly technical musical level, Goehr's tried unifying the ] rigour and motivic workings of the ] and ] with a strong sense of harmonic pacing and sonority.{{sfn|Clements|2024}} Goehr remained indebted to Messiaen, apparent in his lifelong commitment to modality as an integration of serialism and tonality, as well as in melodic writing inspired by bird-song.{{sfn|Peter|2024}}

=== Recordings ===
* {{cite | last=Goehr | first=Alexander | author2=Naxos Digital Services US | title=GOEHR, A.: Chamber music (Since Brass, nor Stone ...) (Currie, Nash Ensemble, Pavel Haas Quartet) | publisher=Naxos Digital Services US Inc | publication-place=Hong Kong | year=2013 | oclc=885069785}}
* {{cite | last=Goehr | first=Alexander | author2=Naxos Digital Services US | title=GOEHR, A.: Marching to Carcassonne | publisher=Naxos Digital Services US Inc | publication-place=Hong Kong | year=2013 | oclc=885065562}}
* {{cite | author=Southwest Chamber Music (Musical group) | last2=Hollander | first2=John | last3=Bryn-Julson | first3=Phyllis | last4=Foschia | first4=Jim | last5=Ginstling | first5=Gary | last6=Horn | first6=Stuart | last7=Lashinsky | first7=Leslie | last8=Von der Schmidt | first8=Jeff | last9=Gottschewski | first9=Agnes | last10=Karlin | first10=Jan | last11=Blankenburg | first11=Gayle | last12=Mosko | first12=Stephen L. | last13=Goehr | first13=Alexander | last14=Carter | first14=Elliott | title=Alexander Goehr, Elliott Carter | publisher=Naxos Digital Services/Cambria | publication-place=Hong Kong | year=2009 | oclc=704927535}}
* {{cite book | last=Goehr | first=Alexander | last2=Kessler | first2=Susan | last3=Vignoles | first3=Roger | last4=Kafka | first4=Franz | author5=Lindsay String Quartet | title=Alexander Goehr / CD, Das Gesetz der Quadrille : op. 41. / Alexander Goehr | publisher=Wergo | publication-place=Mainz | year=1983 | oclc=1050671457 | language=und}}
* {{cite | last=Goehr | first=Alexander | last2=Becker | first2=Daniel | last3=Kam | first3=Ning | last4=Carroll | first4=Thomas | author5=Elias String Quartet | title=Music by Alexander Goehr | publisher=Meridian | publication-place=London | year=2008 | oclc=678574775 | language=zxx}}
* {{cite | last=Goehr | first=Alexander | last2=Atherton | first2=David | author3=Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra | title=Metarmorphosis / op. 36 / Alexander Goehr. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by David Atherton | publisher=Unicorn-Kanchana | publication-place= | year=1982 | oclc=916390495 | language=und}}
* {{cite | last=Goehr | first=Alexander | last2=Watkins | first2=Huw | title=Symmetry disorders reach | publisher=Wergo | publication-place=Mainz, Germany | year=2007 | oclc=811246845 | language=zxx}}

== Writings ==
Sources:{{sfn|Boynton|1992|pp=201–208}}{{sfn|Williams|2001}}

:'''Books'''
* {{cite book |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |year=1978 |title=Musical Ideas and Ideas about Music |publisher=] |location=London |oclc=16422090 |ref=no }}
* {{cite book |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |editor-last=Puffett |editor-first=Derrick |year=1998 |title=Finding the Key: Selected Writings of Alexander Goehr |publisher=] |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-19310-3 |oclc=38844411 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}

:'''Articles'''
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=January 1965 |title=Tippett at Sixty |journal=] |volume=106 |issue=1463 |pages=22–24 |jstor=948584 |doi=10.2307/948584 |ref=no }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Goehr |first1=Alexander |last2=Smalley |first2=Roger |author-link2=Roger Smalley |last3=Crosse |first3=Gordon |author-link3=Gordon Crosse |last4=Tavener |first4=John |author-link4=John Tavener |last5=Ginastera |first5=Alberto |author-link5=Alberto Ginastera |date=Summer 1967 |title=Personal Viewpoints: Notes by Five Composers |journal=] |volume=81 |issue=Stravinsky's 85th Birthday |pages=19–29 |jstor=943883 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Goehr |first1=Alexander |last2=Sadie |first2=Stanley |author-link2=Stanley Sadie |date=July 1968 |title=Naboth's Vineyard: Alexander Goehr talks to Stanley Sadie |journal=] |volume=109 |issue=1505 |pages=588–590 |jstor=952669 |doi=10.2307/952669 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=June 1973 |title=The Study of Music at University—5 |journal=] |volume=114 |issue=1564 |pages=588–590 |jstor=955547 |doi=10.2307/955547 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=1973–1974 |title=The Theoretical Writings of Arnold Schoenberg |journal=] |volume=100 |pages=85–96 |doi=10.1093/jrma/100.1.85 |jstor=766177 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=Spring–Summer 1975 |title=The Theoretical Writings of Arnold Schoenberg |journal=] |volume=13 |issue=2 |pages=3–16 |doi=10.2307/832080 |jstor=832080 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=November 1983 |title=Richard Hall: A Memoir and a Tribute |journal=] |volume=124 |issue=1689 |pages=677–678 |jstor=961421 |doi=10.2307/961421 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=March–July 1985 |title=Schoenberg and Karl Kraus: The Idea behind the Music |journal=] |volume=4 |issue=1/2 |pages=59–71 |jstor=854235 |doi=10.2307/854235 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Goehr |first1=Alexander |last2=Wintle |first2=Christopher Wintle |date=July–October 1992 |title=The Composer and His Idea of Theory: A Dialogue |journal=] |volume=11 |issue=2–3 |pages=143–175 |jstor=854024 |doi=10.2307/854024 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=October 1994 |title=Guest Editorial |journal=] |volume=135 |issue=1820 |pages=610–611 |jstor=1003125 |doi=10.2307/1003125 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=March 1997 |title=For Derrick Puffett |journal=] |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=1–3 |jstor=854111 |doi=10.2307/854111 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=Summer 1999 |title=The Ages of Man as Composer. What's Left to Be Done? |journal=] |volume=140 |issue=1867 |pages=19–28 |jstor=1193892 |doi=10.2307/1193892 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last1=Goehr |first1=Alexander |last2=Kemp |first2=Ian |author-link2=Ian Kemp |last3=Neighbour |first3=Oliver |author-link3=Oliver Neighbour |last4=Miller |first4=Karl |author-link4=Karl Miller |last5=Wood |first5=Hugh |author-link5=Hugh Wood |last6=Matthews |first6=David |author-link6=David Matthews (composer) |last7=Maconie |first7=Robin |author-link7=Robin Maconie |last8=Payne |first8=Anthony |author-link8=Anthony Payne |date=April 2010 |title=Daivd Drew: Tributes & Memories |journal=] |volume=64 |issue=252 |pages=14–20 |doi=10.1017/S0040298210000136 |jstor=40794440 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}

:'''Reviews'''
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=December 1960 |title=Review: Harmony without Function |journal=] |volume=101 |issue=1414 |page=762 |jstor=948913 |doi=10.2307/948913 |ref=no }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=November 1963 |title=Review: Schoenberg Exercises |journal=] |volume=104 |issue=1449 |pages=795–796 |jstor=950161 |doi=10.2307/950161 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=November 1964 |title=Review: Schoenberg's Letters |journal=] |volume=105 |issue=1461 |pages=820–821 |jstor=950438 |doi=10.2307/950438 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=January 1968 |title=Review: Schoenberg Fundamentals |journal=] |volume=109 |issue=1499 |pages=35–36 |jstor=951415 |doi=10.2307/951415 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=September 1975 |title=Review: ''Style and Idea'' |journal=] |issue=114 |pages=25–28 |jstor=943695 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}
* {{cite journal |last=Goehr |first=Alexander |date=March 1981 |title=Review: ''The Letters of Claudio Monteverdi'' |journal=] |issue=136 |pages=25–28 |jstor=946378 |ref=no |author-mask=2 }}

== Honours ==
Goehr was an honorary member of the ] and a Churchill Fellow.{{sfn|Peter|2024}} In 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the ].{{sfn|University of Plymouth|2024}} He became an honorary member of the ]. His manuscripts are held by the ] in Berlin.{{sfn|Peter|2024}}

== References ==
{{reflist|20em}}

=== Cited sources ===
* {{cite journal |last=Boynton |first=Neil |date=July–October 1992 |title=Alexander Goehr: A Checklist of His Writings and Broadcast Talks |journal=] |volume=11 |issue=2/3 |pages=201–208 |jstor=854026 |doi=10.2307/854026 }}
* {{cite news
| last = Clements
| first = Andrew
| url = https://www.theguardian.com/music/article/2024/aug/27/alexander-goehr-death-composer-whose-influence-on-20th-century-british-music-cannot-be-underestimated
| title = Alexander Goehr: composer who brought European avant garde sensibilities to stuffy 50s Britain
| newspaper = ]
| date = 27 August 2024
| language = en
| access-date = 29 August 2024
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Goehr
| first = Alexander
| editor-last = Puffett
| editor-first = Derrick
| chapter = A Letter to Pierre Boulez
| title = Finding the Key: Selected Writings of Alexander Goehr
| publisher = ]
| location = London
| date = 1998
| language = en
| isbn = 0-571-19310-2
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Goehr
| first = Alexander
| type = Program notes
| title = The Death of Moses
| publisher = ]
| date = 2 August 1992
| language = en
| page = 8
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Goehr
| first = Alexander
| type = Program notes
| title = Arianna
| publisher = ]
| date = September 1995
| language = en
}}
* {{cite news
| last = Grünzweig
| first = Werner
| url = https://www.wolke-verlag.de/musikbuecher/werner-gruenzweig-alexander-goehr/
| title = Alexander Goehr / "Fings ain't wot they used t'be"
| publisher = Wolke-Verlag
| date = 2012
| language = en
| access-date = 1 September 2024
}}
* {{cite news
| last = Hoffman
| first = Gary
| url = https://operatoday.com/2010/10/promised_end_english_touring_opera/
| title = Alexander Goehr (1932–2024)
| work = Opera Today
| date = October 2010
| language = en
| access-date = 30 August 2024
}}
* {{cite book
| last = Holloway
| first = Robin
| author-link = Robin Holloway
| editor-last = Latham
| editor-first = Alison
| url = https://searchworks.stanford.edu/view/5559087
| title = Sing, Ariel : Essays and Thoughts for Alexander Goehr's Seventieth Birthday
| publisher = ]
| location = ] <!-- ] -->
| date = 2003
| language = en
| pages = 3–4
| isbn = 978-0-7546-3497-3
}}
* {{cite web
| last = Peter
| first = Christopher
| url = https://www.schott-music.com/en/blog/alexander-goehr-1932-2024/
| title = Alexander Goehr (1932–2024)
| publisher = ]
| date = 26 August 2024
| language = en
| access-date = 26 August 2024
}}
* {{cite encyclopedia |last=Williams |first=Nicholas |year=2001 |encyclopedia=] |title=Goehr, (Peter) Alexander |publisher=] |location=Oxford |doi=10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.60000200868 |isbn=978-1-56159-263-0 |url-access=subscription |url=https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-60000200868 }} {{Grove Music subscription}}
* {{cite encyclopedia
| last = Williams
| first = Nicholas
| url = https://www.mgg-online.com/article?id=mgg05431&v=1.2&rs=id-8cdff7d9-2c46-33c1-5fa9-2ce46acc7bb9
| title = Alexander Goehr
| encyclopedia = ]
| date = 2017
| language = de
| access-date = 27 August 2024
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://amershammuseum.org/history/people/20th-century/allan-gray-josef-zmigrod/
| title = Allan Gray (Josef Zmigrod)
| website = amershammuseum.org
| access-date = 26 August 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|Amersham Museum|2024}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://www.bcmg.org.uk/to-these-dark-steps
| title = To These Dark Steps
| work = ]
| date = 2024
| access-date = 1 September 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|Birmingham Contemporary Music Group|2024}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://britishmusiccollection.org.uk/score/kantan-and-damask-drum
| title = Kantan and Damask Drum
| work = British Music Collection
| date = 2024
| access-date = 1 September 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|British Music Collection|2024}}
}}
* {{cite web
| title = Alexander Goehr dies aged 92
| work = British Music Society
| url = https://www.britishmusicsociety.co.uk/2024/08/13206/
| date = 27 August 2024
| access-date = 27 August 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|British Music Society|2024}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = http://www.mus.cam.ac.uk/directory/alexander-goehr
| title = Alexander Goehr
| publisher = ]
| date = 26 August 2024
| language = en
| access-date = 26 August 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|Cambridge|2024}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://internationales-musikinstitut.de/content/uploads/imd-1946-66chronikdarmstaedterferienkurse.pdf
| title = Ferienkurse für internationale neue Musik
| work = Internationales Musikinstitut
| date = 2024
| language = en
| access-date = 12 July 2019
| ref = {{sfnref|Internationales Musikinstitut|2024}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://en.schott-music.com/shop/arianna-no158347.html
| title = Arianna
| publisher = ]
| date = 2019
| language = en
| access-date = 12 July 2019
| ref = {{sfnref|Schott|2019}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://www.schott-music.com/en/person/alexander-goehr
| title = Alexander Goehr
| publisher = ]
| language = en
| access-date = 26 August 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|Schott|2024}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://www.schott-music.com/en/sonata-about-jerusalem-no152084.html
| title = Sonata about Jerusalem
| publisher = ]
| language = en
| access-date = 18 April 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|Schott Jerusalem|2025}}
}}
* {{cite news
| url = https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2024/08/27/alexander-goehr-composer-manchester-birtwistle/
| title = Alexander Goehr, last of the Manchester School composers, whose music felt like 'thinking in notes' – obituary
| publisher = ]
| date = 29 August 2024
| language = en
| access-date = 29 August 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|Telegraph|2024}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://www.cam.ac.uk/news/kantan-and-damask-drum
| title = Kantan and Damask Drum
| date = 6 March 2002
| publisher = ]
| language = en
| access-date = 1 September 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|University of Cambridge|2002}}
}}
* {{cite web
| url = https://www.plymouth.ac.uk/about-us/honorary-doctorates
| title = University of Plymouth honorary doctorates
| publisher = ]
| language = en
| access-date = 12 June 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|University of Plymouth|2024}}
}}

== Further reading ==
* {{cite book |last=Griffiths |first=Paul |author-link=Paul Griffiths (writer) |year=1985 |title=New Sounds, New Personalities: British Composers of the 1980s |chapter=Alexander Goehr |publisher=] |location=London |isbn=978-0-571-10061-3 |url=https://archive.org/details/newsoundsnewpers0000grif/mode/2up |url-access=registration |pages=13–21 }}
* Latham, Alison (ed.). 2003. ''Sing, Ariel: Essays and Thoughts for Alexander Goehr's Seventieth Birthday''. With compact disc. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate. {{ISBN|0-7546-3497-3}}
* ] (ed.). 1980. ''The Music of Alexander Goehr: Interviews and Articles''. Schott & Co Ltd. {{ISBN|978-0-901-93805-3}}
* {{cite book |last=Van Zandt |first=Jack |others=Foreword by Sally Groves |year=2023 |title=Composing a Life: Teachers, Mentors and Models |publisher=Carcanet |location=Manchester |isbn=978-1-80017-357-6 |oclc=1400116589 }}

== External links ==
*
* {{cite web | title=Alexander Goehr | website=LoganArts Management Ltd | date=20 October 2024 | url=https://loganartsmanagement.com/ | access-date=2 January 2025}}
* {{IMDb name|0324372}}
* {{discogs artist|Alexander Goehr}}
* {{YouTube|7Qpyp40Q1ng|Interview with Alexander Goehr}}

{{Alexander Goehr}}
{{New Music Manchester}}
{{portal bar|Biography|Classical music|England|Music|Opera|United Kingdom}}
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Latest revision as of 05:22, 19 January 2025

English composer and academic (1932–2024)

Alexander Goehr
Colour photograph of a clean-shaven, smiling, white-haired man, resting his chin on his hand, with book shelves in the backgroundGoehr in 2007, by Etan Tal
BornPeter Alexander Goehr
(1932-08-10)10 August 1932
Berlin, Germany
Died26 August 2024(2024-08-26) (aged 92)
Cambridgeshire, England
EducationRoyal Northern College of Music
Occupations
  • Composer
  • academic teacher
OrganizationsUniversity of Cambridge
WorksList of compositions
Children4, including Lydia Goehr
ParentWalter Goehr

Peter Alexander Goehr (German: ['ɡøːɐ̯]; 10 August 1932 – 26 August 2024) was a German-born English composer of contemporary classical music and academic teacher. A long-time professor of music at the University of Cambridge, Goehr influenced many notable contemporary composers, including Thomas Adès, Julian Anderson, George Benjamin and Robin Holloway.

Born in Berlin, Goehr grew up in London surrounded by musicians, including his father, the conductor Walter Goehr. Goehr emerged as a central figure in the Manchester School of post-war British composers, including Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle, in his early twenties. He joined Olivier Messiaen's masterclass in Paris in 1955. Back in England and working for the BBC, he experienced an international breakthrough in 1957 with his cantata The Deluge in 1957, conducted by his father Walter Goehr. He composed Little Symphony in 1963 as a memorial to his father, arriving at a serialism that allowed expressive freedom. He combined avant-garde techniques with elements from music history in works of many genres including the Piano Trio (1966), his first opera, Arden Must Die (1966), the music-theatre piece Triptych (1968–70), the orchestral Metamorphosis/Dance (1974), and the String Quartet No. 3 (1975). He founded the Music Theatre Ensemble in 1967.

Goehr first lectured in the United States, at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston from 1968 and at Yale University, then at the Southampton University from 1970. He was professor of music at the University of Leeds from 1971 and at Cambridge University from 1976 to 1999. Goehr returned to a more traditional way of composing with Psalm IV in 1976. He wrote the opera Arianna in 1995, setting the libretto of Monteverdi's lost opera. He focused on chamber music in later years.

Life and career

Youth and studies

Peter Alexander Goehr was born in Berlin, on 10 August 1932. He came from a musical Jewish family; his mother Laelia (née Rivlin), from Kyiv, was a pianist who had appeared with Vladimir Horowitz at age 12, and his father Walter Goehr was a Schoenberg pupil and pioneering conductor of Schoenberg, Messiaen and Monteverdi. The family moved to Britain a few months after the boy was born. His father became an influential conductor in London, leading the world premiere of Tippett's A Child of Our Time. The boy attended Berkhamsted School in Hertfordshire, where he was known as "an anti-establishment political activist, flirting with the Communist Party". He received lessons from a composer colleague of his father, Allan Gray. Although these premises pointed to Goehr's future in music, his efforts as a composer were not encouraged by his father.

Goehr worked for the music publisher Schott after leaving school. A girl he met on the train to work recruited him for a left-wing Zionist party, and he spent two years in a training kibbutz in Essex. He was then sent to Manchester for political work, where he wrote his first piece, described as "a sort of Zionist pageant with songs".

Goehr studied composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music from 1952 to 1955, with Richard Hall. He became friends there with Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, trumpeter Elgar Howarth and pianist John Ogdon. He influenced Davies, a clarinetist, and Birtwhistle who studied to teach, to focus on composition. The five founded the New Music Manchester Group, a "distinctive, progressive force in what was the generally parochial and conservative world of British music in the early 1950s", as Andrew Davies phrased it in 2024. The group performed not only works by its members but also introduced compositions of the European avant-garde.

A seminal event in Goehr's development was hearing the UK premiere of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony in 1953, conducted by his father. The interest in non-Western music (for instance Indian raga) sparked by the meeting with Messiaen's music combined with the interest in medieval modes shared with Davies and Birtwistle largely influenced Goehr's first musical imaginings. His first acknowledged compositions date from these years: Songs for Babel (1951) and the Piano Sonata, Op. 2, which was dedicated to the memory of Prokofiev. The piano sonata in one movement was played at the Darmstädter Ferienkurse in 1954 by Hedi Stock-Hug.

In 1955, Goehr left Manchester to go to Paris and study with Messiaen at the Conservatoire de Paris, and he studied counterpoint privately with Yvonne Loriod. He remained in Paris until October 1956, becoming friends with Pierre Boulez and involved in the serialist avant-garde movement of those years. Goehr experimented with Boulez's technique of bloc sonore. Eventually Goehr left pure serialism, which he came to consider a cult modelled after twelve-tone works by Anton Webern, forbidding references to any other music:

Choice, taste and style were dirty words; personal style, one could argue, is necessarily a product of repetition, and the removal of repetition is, or was believed to be, a cornerstone of classical serialism as defined by Webern's late works All this may well be seen as a kind of negative style precept: a conscious elimination of sensuous, dramatic or expressive elements, indeed of everything that in the popular view constitutes music.

Return to the UK, 1956–76

For Goehr's notable students, see List of music students by teacher: G to J § Alexander Goehr.

Upon his return to Britain, Goehr experienced an international breakthrough as a composer with the performance of his cantata The Deluge in 1957, conducted by his father. The work was inspired by writings of Sergei Eisenstein. While the music could be seen as derived from Webern's twelve-tone cantatas, it strives for the harmonic tautness and sonority of Prokofiev's cantatas based on Eisenstein. It was regarded "to have more harmonic coherence and considerably more dramatic impact than most serial music of the time", as his obituary in The Telegraph noted.

Goehr worked for the BBC as a musical assistant from 1960 to 1967. He received two more cantata commissions from the BBC; Sutter's Gold for choir, baritone and orchestra was no success. Singers found it impossibly difficult to perform, and critics dismissed it when it was first performed at the 1961 Leeds Festival. Goehr listened to criticism and described his position:

If one wishes, one can just say that music has to be autonomous and self sufficient; but how to sustain such a view when people who sing for pleasure are deprived of true satisfaction in the performance of new work? We can talk about music in terms of the ideas that inform it; we can talk about structure and techniques; we can talk about aesthetics or ethics or politics. But we have to remember that while all this, realistic or not, is of great importance to composers and to anyone who likes to follow what composers are doing, what is being discussed is not the music itself but the location of the music, the place where it exists.

Goehr was encouraged by his friend, the choral conductor John Alldis, to compose more choral music such as Two Choruses in 1962, which used a combination serialism and modality, to become an approach for years to come. His quest for expressiveness led him to his Little Symphony, Op. 15 (1963), composed as a memorial to his father who had unexpectedly died. It is based upon a chord-sequence derived from music from Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition, "Catacombæ" and "Cum mortuis in lingua mortua", of which his father had written a harmonic analysis. Boulez, who had facilitated performances of Goehr's works, refused to program Little Symphony. Goehr composed works of many genres including the Piano Trio (1966). He wrote Romanza, a cello concerto, in 1968 for Jacqueline du Pré and Daniel Barenboim. The orchestral Metamorphosis/Dance was premiered in 1974 by the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Bernard Haitink. He composed the String Quartet No. 3 in 1975–76.

Besetzungszettel for the premiere of Arden Must Die

Goehr founded the Wardour Castle Summer School in Wiltshire with Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle in 1964, which led to a focus on opera and music theatre. In 1966 he wrote his first opera, Arden Must Die, based on a compilation of a Jacobean morality play by Erich Fried. The opera was premiered in German at the Hamburg State Opera in 1967.

In 1967 he founded the Music Theatre Ensemble, as a pioneer of musical theatre in England; in 1971 he completed a three-part cycle for music theatre Triptych of three works, Naboth's Vineyard (1968) and Shadowplay (1970), both explicitly written for the Music Theatre Ensemble, while the third part, the cantata Sonata about Jerusalem was commissioned by Testimonium in Jerusalem and performed there in 1971 by the Israel Chamber Orchestra, conducted by Gary Bertini.

From the end of the 1960s Goehr held prestigious academic appointments. In 1968–69 he was the first composer-in-residence at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, and went on to teach at Yale University as an associate professor of music. Goehr returned to Britain as a visiting lecturer at Southampton University (1970–71). In 1971 he was appointed West Riding Professor of Music at the University of Leeds. In 1976 Goehr became Professor of Music at Cambridge University and taught there until he retired in 1999. His students included some of England's most notable composers to come, such as Thomas Adès, Julian Anderson, George Benjamin and Robin Holloway. In Cambridge he became a fellow of Trinity Hall.

1976–1996

In 1976, Goehr composed Psalm IV in a "bright modal sonority", in a departure from serialism, towards more transparent sounds. He found a fusion of modal harmonics and the tradition of figured bass. Over the following twenty years he applied this approach to traditional genres such as symphonies, composing Sinfonia in 1979 and Symphony with Chaconne in 1987. In 1985 he composed ... a musical offering (J. S. B. 1985) ..., written in memory of Johann Sebastian Bach. It was premiered by Oliver Knussen, who remained a close collaborator.

Goehr focused especially on vocal music, with many works reflecting socio-political themes. The Death of Moses (1992) uses Moses' refusal to die as an allegory for the victims of the Holocaust, while the opera Behold the Sun (1985) deals with the violent revolution of the Anabaptists in Münster of 1543. Non-political vocal works include Sing, Ariel, recalling Messiaen's bird vocalization setting English poetry, and the 1995 opera Arianna to Ottavio Rinuccini's historic libretto for Monteverdi's lost L'Arianna, exploring the sounds of Italian Renaissance music. The opera was first performed at the Royal Opera House in London. His engagement with Monteverdi's music dates back to the cantata The Death of Moses, which he described as "Monteverdi heard through Varèse". He described his process for Arianna:

The impression I aim to create is one of transparency: the listener should perceive, both in the successive and simultaneous dimensions of the score, the old beneath the new and the new arising from the old. We are to see a mythological and ancient action, interpreted by a 17th-century poet in a modern theatre.

In 1987 the BBC invited Goehr to present the Reith Lectures. In a series of six lectures, titled The Survival of the Symphony he traces the importance of the symphony, and its apparent fall from grace in the 20th century.

Goehr's Colossos or Panic was premiered in 1992 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra conducted by Seiji Ozawa.

1996–2024

Although the last fifteen years of Goehr's output received less coverage in both academic analysis and performances, they represent an interesting phase of his work. He wrote the opera Kantan and Damask Drum in 1999, premiered at the Oper Dortmund. It combined two plays from the Japanese Noh theatre tradition, with a short kyogen humorous interlude; he adapted the Japanese texts that date back to the 15th century. The music is inspired by the relationship between music and drama found in Noh theatre.

In the years following, Goehr focused on chamber music, composing works of "unprecedented rhythmic and harmonic immediacy", such as the Piano Quintet in 2000 and the Fantasie for cello and piano in 2005, with sonorities reminiscent of Ravel. Marching to Carcassonne was written in 2003 for pianist Peter Serkin and the London Sinfonietta, alluding to neoclassicism. A set of piano pieces, Symmetry Disor.der Reach, recalling a Baroque suite, was premiered bv Huw Watkins in 2007. Manere for violin and clarinet (2008) is based on a fragment of medieval plainchant and explores musical ornamentation. Since Brass nor Stone for string quartet and percussion was inspired by Shakespeare's sonnet of the same name; it was written in 2008 in memory of Pavel Haas for percussionist Colin Currie and the Pavel Haas Quartet. It achieved the chamber category of the 2009 British Composer Awards. Goehr wrote …between the lines… in 2013 for the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin.

After a hiatus of almost ten years, Goehr returned to opera again with Promised End (2008–09), based on Shakespeare's King Lear. It was first performed by English Touring Opera in 2010. He wrote When Adam Fell simultaneously, a BBC commission for orchestra based on the chromatic bass from Bach's chorale setting "Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt", BWV 705, that Messiaen had pointed out to him. To These Dark Steps/The Fathers are Watching was written for tenor, children's choir and ensemble in 2011–12, setting texts by the Israeli poet Gabriel Levin about the bombing of the Gaza Strip during the Iraq War; it was premiered in a concert of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group conducted by Knussen marking Goehr's 80th birthday.

Largo Siciliano (2012) was a trio praised for its balance between violin, horn and piano. The chamber symphony ...between the lines... (2013), written on a commission from the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, is a monothematic work in four movements played without break, inspired by Schoenberg's Chamber Symphony, Op. 9. Two Sarabandes was composed for the Bamberg Symphony who premiered it conducted by Lahav Shani. A string quartet Ondering was premiered by the Villiers Quartet at the Royal Northern College of Music in 2023.

Goehr died at his home in Cambridgeshire on 26 August 2024, at the age of 92.

Works

Main article: List of compositions by Alexander Goehr

Musical style

Many of Goehr's works are studies in the synthesis of disparate elements. Examples include The Deluge (1957–58), which was inspired by Eisenstein's notes for a film, itself based on a writing by Leonardo da Vinci. Other works' inspirations range from the formal proportions of a late Beethoven piano sonata (Metamorphosis/Dance, 1973–74) to a painting by Goya (Colossus or Panic, 1990), to the sinister humour of Bertolt Brecht (Arden Must Die, 1966) or to the Japanese Noh theatre (Kantan and Damask Drum, 1999).

Just as The Deluge takes its cue from an unfinished project (Eisenstein never finished the planned film), many of Goehr's works include a synthesis of fragments or unfinished projects left by other artists. The cantata The Death of Moses resonates with Schoenberg's unfinished Moses und Aron; the opera Arianna (1995) is the setting of the libretto of a lost opera by Monteverdi, and posthumously published prose fragments by Franz Kafka inspired or appear in Das Gesetz der Quadrille (1979).

On a strictly technical musical level, Goehr's tried unifying the contrapuntal rigour and motivic workings of the First Viennese School and Second Viennese School with a strong sense of harmonic pacing and sonority. Goehr remained indebted to Messiaen, apparent in his lifelong commitment to modality as an integration of serialism and tonality, as well as in melodic writing inspired by bird-song.

Recordings

  • Goehr, Alexander; Naxos Digital Services US (2013), GOEHR, A.: Chamber music (Since Brass, nor Stone ...) (Currie, Nash Ensemble, Pavel Haas Quartet), Hong Kong: Naxos Digital Services US Inc, OCLC 885069785
  • Goehr, Alexander; Naxos Digital Services US (2013), GOEHR, A.: Marching to Carcassonne, Hong Kong: Naxos Digital Services US Inc, OCLC 885065562
  • Southwest Chamber Music (Musical group); Hollander, John; Bryn-Julson, Phyllis; Foschia, Jim; Ginstling, Gary; Horn, Stuart; Lashinsky, Leslie; Von der Schmidt, Jeff; Gottschewski, Agnes; Karlin, Jan; Blankenburg, Gayle; Mosko, Stephen L.; Goehr, Alexander; Carter, Elliott (2009), Alexander Goehr, Elliott Carter, Hong Kong: Naxos Digital Services/Cambria, OCLC 704927535
  • Goehr, Alexander; Kessler, Susan; Vignoles, Roger; Kafka, Franz; Lindsay String Quartet (1983). Alexander Goehr / CD, Das Gesetz der Quadrille : op. 41. / Alexander Goehr (in undetermined language). Mainz: Wergo. OCLC 1050671457.
  • Goehr, Alexander; Becker, Daniel; Kam, Ning; Carroll, Thomas; Elias String Quartet (2008), Music by Alexander Goehr (in no linguistic content), London: Meridian, OCLC 678574775
  • Goehr, Alexander; Atherton, David; Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (1982), Metarmorphosis / op. 36 / Alexander Goehr. The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. Conducted by David Atherton (in undetermined language), Unicorn-Kanchana, OCLC 916390495
  • Goehr, Alexander; Watkins, Huw (2007), Symmetry disorders reach (in no linguistic content), Mainz, Germany: Wergo, OCLC 811246845

Writings

Sources:

Books
Articles
Reviews

Honours

Goehr was an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a Churchill Fellow. In 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from the University of Plymouth. He became an honorary member of the Royal Philharmonic Society. His manuscripts are held by the Akademie der Künste in Berlin.

References

  1. ^ British Music Society 2024.
  2. ^ Williams 2017.
  3. ^ Peter 2024.
  4. ^ Telegraph 2024.
  5. ^ Clements 2024.
  6. ^ Schott 2024.
  7. ^ Cambridge 2024.
  8. Amersham Museum 2024.
  9. Internationales Musikinstitut 2024.
  10. Grünzweig 2012.
  11. Goehr 1998.
  12. Goehr 1998, p. 5.
  13. Goehr 1998, pp. 291–292.
  14. Schott Jerusalem 2025.
  15. Schott 2019.
  16. Goehr 1992.
  17. Goehr 1995.
  18. ^ University of Cambridge 2002.
  19. British Music Collection 2024.
  20. Hoffman 2010.
  21. Birmingham Contemporary Music Group 2024.
  22. Holloway 2003.
  23. Boynton 1992, pp. 201–208.
  24. Williams 2001.
  25. University of Plymouth 2024.

Cited sources

Further reading

External links

Alexander Goehr
List of compositions
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