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{{Short description|English composer and academic (1932–2024)}} {{Short description|English composer and academic (1932–2024)}}
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{{EngvarB|date=October 2017}} {{EngvarB|date=October 2017}}
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| name = Alexander Goehr | name = Alexander Goehr
| image = Composer Alexander Goehr.jpg | 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
| alt =
| caption = Goehr in 2007 | caption = Goehr in 2007, by Etan Tal
| birth_name = Peter Alexander Goehr | birth_name = Peter Alexander Goehr
| birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1932|08|10}} | birth_date = {{birth date|df=yes|1932|08|10}}
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'''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 ]-->. '''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 ]-->.


Born in Berlin, Goehr's childhood was spent 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), the 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. 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.


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. 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.
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== Life and career == == Life and career ==
=== Youth and studies === === 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 classically trained 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 when the boy was only a few months old.{{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 grew up in a household populated by composers, including ] and ]. 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?--> 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}} 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}}


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|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Williams|2017}}{{sfn|Peter|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}} 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}}


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}} 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}}


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|2024}}<!--, 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}} can't find ref for that detail GA--> 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:

Eventually Goehr's sensibility parted from Boulez's serialism. What disturbed Goehr was mainly his perception that by the mid-fifties, serialism had become a cult of stylistic purity, modelling itself on the ] works of ]. Reference to any other music was forbidden and despised, and spontaneous choice replaced with the combinatorial laws of serialism:
{{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}}}} {{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}}}}


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{{For LMST|Alexander|Goehr}} {{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 ambitious work was inspired by the writings of ] one of Goehr's many extra-musical sources of inspiration. The soundworld could be seen to have derived from the twelve-tone cantatas of ], but it implicitly strives for the imposing harmonic tautness and full sonority of Prokofiev's Eisenstein cantatas. 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}} 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}}


Goehr worked for the ] as 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 the position of the ] composer and his music: 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:


{{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}}}} {{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 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 1962, which used for the first time the combination of ] and serialism which was to remain his main technical resource for the next 14 years.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} His search for a model of serialism that could allow for expressive freedom led him to his ''Little Symphony'', Op. 15 (1963). He composed it as a memorial to his father who had unexpectedly died, and it is based upon a chord-sequence subtly modelled upon (but not quoting) the "]" movement from Mussorgsky's ''Pictures at an Exhibition'', to which his father had devoted a harmonic analysis.{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}{{sfn|Goehr|1998|pp=291–292}} This flexible approach to serialism, integrating harmonic background with bloc sonore and modality was representative of the type of writing that Goehr developed as an alternative to the strictures of total serialism. It was no coincidence that Boulez, who had earlier facilitated the performance of Goehr's music, 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 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, and most importantly, the beginning of Goehr's preoccupation with opera and ]. In 1966 he wrote his first opera, '']'', a ] setting{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} of a ] morality play, a text compiled by ].{{sfn|Schott|2024}} <!-- which had uncomfortably contemporary political and social resonances. Goehr's striking ... in rhyming duplets makes the most of the idea of simple musical ideas that are continually distorted to a sinister and sarcastic effect.{{cn|date=September 2024}}--> The opera was premiered at the ] in 1967.{{sfn|Schott|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 later ''Sonata about Jerusalem'' (1971) was commissioned by Testimonium in Jerusalem and performed there by the ] and ]. 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}}


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 visiting lecturer at ] (1970–71). In 1971 he was appointed West Riding Professor of Music at the ].{{sfn|Cambridge|2024}} Goehr left Leeds in 1976 when he was appointed Professor of Music at ]{{sfn|Peter|2024}} where he taught until his retirement 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 fellow of ].{{sfn|Cambridge|2024}} 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 === === 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}} 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 ]' angry refusal to die as an allegory for the destiny of the victims of the ]; while the cantata ''Babylon the Great is Fallen'' (1979) and the opera '']'' (1985){{sfn|Telegraph|2024}}—for which ''Babylon the Great'' can be considered to be a sketch study—both explore the themes of violent revolution via the texts from the ] uprising 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}} ''Arianna'' is also the piece that most overtly displays Goehr's intent to turn his reinvention of the past into a musical process that the audience can hear and identify: 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}}}} {{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}}}}


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=== 1996–2024 === === 1996–2024 ===
Although the last fifteen years of Goehr's output received less generous coverage in terms of both academic writing and frequency of performances, they represent an interesting phase of composition. He wrote the opera '']'' in 1999,{{sfn|Telegraph|2024}} premiered at the ].{{sfn|Schott|2024}} It combined two plays from the Japanese ] theatre tradition, separated by a short ] humorous interlude, with Japanese texts dated back to the 15th century adapted by the composer.{{sfn|University of Cambridge|2002}}{{sfn|British Music Collection|2024}} The music is inspired by the relationship between music and drama in Noh theatre.{{sfn|University of Cambridge|2002}} 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 following years, Goehr focused on ].{{sfn|Schott|2024}} <!--This was perhaps a response to the difficulties he experienced in the staging of his operas: the limited amount of financial support needed for a chamber music performance allowed for music and performance venues that stray off the beaten path while allowing the composer more control over the quality of the performance.<ref>Interview given on 3 November 2007 for the BBC Music Matters Series.</ref>--> He composed 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, based on a fragment of medieval ], was a typical foray into the art of musical ], written in 2008. ''Since Brass nor Stone'' for string quartet and percussion, written in 2008 as a memorial to ] for percussionist ] and the ], was inspired by a ] from which it borrows its title. It achieved the chamber category of the 2009 ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}}<!-- One reviewer described its soundworld as "hiccupping fugal patterns overlaid with intricate, delicate percussion a magical garden of dappled textures".<ref>Geoff Brown, review of the premiere of ''Since Brass Nor Stone'' on 10 July 2008 in St Andrew Holborn, London; published in The Times, 16 July 2008</ref>--> Goehr wrote ''…between the lines…'' in 2013 for the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin.{{sfn|Peter|2024}} 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 an almost ten-year hiatus from the operatic medium, Goehr returned to the form with ''Promised End'' (2008–09), first performed by ] in 2010 and based on Shakespeare's ].{{sfn|Hoffman|2010}} In the same year came ''When Adam Fell'', a ] commission for orchestra based on the chromatic bass from the Bach ] "]" BWV 705, first introduced to Goehr by Messiaen. ''To These Dark Steps/The Fathers are Watching'' (2011–12), written for tenor, children's choir and ensemble,{{sfn|Peter|2024}} sets texts by Israeli poet ] concerning the bombing of Gaza during the Iraq war and 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}} 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 mastery of aural balance between the unusual combination of violin, horn and piano.<!-- "from opening crepuscular melancholy to an ending which just seems to vanish into oblivion".<ref>Christopher Morley, review of the premiere of ''Largo Siciliano'' on 5 July 2012 as part of Cheltenham Music Festival; published in Birmingham Post, 13 July 2012</ref>--> The chamber symphony ''...between the lines...'' (2013), written on a commission from the ], was a monothematic work of four movements played without a break, in acknowledgement of Schoenberg's ] op. 9. ''Two Sarabandes'' was composed for the ] and premiered by them conducted by ].{{sfn|Peter|2024}} A string quartet ''Ondering'' was premiered by the ] at the ] in 2023.{{sfn|Peter|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}} 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}}
Line 87: Line 87:
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).--> 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}} He went to Paris not only to attend the classes of Messiaen, but also to study ] and serialism with Schoenberg scholar and composer ]. Goehr remained indebted to Messiaen, apparent his lifelong commitment to modality as an integration to both serialism and to tonality, as well as his often bird-song inspired ] writing, particularly in the cantata ''Sing, Ariel''.{{sfn|Peter|2024}} 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 === === Recordings ===
Schott Music provided a full discography by work.<ref></ref>

* {{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.: 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 | 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}}
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* {{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 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=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=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 == == Writings ==
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== Honours == == Honours ==
Goehr was an honorary member of the ] and 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}} 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 == == References ==
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| title = Alexander Goehr / "Fings ain't wot they used t'be" | title = Alexander Goehr / "Fings ain't wot they used t'be"
| publisher = Wolke-Verlag | publisher = Wolke-Verlag
| date = 2024 | date = 2012
| language = en | language = en
| access-date = 1 September 2024 | access-date = 1 September 2024
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| access-date = 26 August 2024 | access-date = 26 August 2024
| ref = {{sfnref|Schott|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 * {{cite news
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== External links == == External links ==
* *
* {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110221053330/http://www.loganartsmanagement.com/artists/alexander-goehr |date=21 February 2011 }} on LoganArts Management's website * {{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}} * {{IMDb name|0324372}}
* {{discogs artist|Alexander Goehr}} * {{discogs artist|Alexander Goehr}}
* {{YouTube|9d_JSlamoH0|Alexander Goehr, Composing a Life: Teachers, Mentors, and Models by Jack Van Zandt Online Launch (2024)}} * {{YouTube|7Qpyp40Q1ng|Interview with Alexander Goehr}}


{{Alexander Goehr}} {{Alexander Goehr}}

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
Music
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