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Alexander Goehr

Peter Alexander Goehr (German: [ɡøːɐ̯]; born 10 August 1932) is an English composer and academic.

Alexander Goehr

(1932-08-10) 10 August 1932

Berlin, Germany

Lydia Goehr, Julia Goehr, Clare Goehr

Walter Goehr
Laelia Goehr

Goehr was born in Berlin in 1932, the son of the conductor and composer Walter Goehr, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. In his early twenties he emerged as a central figure in the Manchester School of post-war British composers. In 1955–56 he joined Olivier Messiaen's masterclass in Paris. Although in the early sixties Goehr was considered a leader of the avant-garde, his oblique attitude to modernism—and to any movement or school whatsoever—soon became evident. In a sequence of works including the Piano Trio (1966), the opera Arden Must Die (1966), the music-theatre piece Triptych (1968–70), the orchestral Metamorphosis/Dance (1974), and the String Quartet No. 3 (1975–76), Goehr's personal voice was revealed, arising from a highly individual use of the serial method and a fusion of elements from his double heritage of Schoenberg and Messiaen. Since the luminous 'white-note' Psalm IV setting of 1976, Goehr has urged a return to more traditional ways of composing, using familiar materials as objects of musical speculation, in contrast to the technological priorities of much present-day musical research.[1]

Life and works[edit]

Youth and studies[edit]

Alexander Goehr was born on 10 August 1932 in Berlin, and his family moved to Britain when he was only a few months old. Alexander came from an extremely musical family: his mother Laelia was a classically trained pianist, and his father was a Schoenberg pupil and pioneering conductor of Schoenberg, Messiaen (he conducted the UK premiere of the Turangalîla Symphony in 1953) and Monteverdi. As a child, Alexander grew up in a household permanently populated by composers, including Mátyás Seiber and Michael Tippett. He also received lessons from a composer colleague of his father, Allan Gray.[2]


Although these premises point all too clearly to Goehr's future as a composer, his efforts as a composer were not much encouraged by his father, and he initially intended to study classics at Oxford University, but went instead to study composition at the Royal Manchester College of Music, with Richard Hall.


In his composition classes Goehr became friends with young composers Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle and pianist John Ogdon, with whom he founded the New Music Manchester Group. A seminal event in Goehr's development was hearing the UK premiere of Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony, 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 Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle largely influenced Goehr's first musical imaginings. His first acknowledged compositions date from these years: Songs for Babel (1951) and the Sonata for Piano, Op. 2, which was dedicated to the memory of Prokofiev, who had died that year.


In 1955, Goehr left Manchester to go to Paris and study with Messiaen, and he remained in Paris until October 1956. The music scene of Paris would make a great impression on Goehr, who became good friends with Pierre Boulez and was involved in the serialist avant-garde movement of those years. Goehr experimented with Boulez's technique of bloc sonore, 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 Marigny Theatre in Paris.


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 twelve-tone works of Anton Webern. Reference to any other music was forbidden and despised, and spontaneous choice replaced with the combinatorial laws of serialism:

Musical style[edit]

Eclecticism and synthesis[edit]

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, 1973-4) 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).[13]


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 inspire or appear in Das Gesetz der Quadrille (1979), Sur terre en l'air (1997) and Schlussgesang (1990).


On a strictly technical musical level, Goehr's endeavour has long been that of 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. It is indicative that Goehr should go to Paris not only to attend the classes of Messiaen at the Paris Conservatoire, but also to study counterpoint and serialism with Schoenberg scholar and composer Max Deutsch; even more indicative is the anecdote that Deutsch threw Goehr out of his house upon hearing that the young man intended to study with Messiaen as well as with him. Goehr's indebtedness to Messiaen is very strong, as is apparent in Goehr's lifelong commitment to modality as an integration to both serialism and to tonality, as well as his often bird-song inspired melodic writing, particularly in the cantata Sing, Ariel.

1951: Songs of Babel

1952: Sonata for piano, Op. 2

1954: Fantasias for clarinet and piano, Op. 3

1957: Capriccio for piano, Op. 6

1957-8: The Deluge, Op. 7

1959: Variations for flute and piano, Op. 8; Four Songs from the Japanese, Op. 9; Sutter's Gold, Op. 10

1956–57: String Quartet No. 1

1959–61: Hecuba's Lament, Op. 12

1961: Suite, Op. 11

1961–62: Violin Concerto, Op. 13

1962: Two Choruses, Op. 14

1963: Virtutes, a cycle of nine songs and melodramas; Little Symphony, Op. 15; Little Music for Strings, Op. 16

1964: Five Poems and an Epigram of William Blake, Op. 17; Three Pieces for Piano, Op. 18

1965: Pastorals, Op. 19

1966: Piano Trio, Op. 20; (Opera), Op. 21

Arden Must Die

1966–67: Warngedichte (for mezzo-soprano and piano), Op. 22

1967: Three Pieces from Arden Must Die, Op. 21a; String Quartet No. 2, Op. 23

1968: Romanza for cello and orchestra, Op. 24; Naboth's Vineyard, Op. 25

1969: Konzertstück, Op. 26; Nonomiya, Op. 27; Paraphrase for clarinet, Op. 28; Symphony in One Movement, Op. 29

1970: Shadowplay, Op. 30; Concerto for Eleven, Op. 32

1971: Sonata about Jerusalem, Op. 31

1972: Piano Concerto, Op. 33

1973–74: Chaconne for Wind, Op. 34

1974: Lyric Pieces, Op. 35; Metamorphosis/Dance, Op. 36

1976: String Quartet No. 3, Op. 37; Psalm IV, Op. 38a; Fugue on the Notes of Psalm IV, Op. 38b

1977: Romanza on the Notes of Psalm IV, Op. 38c

1979: Babylon the Great is Fallen (cantata), Op. 40; Chaconne for organ, Op. 34a; Das Gesetz der Quadrille, Op. 41; Sinfonia, Op. 42

1981: Deux Etudes, Op. 43; (dramatic scena), Op. 44a

Behold the Sun

1984: Sonata for cello and piano, Op. 45

1985: Behold the Sun (opera); ...a musical offering (J.S.B. 1985)..., Op. 46; Two Imitations of Baudelaire, Op. 47

1986: Symphony with Chaconne, Op. 48

1988: Eve Dreams in Paradise, Op. 49; ...in real time, Op. 50

1990: Sing Ariel, Op. 51; String Quartet No. 4, Op. 52

1992: The Death of Moses (cantata), Op. 53; Colossus or Panic for orchestra, Op. 55

1993: The mouse metamorphosed into a maid for unaccompanied voice, Op. 54

1995: Arianna, Op. 58

1996: Schlussgesang for orchestra, Op. 61; Quintet Five objects Darkly, Op. 62

1996: Three Songs, Op. 60

1997: Idées Fixes for ensemble, Op. 63; Sur terre, en l'air, Op. 64

1999: Kantan and Damask Drum

2000: Piano Quintet, Op. 69; Suite, Op. 70

2002: ...a second musical offering, Op. 71; ...around Stravinsky, Op. 72; Symmetry Disorders Reach for piano, Op. 73

2003: Marching to Carcassonne, Op. 74; Adagio (Autoporträt), Op. 75

2004: Dark Days, Op. 76

2005: Fantasie, Op. 77

2006: Broken Lute, Op. 78

2008: Since Brass, nor Stone..., fantasy for string quartet and percussion, Op. 80; Manere, duo for clarinet and violin, Op. 81; Overture for ensemble, Op. 82

2008–09: Promised End, opera in twenty-four preludes (scenes) to words from Shakespeare's King Lear, Op. 83

2009: Broken Psalm for mixed choir (SATB) and organ, Op. 84

2010: Turmmusik (Tower Music) for two clarinets, brass and strings with baritone solo, Op. 85

2011: When Adam Fell for orchestra, Op. 89

2011–12: To These Dark Steps / The Fathers are Watching for tenor, children's choir and ensemble, Op. 90

2013: ... between the Lines Chamber symphony for eleven players, Op. 94

2014–15: Verschwindendes Wort for mezzo-soprano, tenor and ensemble, Op. 97

2015–16: Two Sarabands for orchestra, Op. 98

2016: The Master Said for narrator and chamber orchestra, Op. 99

2018: Vision of the Soldier Er (String Quartet No. 5) for string quartet, Op. 102

"The Theoretical Writings of Arnold Schoenberg". Proceedings of the Royal Musical Association vol. 100 (1973–74), 85–96.

Musical Ideas and Ideas about Music (London, 1978).

Finding the Key: Selected Writings of Alexander Goehr', ed. D. Puffett' (London: Faber and Faber, 1998).

'Schoenberg and Karl Kraus: The Idea behind the Music' [University of Southampton lecture, 1983]. Music Analysis vol. 4 (March–July 1985), 59–71.

'The Composer and His Idea of Theory: A Dialogue'. Music Analysis vol. 11, No. 2-3 (July October 1992), 143–175.

Broadcasting[edit]

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, Alexander. 1998. Finding the Key: Selected Writings of Alexander Goehr, edited by Derrick Puffett. London and Boston: Faber and Faber.  0-571-19310-2

ISBN

Latham, Alison (ed.). 2003. Sing, Ariel: Essays and Thoughts for Alexander Goehr's Seventieth Birthday. With compact disc. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate.  0-7546-3497-3

ISBN

Williams, Nicholas. 2001. "Goehr (2): (Peter) Alexander Goehr". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.

on Schott music publishers' website

Alexander Goehr page

Alexander Goehr – Stageworks / Opera and Music Theatre Archive

Archived 21 February 2011 at the Wayback Machine on LoganArts Management's website

Alexander Goehr page

at IMDb

Alexander Goehr

discography at Discogs

Alexander Goehr