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Alexander Goehr

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Alexander Goehr
Goehr in 2007
Born
Peter Alexander Goehr

(1932-08-10)10 August 1932
Berlin,Germany
Died25 August 2024(2024-08-25)(aged 92)
Cambridgeshire,England
EducationRoyal Northern College of Music
Occupations
  • Composer
  • academic teacher
OrganizationsUniversity of Cambridge
WorksList of compositions
Children4, includingLydia Goehr
ParentWalter Goehr

Peter Alexander Goehr(German:['ɡøːɐ̯];10 August 1932 – 25 August 2024) was a German-born English composer ofcontemporary classical musicand academic teacher. A long-time professor of music at theUniversity of Cambridge,Goehr influenced many notable contemporary composers, includingThomas Adès,Julian Anderson,George BenjaminandRobin Holloway.

Born in Berlin, Goehr's childhood was spent in London surrounded by musicians, including his father, the conductorWalter Goehr.Goehr emerged as a central figure in theManchester Schoolof post-war British composers, includingPeter Maxwell DaviesandHarrison Birtwistle,in his early twenties. He joinedOlivier Messiaen's masterclass in Paris in 1955. Back in England and working for theBBC,he experienced an international breakthrough in 1957 with hiscantataThe Delugein 1957, conducted by his fatherWalter Goehr.He composedLittle Symphonyin 1963 as a memorial to his father, arriving at aserialismthat 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 operaArden Must Die(1966), the music-theatre pieceTriptych(1968–70), the orchestralMetamorphosis/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 theNew England Conservatory of MusicinBostonfrom 1968 and atYale University,then at theSouthampton Universityfrom 1970. He was professor of music at theUniversity of Leedsfrom 1971 and at Cambridge University from 1976 to 1999. Goehr returned to a more traditional way of composing withPsalm IVin 1976. He wrote the operaAriannain 1995, setting thelibrettoof Monteverdi'slost opera.He focused on chamber music in later years.

Life and career

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Youth and studies

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Peter Alexander Goehr[1]was born in Berlin,[2][3]on 10 August 1932.[4][5]He came from a musical Jewish family; his mother Laelia (née Rivlin), from Kyiv, was a classically trained pianist who had appeared withVladimir Horowitzat age 12,[4]and his fatherWalter Goehrwas aSchoenbergpupil[6]and pioneering conductor[3]of Schoenberg,MessiaenandMonteverdi.The family moved to Britain when the boy was only a few months old.[3][7]His father became an influential conductor in London, leading the world premiere of Tippett'sA Child of Our Time.[5]The boy attendedBerkhamsted Schoolin Hertfordshire, where he was known as "an anti-establishment political activist, flirting with theCommunist Party".[4]He grew up in a household populated by composers, includingMátyás SeiberandMichael Tippett.He received lessons from a composer colleague of his father,Allan Gray.[8]Although these premises pointed to Goehr's future in music, his efforts as a composer were not encouraged by his father.[4][5]

Goehr worked for the music publisherSchottafter 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 trainingkibbutzin Essex. He was then sent toManchesterfor political work, where he wrote his first piece, described as "a sort of Zionist pageant with songs".[4]

Goehr studied composition at theRoyal Manchester College of Musicfrom 1952 to 1955, withRichard Hall.[6]He became friends there withPeter Maxwell Davies,Harrison Birtwistle,trumpeterElgar Howarthand pianistJohn Ogdon.[5]He influenced Davies, a clarinetist, and Birtwhistle who studied to teach, to focus on composition.[4]The five founded theNew Music Manchester Group,[4][2][3]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.[5]The group performed not only works by its members but also introduced compositions of the Europeanavant-garde.[5]

A seminal event in Goehr's development was hearing the UK premiere of Messiaen'sTurangalîla Symphonyin 1953,[4]conducted by his father.[4][5]The interest in non-Western music (for instance Indianraga) sparked by the meeting with Messiaen's music combined with the interest inmedieval modesshared 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 ofProkofiev.[6]The piano sonata in one movement was played at theDarmstädter Ferienkursein 1954 by Hedi Stock-Hug.[9]

In 1955, Goehr left Manchester to go to Paris and study with Messiaen[7]at theConservatoire de Paris,[2][3][5]and he studied counterpoint privately withYvonne Loriod.[5]He remained in Paris until October 1956, becoming friends withPierre Boulezand involved in theserialistavant-garde movement of those years.[5]Goehr experimented with Boulez's technique ofbloc sonore.[10]

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 thetwelve-toneworks ofAnton Webern.Reference to any other music was forbidden and despised, and spontaneous choice replaced with the combinatorial laws of serialism:

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.[11]

Return to the UK, 1956–76

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For Goehr's notable students, seeList 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 hiscantataThe Delugein 1957, conducted by his father.[4]The ambitious work was inspired by the writings ofSergei Eisenstein— one of Goehr's many extra-musical sources of inspiration. The soundworld could be seen to have derived from the twelve-tone cantatas ofWebern,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 inThe Telegraphnoted.[4]

Goehr worked for theBBCas musical assistant from 1960 to 1967.[4][5][6]He received two more cantata commissions from the BBC;[4]Sutter's Goldfor choir, baritone and orchestra was no success.[4]Singers found it impossibly difficult to perform, and critics dismissed it[4]when it was first performed at the 1961Leeds Festival.Goehr listened to criticism and described the position of theavant-gardecomposer and his music:

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.[12]

Goehr continued to compose choral works. Encouraged by his friendship with the choral conductorJohn Alldis,who was strongly committed to new music, Goehr composed hisTwo Chorusesin 1962, which used for the first time the combination ofmodalityand serialism which was to remain his main technical resource for the next 14 years.[4]His search for a model of serialism that could allow for expressive freedom led him to hisLittle 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 "Catacombs"movement from Mussorgsky'sPictures at an Exhibition,to which his father had devoted a harmonic analysis.[4][13]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 programLittle Symphony.Goehr composed works of many genres including the Piano Trio (1966).[4].He wroteRomanza,a cello concerto, in 1968 forJacqueline du PréandDaniel Barenboim.[3]The orchestralMetamorphosis/Dancewas premiered in 1974 by theLondon Philharmonic Orchestraconducted byBernard Haitink.[3]He composed the String Quartet No. 3 in 1975–76.[4]

Goehr founded theWardour CastleSummer School in Wiltshire with Peter Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle in 1964, and most importantly, the beginning of Goehr's preoccupation with opera andmusic theatre.In 1966 he wrote his first opera,Arden Must Die,aBrechtiansetting[4]of aJacobeanmorality play, a text compiled byErich Fried.[6]The opera was premiered at theHamburg State Operain 1967.[6]

In 1967 he founded the Music Theatre Ensemble,[3][5][7]as a pioneer of musical theatre in England;[5]in 1971 he completed a three-part cycle for music theatreTriptychof three works,Naboth's Vineyard(1968) andShadowplay(1970) both explicitly written for the Music Theatre Ensemble[5]while the laterSonata about Jerusalem(1971) was commissioned by Testimonium in Jerusalem and performed there by theIsrael Chamber OrchestraandGary Bertini.

From the end of the 1960s Goehr held prestigious academic appointments. In 1968–69 he was the first composer-in-residence at theNew England Conservatory of MusicinBoston,[4]and went on to teach atYale Universityas an associate professor of music.[3]Goehr returned to Britain as visiting lecturer atSouthampton University(1970–71). In 1971 he was appointed West Riding Professor of Music at theUniversity of Leeds.[7]Goehr left Leeds in 1976 when he was appointed Professor of Music atCambridge University[3]where he taught until his retirement in 1999.[7]His students included some of England's most notable composers to come, such asThomas Adès,[4]Julian Anderson,[5]George BenjaminandRobin Holloway.[4]In Cambridge he became fellow ofTrinity Hall.[7]

1976–1996

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In 1976, Goehr composedPsalm IVin a "bright modal sonority",[3]in a departure from serialism, towards more transparent sounds. He found a fusion of modal harmonics and the tradition offigured bass.[3]Over the following twenty years he applied this approach to traditional genres such as symphonies, composingSinfoniain 1979 andSymphony with Chaconnein 1987. In 1985 he composed... a musical offering (J. S. B. 1985)...,written in memory ofJohann Sebastian Bach.It was premiered byOliver Knussen,who remained a close collaborator.[3]

Goehr focused especially on vocal music,[6]with many works reflecting socio-political themes.[6]The Death of Moses(1992) usesMoses' angry refusal to die as an allegory for the destiny of the victims of theHolocaust;while the cantataBabylon the Great is Fallen(1979) and the operaBehold the Sun(1985)[4]—for whichBabylon the Greatcan be considered to be a sketch study—both explore the themes of violent revolution via the texts from theAnabaptistuprising inMünsterof 1543. Non-political vocal works includeSing, Ariel,recalling Messiaen'sbird vocalizationsettingEnglish poetry,and the 1995 operaAriannatoOttavio Rinuccini's historic libretto for Monteverdi's lostL'Arianna,exploring the sounds of ItalianRenaissance music.[5][6]The opera was first performed at theRoyal Opera Housein London.[4][14]His engagement with Monteverdi's music dates back to the cantataThe Death of Moses,which he described as "Monteverdi heard throughVarèse".[15]Ariannais 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:

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.[16]

In 1987 the BBC invited Goehr to present theReith 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.[5][6]

Goeh'sColossos or Panicwas premiered in 1992 by theBoston Symphony Orchestraconducted bySeiji Ozawa.[3]

1996–2024

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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 operaKantan and Damask Drumin 1999,[4]premiered at theOper Dortmund.[6]It combined two plays from the JapaneseNohtheatre tradition, separated by a shortkyogenhumorous interlude, with Japanese texts dated back to the 15th century adapted by the composer.[17][18]The music is inspired by the relationship between music and drama in Noh theatre.[17]

In the following years, Goehr focused onchamber music.[6]He composed works of "unprecedented rhythmic and harmonic immediacy",[3]such as the Piano Quintet in 2000 and the Fantasie for cello and piano in 2005, with sonorities reminiscent ofRavel.Marching to Carcassonnewas written in 2003 for pianistPeter Serkinand theLondon Sinfonietta,alluding toneoclassicism.[3]A set of piano pieces,Symmetry Disor.der Reach,recalling a Baroquesuite,was premiered bvHuw Watkinsin 2007.[3]Manerefor violin and clarinet, based on a fragment of medievalplainchant,was a typical foray into the art of musicalornament,written in 2008.Since Brass nor Stonefor string quartet and percussion, written in 2008 as a memorial toPavel Haasfor percussionistColin Currieand thePavel Haas Quartet,was inspired by aShakespeare sonnetfrom which it borrows its title. It achieved the chamber category of the 2009British Composer Awards.[3]Goehr wrote…between the lines…in 2013 for the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin.[3]

After an almost ten-year hiatus from the operatic medium, Goehr returned to the form withPromised End(2008–09), first performed byEnglish Touring Operain 2010 and based on Shakespeare'sKing Lear.[19]In the same year cameWhen Adam Fell,aBBCcommission for orchestra based on the chromatic bass from the Bachchorale setting"Durch Adams Fall ist ganz verderbt",first introduced to Goehr by Messiaen.To These Dark Steps/The Fathers are Watching(2011–12), written for tenor, children's choir and ensemble,[3]sets texts by Israeli poetGabriel Levinconcerning 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.[20]

Largo Siciliano(2012) was a trio praised for its mastery of aural balance between the unusual combination of violin, horn and piano. The chamber symphony...between the lines...(2013), written on a commission from theBirmingham Contemporary Music Group,was a monothematic work of four movements played without a break, in acknowledgement of Schoenberg'sChamber Symphonyop. 9.Two Sarabandeswas composed for theBamberg Symphonyand premiered by them conduted byLahav Shani.[3]A string quartetOnderingwas premiered by theVilliers Quartetat theRoyal Northern College of Musicin 2023.[3]

Goehr died at his home inCambridgeshireon 25 August 2024, at the age of 92.[1][3][4][5]

Works

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Main article:List of compositions by Alexander Goehr

Musical style

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Many of Goehr's works are studies in the synthesis of disparate elements.[5]Examples includeThe Deluge(1957–58), which was inspired by Eisenstein's notes for a film, itself based on a writing byLeonardo da Vinci.Other works' inspirations range from the formal proportions of a lateBeethovenpiano sonata (Metamorphosis/Dance,1973–74) to a painting byGoya(Colossus or Panic,1990), to the sinister humour ofBertolt Brecht(Arden Must Die,1966) or to the Japanese Noh theatre (Kantan and Damask Drum,1999).[21]

Just asThe Delugetakes 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 cantataThe Death of Mosesresonates with Schoenberg's unfinishedMoses und Aron;the operaArianna(1995) is the setting of the libretto of a lost opera by Monteverdi, and posthumously published prose fragments byFranz Kafkainspired or appear inDas Gesetz der Quadrille(1979).[6]

On a strictly technical musical level, Goehr's tried unifying thecontrapuntalrigour and motivic workings of theFirst Viennese SchoolandSecond Viennese Schoolwith a strong sense of harmonic pacing and sonority.[5]He went to Paris not only to attend the classes of Messiaen, but also to studycounterpointand serialism with Schoenberg scholar and composerMax Deutsch.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 inspiredmelodicwriting, particularly in the cantataSing, Ariel.[3]

Recordings

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Schott Music provides a full discography by work:Goehr discography

Writings

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Sources:[22][23]

Books
  • Goehr, Alexander (1978).Musical Ideas and Ideas about Music.London:Birkbeck College.OCLC16422090.
  • —— (1998). Puffett, Derrick (ed.).Finding the Key: Selected Writings of Alexander Goehr.London:Faber and Faber.ISBN978-0-571-19310-3.OCLC38844411.
Articles
Reviews

Honours

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Goehr was an honorary member of theAmerican Academy of Arts and Lettersand Churchill Fellow.[3]In 2004 he was awarded an honorary doctorate of music from theUniversity of Plymouth.[24]He became an honorary member of theRoyal Philharmonic Society.His manuscripts are held by theAkademie der Künstein Berlin.[3]

References

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

Cited sources

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Further reading

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