Alexander Goehr

Alexander Goehr
Alexander Goehr – Jerusalem, 2007
Born	(1932-08-10)10 August 1932 Berlin,Germany
Children	Lydia Goehr,Julia Goehr, Clare Goehr
Parent(s)	Walter Goehr Laelia Goehr
Academic background
Alma mater	Royal Northern College of Music
Academic work
Institutions	University of Cambridge

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

Goehr was born inBerlinin 1932, the son of the conductor and composerWalter Goehr,a pupil ofArnold Schoenberg.In his early twenties he emerged as a central figure in theManchester Schoolof post-war British composers. In 1955–56 he joinedOlivier Messiaen's masterclass in Paris. Although in the early sixties Goehr was considered a leader of theavant-garde,his oblique attitude tomodernism—and to any movement or school whatsoever—soon became evident. In a sequence of works including the Piano Trio (1966), the operaArden Must Die(1966), the music-theatre pieceTriptych(1968–70), the orchestralMetamorphosis/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 IVsetting 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.

Life and works

Youth and studies

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 theTurangalîla Symphonyin 1953) andMonteverdi.As a child, Alexander grew up in a household permanently populated by composers, includingMátyás SeiberandMichael Tippett.He also received lessons from a composer colleague of his father,Allan Gray.

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 atOxford University,but went instead to study composition at theRoyal Manchester College of Music,withRichard Hall.

In his composition classes Goehr became friends with young composersPeter Maxwell DaviesandHarrison Birtwistleand pianistJohn Ogdon,with whom he founded theNew Music Manchester Group.A seminal event in Goehr's development was hearing the UK premiere ofMessiaen'sTurangalîla Symphony,conducted by his father. The interest in non-Western music (for instance Indianraga) sparked by the meeting withMessiaen's music combined with the interest inmedieval modesshared withPeter Maxwell DaviesandHarrison Birtwistlelargely 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 ofProkofiev,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 withPierre Boulezand was involved in theserialist avant-gardemovement of those years. Goehr experimented with Boulez's technique ofbloc 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'sserialism.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.

Return to the UK, 1956–76

Upon his return to Britain, Goehr experienced a breakthrough as a composer with the performance of hiscantataThe Delugein 1957 under his father's baton. This is a big, ambitious work 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 thetwelve-tonecantatas ofWebern,but it implicitly strives for the imposing harmonic tautness and full sonority ofProkofiev's Eisenstein cantatas. The genre of thecantatais one that Goehr would explore over and over again throughout his career.

Indeed, following the success ofThe Deluge,Goehr was commissioned a new cantata,Sutter's Goldfor choir, baritone and orchestra. However, the new work proved highly unpopular particularly with the singers, who found it impossibly difficult to perform. Indeed, the difficulty of performance is one of the reasons whySutter's Goldwas dismissed by critics upon its performance at theLeedsfestival in 1961. This débacle, however, had a constructive impact on Goehr: rather than dismissing criticism as the mere result of incompetence on the part of critics and performers, he genuinely faced the questions of 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.

Despite this, 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 ofmodalityandserialismwhich was to remain his main technical resource for the next 14 years. His search for a model ofserialismthat could allow for expressive freedom led him to his famousLittle Symphony,Op. 15 (1963). It is a memorial to Goehr's conductor/composer father, who had unexpectedly died, and it is based upon a chord-sequence subtly modelled upon (but not quoting) the "Catacombs"movement fromMussorgsky'sPictures at an Exhibition(Goehr senior had made a close harmonic analysis of this unusual movement).

This flexible approach toserialism,integrating harmonic background with bloc sonore and modality is very representative of the type of writing that Goehr developed as an alternative to the strictures of total serialism. It is no coincidence that Boulez—who had earlier facilitated the performance of Goehr's music—refused to programmeLittle Symphony:by 1963 Goehr had neatly departed from the style of his Parisian days.

The sixties saw Goehr founding 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(Arden Muss Sterben), a thoroughlyBrechtiansetting of aJacobeanmorality play which had uncomfortably contemporary political and social resonances. Goehr's striking setting of a text composed by Erich Fried in rhyming duplets makes the most of the idea of simple musical ideas that are continually distorted to a sinister and sarcastic effect.

In 1967 he founded the Music Theatre Ensemble, and in 1971 he completed a three-part cycle for music theatre—Triptych—made up of three works:Naboth's Vineyard(1968) andShadowplay(1970) were both explicitly written for Music Theatre Ensemble while the laterSonata about Jerusalem(1971) was commissioned by Testimonium,Jerusalemand performed by theIsrael Chamber OrchestraandGary Bertini.

The end of the sixties also saw the beginning of a string of prestigious academic appointments for Goehr. In 1968–9 he was composer-in-residence at theNew England Conservatory of Music,Boston,and went on to teach atYale Universityas an associate professor of music. 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.Goehr left Leeds in 1976 when he was appointed Professor of Music atCambridge Universitywhere he taught until his retirement in 1999. In Cambridge he became fellow ofTrinity Hall.

1976–96

The year of Goehr's appointment atCambridgecoincided with a turning point in his output. In 1976, Goehr wrote a 'white-note' setting ofPsalm IV.The simple, brightmodalsonority of this piece marked a final departure frompost-warserialismand a commitment to a more transparent soundworld. Goehr found a way of controlling harmonic pace by fusing his own modal harmonic idiom with the long abandoned practice offigured bass—thus achieving a highly idiosyncratic fusion of past and present.

The output of the ensuing twenty years testified to Goehr's desire to use this new idiom to explore ideas and genres that had already become constant features of his work, such as the exploration ofsymphonicform: Goehr returned to symphonic form in his Sinfonia (1979) and Symphony withChaconne(1987). Yet these years' output is disseminated most notably with a great number of ambitious vocal scores.

A common feature of many of the vocal compositions of these years is the choice of subjects that function as allegories for reflection upon socio-political themes.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)—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. There are also non-political works such as theSing, Ariel,that recallsMessiaen's stylisedbirdsongand sets a kaleidoscope ofEnglish poetry,and the operaArianna(1995)—written on aRinuccinilibretto forL'Arianna,a lost opera byMonteverdi—is a typically idiosyncratic exploration of the soundworld ofItalian Renaissance.Indeed, Goehr's engagement withMonteverdi's music dates back to the cantataThe Death of Moses,which he described as "Monteverdi heard throughVarèse".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.

1996–2014

Although the last fifteen years of Goehr's output have not received the generous coverage (both in terms of academic writing and frequency of performance) of his previous work, they arguably represent the most interesting of Goehr's compositional phases. This last decade's output is heralded by the striking operaKantan and Damask Drumof 1999, premiered at theDortmund Opera.This opera consists in fact of two plays from the JapaneseNohtheatre tradition, separated by a shortkyogenhumorous interlude. Typically for Goehr, the Japanese texts date back to the 15th century and have been adapted by the composer for setting. The lusciouslytonalidiom does not indulge inorientalism,but rather the relationship between music and drama inNohanimates the whole work. Again, withKantan and Damask Drumthe search continues for an expressive synthesis; in this case, it is one of western and eastern, past and present.

In the following years, Goehr devoted himself almost exclusively tochamber music.This is 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 allows for music and performance venues that stray off the beaten path while allowing the composer more control over the quality of the performance. Through the chamber music medium Goehr gains an unprecedented rhythmic and harmonic immediacy, while his music remains ever permeable by the music and imagery of other times and places: the Piano Quintet (2000) and the Fantasie for cello and piano (2005) are haunted by rich sonorities of a thoroughlyRavel-like quality.

The set of piano piecesSymmetry Disorders Reach(2007) is a barely disguised baroquesuitehaunted by the spirit of earlyBerg.Marching to Carcassonne(2003) flirts withneoclassicismandStravinsky,andManerefor violin and clarinet (2008), based on a fragment of medievalplainchant,is a typical foray into the art of musicalornament.Also written in 2008 isSince Brass nor Stonefor string quartet and percussion (2008), a memorial toPavel Haas.Inspired by aShakespeare sonnet,from which it borrows its title, this work is representative of the inventiveness of Goehr's recent chamber work. One reviewer described the soundworld of the work as 'hiccupping fugal patterns overlaid with intricate, delicate percussion [...] a magical garden of dappled textures'.

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 onShakespeare'sKing Lear.In the same year cameWhen Adam Fell,aBBCcommission for orchestra based on the chromatic bass from the Bachchorale'Durch Adam's Fall ist alles Verderbt', first introduced to Goehr by his teacherOlivier Messiaen.To These Dark Steps/The Fathers are Watching(2011–12), written for tenor, children's choir and ensemble, sets texts by Israeli poetGabriel Levinconcerning the bombing of Gaza during the Iraq war and was premiered in a concert marking Goehr's 80th birthday.

Largo Siciliano(2012) is 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.'The chamber symphony...between the lines...(2013), the latest commission in a long-standing relationship withBirmingham Contemporary Music Group,is a monothematic work of four movements played without a break, in direct acknowledgement ofArnold Schoenberg's own Chamber Symphony op. 9.

In 2004 Goehr was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music fromPlymouth University.

Musical style

Eclecticism and synthesis

Many of Goehr's works are studies in the synthesis of disparate elements. Examples includeThe Deluge(1957–58), which was inspired byEisenstein'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,1973-4) to a painting byGoya(Colossus or Panic,1990), to the sinister humour ofBertolt Brecht(Arden Must Die,1966) or to the JapaneseNohtheatre (Kantan and Damask Drum,1999).

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 withSchoenberg'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 Kafkainspire or appear inDas Gesetz der Quadrille(1979),Sur terre en l'air(1997) andSchlussgesang(1990).

On a strictly technical musical level, Goehr's endeavour has long been that of unifying thecontrapuntalrigour and motivic workings of theFirst Viennese SchoolandSecond Viennese Schoolwith a strong sense of harmonic pacing and sonority. It is indicative that Goehr should go to Paris not only to attend the classes ofMessiaenat theParis Conservatoire,but also to studycounterpointandserialismwithSchoenbergscholar and composerMax Deutsch;even more indicative is the anecdote that Deutsch threw Goehr out of his house upon hearing that the young man intended to study withMessiaenas 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 bothserialismand totonality,as well as his often bird-song inspiredmelodicwriting, particularly in thecantataSing, Ariel.

Engagement with the past

Goehr's interest in the musical past is far from an empty mannerism or a sign of musical conservatism, but rather an earnest, and constantly renewed exploration of his own musical roots. The music of the past does not hinder, in Goehr's view, the search for an innovative musical language:

In the composer's mind, vague memories fuse and grow into a new, conscious, creative idea. An artist is related to the tradition from which he comes, and this bond has little to do with time or progress.

This attitude is concisely expressed by Goehr's striking assertion that "all art is new and all art is conservative".Understood in this way, his musical imagination of the past can be traced to three fundamental sources:

Walter Goehr

Although Goehr's personal relationship to his father was not unproblematic, Walter Goehr had a determining influence on his son via his work as a conductor: the composers whose work Walter championed—Arnold Schoenberg,Claudio Monteverdi,Modest Mussorgsky,Olivier Messiaen—feature as a red-thread throughout Alexander's output. For instance, Goehr'sAriannauses the libretto of a lost opera by Monteverdi,Arianna abbandonata,and conjures up sonorities reminiscent of theItalian Renaissance.The quintetFive Objects Darkly(whose title is borrowed from a work by the painterGiorgio Morandiis a set of variations based on a musical fragment byMussorgsky,and the earlier Little Symphony uses the chordal structure ofMussorgsky's Catacombs fromPictures at an Exhibitionas a harmonic backbone.

Early twentieth-century modernist composers

Walter Goehrhad studied withSchoenbergand was constantly surrounded by high calibre composers such asSeiber,Tippett,and others. Goehr's strong sense of debt to this generation, particularly toSchoenberg,had a lot to do with his ambivalent reaction to theDarmstadt Schoolavant-garde of the fifties(in which his friend and mentorPierre Boulezwas heavily involved).

Music of the baroque and classical tradition

Goehr's interest in these musics is surely part of his Schoenbergian heritage. Just likeSchoenberg,Goehr refuses to view currentcompositionas a practice that is independent of any musical tradition, but rather, he seeks in tradition the elements for the innovation of musical language. Alexander's search for a means of controlling structure andharmonyin music led him in the late seventies to an innovating interpretation of the latebaroquepractice offigured bassin conjunction with his personal blend of modality andserialism.This is exemplified in his setting ofPsalm IVand the ensuing correlated works:Fugue and Romanza on the notes of the fourth Psalm(1976 and 1977, respectively). Goehr is also committed to the reinvention ofclassicalforms such as theSymphony,the classical Concerto, and the BaroqueSuite(from his Suite Op. 11 of 1961 right up toSymmetry Disorders Reachof 2007). Further sources of inspiration are the treatises onmusical ornamentationbyCarl Philipp Emanuel Bach,andMonteverdi,whose synthesis ofrenaissancepolyphonywith the earlybaroquemove towardshomophonyand the control ofharmonyclearly mirrors Goehr's own commitment to a harmonically expressiveserialist practice.

Work list

Chronology

• 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;Arden Must Die(Opera), Op. 21
• 1966–67:Warngedichte(for mezzo-soprano and piano), Op. 22
• 1967: Three Pieces fromArden 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;Behold the Sun(dramatic scena), Op. 44a
• 1984:Sonatafor 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 Panicfor orchestra, Op. 55
• 1993:The mouse metamorphosed into a maidfor unaccompanied voice, Op. 54
• 1995:Arianna,Op. 58
• 1996:Schlussgesangfor orchestra, Op. 61; QuintetFive objects Darkly,Op. 62
• 1996: Three Songs, Op. 60
• 1997:Idées Fixesfor 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 Reachfor 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'sKing Lear,Op. 83
• 2009:Broken Psalmfor 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 Fellfor orchestra, Op. 89
• 2011–12:To These Dark Steps / The Fathers are Watchingfor tenor, children's choir and ensemble, Op. 90
• 2013:... between the LinesChamber symphony for eleven players, Op. 94
• 2014–15:Verschwindendes Wortfor mezzo-soprano, tenor and ensemble, Op. 97
• 2015–16:Two Sarabandsfor orchestra, Op. 98
• 2016:The Master Saidfor narrator and chamber orchestra, Op. 99
• 2018:Vision of the Soldier Er (String Quartet No. 5)for string quartet, Op. 102

Suggested work list by genre

Chamber

• Suite, Op. 11
• String Quartet No. 2, Op. 23
• String Quartet No. 3, Op. 37
• ...a musical offering (J.S.B. 1985)...,Op. 46
• QuintetFive objects Darkly,Op. 62
• Idées Fixesfor ensemble, Op. 63
• Since Brass, nor Stone...,fantasy for string quartet and percussion, Op. 80

Vocal

• The Deluge(cantata), Op. 7
• Psalm IV, Op. 38a
• Das Gesetz der Quadrille,Op. 41
• Sing Ariel(cantata), Op. 51
• The Death of Moses(cantata), Op. 53
• Three Songs, Op. 60

Orchestral

• Little Symphony, Op. 15
• Symphony in One Movement, Op. 29
• Metamorphosis/Dance,Op. 36
• Sinfonia, Op. 42
• Symphony with Chaconne, Op. 48
• Colossos or Panic,Op. 55
• Schlussgesang,Op. 61

Opera

• Arden Must Die
• Behold the Sun
• Arianna,Op. 58
• Kantan and Damask Drum
• Promised End

Discography

Schott Music provides a full discography by work:Goehr discography

Writings

• "The Theoretical Writings of Arnold Schoenberg".Proceedings of the Royal Musical Associationvol. 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 Analysisvol. 4 (March–July 1985), 59–71.
• 'The Composer and His Idea of Theory: A Dialogue'.Music Analysisvol. 11, No. 2-3 (July October 1992), 143–175.

Broadcasting

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.

Notable students

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

References

• Goehr, Alexander. 1998.Finding the Key: Selected Writings of Alexander Goehr,edited by Derrick Puffett. London and Boston: Faber and Faber.ISBN0-571-19310-2
• Latham, Alison (ed.). 2003.Sing, Ariel: Essays and Thoughts for Alexander Goehr's Seventieth Birthday.With compact disc. Aldershot, England; Burlington, VT: Ashgate.ISBN0-7546-3497-3
• Williams, Nicholas. 2001. "Goehr (2): (Peter) Alexander Goehr".The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians,ed. S. Sadie and J. Tyrrell. London: Macmillan.

External links

• Alexander Goehr pageonSchottmusic publishers' website
• Alexander Goehr – Stageworks / Opera and Music Theatre Archive
• Alexander Goehr pageArchived21 February 2011 at theWayback Machineon LoganArts Management's website
• Alexander GoehratIMDb
• Alexander Goehrdiscography atDiscogs