Alexander Goehr, composer

Alexander Goehr is a composer for whom the conventional
labels of new music seem increasingly inadequate. A latent
nonconformism is already suggested by the essential biographical
facts. He was born in Berlin in 1932, son of the conductor and
Schoenberg pupil Walter Goehr. Still in his early twenties, he
emerged as a key figure in the celebrated ‘Manchester School’ of
post-war British composers. In 1955-56 he joined Oliver
Messiaen’s masterclass in Paris. Thereafter, he worked as a BBC
producer and broadcaster, and was a director of the Music Theatre
Ensemble. In 1971 he was appointed Professor of Music at Leeds
University, and was subsequently appointed to the chair at
Cambridge in 1976. Background apart, however, the source of
Goehr’s heterogeneous yet single-minded development lies in a
questing musical intelligence and a special gift for elaboration,
transformation and synthesis. The artistic imperative is for a
step-by-step progression, wherever it might lead, from what is
familiar to what is genuinely new.

Special thanks to Julian Anderson,  and to Ian Mylett and
Sam Rigby of Schott Music for their invaluable assistance in the
production of this episode.

LINKS
Alexander Goehr page on Schott Music
Listen to ‘Colossos or Panic’ for orchestra

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Iridescent Notation

LINKS
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Edition Impronta, publisher of Samuel Andreyev’s scores

EPISODE CREDITS
Podcast artwork photograph 2019 Philippe Stirnweiss


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