British Composer Alexander Goehr has Died, Aged 92

Alongside his prolific output, Goehr also taught at the University of Cambridge for 23 years

The British composer and academic Alexander Goehr, who among other things wrote four symphonies and five operas, has passed away at the age of 92.

Born in Berlin in 1932 to a German-Jewish family, Goehr was the son of the conductor Walter Goehr, who was also a past pupil of Arnold Schoenberg. Goehr's mother, Laelia Goehr, was a Russian-Jewish concert pianist. The family relocated to the United Kingdom when Goehr was just a few months old, because of the increasingly anti-Semitic climate in Germany.

Despite his father's concerns about the viability of composition as a career, Goehr studied at the Royal Manchester College of Music. Here, he encountered other prominent British avant-garde composers such as Peter Maxwell Davies, Harrison Birtwistle, and John Ogdon, and with them, he formed the New Music Manchester Group.

He left Manchester in 1955 for Paris, where he studied with Olivier Messiaen and became close with Pierre Boulez — and as a result, Goehr began to incorporate serialist techniques into his work, though he would later depart from these.

Teaching posts at the New England Conservatory, Yale, and Leeds followed, and in 1975 Goehr was appointed to a post at the University of Cambridge, where he was to remain for the rest of his career. It was at this time that he began to move away from serialism, replacing it with a more simple, modal style evident in works such as Psalm IV (1976).

Among his works are four symphonies, concerti for piano, violin, viola, and cello, and five operas: Arden Must Die, Behold the Sun, Arianna, Kantan & Damask Drum and Promised End. Goehr also wrote a great deal of chamber music, for performers including the London Sinfonietta, Huw Watkins, the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin, Colin Currie, and the Pavel Haas Quartet.

An honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters and a former Churchill Fellow, in 2019 Goehr was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society in recognition of his lifelong contribution to musical culture.

Our condolences to Goehr's family, friends, and colleauges. You can hear his String Quartet No. 4 below.