Finding the Key: Selected Writings of Alexander Goehr - Softcover

Goehr, Professor Alexander

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0571193102 ISBN 13: 9780571193103

Publisher: Faber and Faber, 1997

Synopsis

Finding the Key deals with the fundamental issues that face the composer today. In the remarkable 'Letter to Boulez' that opens this collection of essays, Alexander Goehr assesses his own progress away from the avant-garde of the 1950s, while his account of the 'Manchester School', of which he, along with Maxwell Davies and Harrison Birtwistle, was one of the leading lights, reveals what it was like to grow up musically in a world where modernism was considered almost as a vice. Messiaen's composition classes are described with loving detail; but Schoenberg and Stravinsky were, and remain, at the heart of Goehr's musical concerns. Few books have revealed with such thoughtful honesty how complex the role of the composer is in contemporary society.

About this title

Synopsis

Dealing with the fundamental issues that face composers today, this collection of essays begins with a "Letter to Boulez" in which Alexander Goehr assesses his own progress away from the avant-garde of the 1950s. Goehr's account of the "Manchester School" of which he, Maxwell Davies and Birtwhistle were the protagonists, reveals what it was like to grow up musically in a world where modernism was considered almost a vice, and Messiaen's composition classes are described with loving detail. But Schoenberg and Stravinsky were, and are, at the heart of Goehr's musical concerns.

Edition details

• Publisher: Faber and Faber
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0571193102
• ISBN 13: 9780571193103
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256