Alexander Goehr, the eminent British composer, visited Duke’s Music Department on April 7, 2014.

Following a lively lunch with Composition and Musicology students, Goehr spoke publicly about his music in a discussion moderated by Professor Philip Rupprecht. As well as sharing personal impressions of the 1950s Darmstadt Summer Courses in New Music--at which he gained early professional performances—Goehr spoke (among other topics) of his own rhythmic language as a composer, and his attitude to setting texts; he also introduced his 2011 orchestral piece, When Adam Fell (in a recording by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Oliver Knussen). 

(Click the image above for additional pictures.)

Goehr’s Duke visit was planned in conjunction with his week-long residency at UNC Chapel Hill at the invitation of Professor Stefan Litwin, who organized a Goehr portrait concert at UNC’s Person Recital Hall on 9 April. Among the performers, in the composer’s presence, were Duke Ph.D. candidate in Musicology, Katharina Uhde (violin), performing in the Largo Siciliano (2012) with Litwin (piano) and Saar Berger (horn). The program also included Goehr’s Quintet, “Five Objects Darkly” (1996), selections from his Songs from the Japanese; the Kafka settings The Law of the Quadrille (performed by Professor Louise Toppin, soprano); and the solo-clarinet Paraphrase on the Dramatic Madrigal “Il Combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda” by Claudio Monteverdi (1969), by visiting artist Ib Hausmann.

Stefan Litwin; Katharina Uhde; Alexander Goehr; Philip Rupprecht, at the Goehr portrait concert, Person Recital Hall, UNC Chapel Hill.