Alexander Goehr: 11-15 Sept '17

[ahinton]

I will let you know. A preliminary version of it has just been submitted as a PhD thesis at Leeds University. Once that's out of the way I'm going to add various things to it and give it a more conversational tone of voice. (Also it won't have an academic price tag!)

Anyway, I do agree that, as you say, "those inner qualities of integrity (...) have flaked off a lot of the stuff I hear". That's partly I think because the stuff it hasn't flaked off is somewhat marginalised and doesn't even make it to "Hear and Now" that often. The BBC is failing to put out a representative overview of what's happening in contemporary music, and this circumstance is part of a culture that generally promotes the flaky stuff over anything with more substance or integrity, as evidenced by certainly all of the new Proms pieces I heard this year, and by the lack of attention given to people such as the ones you list (and it's perhaps relevant to mention that I haven't received a commission from the UK in 5 years or one from the BBC for 13), largely in favour of ephemera which fulfil the needs of some "curated" event or other (let's remember almost all uses of the word "curated" these days could easily be replaced by "chosen" even if that sounds less creative, but that's one for the teeth-on-edge thread).

On a positive note, not long ago I came across the 2nd Piano Sonata by Stuart Macrae (b 1976), whose early work I found derivative and unpromising, and it seems to me there's something really interesting and individual going on here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VOHpYa6o_o

Who will be publishing your book?

Simon Smith is a fine pianist indeed; there are several other videos of him playing on YT, including some Stockhausen. He performed a piece of mine a while ago, very well indeed.

[Serial_Apologist]

I will let you know. A preliminary version of it has just been submitted as a PhD thesis at Leeds University. Once that's out of the way I'm going to add various things to it and give it a more conversational tone of voice. (Also it won't have an academic price tag!)

Anyway, I do agree that, as you say, "those inner qualities of integrity (...) have flaked off a lot of the stuff I hear". That's partly I think because the stuff it hasn't flaked off is somewhat marginalised and doesn't even make it to "Hear and Now" that often. The BBC is failing to put out a representative overview of what's happening in contemporary music, and this circumstance is part of a culture that generally promotes the flaky stuff over anything with more substance or integrity, as evidenced by certainly all of the new Proms pieces I heard this year, and by the lack of attention given to people such as the ones you list (and it's perhaps relevant to mention that I haven't received a commission from the UK in 5 years or one from the BBC for 13), largely in favour of ephemera which fulfil the needs of some "curated" event or other (let's remember almost all uses of the word "curated" these days could easily be replaced by "chosen" even if that sounds less creative, but that's one for the teeth-on-edge thread).

Keith Tippett came up with another of those one-liners he's known for: "I see myself as a creator, not a curator"!

On a positive note, not long ago I came across the 2nd Piano Sonata by Stuart Macrae (b 1976), whose early work I found derivative and unpromising, and it seems to me there's something really interesting and individual going on here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VOHpYa6o_o

Splendid piece. I've always liked Stuart Macrae's pieces since hearing a little song he composed for the Composers' Ensemble about 15 years ago.

[Suffolkcoastal]

Just checking through my R3 stats and it looks as if Monday's COTW was the first time any work by Goehr has been broadcast on R3 since I started doing my survey in 2009!