ALEXANDER GOEHR
(born 1932 in Berlin; resides in the UK)

Suite for Violin and Piano, Op. 70 (2000)

1. Prelude
2. Rain Song "The days of summer are gone", with variations
3. Three-part Invention

Alexander Goehr, one of today's most important British composers, has been described as "a politically conscious composer, determined to write music relevant to his age."

Many influences can be detected in Goehr's music. His father, the celebrated conductor Walter Goehr, had studied with Schoenberg and admired him greatly, yet recognized the limitations of 12-tone technique and the music of the New Viennese School. At one time, Alexander Goehr composed in strict 12-tone or serial style but he came to appreciate his father's more realistic vision and has said that, although his work is deeply affected by serial music, he feels he has also transcended it. There is certainly a naturalness that makes his lines flow and unfold. Other composers whose work has influenced Goehr are Messiaen, Debussy, Ravel, Stravinsky, and Janáček.

The Suite for Violin and Piano was commissioned by the Harvard Musical Society and was performed there for the first time on 25 April 2000. The work is in three-movements. In the second movement there are raised tritones, poignantly accented dissonances and vocal-type embellishments typical of "Jewish" or "Hebraic" music. The piece is atonal although it is guided by some very strong melodic lines, forms of transpositions and inversions of the motives that can be seen as recurring ideas.

The first movement, Prelude, opens with a violin recitative, which introduces all the main ideas for the movement. Each subsequent segment takes something from the opening recitative and spins out different and new material. In this way, the movement is like a set of variations on fragments although Goehr does not specifically call it that. Perhaps the easiest to single out on first hearing is the quintuplet figure at the very beginning of the piece:

(Ex.1 - 1st movement opening)


This motive returns many times throughout the movement played by both instruments:

(Ex.2 - 1st movement b.14-15)


(Ex.3 - 1st movement b.42-43)


But each time, it presents itself slightly differently. The movement ends with a final statement of the motive:

(Ex.4 - 1st movemnt b.72-74)

The second movement, Rain Song "The days of summer are gone", with variations, is based on an anonymous medieval (9th to 11th century) Hebrew acrostic poem. In acrostic poems, the first letter of each line spells out something significant (like an author's name) and was a common form of poetry in medieval Jewish culture. This particular Rain Song is a joyous celebration of the harvest. The theme is marked by accentuated off-beats. It is rather rhetorical and becomes increasingly ornamented. The final moment of the theme segment is particularly nostalgic, enhanced with the use of harmonics on the violin. Each subsequent variation is marked with distinct rhythmic patterns. Variation 2 particularly challenges the performers with mixed meters and extremely complex compound rhythms that are made denser by offbeat accents (syncopation variant):

(Ex.5 - 2nd movement Variaiton 2 b.51-53)

This kind of complexity is typical in New Music where un-synchronized rhythm enhances the tension of time.

The third movement, Three-part Invention, serves more like a fifth variation of the second movement. By far the shortest movement of the Suite, it is marked by contrapuntal writing and demonstrates Goehr's masterful manipulation of very traditional musical materials in an individualistic, modern way. Three-part inventions were particularly prominent in the writings of Bach and the ability to write counterpoint well has traditionally been considered an absolutely necessary asset for any composer. Goehr's three-part invention features three entries with two brief episodes in between. The general feeling is crisp as is typical of contrapuntal writing, and the intensity builds to the very end, a single note played on the piano, giving the impression not of abruptness but of humor.