The Art-Music, Literature and Linguistics Forum

Babcock,,David - Symphony No. 5 Op. 58 (2001)
Niederösterreichisches Tonkünstlerorchester,Andrès Orozco-Estrada, conductor
I. Moderato, poco inquieto    II. Scherzo-Trio-Scherzo    III. Allegro energico
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcstExQi5L8

Good Heavens :)

....and he studied with Alexander Goehr!!!!! Doesn't sound like it ;D

Also studied with Francis Burt ...

I posted it largely to get a reaction. I found the music to be eccentric and unnerving at times. But
his style involves what I call mutations rather than variations and is a hard listen, although tonal..

I really rather like this. It reminds me of Butterworth's symphonies - both are channelling Sibelius's elemental side.

Thanks for the response and lead. I will certainly catch up on A. Butterworth.
This composer really puzzled me. There are a half-dozen Babcock pieces on YT if you have an interest. The Clarinet Concertino is an odd
piece, maybe you can make sense of it and the rest of his symphonies..

I'm certainly interested enough to give them a listen.

Agreed - a very interesting piece, and the echoes of Arthur Butterworth (surely unintentional) are rather striking...Will definitely investigate the rest of these.

Sorry to be a bother, but don't know much Burt and Goer? Are they notable?

A good opportunity to learn abou Alexander Goehr offers the recent BBC Composer of the Week portrait:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09491j0 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09491j0)

I remember Huw Watkins telling an anecdote about Goehr, who was his teacher: "You need not apologise for your piece being in C major!"  ;D

It depends what you mean by 'notable'  :-)

Goehr's family were Nazi-era emigres to Britain - his father was also a composer. However, Walther Goehr discouraged his son from composition,

Alexander Goehr showed all the outward signs of 'notability' in his early career - he was a (founder) member of the 'Manchester School' with PMD and Birtwistle.  The BBC commissioned his opera ARDEN MUST DIE, in 1967.
https://youtu.be/eExC1f-FRY4 (https://youtu.be/eExC1f-FRY4)

However, he underwent a complete transformation in 1976.  It's unclear whether this was the result of his moving to the cloistered and conservative environment of Cambridge - or whether he sought Cambridge out, as a place where he could work in his new style?  Whichever is the cause, and which the effect, the result is clear - he stopped writing atonal, serial, or aleatoric pieces, and suddenly started writing pseudo-Monteverdi. He even wrote a new operatic setting of ARIANNA - one of Monteverdi's lost operas, using the original libretto.  It cannot be said that this work (or anything else written after 1976) enjoyed much success... but the question is why? Was it really so unwanted?  Or was it an embittered judgement of Goehr by his so-fwightfully-fashionable Darmstadt former friends? 

As for Burt, he was associated with an anti-modernist movement IIRC, but I never heard anything he wrote.

Neil has written above about Alexander Goehr. There are a few of his works on You Tube, including the Cantata "Babylon the Great is Fallen (1979) and "Colossos or Panic" (1992).

To be honest I cannot really detect the "complete transformation" of which Neil speaks. Neil says that "he stopped writing atonal, serial...." music. Well, I have no idea how one would describe "Colossos" but it is certainly not "pseudo-Monteverdi". It is music which I personally cannot warm to. It certainly lies outside the frontiers of my own taste. That is not a criticism of the music but it is a fact.