Life

Lucien Goethals was born in Ghent

Ghent

Ghent is a city and a municipality located in the Flemish region of Belgium. It is the capital and biggest city of the East Flanders province. The city started as a settlement at the confluence of the Rivers Scheldt and Lys and in the Middle Ages became one of the largest and richest cities of...

, but spent his formative years in Argentina

Argentina

Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, where he studied at the Dima Conservatory of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...

. When he returned to Belgium, he continued his studies at the Royal Conservatory in Ghent up to 1956, where he earned his first prize in organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

, music history, counterpoint

Counterpoint

In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more voices that are independent in contour and rhythm and are harmonically interdependent . It has been most commonly identified in classical music, developing strongly during the Renaissance and in much of the common practice period,...

, and fugue

Fugue

In music, a fugue is a compositional technique in two or more voices, built on a subject that is introduced at the beginning in imitation and recurs frequently in the course of the composition....

. He later studied orchestration with Norbert Rosseau, and serial technique

Serialism

In music, serialism is a method or technique of composition that uses a series of values to manipulate different musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, though his contemporaries were also working to establish serialism as one example of...

 and electronic composition

Electronic music

Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...

 with Gottfried Michael Koenig

Gottfried Michael Koenig

Gottfried Michael Koenig is a contemporary German-Dutch composer.-Biography:Koenig studied church music in Braunschweig, composition, piano, analysis and acoustics in Detmold, music representation techniques in Cologne and computer technique in Bonn. He attended and later lectured at the...

 and De Meester. He worked at the IPEM in Ghent ever since it was founded in 1962, and was its artistic director from 1970 to 1987 (Knockaert 2001). He died in Ghent, aged 75 (Temmerman 2006).

Aesthetics

Goethals was a stubborn proponent of "high" culture, in opposition to postmodernism

Postmodernism

Postmodernism is a philosophical movement evolved in reaction to modernism, the tendency in contemporary culture to accept only objective truth and to be inherently suspicious towards a global cultural narrative or meta-narrative. Postmodernist thought is an intentional departure from the...

 thinking, which wants to dissolve the separation between "high" and "low" culture into the function of a global post-industrial culture of consumption (Leman 2000, 100).

Compositions

• Musica Dodecafonica, for piano (1959)
• Twee Kristallen, for piano (1961)
• Studies I–VIIb, for tape (1962–73)
• Diálogos, for wind quintet, percussion, 2 string quintets, string orchestra, and 4-track tape (1963)
• Endomorfie I, for violin, piano, and tape (1964)
• Endomorfie II, for 8 winds (1964)
• Cellotape, for cello with contact microphone, piano, and tape (1965)
• Lecina (6 songs, text: J. Van der Hoeven), for mezzo soprano, flute, violin, and cello (1966)
• Sinfonía en gris mayor, 2 orchestras, percussion, 2 tapes (1966)
• Contrapuntos, for 1–12 tapes (1967)
• Mouvement (String Quartet No. 1) (1967)
• Vensters (text: J. Van der Hoeven), mobile for 2 speakers, cello, piano, percussion, 4 film projectors, and 4 tapes (1967)
• Cáscaras (text: C. Rodriguez), cantata for mezzo soprano and 5 instruments (1969)
• Hé! [collaborative work with Karel Goeyvaerts
  Karel Goeyvaerts
  Karel Goeyvaerts was a Belgian composer.-Life:After studies at the Royal Flemish Music Conservatory in Antwerp, Goeyvaerts studied composition in Paris with Darius Milhaud and analysis with Olivier Messiaen...
  
  and Herman Sabbe] (text: Herman Sabbe), for mime, 10 instruments, tapes, and slide projector (1971)
• Concerto for Orchestra (1972)
• Llanto por Salvador Allende, for trombone (1973)
• Melioribus, for tape (1973)
• Tres paisajes sonores, for flute, oboe, horn, trombone, violin, double bass, and harpsichord (1973)
• Diferencias, for 10 winds (1974)
• Polyfonium, for tape (1975)
• Four Pieces for Orchestra (1976)
• Pluriversum, for tape (1977)
• Música con cantus firmus triste, for flute and string trio (1978)
• Pampa (R. Güiraldes), mezzo-soprano, flute, clarinet, violin, viola, cello, piano, and percussion (1979)
• Polyfonium II, for tape (1980)
• Concerto for bass clarinet, contrabass clarinet, and orchestra (1983)
• Concierto de la luz y las tinieblas, for organ and orchestra (1990)
• Synthèse '92, for tape (1991)
• String Quartet No. 2 (1992)

External links

• Goethals biography on CeBeDeM website.
• Biography on Stichting Lucien Goethals website