Howard Goodall
Encyclopedia
Howard Lindsay Goodall CBE
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...

 (born 26 May 1958) is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programming for television and radio, for which he has won many awards.

Born in Bromley
Bromley
Bromley is a large suburban town in south east London, England and the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Bromley. It was historically a market town, and prior to 1963 was in the county of Kent and formed the administrative centre of the Municipal Borough of Bromley...

, Kent and educated at New College School
New College School
New College School is an independent preparatory school for boys in Oxford. It was founded in 1379 by William of Wykeham to provide for the education of 16 choristers for the chapel of New College, Oxford....

, Oxford, Stowe School
Stowe School
Stowe School is an independent school in Stowe, Buckinghamshire. It was founded on 11 May 1923 by J. F. Roxburgh, initially with 99 male pupils. It is a member of the Rugby Group and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference. The school is also a member of the G20 Schools Group...

 and Lord Williams's School
Lord Williams's School
Lord Williams's School is a co-educational secondary school in Thame, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom. It is a comprehensive school, which takes children from the age of 11 through to the age of 18...

 Thame, he read music at Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church or house of Christ, and thus sometimes known as The House), is one of the largest constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England...

. He is married to Val Fancourt, who is a classical music agent. In May 2008 he was named as a presenter and Composer-in-Residence with the UK radio channel Classic FM
Classic FM (UK)
Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:...

, and in May 2009 he was named "Composer of the Year" at the Classical BRIT Awards
Classical Brit Awards
The Classic BRIT Awards are an annual awards ceremony held in the United Kingdom covering aspects of classical music, and are the classical equivalent of pop music's BRIT Awards....

.

Musical theatre

His output of musical theatre
Musical theatre
Musical theatre is a form of theatre combining songs, spoken dialogue, acting, and dance. The emotional content of the piece – humor, pathos, love, anger – as well as the story itself, is communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an...

 works includes The Hired Man
The Hired Man
The Hired Man is a novel by Melvyn Bragg, first published in 1969. It is the first part of Bragg's Cumbrian Trilogy.The story is set predominantly in the rural area around Thurston , from the 1890s to the 1920s, and follows the life of John Tallentire, a farm labourer and coal miner...

(1984), an adaptation of the novel by Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg
Melvyn Bragg, Baron Bragg FRSL FRTS FBA, FRS FRSA is an English broadcaster and author best known for his work with the BBC and for presenting the The South Bank Show...

, which won an Ivor Novello
Ivor Novello
David Ivor Davies , better known as Ivor Novello, was a Welsh composer, singer and actor who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century. Born into a musical family, his first successes were as a songwriter...

 award (1985) and TMA Award(2006) award for Best Musical, Girlfriends (1986), Days of Hope (1991), Silas Marner (1993), The Kissing-Dance (1998), The Dreaming (2001) (both with Charles Hart
Charles Hart (lyricist)
Charles Hart is a British lyricist, songwriter and musician. He is best known for re-writing the lyrics to, and contributing to the book of Andrew Lloyd Webber's stage musical The Phantom of the Opera. He also co-wrote the lyrics to Lloyd Webber's 1989 musical Aspects of Love...

), A Winter's Tale (2005) and Two Cities
Two Cities (musical)
Two Cities is a stage musical by Howard Goodall based on the novel A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. The music and lyrics were written by Goodall, and the book was co-written by both Goodall and Joanna Read....

(2006). Goodall worked on original music for a new production called 'King Cotton', a co-commissioned stage show by The Lowry
The Lowry
The Lowry is a theatre and gallery complex situated on Pier 8 at Salford Quays, in Salford, Greater Manchester, England. It is named after the early-20th century painter, L. S. Lowry, known for his paintings of industrial scenes in North West England...

 and the Liverpool Culture Company
Liverpool Culture Company
The Liverpool Culture Company is an organisation that is responsible for the development of cultural programmes in the city of Liverpool, England. Set up by Liverpool City Council in 2004 after the city was announced as the European Capital of Culture in 2008, the Liverpool Culture Company was...

. However, he amicably withdrew from the production weeks before the opening for reasons unknown, and "any offers for Goodall's unused music will be gratefully received", according to the 16 September 2007 Sunday Times (page 14). A Winter’s Tale was presented during 2009–10 by Youth Music Theatre: UK
Youth Music Theatre: UK
Youth Music Theatre UK is the United Kingdom's biggest provider of music theatre projects for young people. It is one of nine recognised National Youth Music Organisations ....

, while 2010 saw the premiere at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester of Love Story, based on the novella by Erich Segal
Love Story (novel)
Love Story is a 1970 romance novel by American writer Erich Segal. The book's origins were in that of a screenplay Segal wrote and was subsequently approved for production by Paramount Pictures. Paramount requested that Segal adapt the story into novel form as a preview of sorts for the film. The...

. The production opens in London's West End (Duchess Theatre) in November 2010. In 2010 there was also a new professional production of The Hired Man
The Hired Man
The Hired Man is a novel by Melvyn Bragg, first published in 1969. It is the first part of Bragg's Cumbrian Trilogy.The story is set predominantly in the rural area around Thurston , from the 1890s to the 1920s, and follows the life of John Tallentire, a farm labourer and coal miner...

produced by The Octagon Theatre, Bolton
Octagon Theatre, Bolton
The Octagon Theatre is a producing theatre located in Bolton, Greater Manchester, England.-Programme:The Octagon produces between eight and nine professional theatre productions a year in its Main Auditorium...

which played from 3 June to 4 July 2010.

Television

Goodall has composed incidental music for several popular UK comedy programs including: Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf
Red Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series...

, Blackadder
Blackadder
Blackadder is the name that encompassed four series of a BBC1 historical sitcom, along with several one-off instalments. All television programme episodes starred Rowan Atkinson as anti-hero Edmund Blackadder and Tony Robinson as Blackadder's dogsbody, Baldrick...

, Mr Bean, The Thin Blue Line
The Thin Blue Line (TV series)
The Thin Blue Line is a British sitcom starring Rowan Atkinson set in a police station that ran for two series on the BBC from 1995 to 1996...

, The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley
The Vicar of Dibley is a British sitcom created by Richard Curtis and written for its lead actress, Dawn French, by Curtis and Paul Mayhew-Archer, with contributions from Kit Hesketh-Harvey. It aired from 1994 to 2007...

, The Catherine Tate Show
The Catherine Tate Show
The Catherine Tate Show is a British television sketch comedy written by Catherine Tate and Aschlin Ditta. Tate also stars in all but one of the show's sketches, which feature a wide range of characters. The Catherine Tate Show airs on BBC Two and is shown worldwide through the BBC...

, 2point4 Children
2point4 children
2point4 Children is a 1990s British sitcom that was created and written by Andrew Marshall. It follows the lives of the Porter family; an average family that is persistently faced with surreal situations and sheer bad luck....

and QI
QI
QI is a British comedy panel game television quiz show created and co-produced by John Lloyd, hosted by Stephen Fry, and featuring permanent panellist Alan Davies. Most of the questions are extremely obscure, making it unlikely that the correct answer will be given...

, on which he has also appeared twice as a panellist. It was as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford that he met the actor Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Atkinson
Rowan Sebastian Atkinson is a British actor, comedian, and screenwriter. He is most famous for his work on the satirical sketch comedy show Not The Nine O'Clock News, and the sitcoms Blackadder, Mr. Bean and The Thin Blue Line...

 and the writer Richard Curtis
Richard Curtis
Richard Whalley Anthony Curtis, CBE is a New Zealand-born British screenwriter, music producer, actor and film director, known primarily for romantic comedy films such as Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bridget Jones's Diary, Notting Hill, Love Actually and The Girl in the Café, as well as the hit...

, his collaborators on several of these projects, including his first break into TV, Not The Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News
Not the Nine O'Clock News is a television comedy sketch show which was broadcast on BBC 2 from 1979 to 1982.Originally shown as a comedy "alternative" to the BBC Nine O'Clock News on BBC 1, it featured satirical sketches on current news stories and popular culture, as well as parody songs, comedy...

.

Choral works

Goodall has a body of choral music to his name (the process of composing one of these works is noted in the book of his Big Bangs series), including "In Memoriam Anne Frank
Anne Frank
Annelies Marie "Anne" Frank is one of the most renowned and most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Acknowledged for the quality of her writing, her diary has become one of the world's most widely read books, and has been the basis for several plays and films.Born in the city of Frankfurt...

" (2001), "O Lord God of Time and Eternity" (2003) and settings of Psalm 23
Psalm 23
In the 23rd Psalm in the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the writer describes God as his Shepherd. The text, beloved by Jews and Christians alike, is often alluded to in popular media and has been set to music....

 (better known as the theme tune to The Vicar of Dibley) and "Love Divine". In September 2008, his Eternal Light: A Requiem was premiered by Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company, is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it would exert a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingdom, and today, as a contemporary dance company, it continues to be one of the...

 to choreography by Rambert Dance Company’s
Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company, is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it would exert a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingdom, and today, as a contemporary dance company, it continues to be one of the...

 Artistic Director: Mark Baldwin
Mark Baldwin (choreographer)
Mark Baldwin is a ballet choreographer. He was born in Fiji and raised and educated in New Zealand. He is currently Artistic Director for Rambert Dance Company.- Career :...

). The result of a commission from London Musici (Artistic Director: Mark Stephenson) to celebrate its 20th anniversary, Eternal Light: A Requiem was commissioned as both a choral-orchestral-dance piece and a choral orchestral work. The London premiere took place on 11 November 2008 at Sadler's Wells with Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company
Rambert Dance Company, is a leading British dance company. Formed at the start of the 20th century as a classical ballet company, it would exert a great deal of influence on the development of dance in the United Kingdom, and today, as a contemporary dance company, it continues to be one of the...

, London Musici, The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford
Christ Church Cathedral is the cathedral of the diocese of Oxford, which consists of the counties of Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire and Berkshire. It is also, uniquely, the chapel of Christ Church, a college of the University of Oxford.-History:...

, Finchley Children's Music Group
Finchley Children's Music Group
Finchley Children’s Music Group is a UK youth choir based in North London for children aged 4 to 18.Finchley Children’s Music Group was founded in 1958 after a group of singers came together to give the first amateur performance of Benjamin Britten’s Noye's Fludde...

 and soloists, conducted by Paul Hoskins. Also in September 2008, EMI Classics
EMI Classics
EMI Classics is a record label of EMI, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases....

 released the premiere recording of Eternal Light: A Requiem, with soloists Natasha Marsh
Natasha Marsh
Natasha Jane Marsh is a Welsh operatic soprano. A highly-regarded performer in both opera and oratorio, her debut album, Amour, topped the classical album charts in 2007. She has toured with artists such as G4, Russell Watson, Il Divo and Paul Potts...

, Alfie Boe
Alfie Boe
Alfred Giovanni Roncalli Boe, known professionally initially as Alf or Alfred Boe and now as Alfie Boe, , is an English tenor.-Background:...

 and Christopher Maltman joining London Musici, The Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and conducted by Stephen Darlington
Stephen Darlington
Stephen Darlington is a British choral director and conductor, and president of the Royal College of Organists from 1999-2001.During the early 1970s Darlington was organ scholar at Christ Church, Oxford, studying under Simon Preston...

.

In March 2009, Classic FM
Classic FM (UK)
Classic FM, one of the United Kingdom's three Independent National Radio stations, broadcasts classical music in a popular and accessible style.-Overview:...

 released Howard Goodall’s Enchanted Voices, a modern exploration of ancient chant, scored for upper voices, cello, organ, handbells and synthesizer. The disc marks Goodall’s position as Classic FM’s Composer-in-Residence for 2009. A month after its UK release, it became the best-selling specialist choral CD of 2009 there. It subsequently earned a nomination for Classical Brit Album of the Year. Howard Goodall's Enchanted Voices was followed by Howard Goodall's Enchanted Carols (November 2009) and Pelican in the Wilderness (March 2010).

After the chapel at Tonbridge School
Tonbridge School
Tonbridge School is a British boys' independent school for both boarding and day pupils in Tonbridge, Kent, founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judd . It is a member of the Eton Group, and has close links with the Worshipful Company of Skinners, one of the oldest London livery companies...

 burnt down in the 1980s, the then Headmaster, Christopher Everett commissioned Goodall to write a piece of music to commemorate the chapel. The idea was that it would be performed in the restored chapel. For this, Goodall wrote the music to Psalm 122. Unfortunately, the chapel was not built in time so instead the entire school performed Goodall's Psalm 122 in Rochester Cathedral. It was not until 2010 that the piece was performed by the entire school in its intended place - the beautifully restored Tonbridge School Chapel, along with the choir from Benenden School
Benenden School
Benenden School is an independent boarding school for girls in Kent, England. It is located in Benenden in the Kentish countryside, between Cranbrook and Tenterden....

.

Goodall was recently commissioned by Truro Cathedral
Truro Cathedral
The Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Truro is an Anglican cathedral located in the city of Truro, Cornwall, in the United Kingdom. It was built in the Gothic Revival architectural style fashionable during much of the nineteenth century, and is one of only three cathedrals in the United Kingdom...

 to write a new work for all four of the Cathedral's choirs: Truro Cathedral Choir (boys and men), St Mary's Singers (mixed adults), Cornwall Youth Choir and Cornwall Junior Choir. The piece, entitled A New Heart, A New Spirit, sets a text from Wisdom
Book of Wisdom
The Book of Wisdom, often referred to simply as Wisdom or the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon, is one of the deuterocanonical books of the Bible. It is one of the seven Sapiential or wisdom books of the Septuagint Old Testament, which includes Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon ,...

 and Ezekiel
Book of Ezekiel
The Book of Ezekiel is the third of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, following the books of Isaiah and Jeremiah and preceding the Book of the Twelve....

 in four languages (English, Latin, French and Cornish). It was first performed in the Cathedral on 18th June 2011, along with several of Goodall's other choral compositions.

Presenting

As well as presenting the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

's Choir of the Year, Young Musician of the Year, among many programmes, he has presented six award-winning series of television programmes on musical theory & history, filmed by Tiger Aspect and broadcast on Channel 4
Channel 4
Channel 4 is a British public-service television broadcaster which began working on 2 November 1982. Although largely commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the Channel...

:
  • Howard Goodall's Organworks (1996) — history of the 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...

  • Howard Goodall's Choirworks (1998) — history of choral music
  • Howard Goodall's Big Bangs (2000) — pivotal events in the history of music (also a book, published by Vintage in 2001, ISBN 0-09-928354-9
  • Howard Goodall's Great Dates (2002) — important dates in the history of music
  • Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats (2004) — exploring the divergence between classical and popular music in the 20th century
  • Howard Goodall's How Music Works (2006) — analysing the fundamental components of music itself.


Goodall received a Royal Television Society
Royal Television Society
The Royal Television Society is a British-based educational charity for the discussion, and analysis of television in all its forms, past, present and future. It is the oldest television society in the world...

 award for Organworks and the 2000 BAFTA Huw Wheldon
Huw Wheldon
Sir Huw Pyrs Wheldon OBE MC was a BBC broadcaster and executive.Wheldon was born in Prestatyn, Wales and educated at Friars School, Bangor. His father, Sir Wynn Wheldon, was a prominent educationalist, who had been awarded the DSO for gallantry in the First World War...

 award for Big Bangs, which also won several international prizes.

On Christmas Day December 2008, Goodall presented The Truth About Christmas Carols on BBC 2 TV, a documentary examining the surprising, and often secret, history of the traditional Christmas carol and on Good Friday April 2009 Hallelujah! The Story of Handel’s Messiah. In 2010, Goodall presented Music Room
Music Room (TV series)
Music Room is an innovative British television music series that presents classical musicians and the pieces they play in a manner normally associated with popular music programming. Filmed in a bare studio with only a scaffold cube for a set, the programme strips away the glamour that often marks...

on Sky Arts
Sky Arts
Sky Arts and Sky Arts HD is the brand name for a group of art-oriented television channels offering 18 hours a day of programmes dedicated to highbrow arts, including theatrical performances, movies, documentaries and music...

.

Awards

Goodall has been awarded honorary Doctorates of Music from Bishop Grosseteste University College in Lincoln, and the University of Bolton. The British Academy of Composers & Songwriters gave him its Gold Badge Award for exceptional work in support of his fellow British composers. In 2007, he received the Making Music/Sir Charles Groves
Charles Groves
Sir Charles Barnard Groves CBE was an English conductor. He was known for the breadth of his repertoire and for encouraging contemporary composers and young conductors....

 Prize for Outstanding Contribution to British Music and was appointed by the UK Government as England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing, leading a 4-year programme (Sing Up
Sing Up
Sing Up is a UK Government funded national singing programme which aims to ensure that all primary school-aged children are able to access high-quality singing activities every day and that, over time, all primary schools should become 'singing schools'...

) to improve the provision of group singing for all primary-age children.

In April 2009, Goodall was nominated for The Classical BRITs “Composer of the Year” award for Eternal Light: A Requiem, which he won in May 2009, and in July 2009 he was nominated for an Emmy Award
Emmy Award
An Emmy Award, often referred to simply as the Emmy, is a television production award, similar in nature to the Peabody Awards but more focused on entertainment, and is considered the television equivalent to the Academy Awards and the Grammy Awards .A majority of Emmys are presented in various...

 in the category “Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special (Dramatic Score)” for his work on the Winston Churchill biopic Into the Storm; which he then went on to win on 12 September at a ceremony in Los Angeles.

Goodall was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music education.

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK