Goehr, Alexander: Waiting

quintet for piano and wind

Composed in five movements, Waiting draws on the idea of waiting in different forms, from invoking raw emotion to weaving rich poetic and literary references. Penelope weaving alludes to The Odyssey, where Penelope weaves a shroud every night while waiting for Odysseus to return. Of me and here (referencing Beckett’s The Unnameable) continues the idea of waiting and repetition through a distinctive 3-3-2 meter and spoken elements: ‘...since my speech can only be of me and here, that I am once more engaged in putting an end to both.’ Coda, the final movement, closes the work with spoken fragments, quoting Kafka’s Before the Law: ‘This entrance was only intended for you. Now I'll go and lock it.’