Howard Goodall

Howard Goodall (born 26 May 1958) is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television. He also presents music-based programming for television.

Goodall was born in Bromley, Kent and educated at the independent New College School, Oxford, followed by the independent Stowe School in Buckinghamshire and then at Lord Williams's School in Thame, Oxfordshire. He also studied music at Christ Church, Oxford. He is married to Val Fancourt, who is a classical music agent. He is currently the choral patron of Guildford County School, a specialist music college, and in May 2008 was named as a presenter and composer in residence with the UK radio channel Classic FM

Works

Musical theatre

His prolific output of musical theatre works includes The Hired Man (1984), an adaptation of the novel by Melvyn Bragg, which won an Ivor Novello award, Girlfriends (1986), Days of Hope (1991), Silas Marner (1993), The Kissing-Dance (1999), The Dreaming (2001), The Winter's Tale (2005) and Two Cities (2006). Goodall worked on original music for a new production called 'King Cotton', a co-commissioned stage show by The Lowry and the Liverpool Culture Company. 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).

Television

He has written popular themes for, among many others, the television comedy series Red Dwarf, Blackadder, Mr Bean, The Thin Blue Line, The Vicar of Dibley, The Catherine Tate Show and QI, on which he also appeared on as a guest panelist. It was as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford that he met the actor Rowan Atkinson and the writer Richard Curtis, his collaborators on Not the Nine O'Clock News, Blackadder and other projects.

Choral works

Although mostly known for his television work, Goodall has a considerable body of new 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" (2001), "O Lord God of Time and Eternity" (2003) and settings of Psalm 23 and "Love Divine". Jason and the Argonauts (2004) was commissioned for the opening of the rebuilt organ at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

Presenting

As well as presenting the BBC's Choir of the Year, Chorister of the Year and Young Musician of the Year, he has presented six award-winning series of television programmes on musical history, filmed by Tiger Aspect and broadcast on Channel 4:

• Howard Goodall's Organworks (1996) — history of organ music
• 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 award for Organworks and the 2000 BAFTA Huw Wheldon award for Big Bangs, which also won several international prizes.

Awards

Awards and honours include an honorary Doctorate of Music from Bishop Grosseteste University College, Lincoln, a British Academy of Composers & Songwriters Gold Badge Award for exceptional work in support of his fellow British composers and a 2007 Making Music/Sir Charles Groves Prize for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. In 2007, Goodall was named by the Government as the "Singing Ambassador" as part of a £10 million package to boost music in schools.

References

External links

• Howard Goodall's official website
• London revival of Days of Hope