This major work from Alexander Goehr reflects upon the diametrically opposing roles towers can have. The composer writes ‘Towers embody the idea of climbing upwards, in the spiritual as much as in the physical sense. Their destruction can be regarded as a punishment (or as a rescue from) man’s overwhelming arrogance.’
Using texts by Franz Kafka, 17th century mystic Jacob Boehme and Swiss writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt, Goehr explores man’s desire to build towers to draw closer to God whilst the works feel nothing but despair at the fruitfulness of such a task.