Bryan N.S. Gooch

Gooch, Bryan N.S.

Bryan N.S. (Niel Shirley) Gooch. Teacher of English and music, writer, pianist, conductor, harpsichordist, b Vancouver 31 Dec 1937; ARCT 1957, BA (British Columbia) 1959, LTCL 1959, FTCL 1961, MA (British Columbia) 1962, PH D English (London) 1968. In Vancouver he studied with Ira Swartz (piano), John Avison, Nicholas Goldschmidt and George Schick (conducting), and Allard de Ridder (composition, arranging). He made his debut as a pianist in 1956 at the Vancouver Art Gallery. While studying 1962-4 in London he conducted the St Thomas Chamber Orchestra and the University of London's opera group and Gilbert & Sullivan Society. He was music director and conductor of the Nanaimo Symphony Orchestra 1968-71 and the New Westminster Symphony Orchestra 1975-7. He has guest-conducted the CBC Vancouver Chamber Orchestra and the Victoria Symphony Chamber Orchestra. Gooch has played many broadcasts for the CBC, accompanied Robert Creech, Gloria Doubleday, Norman Farrow, Ian Hampton, Frederick Newnham, Arthur Polson, William Reimer, Heather Thomson, and Campbell Trowsdale in recital, and has performed in various chamber groups and in two-piano teams with Hugh McLean and Robert Rogers. He taught English literature 1959-60 at the University of British Columbia and in 1964 joined the Department of English at the University of Victoria, where he continued to teach in 1991. He also taught piano 1967-70 at the Victoria Cons. A prolific writer on English literature, Gooch has been interested especially in the relationship between poetry and music. He interviewed Murray Adaskin for RCI's Anthology of Canadian Music (1986, 5-ACM 23). He is a contributor to EMC and a member of its board of directors.

Selected Writings

'Henry Cart de Lafontaine's The King's Musick: The Purcell Family index,' Notes and Queries, new series vol 13, Jul 1966

- and Westermark, Tory I. Poetry Is for People (Toronto 1973)

'Ernest Dowson and Frederick Delius: On Songs of Sunset as mentioned in Arthur Hutchings' Delius,' Delius Society J (1974), reprt in Music R, vol 36, May 1975

- and Thatcher, David S. Musical Settings of Late Victorian and Modern British Literature: A Catalogue (New York and London 1976)

- and Thatcher, David S. Index of Titles and First Lines to Musical Settings of Late Victorian and Modern British Literature: A Catalogue [Victoria, BC 1977]

- and Thatcher, David S. Musical Settings of Early and Mid-Victorian Literature: A Catalogue (New York and London 1979)

- and Thatcher, David S. Musical Settings of British Romantic Literature: A Catalogue, 2 vols (New York and London 1982)

'A Shakespearean Music Catalogue: the path and the progress,' Fontes artis musicae, vol 37, Apr-Jun 1990

- and Thatcher, David S. A Shakespeare Music Catalogue, 5 vols (Oxford 1991)