The beginnings and development of a New Zealand music: The life ...

92
but tempered this observation with:
"As a work the symphony has several shortcomings
those in search of fault would be quick to seize
upon. The principal themes are.abstrusea.nd
discursive, the texture is uneven, and the
effectiveness of the trumpet pa~~ages is not
heightened by their frequency."
L.C.M.S., in reviewing the first Auckland performance of the work, sidestepped
making a direct criticism of the symphony by writing:
"Whether this material has sufficient interest,
whether the scoring tends to become a monochrome,
and whether there is sufficient differentiation
of style between the three movem~2ts, are points
that each listener must decide."
Dorothy Davies in reviewing for Landfall noted that
·"Weaknesses there are for sure; moments 6f
uncertainty and over-reiteration ••• a groping
of harmonic movement in one section of the last
movement. Pulse is still the danger point."43
whilst concluding that this "•.• very lovely music ll possesses"
beauty
1144
Owen Jensen, writing in the Arts Year Book No.7, concluded his
lengthy appraisal of the music with:
"The originality and vitality of Douglas Lilburn's
first symphony is in the shapes of the various
themes, in the integration of these ideas and in
the working out of the elements of the design.
The texture of the music itself contains nothing
that is startlingly new. Key patterns are largely
traditional - there is nothing of atonality and
little that could be defined as polytonality - and
the harmonies are effective without being abstruse.
The orchestration which, except for the solo
passages, consists of block contrasts of strings,
woodwinds, and brass with some effectively
beautiful horn writing and the thematic use of
timpani, is admirably tempered to the pervading
austerity of the music.
Doug las Lilburn's Symphony No.1, the first symphony
to be written by a New Zealander, is, and will be,
of historical importance, but it is not enough
that we commend it as a significant contribution
great
41 ibid.
42 L.C.M.S., Important musical occasion New Zealand symphony premiered.
Unsourced newspaper clipping, copy with author.
43 Dorothy Davies, Douglas Lilburn's 1st symphony. Landfall vol.S no.3,
September 1951:231.