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

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The next production in which Lilburn assisted Campion was Ned Kellx:
"Ballad songs and music for Ned Kelly by
Douglas Stewart, a New Zealander living
in Sydney, followed. (This was part of
a double bill with Ring Round the Moon,
music by David Farquhar, at Doug's
suggestion). "Those awful Irish tunes,"
muttered Doug. To a whistling actor he
added a mouthorgan, and later a chorus
of paper and combs - offstage. They
sounded like bushflies. Cheap though.
Hot, haunted atmosphere."16
Other productions in which Lilburn and Campion were to work together
include StJoan in 1955 and Merchant of Venice in 1957. 17
To return to 1950 and the beginning of the composition of
Symphonx No.2: some of the musical ideas for this work had been in
Lilburn's mind since the mid-1940s, particularly th~
last movement. 18
material for the
The stimulus Lilburn needed to return to working on
those ideas came with the announcement of a competition sponsored by the
Australasian Performing Right Association.
The May 1951 deadline 'for
this competition was impossibly close, but Lilburn managed to complete
the symphony in time - only for it to be unplaced.
to Australian composers:
All the prizes went
Hedly Hutchinson took first prize, and Clive
Douglas and Robert Hughes took second equal prize. 19
Symphonx No.2 eventually received its first performance in a studio
broadcast in December 1953 by the National Orchestra conducted
by Warwick Braithwaite. The first public performance, though, was not
given until 1959, when on 23 June in the Wellington Town Hall, the
National Orchestra presented the work, conducted by John Hopkins. 20
As with the reception of the first performance of Symphony No.1,
the reviewers of this first performance of Symphonx No.2 (and this time
the subsequent Christchurch performance) were in accord on three general
observations.
These observations matched those of the earlier work:
that Symphonx No.2 had considerable merit, that it had weaknesses, and'
that it was a milestone in the history of New Zealand composition. Added
16 Richard Campion, You've only got to ask. Douglas Lilburn op.cit.
p.58.
17 Later productions includa He Mana Toa, a play by James Ritchie produced
by the Maori Theatre Trust in 1967andd the Expo 70 Dance Sequenue
produced for the J970 Osaka exhibition.
18 Scott papers.
19 Douglas Lilburn in correspondence with author 28 October 1980.
20 Programme to the concert.