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

1 I I
Peter Crowe, an ex-pupil of Lilburn's, commented in the New
Zealand Listener that:
"Compared with his other symphonic works,
Douglas Lilburn's new piece springs its
greatest surprise in the uninhibited use
of the orchestra. It is 'the most
arresting in its sonorities - at times
brittle and brilliant, at others soft
and shimmering - in his whole output ••••
More than in any other department, Lilburn's
mastery of scoring is shown in the resourceful
and confident string writing."50
R.W.B. in The Dominion was more reserved in his praise, and indeed,
questioned the intentions behind the work:
"Just what musical impact this work may have
.I could not possibly realise from a first.
hearing. It was witty and clever, but the
orchestral superstructure towered so
tremendously above the foundations of the
work that it was quite impossible to gain
any impression of solidarity. Or was that
the joke?
In fact it was really rather rum •••"
51
R.W.B.'s reservations and doubts were voiced even more strongly by
one listener - L. Assheton Harbord of Lower Hutt - who was sufficiently
incensed by the work to write a letter to the New Zealand Listener. The
tone of the letter was reminiscent of the side-swiping attacks L.D.Austin
had made on Lilburn's earlier music:
"Mr Lilburn seems to me to have nothing to
say, and does so at the top of his voice. It
is easily understood why Mr Lilburn himself
boggled at giving it a title. His ideal of "A
Birthday Offering" may have been prompted by
the Biblical association of "burnt offerings
and bloody sacrifices." In which case it was
singularly apt since Mr Lilburn apparently
sacrificed the more general interpretation
of "music" to contemporary discordance, in
which he might as well as have included "the
kitchen sink", whose gurglings would not have
been out of place.
I strongly suspect that Mr Lilburn perpetrated
a joke upon the pseudo "art-lover" - or, to
be quite scrupulous, this composition is
merely an exercise in orchestration, apart
50 Peter Crowe, Douglas Lilburn's "Birthday Offering". New Zealand
Listener vol.35 no.902, 16 November 1956:26.
51 R.W.B., Shows music can be fun. The Dominion 15 October 1956.