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

12 I
yield strange and evocative noises when attacked
in various way."3
Thus, Lilburn's first meeting with "the zombie On the horizon" resulted
in the incidental sound montage for The Axe in 1961.
1961 was also the year in which Symphony No.3 was completed. 4
This work, generally considered the pinnacle of orchestral composition in
New Zealand, stands at the crossroads of Lilburn's compositional career.
It was sketched and planned over a period of time that saw many influences,
both old and new, exerting themselves on Lilburn.
On one hand there was
the experimentation with electronic music for The Axe, whilst on the
other there was the revival of his earlier orchestral works, giving him
the opportunity he had never really had of fully appraising their
strengths and-weaknesses.
He was still assimilating the serial
procedures discovered on his overseas leave of I955~6,
recently been introduced to the sounds of Darmstadt.
and had just
In the midst of all
these influences, he retained for Symphony No.3 the image of a scene from
his house at Paekakariki: " ••• he spoke cautiously of the land and sea
at Pukerua Bay a little north of Wellington". 5
Symphony No.3 was first performed by the National
Orchestra, conducted by John Hopkins, at the Wellington Town Hall on 31
July 1962.
The work was recorded for release on the Kiwi label 6 on the
3rd and 4th of September 1962, by Hopkins and the National
Orchestra. Five performances quickly followed: on 6 April 1963 in
Christchurch; on 9 April of that year in Dunedin; on 29 May in
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Auckland; and twice in Wellington, on 17 July and 8 August. For the
first time in New Zealand's history, a new, indigenous composition was
being given a hearing in all the main centres of the country.
The work was enthusiastically received by reviewers who, as with
the reviewers of the performances of Lilburn's first two symphonies,
. were in accord that Symphony No.3 was a landmark composition for New
3 ibid.
4 The full score was drafted by March ]961.
5 Gordon Burt, Composers in CANZ - A Survey of New Zealand
composers. RNZ. op.cit. Unpublished typescript, programme
1, p.6.
6 SLD-14.
7 From the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra files of records of
performances.