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

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Third Stream, beginning his letter to the periodical:
"No doubt the best way of protecting a composer
from his hampering well-wishers is to demolish~
him - this appears to be R.J. Maconie's
conclusion in his letter "42
Lilburn then proceeded systematically to counter Maconie's criticisms
of the work, especially his attack on Campbell's text and the comparison
of the work with Gesang der Junglinge. Even more surprisingly, Lilburn's
reply is essentially one of Mgume.ntum ad hom-i.n.em. Because of this ,the
impact of his reply is considerably weakened:
" ••• In all this he [Maconie] would like to appear
knowledgeable of technical matters in order to
give a bad impression of my work to a technically
uninformed public opinion. In fact he barely
knows what he is talking about so glibly." And I
can only suggest to him that, as a practical
exercise in technical and self-discovery, he try
out his naive recipe for recorded cymbal effects
and see what he comes up with •••• Such an
experience might also serve to bring him up-todate
with the equipment of the Studio and save
him from making further ignorant and derogatory
references to it."43
In retrospect, it would seem obvious that this kind of exchange
between composer and critic through the pages of a widely circulated
periodical could do little good for New Zealand composition.
case, it gives an indication as to the insecurity he must have been
feeling about his electronic compositions during the early stages of
exploration.
In Lilburn's
In 1965, Lilburn turned 50 years of age. To mark this occasion,
the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation produced a tribute in the form
of four, approximately hour-long, programmes devoted to his music. As
well, he was the subject of a three-quarter hour programme of Owen
Jansen's Music H~. These tribute programmes were broadcast from Monday
1 November to Friday 5 November 1965, on the YC stations. The programme: 4
included performances of Aotearoa Overture, Symphony Nos.l, 2 and 3,
Wind Quintet, Elegy, Sings HarrY, Diversions, Allegro for strings, The
Return, Sonatina No.2, Sonata for violin and piano (1950), Festival
42 Douglas Lilburn, "The Return". Third Stream no.4, June-July 1968:8.
43 ibid.
44 New Zealand Listener vol.53 no.1360, 29 October 1965:8-9.