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

146
at Victoria University of Wellington. Shortly after this, at the first
meeting of the University Council in 1980, he was elected Professor
Emeritus.
The fact that must impress on reading a biography of Douglas
Lilburn is the contiguity of his career with the growth and development
of composition in New Zealand.
He was the winner of the Percy Grainger
Music Prize and three out of four of the Centennial Music Prizes;
first winner of the Philip Neill Memorial Prize;
the
the first composition
tutor at the Cambridge Summer Music Schools; the first composer to have
31
a work played by the National Orchestra; the first composer appointed
to a university lecturing post on the strength of work previously
accomplished as a composer;
film and radio as media for incidental composition;
32
Zealand composer to have a work locally recorded;
the first composer to exploit the theatre,
the first New
the pioneer of
electronic music in New Zealand, responsible for the establishment of
the first electronic music studio;
the composer-representative
instrumental in the establishment of an APRA Advisory Committee;
spokesman for composers during the revision of the New Zealand Copyright
Act 1962; the founder of the Wai-te-ata Press Music Editions; the
first composer to be awarded an honorary doctorate from a New Zealand
University;
the first musician to be awarded a personal chair in music
at a New Zealand university; the first New Zealand composer to have
33
works included in examinations for Trinity College and UE/UB/Scholar-
Ship;34
and, lastly, one of the motivating forces behind the establishment
of the Composers
Association of New Zealand.
In short, there are few significant developments in composition in
New Zealand that have not been effected, initiated, or influenced by
Douglas Lilburn.
The extensive part he played in shaping these developments was far
from fortuitous. Not content to lead the way through the example of his
music alone, he encouraged and stimulated younger composers (and, indeed,
artists practising in other media), through his teachings and his
the
31 Song of the Antipodes in 1947.
32 Festival Overture in 1959.
33 Prelude No.3 of Four Preludes for Piano {Grade III), Christma&~iece
No.1 for L.B., 1949 (Grade IV), Rondino (Grade V) and Prelude No.2
of Two Preludes (Grade V) from c.1976. All published in Occasional
Pieces for Piano (1975 Price Milburn Music).
34 Nine Short Pieces for Piano and Symphony No.3 from c.1977.