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

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Of the remaining six string orchestral compositions dating from
the 1940s, Suite for Strin&s (1941) has never been performed. - Cambridge
Overture (1946), following its first airing at the Cambridge Music
School, has since been withdrawn from circulation by Lilburn.
Sinfonia
in D (1943) has lain neglected since its first performance in the all­
Lilburn concert of 1943.
Elegy (I.M. Noel Newson), the work that caused
the incident during the Noel Newson Memorial Concert of 1945, has only
recently been given its first full performance.
record Canzona 9 released in 1981.
This is on the Kiwi
Also on this record are the two
concert overtures for strings dating from 1942 - Concert Overture No.1
in D (since retitled Concert Overture for Strin&s) and Concert Overture
No.II in B-flat (since retitled Introduction and Alle&ro for Strings).
Like the Elegy (I.M. Noel Newson), both these concert overtures remained
neglected for nearly forty years until they were performed by the Schofa
M~ica, conducted by Ashley Heenan, in 1980. 10
Thus, the task of representing Lilburn's string writing from the
1940s has been left, over the years, to the three works Landfall in
Unknown Seas, Alle&ro and Diversions.
It is these three works also,
that will provide the representative sample of Lilburn's first period
string orchestra writing in the ensuing discussion of his music.
these three ought perhaps to be added the two concert overtures, as they
are of equal merit to Landfall in Unknown Seas and Diversions.
To
However,
they were composed in the same year (1942) as Landfall in Unknown Seas
and Alle&ro.
Because of this, perhaps not surprisingly, they add little
in musical thought not already contained in the two more popular works.
Concert Overture No. I, in particular, presents strong echoes of the
material in Allegro and the first movement of Landfall in Unknown Seas.
Concert Overture No.II is closely allied in content and manner of
expression to the inner movements of Landfall in Unknown Seas.
Festival Overture, Aotearoa Overture, Allegro for Strings,
Landfall in Unknown Seas, Song of the Antipodes, Diversions; S~phony
~, S~phony No.2 and Suite for Orchestra, as a representative sample of
Lilburn's first period orchestral and string orchestral works will form
the basis of the following first five chapters of discussion on the music
of Douglas Lilburn. This discussion will take the form of an element-byelement
examination of these works (with chapters on melody, form, harmony,
rhythm and orchestration) moving. towards a-definition of the style of
9 SLD-67.
10 Liner notes to SLD-67.