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

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Piano, in particular, is a successful summary of Lilburn's drive towards
minimizing gesture ahd rationalising content. This work also provides
insight into his growing conceptualisation of. sound in electronic terms .•.
Discussion of Lilburn's works from his second period of
composition will be divided accordingly into three chapters. The first
of these will examine the transition of Lilburn's style following his
trip overseas, and will discuss such works as A Birthday Offering,
Quartet for Brass Instruments, Wind Quintet, Three Poems of the Sea and
Three Songs for Baritone and Viola. Continual references back to the
first period works and occasional glimpses forward to his later second
period works will be made in order to place this period of experimentation
into the proper perspective of Lilburn's over-all stylistic
progression.
The second chapter will be devoted exclusively to an examination
of Symphony No.3, the work that culminates all Lilburn's writing for
traditional media. As well as di~cussing the work as a single composition
in its own right, aspects of the work that summarise his earlier music
will be examined. The third chapter will discuss Lilburn's second period
piano music, in this case represented only by the two works of substance
for piano written after Symphony No.3. In this chapter, some comparisons
will be made with his first period piano works. As well, these two works
will be examined in the light of their placement at the end of Lilburn's
output for traditional media, and in the light of his growing interest in
electronic music at this time.
Discussion of Lilburn's music will end with this examination of
his second period piano music. All that follows in his output, of
substance, are works in the electronic medium.
Discussion of these compositions from his 'electronic' third
period of writing is outside the scope of this study. The reason for
this is two-fold. Firstly, his work in the electronic medium continued
uninterrupted through to 1979. The proximity of this date simply does
not allow sufficient retrospective for an objective appraisal of the
merits, qualities, and characteristics of these works. Secondly, an
examination of these electronic works requires a different approach to
the one used in the ensuing discussion of his first and second period
works. Whilst different approaches to works of different media should
not be mutually exclusive, the results of a different approach may well
cloud the findings of the primary aim of this study: to document and
appraise the role that Douglas Lilburn played in establishing the
beginnings of an indigenous music for New Zealand. Suffice it to be