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

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aware at this stage, as was established in the final chapter of Part I
of this study, that Lilburn pioneered the mechanics needed for the
growth of a tradition of electronic music in this country.
However, one qualification must be made to the above. Any study
of Lilburn's electronic music must take cognisance of the work of his
first and second periods of composition. The work of his third period
of composition shows Lilburn taking the progression of his musical style
and compositional preoccupations in what is almost a full circle. In
his electronic works, the same concern for capturing the ambience of the
New Zealand environment can be felt; traces of a return to his musical
language of the 1940s (albeit disguised by the new technology) can be
observed. To what extent this is so, though, must be left to a future
study.
Returning now to his orchestral and string orchestral music of
the 1940s, the element-by-elementanalysis of his first period of
composition style begins with. a discussion of his use of melody.