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

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with less frequency and is less marked by sudden changes of dynamics.
What is given more prominence than in the Allegro and Aotearoa extracts
is the integral use of rests. The melody is neatly dissected by an
interposed rest and it is this abrupt rest that gives the melody its
interesting character. (Without it, it would merely be a series of
scalic configurations in the A aeolian mode sandwiched between two
suspended notes an octave apart). The danger of inserting such a
significantly-lengthed rest between the antecedent and the consequent
phrase is that a melody can sound like two separate statements. However,
because Lilburn so abruptly truncates the antecedent in this case and
leads up to the rest with a sudden crescendo, the momentum generated
carr~es
the phrase over the rest so that this period of silence becomes
part of the thematic statement, rather than a punctuation point between
phrases.
A further example of this thematic type can be found in the
opening bars of the fourth movement of Symphony No.2 (see Ex.4).
Ex.4: Symphony No.2 movement IV, violin I bars 1-9.
Certainly the alternation of motion and repose is apparent, but in a less
dramatic manner than in the Alle~ro (Ex.l) and Aotearoa (Ex.2) examples.
The abrupt changes of dynamics are also apparent, but are used more in
the manner of the crescendo mark in the Symphony No.1 example (Ex.3).
That is to say, in both cases where a crescendo mark appears in the
Symphony No.2 example (Ex.4) it precedes the sudden interruption of the
melodic line by the interpolation of a rest. Like the Aotearoa Overture
(Ex.2), moments of quiet (and the use of the diminuendo mark) are
reserved for moments of repose. Also, the moments of motion are in the
main characterised by ornament-like embellishments, as illustrated in bar
5 of the Symphony No.2 example (Ex.4).
Perhaps the most strikingly dramatic use of this thematic type can
be found in the Festival Overture in the bars leading up to the announcement
of the first theme (bars 7-18). Although not strictly speaking a