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

10
London.
That New Zealand had nO permanent symphony orchestra at this
time was irrelevant, for Lilburn had had ample opportunity to hear and
study the live symphony orchestra sound in London, immediately prior to
composing the work.
Maconie later explained the content of his radio talks as being:
" ••• more autobiographical than scholarly. In
1969 I was obliged to leave New Zealand because
there was no living to be made as a composer or
university teacher. I wanted to know why, and
I wanted other people to know why. But no research
went into the talks. Even so, I am still nonplussed
that as late as 1970 there had been - as far as I
could gather - no serious attempt to chronicle the
social and geographical influences on white New
Zealand music."11
This, certainly in part, explains why the motivation behind these radio
talks seems to be one of criticizing rather than critically examining,
the tradition of composition in New Zealand.
The most detailed account of the general topic of New Zealand
composition to date can be found 1n a special edition of Canzona l2
entitled Aspects of New Zealand Composition 1950-1980.
In this, eleven
authors examine, as suggested in the title, various aspects of New
Zealand composition during the defined period of 1950-80.
A general outline of New Zealand music between the years 1940
and 1980, supplied by this author, opens the collection of essays.
As with the articles in international periodicals as mentioned above,
no attempt is made at anything other than surface observations.
Douglas
Lilburn is identified as being the first New Zealand composer and his
centrality to the course of New Zealand composition is emphasised.
names of composers in the succeeding 'waves' of New Zealand composers
are given, titles of their most important works are mentioned, and their
areas of special interest or achievement -are outlined. Three themes are
identified as playing major roles in the development of composition in
New Zealand:
the dominance of the universities, the lure of overseas,
and the influence of the environment.
The last of these three themes is the subject for two essays
that follow in this special edition of Canzona.
The
The first of these is
by Jack Body, entitled liThe New Zealand Musical Identity; the second is
11 Robin Maconie in correspondence with author 22 August 1980.
12 Canzona vol.3 no. 10, November 1981. 68pp.