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

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Ex.36: Festival Overture, cello bars 17-23.
Ex.37: Allegro for strings, viola bars 9-16.
The Festival Overture example (Ex.36) is in the main a staccato
melody. It has for its climax point a note reiterated six times. It
moves mainly at a quaver pulse, but early on employs a dotted rhythm
that is made more prominent by the insertion of an 'active' rest. It is
one of the few of Lilburn's themes that show evidence of melodic
modulation: it begins in a minor mode based on the tonic F, but
modulates quickly in its second whole bar to the dorian mode ,based on C.
The closing few bars are particularly interesting in that they show one
of the few occasions on which Lilburn makes consecutive use of wide
intervals. In fact, with its two octaves and a minor third compass
(ascribed in the closing three bars) it is the widest ranging in pitch
of all Lilburn's orchestral melodies from the first period of composition.
The Allegro example (Ex.37) is a legato melody with a more
conservative compass range of one octave. Like the Festival Overture
example it is modal - in the aeolian mode based on G - but it does not
modulate.
Example 38"from the second movement of Diversions is a good
example of a stock Lilburn melody. It is modal (dorian based on E
although the second degree of the mode is never sounded), it ascribes an
arch contour, beginning and ending on its lowest notes, it has a