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

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However, within these traditional patterns of ordering, Lilburn
does not adhere strictly to conventional principles-.
His phrases. for
example. are as often of irregular length as they are of symmetrical
two, four, or eight bars length. His key changes are freqq~ntly
distantly related or unrelated keys, and the third sections of' this threepart
ternary forms rarely show an exact restatement of material.
closer examination of the five movements of Diversions will serve to
illustrate the above points.
Movement I (Vivaee J = c.138) follows the formal plan of a minuet
and trio. The minuet is in ternary form with a four-bar introduction and
a four-bar codetta:
Table 1: Structure of Diversions movement I.
Bar Nos'. 01-04
05-20
21-29
30-41
42-4S
Introduction
Al
B
A2
Codetta
The second version of the minuet follows this same bar-by-bar pattern
with two exceptions: the contents of the Al section are abbreviated by
two bars, and the four bars of the codetta are expanded into a twelvebar
coda.
The presentation of material within each section is strictly
phrase by phrase.
With the exception of the phrase that begins the A2
section, all phrases are organised in matching pairs of an opening and
closing statement of the theme.
The opening statement always ends on
the dominant, the closing statement always ends on the tonic. The
length of each phrase, however, varies markedly as the following phrasal
schema details:
Table 2: Phrase lengths of Diversions movement I.
Introduction:
AI:
B:
A2:
Codetta:
one 4-bar phrase.
one 3-bar preparatory 'vamp',
7-bar and 6-bar statement of theme.
S-bar and 4-bar statement.
S-bar, 3-bar, and 4-bar versions of theme.
4 bars.
With such irregularity of phrasing, it 1S almost as if Lilburn is poking
fun at his own use of an otherwise symmetrical and well-balanced form.
The trio has an interesting, if likewise symmetrical, form. - It
comprises six sections orderedAI,BI,A2,B2,A3,B3.
to
A
Sections AI,A2 and
B3 are n~ne bars each in length, ~Thilst sections B I ,B2 and A3 are all
eight bars in length.