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

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Szmrhony No.2, a full recapitulation of the principal theme in the
Aotearoa Overture does occur. However, its reappearance in its original
guise is delayed until bar 179 where it marks the beginning of the coda.
Its appearance here is an example of the cut-and-paste method of
reconstruction - as already noted, a design feature of many of Lilburn's
recapitulation sections. This method of construction involves the
culling of a particular passage from the exposition section (often with
disregard for phrase beginnings and endings) and its transplanting into
a different contextual environment in the recapitulation section. Along
with the selection of theme 1, in this instance, the last three bars of
the introduction section are included. Bars 22-31 then, are transplanted
to bars 173-85.
Ten bars later in this work, further evidence of a cut-and-paste
construction can be found with the transplanting of bars 195-8,culled
from bars 51-4.
The Festival Overture is the only one of the five works examined
that shows the recapitulation section beginning with a restatement of
theme I. It appears here, arguably, as a further example of a cut-andpaste
method of construction in that the last half dozen bars of the
introduction have been transplanted along with most of the first subject
group (bars 11-26 become bars 150-64). However, the transplanting here
is not exact, although the differences between the two extracts are
minimal: an abbreviation of bars 11 and 12, a slight rescoring (that in
the main merely thickens the texture through doubling), some instances
of octave displacement within the melodic line, and a brief use of
reiterated semiquavers to adorn what was previously straight quavers.
Clearer, less debatable examples of this cut-and-paste method of
recapitulation can be found in Symphony No.1 movement I where bars 185-94
are an exact repetition of bars 40-9; and in Allegro where bars 279-309
are an exact repetition of bars 61-91.
The reason Lilburn makes frequent use of this cut-and-paste method
of construction is a matter for conjecture. It could be safely assumed'
that the instances of this in the Aotearoa Overture were due to his need
to meet an impending dealine. Time could be saved by recopying rather
than rescoring his recapitulations. Perhaps, because the cut-and-paste
method worked in the Aotearoa Overture with the joins in the main being
unnoticeable, Lilburn felt that time could also be saved in the composition
of Allegro and Symphony No.1; or perhaps in these works he wanted
the material in the transplanted passages to be highlighted through an
exact repetition. The latter possibility, though, seems unlikely, as
it is relatively minor material that is transplanted. Nevertheless,