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

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Ex.35: ~~hony No.2 movement It strings bars 105-9.
Movement III of Symphony No.2 shows an even greater use of
diatonically unrelated triads to form the harmonic background. In this
movement, rich mixtures of major and minor triads in root position and
second inversion can be heard sl:ated in succession. To give but one
example:
Ex.36: ~:nphony No.2 movement III, trumpets bars 58-68.
It is int.eresting to note that this meandering, non-functional use of
triads is, in part, the harmonic language to which Lilburn later returned
in his third period of composition. Contemplative electronic works such
as his ~scapes, a-nd the small pi~ano pieces dating from the 1970s (such
as those ,:ollected in Occasional Pieces for Piano) are especially notable
for their wafting, pantonal textures. Further discussion of this is,
however, c)utside the scope of this discussion.
What is worth elaborating on here, is the similarity between a
passage in Aotearoa Overture and a passage in Symphony No.2 movement I.
The Aotearoa Overture ex..cerpt (see Ex .37) is a good example of Lilburn r s