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

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The textures in which both these ostinati (Ex.2,3) are employed are
two-part. In these, the upper instruments move strictly in rhythmic
unison above the celli ostinati (the bass is silent in both cases).
In such textures, Lilburn sometimes reverses the distribution of
instrumental lines and scores a single-line melodic part above an
ostinato figure in all the accompanying lines. Movement I of Diversions
is a good example of this:
Ex.4: Diversion~ movement I bars 8-10.
M-I. ....... +-
- - - - -
L/.I ~ 1"1 - '[
... ..
~
~ ..
t
q+
;. :f.- l'r ;.
,;
u , +- of
.'"
If
Three and four-part textures
In Lilburn's three-part textures, the inner accompaniment assumes
an identity of its own. Like the bass-lines in the two-part textures,
any rhythmic interest in this inner line is overshadowed by the rhythmic
interest of the melodic line. Where the inner harmony line does contain
rhythmic interest, it is usually through the application of one of four
processes.
The firs t two of these processes., movement in imitation and in
rhythmic unison, are the same as those mentioned above in conjunction
with the rhythmic interest of the bass-line in a two-part texture. The'
third process is where Lilburn builds an accompanying phrase out of the
repetition of a characteristic motif. The fourth process is where
Lilburn writes a fully-fledged counter-motif.
Consider the following examples: