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

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ORCHESTRATION, TEXTURES, TIMBRES IN LILBURN
Lilburn's orchestration, in the. works from his first compositional
period, is firmly based upon a string ensemble background sound. His
dependence on strings to provide the nucleus of his sound is most
evident in the earlier works. With the passing of time and the growing
of experience at orchestrating, this dependence weakens, as the following
table indicates:
Table I: Frequency of employment of strings in Lilburn's first period
orchestral works.
Based on bar-by-bar appearance of strings according to whether they are
employed as a full ensemble, or whether less than three string lines are
employed in any given bar, or whether no strings are employed at all in
a given bar. (Percentages rounded to nearest whole number).
Work Without Less than 3 Full Total
1939 Festival zero 4% 61%
1940 Aotearoa 1% 8% 66%
1946 Antipodes 2% 9% 49%
1949 Symphony 1 , movt .1 4% 10% 40%
1951 Symphony 2, movt.I zero 10% 47%
1955 Suite, movts.I,II 2% 13% 29%
247
244
507
338
252
239
- 'Without' means complete bars without any strings.
'Less th~n 3' means one or two string lines playing in a bar.
- 'Full' means all five string instruments appear in a bar.
This table demonstrates three facts about Lilburn's string
writing in his first period of composition. The first is that his use
of a full string ensemble drops from a high of 66% in 1940 to a low of
29% in 1955 - a sign of his weakening dependence on the full string
sound. The second fact is that nearly every bar Ln all these surveyed
works contains :a.Stringsound (every bar in Festival· Overture- and···, ..
S~hony No.2 movement I has a string instrument playing). The third
fact is a corollary of the first and second: throughout the period
Lilburn begins to allow his individual string lines a greater freedom