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

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The texture of this passage can essentially be divided into a treble
part and a bass part. The treble part is centred around the brass motif,
with the upper woodwind, upper strings and horns reinforcing the material
stated in the brass, both rhythmically and in pitch. These instruments
also rhythmically stress the important accents of the brass. With respect
to pitch, the upper woodwind, upper strings and horns double the pitches
used in the brass, as well as fill out the harmony by stating the notes
of the triads that are implied in the brass and bass-line harmonic outlines.
Notice the voicing in the instruments: Lilburn is using his
favoured parallel thirds doubled at the octave. This is particularly
marked in the woodwind at bar 197 where this doubling occurs over three
octaves.
As a generalisation about his instrument distribution in tutti
chords in the Aotearoa Overture, Lilburn invariably assigns the bottom of
the chord (usually the root) to the cello, doublebass,bassoon, and
bass trombone. The middle of the chord is reserved for the trombones and
horns. Higher up, one can usually find the trumpets and violas, and
above this the violins. The upper woodwind usually cap the chord.
In his book The Technique of Orchestration,3 Kent Wheeler Kennan
identifies four ways in which instruments of different kinds can be
combined in a single chord:
Table 5: a) Juxtaposition, b) Interlocking, c) Enclosure, d) Overlapping.
CI(!]Ob
(\.)
Q\{!JCl
( c.)
0& CS!j::
(d)
Although examples of all four types of scoring can be found in the work,
Lilburn favours that of juxtaposition. An extract taken from the
development section, where Lilburn allows the woodwind to dominate the
music, serves as a good example of this juxtaposition:
Ex.2: Aoteatoa Overture, flutes, oboes, bars 114-8.
3 New Jersey, Prentice-Hall 1970:156.