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

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From bar 21, the flutes and oboes offer a secondary motif in response
to the second statement of the string melody. This secondary motif is
a typical woodwind scalic figure, contrasting rhythmically with the
stop-start rhythms of the violin theme. This passage is also one of
the few instances in a work where Lilburn allows the woodwind to carry
the material without support from the strings. This antiphonal use of
woodwind, alternating with strings, is carried through the remaining
bars of this extract, with a variation on the violin motif followed by
a further use of the woodwind counter-motif. From bars 29-33, one can
see the usual alignment of Lilburn's bassoon line with the double bass
and/or cello line. Here, it doubles the bass.
An alternating statement of a secondary woodwind theme against
a main string theme is typical of Lilburn's accompanim~ntal use of
woodwind. So too, is his use of the woodwind to inject little counterrhythmic
figures into the texture during moments of sustained sound in
the string themes. Two further characteristic uses of the woodwind for
accompanimental purposes include the doubling of the string lines, and
the filling out of the inner harmonies through use of sustained notes.
There is one significant difference between Lilburn's thematic
use of woodwind and his thematic use of strings: where the woodwind
dominate the thematic material, following the announcement of a theme,
the texture becomes characterised by contrapuntal, imitative movement
between the various woodwind instruments. At the very least,
successive statements of the theme are shared between the woodwind
lines in dovetailing phrases. At the most, tightly-knit and closely"".
scored passages of imitation between the upper woodwind can occur. A
good example of this can also be found in the fourth movement of
S~phony No.2, following on from the announcement of the second subject
(in the oboe line):
Ex.14: SJ1!IlPhony No.2 movement IV, woodwind bars 176-81 •.
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