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

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quick-slow-quick or slow-quick-slow-quick patterns. Almost invariably,
the first movement of each work is the 'weightiest' in terms of subject
matter or prevailing tone.
Lilburn's harmony in his first period orchestral works is
strongly triadic. Earlier in the period, his works are characterised by
a diatonic modal vocabulary; later, this is developed into a mildly
chromatic language. Parallel harmonisation is prevalent throughout the
works as is his use of pedal points. A noticeable feature of his
harmonic writing is the way changing chord progressions are overlapped
between the melody instruments and the bass instruments. Often the
lower and upper instruments will mOve in contrary motion whilst
overlapping changes of chord. Cadence points are often marked by a
weak-strong anticipation of the cadential close. Lilburn_makes
distinctive use of 'root substitution' harmonies to produce characteristically-voiced
chords of the seventh, ninth and eleventh. His
spacings of chords are usually open and clear,following the voicing
distribution of the overtone series. His harmonies rarely sound muddy.
The rhythmic interest in Lilburn's works is usually centred on
the melody. Where lines other than the melody contain rhythmic interest
it is the result of either the use of anostinato accompaniment, or
movement in rhythmic unison with the melody; sometimes it results
through repetition and imitation of characteristic motifs from the melody,
or, less frequently, through the scoring of a separate counter-melody.
Because of the high incidence of pedal writing in his music., his basslines
tend to be static.
Syncopation is certainly present in his rhythms, but it is
usually mild, and rarely disturbs the pulse for more than a beat or two.
In his lighter-natured movements he makes frequent use of dance-like
rhythms, particularly the In and m rhythms.
Lilburn has a number of rhythmic 'fingerprints' to his style
that can be found throughout his first period compositions. These
include the 'active rest', the 'strong-weak rhythmic whiplash', and
the idea of upwards-rushing scalic figures (usually harmonised in
parallel movement).
Lilburn's time-signatures and tempi during this first period of
composition tend to be inflexible. Once he has fixed a metre and
established a speed, he will rarely make alterations to either during
the course of a movement. Even minor adjustments to the pace such as