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

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his 1946 String Quartet in E minor to his 1948 Sonatina for Clarinet and
Piano. Such works clearly follow the stylistic path set by his orchestral
and string orchestral works.
The same too, could be said to be true of his piano works dating
from the 1940s. Compositions such as Four Preludes for Piano (1942-4),
Chaconne (1946), Sonatina (1946) and Sonata (1949) all show stylistic
allegiance to the orchestal works, but with the qualification that the
modifications made to his style to accomodate the idiosyncracies of the
different medium are heard to greater effect than in the chamber works.
From 1950,and the composition of Sonata for violin and piano,
there is a feeling of his branching out in the solo and chamber music
from the orchestral stYle, to explor~albeit tentatively, various
differing direction~.
To begin with, there is the obvious sudden interest in the voice
as a medium of expression. Although Lilburn had used the~voice in a few
compositions in the 1940s, and had written a number of songs setting New
Zealand poetry, he had not seriously explored this medium. The two song
cycles that stemmed from this period of restlessness are two of Lilburn's
best-known works: Elegy (1951) and Sings Harry (1953). These two song
cycles are disparate in mood and idiom. The former is a dark, sombre
work that is almost Romantic in inclination. The latter is an openhearted,
guileless work of rural folk derivation. Both deal with
distinctively New Zealand, but widely contrasting, subjects. The broad
theme of both, though, is the same: that of man's relationship with his
environment.
The 1950 Sonata for violin and piano shows Lilburn consciously
exploring a different approach to form, whilst beginning to free his
rhythms and metres from generally symmetrical and traditional patterns.
It is this increasing freedom of rhythm that is foreshadowed in the
final movement of Sonata for piano. Duos for two violins of 1954 is more
closely allied in content and form to the transitional (or rather,
terminating) Suite for Orchestra of 1955 than to any other- earlier
orchestral wor~.
However, it would be unwise to place too much importance on these
works as precursors of the new style, for they all clearly belong
stylistically to Lilburn's first period of composition. The changing
elements in these chamber and solo works should be viewed as indicators
of Lilburn's increasing dissatisfaction with the old style, rather than
a growing inquisitiveness with the new.