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

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the essence of a personality and this thing
about integrity - he liked to say cut out
all the bits you like best. You know this
is a paradox, but it conveys the message
don't be clever, don't be silly, don't try
to impress - search for what is valid in
your intuition, your understanding, and go
from that. Vaughan Williams didn't admit
a grammar. He felt that musical manner
should be inbred. As a teacher he trusted
you to know exactly what you wanted to do,
and how you wanted to do it, and his only
concern was to see that you did it without
a lot of superfluous notes •••• He was the
last person to talk about his own music,
and I suppose that made an impression on
me too • ••"4
The success of Lilburn's study at the Royal College became evident
when he won the annual Cobbett Prize (worth £10) for a string quartet
composition in 1939.
For this he wrote his Phantasy for String Quartet,
a piece based on a version of the fifteenth-century air "Westron Wynde".
News of this success quickly reached Christchurch, and a
performance of the work was soon arranged as part of a Laurian Club
concert played by the Christchurch String Quartet. 5 One reviewer wrote
of the work:
"At a first hearing, it impresses the
listener as a singularly moving work.
From a young composer one might expect a
work full of tricks; what came through so
beautifully in this work was the complete
lack of artifices. Also most noticeable is
the way in which it says its say, and then,
having said it, concludes. One looks forward
to a second hearing of this quartet, to hear
again the opening bars, to enjoy its apt use
of material. The performance, a good one,
though lacking in the contrasts that are so
clearly marked in the score,< should have
been repeated. A further hearing at one of
the midday recitals at Canterbury College this
term is promised."6
Already, it seems, Lilburn had attracted a small following, in Christchurch,
of people interested in his development as a composer.
Further success came for Lilburn at the Royal College in 1939.
4 Douglas Lilburn, as in Jack Body, Fragments of a stolen conversation.
Douglas Lilburn 2nd ed, Composers Association of New Zealand, 1980:21.
5 Membership of the Christchurch String Quartet comprised: Messrs
R. Sutton, R. Moon, J. Mercer and L. Hunter.
6 Laurian Club music for strings. Unsourced clipping, photocopy with
author.