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

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The list of Lilburn's use of New Zealand texts is long and varied:
J ames K. Baxter 'A s Song f or 0 tago U· n1vers1ty, . II. L1 Po 1n . Spr1ng . (4) 19 7 ,
and Blow Wind of Fruitfulness (Song III of Three Songs for Baritone and
Viola (1958); Ursula. Bethel's Warning of Winter (Song I of Three Songs
for Baritone and Viola); Charles Brasch's two poems for The Islands
(1948); Alistair Campbell's poetry for the song cycle Elegy (1951) and
the sound image The Return (1965); Allen Curnow's Landfall in Unknown
~ (1942), The Changeling (Song III of Three Poems of the Sea (1958)
and incidental music to his play The Axe (1961);
Ruth Dallas's poems
Clear Sky and The Picnic (1954); Basil Dowling's Summer Afternoon (1947)
and Lines in Autumn (1950);
Denis Glover's poems for the song cycle
Sings Harry (1953); R.A.K. Mason's Song Thinking of Her Dead (1946),
Song of Allegiance (Song II of Three Songs for Baritone and Viola) and
his translation of 0 Fons Bandusiae (1946);
Ritchie's He Mana Toa (J967);
incidental music to James
and incidental music for a poetry reading
by the poets A.R.D. Fairburn, K. Sinclair, Curnow, M.K. Joseph, Baxter,
Kenrick Smithyman, and Mason held at Auckland University College on
9 August 1952.
Another very significant association that Lilburn formed during
his Christchurch period in the early-1940s was with Ngaio Marsh and the
Canterbury University College Drama Society. As Ngaio Marsh wrote:
was an inseparable part of the most exciting and rewarding venture I have
ever undertaken. tll2
The collaboration between Douglas Lilburn and Ngaio Marsh extended
to five Shakespearian plays, all presented by the Canterbury University
College Drama Society. The first of these was Hamlet, 'produced in modern
dress (including full World War II battle dress). First presented by the
Society in the Little Theatre 2-7 August 1943, Hamlet met with such an
enthusiastic response that it was given a second season at the Little
Theatre 27 November - 4 December.
"He
In January 1945 it was taken on a New
Zealand tour with Othello. According to -the New Zealand Free Lance,
Lilburn's involvement with Hamlet started very much at the last minute:
tI •••• It was only about a week before the opening
night 'of the season which is about to be repeated
that Mr Lilburn decided to write the music. He
saw a rehearsal on the Wednesday evening, and by
11 Published in Book VII: A miscellan from the Caxton Press
(Christchurch, Caxton Press, 1946 as part of a display of typefaces.
12 Ngaio Marsh, Douglas. Douglas Lilburn op.cit. p.31.