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

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For the tour, the music was pre-recorded.
Lilburn had one other excursion into incidental music for the
theatre during his time in Christchurch, and that was in conjunction with
the Canterbury Repertory Society's 1944 production of Distant Point. 19
Ngaio Marsh was the honorary producer for this play which was presented
for the benefit of the Patriotic Fund and staged in the Radiant Hall
23-8 October.
In December 1941, Thomas Mathews, notable violinist and Leader of
the London Philharmonic Orchestra, arrived in New Zealand, accompanied by
his wire, the concert pianist Eileen Ralph.
Mathews and Ralph had been
travelling to Hawaii as part of a concert tour at the outbreak of
hostilities with Japan, and had been diverted to New Zealand,
During
their brief, enforced stay,20 initially in Christchurch, latterly in
Wellington and Auckland, Mathews and Ralph were not idle as musicians,
actively participating in New Zealand's musical life.
The interest Mathews showed in Lilburn's work as a composer - the
two had met in Christchurch at the beginning of Mathews's stay -
prompted
Lilburn to complete a piece for string orchestra, entitled Allegro, an
January 1942. Mathews premiered Allegro for strings in a broadcast
performance on I July 1942, conducting the Auckland IYA studio orchestra. 21
Allegro marked the beginning of Lilburn's long and serious romance
'h h ' h d' 22
W1t t e strIng orc estra me 1um. It was a romance, though, in part
born of practical necessity.23
composer.
The year 1942, in fact, was one of Lilburn's busiest years as a
As well as Allegro, he wrote a setting of the Magnificat and
19 Distant Point by Alexander Afinoginev, translated and adapted by
Hubert Griffiths.
20 Travel in and out of New Zealand, from the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbour in December 1941· to about mid-way' through 1942, was virtually
restricted to military personnel only.
21 As noted in the Price Milburn Music edition of the score.
22 Suite for Strings of 1941 actually predates Allegro. However, to the
best of this author's knowledge, the earlier work has never been
performed.
23 The words 'practical necesshy' refer to the fact that the New
Zealand composer had readier access to string orchestras at this
time than to full orchestras. See Part I Chapter 5, footnote 19.