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

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The opening two lines of the poem seem to speak also for the young
artists in the country at that time in their quest for a cultural
identit'y apart from the British Motherland:
Simply by sailing in a new direction
You could enlarge the world."28
Significantly, New Zealand's major literary periodical, established in
1947, took as its name Landfall.
Before the actual day commemorating Tasman's discovery, Lilburn
had read Curnow's poem, and was sufficiently impressed by it to compose
a complementing score. The completed work, for narrator and strings,
was premiered in a broadcast performance from 2YA on 13 December 1942 29
by the National Broadcasting Service String Orchestra.
The performance
was conducted by Anderson Tyrer, who, incidentally, by this stage had
been appointed as resident conductor of the orchestra.
Lilburn;
The weekend of 12-13 December 1942 was an exciting one for
a weekend during which three of his works were performed, each
on a separate occasion.
On the Friday evening, the 3YA studio orchestra,
conducted by Frederick Page, gave a broadcast performance of Allegro
for strings. On the Saturday evening, Noel Newson gave the premiere
performance of !}ve Bagatelles for piano during a concert presented by
the Royal Christchurch Musical Society, and on the Sunday evening, the
above-mentioned premiere broadcast of Landfall in Unknown Seas was given. 30
About the time of this hat-trick of perfor.:tances, Lilburn began
work on his first sonata for a solo instrument, other than the piano.
This was Sonata ~n
E-Hat for violin and piano, completed on 12 February
1943. 31 Sonata in E-flat was given its first performance on Saturday
3 April 1943 in the Charles Begg Conc.ert Hall, Christchurch, with Vivien
Dixon on the violin accompanied by Althea Harley Slack on the piano.
was given a further performance on Thursday 1 July of that year in the
Canterbury University College Hall as part of the Col~ege's
concert programme.
lunchtime
It
28 ibid stanza II.
29 13 December was the anniversary day of Tasman's discovery of New
Zealand.
30 F.J.P., Royal Musical Society third concert of season. The Press
14 December 1942.
31 As dated in the manuscript score.