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

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The rise of the professional orchestra in New Zealand brought
with it a change in the relationship between performer and composer.
New Zealand composer had available, for the first time in the history of
the country, a permanent performing body of professional musicians to
interact with - to listen to and write for. It was a performing body to
whom, supposedly, few artistic concessions need be made.
The
The composer no
longer needed to subordinate musical ideas to considerations of limited
technique and deficiencies of resources.
This statement, though, requires a two-fold qualification. On
the one hand, it is a known, and understandable, fact that in the early
days of the orchestra it had many shortcomings, not the least of these
being the lack of instruments such as cor anglais, bass clarinet, contra
bassoon and a number of percussion items. 20 On the other hand, the
orchestra's availability as a performing body to the New Zealand composer
, , f' d d f ' l' , d 21 , . 1
1n 1tS 1rst eca e 0 eXlstence was very lmlte, not surprls1ng y,
for the orchestra had first to concentrate on mastering the standard
orchestral repertoire.
For Douglas Lilburn, the formation of the National Orchestra of
New Zealand's Broadcasting Service meant that he could once again raise
his sights as an orchestral composer. Since returning to New Zealand in
1940 he had not written a work for full orchestra. Working as a freelance
musician and composer it would have been impractical to write for a
medium that was not available in New Zealand. Instead, during the years
up to 1946, Lilburn had concentrated on writing for instrumental forces
that were readily available - the solo piano, string chamber groups and
the string orchestra (NBS strings and the 3YA studio orchestra).
The year 1946, then, saw the composition of Lilburn's first
orchestral work since the Aotearoa Overture of 1940. The new work was
20 Owen Jensen, NZBC Symphonx Orchestra op.cit. p.2S •.
21 Witness the heated altercation between the composer C.H.J. Abbott and
the New Zealand Broadcasting Service in the early to mid-1950s:
"Despite two years of frustrating negotiations and despite the
favourable opinions expressed by two highly competent critics who
were appointed by the Minister of Broadcasting (Mr Algie) to act as
referees, a six-minute lento written by a local composer Mr C.H.J.
Abbott, B.A., Diploma of Music, has been refused a public performance
by the National Orchestra.
Mr Abbott cites his experience as an illustration of the apathyamounting
almost to antipathy - which he claims the New Zealand
Broadcasting Service can show towards a New Zealand composer."
(The Evening Post 19 March 1955.)