Philip Norman looks at the music from Lilburn's years in Wellington where he moved for work at Victoria University.
Composer Douglas Lilburn standing by a reel to reel tape recorder in the electronic music studio at Victoria University, Wellington. Photograph: Circa 30 August 1969, from The Dominion Post Collection, Alexander Turnbull Library.
Lilburn moved from Christchurch to Wellington in the late 1940s to work as a lecturer in Victoria University’s new music department. His musical style began to go in new directions, but it was an overseas trip to the US, UK and Europe in the 1955 that really shook him up.
In Lilburn’s words “I realised how provincial and inadequate my musical knowledge and composition techniques were in face of the new musical context I found…”
As Philip Norman describes in this programme, Lilburn began to experiment with serialism, before moving into electro-acoustic composition from the mid-sixties onwards.
Music Details:
LILBURN: Salute to A.R.D. Fairburn - Dean Major (vln), Rae de Lisle (pno) (Waiteata WTA 009)
LILBURN: Piano extracts for Lilburn COW 2015 - Midi (PRIVATE)
LILBURN: Salute to Curnow - Dean Major (vln), Rae de Lisle (pno) (Waiteata WTA 009)
LILBURN: Salute to Baxter - Dean Major (vln), Rae de Lisle (pno) (Waiteata WTA 009)
LILBURN: Blow wind of fruitfulness, from Three songs for baritone and viola - Barry Mora (bar), Gavin Saunders (vla) (Kiwi SLD 30)
LILBURN: Symphony No 3 - New Zealand SO/ James Judd (Naxos 8.555862)
LILBURN: Sonatina No 2, mvt 1 - Michael Houstoun (pno) (Rattle RAT D040)
LILBURN: Sonatina No 2, mvt 1 - Michael Houstoun (pno) (Rattle RAT D040)
LILBURN: The Return - Tim Elliott (narrator), Mahi Potiki (Maori voice), NZBC Electronic Studio (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Soundscape with lake & river - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Sounds and Distances - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: The Return - Tim Elliott (narrator), Mahi Potiki (Maori voice), NZBC Electronic Studio (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Triptych - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Dance sequence - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Poem in time of war - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Of time and nostalgia - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Carousel - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Summer Voices - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Inscape 1 - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
LILBURN: Soundscape with lake & river - electro-acoustic work (Atoll ACD 404)
