Speaking of New Zealand
The Scarlet Parsnip
Gramaphone gave an excellent review to a new disc of music by New
Zealand's Douglas Lilburn... claiming, 'so what if every note sounds
like Vaughan Williams, who he studied with..."
Aotearoa Overture is rather fetching... the word is native for Land of
the long white cloud.
There is also:
Fungusdigito Overture which is native for Gummy's playing with 'em
again.
Most of the work is very "New Zealand" pastoral... orcs or elves need
not apply. Naxos also offers the composer's 3 symphony's... of which
I know nothing.
gumdrops1
The Scarlet Parsnip wrote:
> Fungusdigito Overture which is native for Gummy's playing with 'em
> again.
FUNGUSdigito Overture! Get outta town! Really?
The Scarlet Parsnip
C-Jo
The Scarlet Parsnip wrote:
>
>
> Parsnips NEVER tell fibs.
Just very bad Czech jokes.
The Scarlet Parsnip
BAD!?!?
You WOUND ME!
You TRULY do!
(try your tattoo joke again)
C-Jo
The Scarlet Parsnip wrote:
> On 12 Jan 2007 20:51:51 -0800, "C-Jo" <jswhi...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>
> (try your tattoo joke again)
The one with the 12-inch pianist?
The Scarlet Parsnip
(damn, she's good!)
gumdrops1
The Scarlet Parsnip wrote:
> >The one with the 12-inch pianist?
I told that joke to several of me buddies at work. It went over well.
Intersting side note: At The Academy Awards, they kept mispronouncing
the title to Roman Polanski's latest masterwork . . . on purpose.
Charles
You can start learning more about Lilburn by checking out the info at a
couple of websites:
http://www.sounz.org.nz/composer.php?search_for=works&search_by=com.composer_
id&keyword_text=L071&keyword_type=match&selected_works=true
http://www.classical-composers.org/comp/lilburn
Much info, including audio downloads, is available at:
http://www.douglaslilburn.com/
He wrote little for film, but there are four known works of which I can
attest:
Backblocks Hospital - incidental music for National Film Unit
Journey For Three - incidental music for National Film Unit
Grand Canyon Uprun - private film for the Hamilton Jet Boat Co.
Aspiring - recently found film project that was never completed.
Charles
The Scarlet Parsnip
>He wrote little for film, but there are four known works of which I can
>attest:
>Backblocks Hospital - incidental music for National Film Unit
>Journey For Three - incidental music for National Film Unit
>Grand Canyon Uprun - private film for the Hamilton Jet Boat Co.
>Aspiring - recently found film project that was never completed.
>
>Charles
(stolen from Amazon.com)
There is no question that Douglas Lilburn (1915-2001) is New Zealand's
greatest and best-known composer. And if there is a quintessential
orchestral work by Lilburn, it is his 'Aotearoa Overture' which has
been played all over the world, and recorded several times by the New
Zealand Symphony Orchestra, the group heard on this CD. It has been
noted many times that 'Aotearoa' (which is a Maori word meaning 'land
of the long white cloud') is very reminiscent of the music of
Sibelius. Lilburn studied in England under Vaughan Williams at a time
when the music of Sibelius was exerting enormous influence on English
composers. If one did not know who the composer was, one might very
well think it is unknown Sibelius piece. And since it is a musical
landscape it has connections with similar Sibelius works. More
important, it is an entirely lovely work and as far as I'm concerned
one of the great short non-European orchestral works. I've loved it
for thirty-five years and was thrilled to hear this fine performance
by the NZSO under its music director, the Englishman James Judd.
Just as exciting, though, is the collection of otherwise relatively
little-known works by Lilburn (little-known outside New Zealand at
least). All but one are fairly early works; indeed two of them --
'Drysdale Overture' (1937) and 'Forest' (1936) -- are student pieces,
although you probably wouldn't recognize it on hearing them.
'Drysdale' is named for the farm in the central plateau of New
Zealand's North Island on which Lilburn grew up. It has two main
themes, one of them limning the landscape and the other a reminiscence
of native lullabies that Lilburn's mother sang. 'Forest', a
quarter-hour tone poem, describes an autumn landscape of a mountain in
South Canterbury. There are typical Sibelian pizzicato basses that
tread delicately through the first part of the work, but one can hear
Lilburn's distinctive voice emerging. The piece won a competition for
a work on New Zealand themes sponsored by Percy Grainger.
'Festival Overture' (1939), also a prize-winner, depicts the national
spirit as the newly consolidated nation of New Zealand approached the
War. It is both minatory and celebratory. 'A Song of the Islands'
(1946), written after Lilburn had returned for good to New Zealand, is
a quarter-hour tone poem in arch form that was inspired by a painting
by New Zealand's Rita Angus depicting a church, cottage, barn and
furrowed fields against a background of sea and snowy peaks. There is
a haunting oboe melody that figures heavily in the work, along with a
kind of breathless admiration for the scene depicted. The work has a
sense of ultimately fulfilled anticipation, partly described through
long-held harmonic suspensions, that is striking.
'A Birthday Offering' (1956) was written for the tenth anniversary of
the founding of the National Orchestra (now the New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra) and sounds a little like Copland, with wide-open harmonies,
along with what sounds like a tale-telling mood. The last-written work
recorded here is the short 'Processional Fanfare' (1961, rev. 1985)
composed by Lilburn while he was professor at Victoria University in
Wellington. It is, as one might guess from its title, sometimes used
as a processional at graduation ceremonies and it features three
trumpets and strings calling out, among other things, variations on
'Gaudeamus igitur', the student song well-known from Brahms's Academic
Festival Overture.
(forgive me)