Orchestra
SKU:
PO.PEL22
Composed by
Douglas Lilburn. Perfect.
Score. Promethean
Editions #PEL22.
Published by Promethean
Editions (PO.PEL22).
ISBN
9781877564475.
For
Lilburn's only
full-length choral work,
Prodigal Country, the
composer set three poems
to music – Robin
Hyde's Journey from New
Zealand, Allen Curnow's
New Zealand City and Walt
Whitman's Song of Myself.
Across a single, winding
movement, Prodigal
Country conjures
nostalgia and strangeness
through its sung text and
drifting melodic
contours. The imagery of
the river dominates the
work, which, for Lilburn,
seemed to represent
freedom, while elsewhere
Hyde's evocative
landscape is rugged and
harsh, Curnow's text
emphasises the hesitancy
and unease reminiscent of
the Depression and
Whitman's romanticism is
celebrated through
Lilburn's lyrical,
melodic treatment.
Douglas Lilburn occupies
a pre-eminent position in
New Zealand music, with a
legacy extending well
beyond his compositional
output. As a composer,
teacher and mentor he
presided in innumerable
ways over the artistic
growth of New Zealand
from 1940 onwards. From
the early works redolent
of the influence of
Sibelius and Vaughan
Williams, to the
electro-acoustic pieces
of his later years, his
works have been
instrumental in
establishing a genuine
vernacular in New Zealand
classical music.
Prodigals
