The Lilburn & Vaughan Williams connection

Image caption: Leo Bensemann, Canterbury Spring, Oil on hardboard. Collection of Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetu; purchased 1961. Reproduced by permission of the estate of the artist.

New Zealand–British Connection: the music of Douglas Lilburn and Ralph Vaughan Williams

New Zealand is inexorably linked to Britain; while a former colony, it is now a fully independent constitutional monarchy. In the middle of the twentieth century New Zealand began to search for its own cultural identity: artists, composers, poets and writers all began to react to the unique New Zealand landscape.

In the late 1930s, young composer DOUGLAS LILBURN (1915–2001) travelled to London to study under RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS (1872–1958) at the Royal College of Music. The first among many young New Zealand composers to study in London, Lilburn began composing works that reflected the narrative of New Zealand’s landscape and in doing so he set the agenda for New Zealand composition for the remainder of the century.

Shortly after his death in 2001, Promethean Editions established the Douglas Lilburn Complete Piano Edition, developing a companion print edition to Trust Records’ award-winning CD collection of the same name. And now in 2014, we are also pleased to announce the launch of the Douglas Lilburn Centenary Edition, a project to publish the remaining four orchestral works by Lilburn which have not yet been edited or typeset for print.

In a pleasant coincidence, Promethean Editions’ Lilburn series editor, Dr Robert Hoskins, has been involved in the recent publication of two first publication of works by Vaughan Williams. We are pleased to present both of these special collections of music, Lilburn and Vaughan Williams together, hoping that each edition furthers a deeper understanding and scholarship of the music of both composers.

Douglas Lilburn

Douglas Lilburn holds a special place in the history of New Zealand music. He 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.

PROMETHEAN EDITIONS

VOLUME 5Works for String Orchestra

Douglas LilburN Piano Music 2

Ralph Vaughan Williams

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

Incidental music for a radio dramatization of Thomas Hardy’s novelEdited by Nathaniel G. Lew

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Douglas LilburN Drysdale Overture

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The New Zealand–British connection

Lilburn was one of many New Zealand composers who travelled to England to continue their studies. He studied under the aegis of Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music in London. During his time in London he wrote his first major orchestral work, Drysdale Overture (1937). In a letter to scholar Robert Hoskins, Lilburn reflects on the composition of Drysdale:

When I arrived at the Royal College of Music in London, in September 1937, and was accepted as a student by Vaughan Williams, he put me through routine disciplines of writing fugues and part-songs, and then one day said: ‘Isn’t it time you composed something?’ I accepted the challenge and produced my Drysdale Overture, with its nostalgic memories in a musical language which rather disconcerted him. Still more did it upset Sir George Dyson, who brilliantly realised my rough orchestral score on the piano and then wryly said: ‘Don’t bring me another manuscript like that’. He did, however, give it a reading rehearsal with the RCM first orchestra, and I took steps to improve my musical handwriting.

Another work Lilburn wrote while studying with Vaughan Williams, Sonata for Piano in A minor, (1939), is published in the second volume of our Lilburn Complete Piano Music Edition (PEL02). By no means juvenilia, Hoskins writes of the sonata that it ‘immediately announces the presence of a distinct musical personality and reveals a quality characteristic of the mature composer: his very sharply realised visual sense.’ Other works written during Lilburn’s time in London include a cantata entitled Prodigal Country (1939) and Aotearoa Overture (1940).

Another young New Zealand composer, David Farquhar, studied under Benjamin Frankel at the Guildhall School of Music in London. Farquhar, like Lilburn, returned to New Zealand at the completion of his studies and together they had illustrious careers teaching music at Victoria University of Wellington. (Promethean Editions also publishes several of Farquhar’s string quartets).

The Douglas Lilburn 2015 Project

In celebration of the centenary of Lilburn’s birth in 1915, we are pleased to announce the publication of the Lilburn Centenary Edition – the publication of four remaining unedited and typeset orchestral works – as well as the continuation of the Lilburn Complete Piano Music Edition. The Centenary Edition is comprised of the first editions of Drysdale Overture (1937), Prodigal Country (1939), A Song of Islands (1946) and Symphony No.1 (1949). Both collections are scheduled to be completed by November 2015, in time for the centenary celebration of Lilburn’s birth. This

collection of 14 music editions will be complimented with classroom resources designed for secondary schools.

The Vaughan Williams editions

Lilburn series editor Robert Hoskins, in collaboration with Nathaniel Lew, has recently completed the production of two Vaughan Williams first publications, published under the Massey University Music Edition (published by Promethean Editions).

Published for the first time, The Mayor of Casterbridge  (PME13) is the incidental music created for the 1950 BBC radio dramatization of Thomas Hardy’s novel by the same name. Editor Nathaniel Lew prepared this publication from Ralph Vaughan Williams’ original manuscripts and it is presented here in a format that is clear for both scholars and performers. The music was serialised into ten weekly episodes, however little documentary evidence remains of the radio publication. As Lew writes, ‘Most useful to our understanding of the music are the “Programme as Broadcast” records. Unfortunately, the BBC assigned a single code to all of Vaughan William’s scores (DBS 1972). And the broadcast records identify excerpts from this recording only by their durations, with no indication of which passages were used where. Most episodes appear to use one or two excerpts, with duration ranging from 25 seconds to over three minutes, but even this is unclear: where there is only a single duration listed, it may represent the combined duration of several excerpts.

Scenes Adapted from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress (PME14) contains the complete script and extant musical numbers from the 1907 and 1908 productions of Pilgrim’s Progress in London. The score draws on several primary sources, and existing gaps are filled with additional music selections and fabrications in the Appendix. In the preface, Nathaniel Lew explains the sources and editorial decisions leading to this publication, all of which makes for both a scholarly and practical work. The incidental music composed for a community theatrical production of part one of Bunyan’s book in Reigate, Surrey, preceded all these works and, despite its modest nature, served as a dramatic model and reservoir of musical ideas for them. It was also the source of the 1910 Tallis Fantasia.

The Massey University Music Edition is published by

Promethean Editions Limited

Scenes Adapted from Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress

By Evelyn U. Ouless

Music composed and selected by Ralph Vaughan WilliamsEdited by Nathaniel G. Lew

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The Massey University Music Edition is published by

Promethean Editions Limited

Ralph Vaughan Williams

THE MAYOR OF CASTERBRIDGE

Incidental music for a radio dramatization of Thomas Hardy’s novelEdited by Nathaniel G. Lew

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Lilburn Centenary Edition

VOL Code pp ISMN Pub Date Works / Description Price

1 PEL21 43 979-0-67452-204-5 March 2014 Drysdale Overture $79.00

2 PEL22 TBC 979-0-67452-205-2 Nov 2015 Prodigal Country TBC

3 PEL23 TBC 979-0-67452-206-9 Nov 2015 Song of Islands TBC

4 PEL24 TBC 979-0-67452-207-6 Nov 2015 Symphony No.1 TBC

Lilburn Complete Piano Music Edition

In 2005 Trust Records launched the first volume in the award-winning recording series showcasing all of Lilburn’s piano music, receiving ‘Best Classical Album’ in the 2005 Recording Industry of New Zealand Music Awards and in the same year, Gramophone magazine acclaimed that ‘[These] performances and recordings are unobtrusively excellent.’ This edition consists of eight companion volumes to accompany the recorded series and draws on the expertise of Dr. Robert Hoskins of Massey University and Rod Biss, formerly of Schott London, Faber Music and Price Milburn Music, who was instrumental in first publishing Lilburn’s piano music in the 1970s.

Having worked with Lilburn directly on these early publications, Biss has now revisited original source materials in the preparation of this series. Together, the editors have carefully considered and clarified Lilburn’s

manuscripts and early publications in preparing these volumes as both scholarly and practical editions for performance. An example of the original composer’s manuscript, shown below, indicates some of the problems encountered by the editors.

Lilburn manuscript of the beginning of Two Pieces (1951), from Occasional Pieces for Piano (1951) found in Lilburn Complete Piano Music, Vol.1 (PEL01)

The first three volumes (PEL01, PEL02 & PEL03) in this series are now available.

www.promethean-editions.com

VOL Code pp ISMN Pub Date Works / Description Price

1 PEL01 43 979-0-67452-124-6 Mar 2011 Sonata (1949); & Occasional Pieces for Piano (1943-73) $57.00

2 PEL02 30 979-0-67452-125-8 Apr 2012 Six Short Pieces (1962-63); Sonata (1939); & Moths and Candles (1950) $49.00

3 PEL03 51 979-0-67452-126-0 Mar 2014 Nine Short Pieces (1965-66); Three Sea Changes (1946-81); Seven Short Pieces (1965-66); & Sonata (1956)

$63.00

4 PEL04 TBC 979-0-67452-127-7 Nov 2014* Works drawn from the second volume of the recorded series (MMT2054) TBC†

5 PEL05 TBC 979-0-67452-128-4 Nov 2014* Works drawn from the third volume of the recorded series (MMT2067) TBC†

6 PEL06 TBC 979-0-67452-129-1 Mar 2015* Works drawn from the third volume of the recorded series (MMT2067) TBC†

7 PEL07 TBC 979-0-67452-130-7 Mar 2015* Works drawn from the fourth volume of the recorded series (MMT2068) TBC†

8 PEL08 TBC 979-0-67452-131-4 Nov 2015* Works drawn from the fourth volume of the recorded series (MMT2068) TBC†

B PEL09 TBC TBC Nov 2015* An anthology drawing together the most popular works TBC†

E PEL10 TBC TBC Nov 2015* An anthology drawing together works for junior pianists (Grade V-VII) TBC†

* Projected Publication Date† Pricing to be confirmed however total subscription will not exceed NZ$700 (+GST if applicable)

Order Form

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[ ] Subscribe to Complete Piano Edition [ ] Subscribe to Centenary Edition

[ ] Lilburn Complete Piano Edition Vol.1 (PEL01) [ ] Lilburn Drysdale Overture (PEL21) [ ] Vaughan Williams Scenes from Bunyan’s Pilgrim Progress [ ] Lilburn Complete Piano Edition Vol.2 (PEL02) (PME15)[ ] Lilburn Complete Piano Edition Vol.3 (PEL03) [ ] Vaughan Williams The Mayor of Casterbridge (PME13)

Promethean Editions Limited • PO Box 10-143, Wellington, New Zealand • P +64 4 473 5033 • F +64 4 473 5066 • info@promethean-editions.comPublication and Promotion of New Music Gareth Farr, Christos Hatzis, Vincent Ho, John Psathas Publishers of New Editions of Bartok, Lilburn, Pruden, Vaughan Williams

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