New Zealand Composer Inducted to Music Hall of Fame

New Zealand Composer Inducted to Music Hall of Fame

A composer who put the School of Music at Victoria University of Wellington on the map will be inducted posthumously into the New Zealand Music Hall of Fame at the 2014 APRA Silver Scroll Awards.

Douglas Lilburn, who taught at the School of Music—now Te Kōkī New Zealand School of Music (NZSM)—from 1947 until his retirement in 1980, is regarded as the grandfather of New Zealand composition.

He profoundly influenced, and continues to influence, the landscape of New Zealand music both as a New Zealand composer and by writing music about New Zealand, says Senior Lecturer in Composition Michael Norris.

“Douglas is the model for the way musicians can say something new and how they can establish themselves as a working composer in a small country like New Zealand. He stands as a role model—not just to composers, but to song writers as well—that New Zealand musicians can foot it on a world stage.

“Douglas found the University a stimulating environment, a place to forge new ideas and identities through music, and that it wasn’t a place to conserve old ideas about music.

“In 1966, he established the electronic music studios—the first of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. This attracted a number of composers from around New Zealand.”

Michael describes Douglas’ career as “fascinating and unusual”, with the shift his music underwent in the 1960s.

In 1963, he became increasingly dissatisfied with instrumental music and started becoming more and more interested in electronic music. While undertaking study leave he visited a number of places around the world, with a particular idea of exploring electronic music which had just started becoming popular internationally.

“This had a profound influence on him. He stopped writing for instruments from this point on and almost exclusively wrote for electronic music until 1980 when he stopped composing altogether.

“There are very few composers in the world who have undertaken a seismic shift in their musical language, the way that Douglas did.

“In many ways, he epitomises the openness that our students have towards both the instrumental and the electronic domains, and we really encourage and nurture our students to incorporate elements of both in their music, or at least to think about both the acoustic and the electro-acoustic.

“An enduring characteristic of Douglas’ is that he was not at all self-promoting but he continually supported and encouraged other New Zealand composers,” says Michael.

“He set up a number of projects or resources which would further the aims of other New Zealand composers, like establishing the Wai-te-ata Music Press to publish sheet music, and the New Zealand Music Archive.

“When Wellington musicians wanted to mark his 80th birthday in 1995, Douglas insisted that they do so by holding concerts of music composed by younger New Zealand composers, not just his own compositions.”

His legacy continues with the Lilburn Trust, which Douglas founded to further the growth and development of New Zealand music. The Trust sponsors NZSM’s annual Composers Competition Award.

His home, which was purchased by the Lilburn Residence Trust after his death, is currently used by the Creative New Zealand/Jack C. Richards Composer-in-Residence at NZSM.

Victoria University and NZSM will host a number of celebratory events to mark the centenary of Douglas’ birth next year.

Biography of Douglas Gordon Lilburn (1915–2001)
Born in Wanganui in 1915, composer Douglas Lilburn was the youngest of seven children and was raised on a sheep station. He was sent to boarding school in the South Island and attended Canterbury University.

In 1936, Lilburn entered a competition organised by touring Australian pianist Percy Grainger to compose a New Zealand-themed piece of music—he won with an orchestral tone-poem entitled Forest. His success was enough to convince his father to send him to Britain for further musical training, so in 1937 Lilburn began studying at the Royal College of Music in London, where he was taught by renowned symphonic composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Lilburn returned to New Zealand in 1940—his eyesight prevented him from serving in the military, but he worked as a freelance composer and teacher. He was based for several years in Christchurch where he became friends with other artists—most notably poet Allen Curnow, painter Rita Angus and novelist Ngaio Marsh.

His connection with Victoria spanned more than three decades—he took up a position at Victoria University of Wellington’s newly-established music department as a part-time tutor in 1947. He was appointed a full-time lecturer at Victoria in 1949, and Senior Lecturer in 1955. Lilburn was made Associate Professor of Music in 1963, and in 1970 was appointed Professor with a personal chair in Music in 1970.

During his time at Victoria, Lilburn took numerous study trips overseas where spent time in electronic music studios. This new medium appealed to him—it meant he could use recorded natural sounds in his compositions. His love for the electronic medium was such that he founded the Electronic

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