Your cart

Total
NZD
Shipping and discount codes are added at checkout.

Contributor


Douglas Lilburn

Composer

Born: 1915 Died: 2001 Website  

Biography

Douglas Lilburn was born in Whanganui, New Zealand, in 1915. He attended Waitaki Boys' High School from 1930 to 1933, before moving to Christchurch to study at Canterbury University College (1934-6). In 1937 he began studying at the Royal College of Music, London. He was tutored in composition by Ralph Vaughan Williams and remained at the College until 1939.

He returned to New Zealand in 1940 and was guest conductor in Wellington for three months with the NBS String Orchestra. He shifted to Christchurch in 1941 and worked as a freelance composer and teacher until 1947. Between 1946 and 1949 and again in 1951, Lilburn was Composer-in-Residence at the Cambridge Summer Music Schools.

In 1947 Douglas Lilburn shifted to Wellington to take up a position at Victoria University as part-time tutor in music. He was appointed full-time Lecturer in 1949 and Senior Lecturer in 1955. In 1963 he was made Associate Professor of Music and was appointed Professor with a personal chair in Music in 1970. In 1966 Lilburn founded the Electronic Music Studio at the university and was its Director until 1979, a year before his retirement. Lilburn was awarded an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Otago in 1969 and in 1978 was presented with the Composers' Association of New Zealand (CANZ) Citation for Services to New Zealand Music. In 1988 he was awarded the Order of New Zealand.

Prizes and Scholarships include: Percy Grainger Competition, 1936, for his tone poem 'Forest'; Cobbett Prize, Royal College of Music, 1939 for 'Phantasy for String Quartet'; Foli Scholarship and Hubert Parry Prize, Royal College of Music, 1939; three out of four of the prizes in the New Zealand National Centennial Music Celebrations Competitions, 1940; the Philip Neill Memorial Prize 1944. Douglas Lilburn was founder of Waiteata Press Music Editions in 1967 and founder of the Lilburn Trust of the Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington, 1984. His writings include 'A search for tradition', a talk given at the first Cambridge Summer School of Music in January 1946 (Alexander Turnbull Library, Wellington 1984) and 'A search for language', a University of Otago Open Lecture, March 1969 (Alexander Turnbull Library, 1985).

Douglas Lilburn, described as "the elder statesman of New Zealand music" and the "grandfather of New Zealand music," died peacefully at his home in Wellington on 6 June 2001.

Information about Douglas Lilburn and his music for film and television can also be found on the NZ On Screen website.


Composed (174)

A Birthday Offering

for orchestra, 11m


A Song of Islands

for orchestra, 16m


Adagio Sostenuto

for piano


Allegro

for piano, 1m


Allegro Concertante

for violin and piano, 14m


Always, in These Islands

for voice and piano


Andante (1943)

for piano


Andante (1950)

for piano, 1m


Andante Commodo

for piano


Andante sostenuto

for piano


Bagatelle No. 1

for piano


Bagatelle No. 2

for piano, 2m 30s


Bagatelle No. 3

for piano


Bagatelle No. 5

for piano


Cambridge Overture

for string orchestra, 9m


Canon for Six Hands

for piano (6 hands)


Canon for Two Clarinets

for two clarinets


Canzona 1

for string orchestra, 4m


Canzona 2

for string orchestra, 3m


Canzona 2

for solo violin and string quartet, 3m


Canzona 3

for string orchestra, 2m


Canzona 4

for string orchestra, 2m


Canzona No. 2

for solo guitar


Canzona No. 3

for solo guitar


Canzona No. 4

for solo guitar


Canzonetta No. 1

for violin and viola, 3m


Canzonetta No. 2

for violin and viola, 1m 15s


Canzonetta No. 3

for violin and viola


Carousel

for tape, 11m


Chaconne

for piano, 18m


Christmas 1812

for piano


Cicadas, Oscillators and Treefrogs

electroacoustic medium, mono channel, 3m


Clear Sky

for voice and piano


Concert Overture in D

for string orchestra, 7m


Crotchety at 51

for piano


Dance Sequence for Expo '70

for tape (sounds of NZ birdsong), 11m


Desdemona's Song

for guitar, 1m


Desdemona's Song

for guitar, 2m


Diversions

for string orchestra, 15m


Drysdale Overture

for orchestra, 10m


Duos

for two violins, 18m


Elegy

for baritone and piano, 17m


Elegy (i.m. Noel Newson)

for two voices (soprano, alto) and strings, 14m


Festival Overture

for orchestra, 8m


Five Preludes 1942

for piano


Flourish

for piano, 1m


Forest

for orchestra, 16m


Four Canzonas

arranged for guitar


Four Preludes (1942-44)

for piano, 4m


Fragments of a Poem

for tape (mono), 7m


Fred's Birthday

for piano


Gamelan for Six Hands

for piano (six hands)


God Save

for tape (mono), 1m


Grand Canyon Uprun Suite

for wind quartet, 11m


Holiday Piece

for medium voice and piano


Hommage à D.A.F.

for piano


Incidental Music to Shakespeare's Othello

for violin, piano and narrator


Introduction and Allegro for Strings

for string orchestra, 9m


Lady Wood's Fancie

for piano, 2m


Landfall in Unknown Seas

for string orchestra and narrator, 18m


Li Po in Spring

for voice and piano


Lines and Distances

for tape (four channel), 16m


Lines in Autumn

for voice and piano


Moths and Candles

for piano, 2m


Musical-boxes

for piano


Nine Short Pieces

for piano, 12m


O Fons Bandusiae

for voice and piano


Of Time and Nostalgia

for tape, 11m


Overture: Aotearoa

for orchestra, 8m


Phantasy

for string quartet


Piece '81

for piano, 4m


Piece for Guitar No. 1

for solo guitar


Piece for Guitar No. 2

for solo guitar


Piece in E Major

for piano


Poco Lento

for piano


Poem in Time of War

for tape, 17m


Prelude (1948)

for piano, 2m


Prelude (1950)

for piano


Prelude (1951)

for piano, 3m


Prelude No. 1

for piano


Prelude No. 2

for piano, 1m


Processional Fanfare

for three trumpets and organ, 8m


Processional Fanfare

arrangement for three trumpets and small orchestra, 4m


Prodigal Country

for baritone, SATB chorus and orchestra


Quartet for Brass

for two trumpets, horn and trombone, 8m


Rondino

for piano


Salutes to Seven Poets

for violin, piano and narrator, 29m


Salutes to Seven Poets

arranged by Donald Maurice for viola, piano and narrator, 29m


Seven Short Pieces

for piano


Seventeen Pieces for Guitar

for guitar, 19m


Short Piece

for piano, 1m


Sings Harry

for tenor and guitar, 10m


Sings Harry

for baritone and piano, 10m


Sings Harry

for tenor and piano, 10m


Sings Harry

for baritone and guitar


Six Pieces (1964)

for piano


Six Short Pieces

for piano, 7m


Sonata (1949)

for piano, 17m


Sonata (1950)

for violin and piano, 12m


Sonata (1956)

for piano, 18m


Sonata in A minor (1939)

for piano, 22m


Sonata in C

for violin and piano


Sonata in E Flat

for violin and piano


Sonatina No. 1

for piano, 9m


Sonatina No. 2

for orchestra


Sonatina No. 2

for piano, 8m


Song Thinking of Her Dead

for voice and piano


Sounds and Distances

electroacoustic work for four channels, 10m


String Quartet in E minor

for string quartet, 19m


String Trio

for violin, viola and cello, 17m


Study from One Note

for tape (binaural), 4m


Summer Afternoon

for voice and piano


Summer Voices

for tape, 6m


Summer's Sadness

for baritone and piano


Symphony No. 1

for orchestra, 30m


Symphony No. 2

for orchestra, 29m


Symphony No. 3

for orchestra, 16m


Tempo di Bolero

for piano (six hands)


The First Two Years at School

for chamber orchestra


The Islands

for voice and piano


The Magpies

for SSABar choir and piano


The Picnic

for voice and piano


The Return

for tape, 17m


Three Canzonas

arranged for solo guitar


Three Inscapes

for tape, 12m


Three Pieces

for piano


Three Poems of the Sea

for strings and narrator, 10m


Three Sea Changes

for piano, 8m


Three Songs

for voice and piano, 8m


Three Studies for Gustav Ciamaga

for tape (mono), 9m


Toronto Tailfeather

for tape (binaural), 1m


Triptych

for tape, 11m


Two Christmas Pieces for L.B.

for piano, 2m 30s


Two Diversions

for piano


Two Preludes (1951)

for piano, 3m


Untitled Piece (1965)

for piano, 3m


Vivace

for piano


Welcome Stranger

electroacoustic (stereo) for ballet, 27m


Willow Song

for voice and piano


Wind Quintet

for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and horn, 11m


Winterset

for tape, 10m



Arranged (1)

Four Canzonas

arranged for guitar



Recordings (36)

Elegy - CD

Audio/visual


Island Song - CD

Audio/visual


Wild Music - CD

Audio/visual



Resources (44)

Aspiring - DVD

Documentary


How to Hear Classical Music - BOOK

Commentary or analysis


Low Noise2 - VIDEO

Media on demand