Douglas Lilburn and Percy Grainger

Turnbull Library Record, Volume XIX, Issue 2, 1 October 1986, Page 155

Douglas Lilburn and Percy Grainger

D. R. HARVEY

The Alexander Turnbull Library Endowment Trust, with the assistance of the New Zealand Composers' Foundation, has recently given new impetus to the study of New Zealand music history by publishing two addresses by Douglas Lilburn. 1 These illustrate the composer's development and his concern with establishing an authentic New Zealand musical language. A letter from Douglas Lilburn to Percy Grainger now in the Grainger Museum, Melbourne, 2 can profitably be read in conjunction with the two addresses, and is printed below. It adds further insight into the development of New Zealand's foremost living composer, and also offers a glimpse of musical life in New Zealand in the 19305. The letter was written by Lilburn in 1936 after he had won the first prize in the Percy Grainger competition for New Zealand compositions. In it he thanks Grainger for sponsoring such a competition, describes his own musical studies and activities, comments briefly on his prize-winning tone poem Forest, and shows that winning the Grainger competition was of great significance because it gave him the chance of hearing Forest, the first of his orchestral works, in performance.

17 Peakes Rd St. Johns Hill Wanganui Jan Ist [1937] Dear Mr. Grainger, This is rather a difficult letter for me to be writing so I must ask your tolerance. By way of introducing myself I should like you to read the enclosed cutting which gives a few biographical details in lyrical journalese. It will be more valuable though in giving you the full report of the judge on my work. I presume the Director of Broadcasting has sent you a full report of results some time ago. At that time I was preparing for a full quota of university exams so hope you will forgive my delay in writing. First I must thank you for your generous initiative in sponsoring such a competition. I find it hard to tell you, without being effusive, just what value it has been to me. It must be a rare thing for anyone

of my age to have such material encouragement & opportunity given them, especially in this country when all stimulus & incentive, even that of competition, is so lacking. I have taken a B.A. degree at Canterbury College & have just completed Mus. Bac. this year, & would normally have had rather poor prospects. But the opportunity your action gave me, apart from its immediate value, has such far-reaching results. I think now that my people can be persuaded to send me to England to study further, & you can realise what that means to me. We suffer from a definite musical starvation in this country & the prospect of hearing a good orchestra in the flesh is almost unbelievable. I shall probably go round quite dazed during the first few weeks of concerts.

Composers here seem to have practically no originality—possibly because they haven't the constant battery of modern works to shake them out of a routine academic training. We never get shocked enough musically to disturb our complacent dullness of imagination. I feel myself that any authentic growth of music here should have an affinity with Scandinavian music simply because of the natural surroundings we have in common. I am strongly attracted to modal style & contrapuntal writing, & have tried in my work to capture some of the elemental magic that pervades our remote mountains & forests.

Sibelius, I have the very highest regard for, & prefer his elemental atmosphere & powerful construction next to the great humanity of Beethoven & Bach. He will probably influence me a great deal in matters of construction as well as content. I feel he has given the symphonic form a new vitality. My own work is constructed from a single short theme which I have endeavoured to give growth & increasing significance to. It is quite the biggest thing I have done yet & is my first work for orchestra. There are 60 pages of score lasting 20 minutes. I have no intention of plunging into an ultra-modern idiom before I can study its technique & implications, but on the other hand I don't think the work is at all reminiscent of the very circumspect Dr. Kitson whose text-books (& Dr. Bradshaw whom I think you met in Christchurch) have been ever with me for the last three years. Dr. Bradshaw, of course, has kept me down to some solid fugue-wri-ting, for which I shall be eternally grateful. But he strongly disapproves any suspicion of an unresolved discord, so I am seldom in good odour. He holds up Elgar & Sibelius as models of the conservative virtues versus Schonberg etc. but I can disconcert him occasionally by pointing out passages where Sibelius is writing in three keys simultaneously! However he is a good restraining influence & has given me I think a sound orthodox training. It is practically

limited though to five-part choral writing, & there is no means of getting a knowledge of instrumental technique. Since "Forest" is my first work for orchestra I expect it to sound rather crude & patchy in places, though the judge seems more confident of the orchestration than I had been. Here again I'm inordinately grateful to you for securing me a public performance & broadcast. It will be by the Wellington Symphony Orch. which Dr. Sargent conducted recently, & should give me considerable publicity. Whether people like it or not is immaterial compared to the practical value to a student of hearing rehearsals & performance. I've had no practical experience whatever of orchestration up to this point. The best one can do here is to follow records with a score, & to have the two simultaneously is rare. You may have heard that Professor Shelley who held the Chair of Education at Canterbury College is now in charge of the Broadcasting Service. He's a remarkable man & intends to raise the standard considerably, & develop any local talent. They endeavour now to secure great overseas artists, so we may before long achieve a broader, more dynamic outlook, & develop something of value in the way of a national art. It's worth striving for with all one's powers!

Your own visit here is quite fresh in the memory still, particularly for me a delightful Grieg programme & fine rendering of the Chopin B min. Sonata, at Christchurch. Many of your works appeal to me for their sincerity & rather personal charm in this age of sensation & cerebral effusions. The local societies have done a number of them since your visit, with real success. There's not much discrimination amongst modern works here as yet. An inordinate amount of enthusiasm has been wasted over Lambert's Rio Grande & the inevitable Gershwin Rhapsody. To conclude, I thank you again for your public-spirited & generous action. To me I feel the full benefit will be far greater than is even now apparent. I hope in the future to do far more to justify your initiative, & I hope too, to have the pleasure & honour of meeting you personally some day. My kindest regards to Mrs. Grainger & yourself. Yours sincerely, D. G. Lilburn.

The link between Percy Grainger and New Zealand may appear at first glance to be a little remote. Grainger's biographers note only his concert tours of New Zealand as accompanist and solo pianist, his long-distance walks between concerts here, and his collecting of Maori and Rarotongan music from one AlfredJ. Knocks of Otaki. Grainger was a complex character both musically and in his personal life. Of particular importance here is his interest in folk music.

He collected folk music throughout the world and used it as a basis for much of his music. His philanthropic activities were widespread, and much of his large income, derived from performing and royalties on his compositions, was given away, for example to establish collections of music and to stimulate musical activities in other ways. It is therefore not surprising that Grainger would encourage and contribute to a composition competition in New Zealand while on tour here.

The competition was announced in the N.Z. Radio Record of 17 April 1936. Grainger had donated the first prize of £25, matched by second and third prizes of £lO and £5 respectively donated by the New Zealand Broadcasting Board (to become shortly after the National Broadcasting Service). The conditions laid down by Grainger show well some of his concerns, for example to encourage Antipodean artistic endeavour (Grainger considered himself as an Australian composer although he was long domiciled in the United States), in the use of experimental combinations of instruments and musical forms, and in the use of the more unorthodox wind instruments. Among the conditions of entry were:

1. The composer must be a born (not naturalised) New Zealander . . . 3. The composition to be in any known or new musical style, and in any known or new musical form . . . 4. The composition shall present typical New Zealand cultural and emotional characteristics. These may make themselves felt in a mood inspired by New Zealand nature in a patriotic background, in the use of Maori or other local traditional material in the development of "local colour", in the musical expression of the "national soul", in the celebration of a New Zealand city, in the celebration of a New Zealand rural mood, in the musical reflection of a New Zealand political point of view, or merely in the presentation of New Zealand moral and aesthetic ideals as applied to musical craftmanship.

The competition would be judged by 'an eminent musician not resident in New Zealand', and the Broadcasting Board reserved the right to broadcast performances of the winning works for a period of nine months after the results were published. The winner was notified in a letter from the National Broadcasting Service dated 25 September 1936, 5 and the results were published in the N.Z. Radio Record of 9 October 1936. 6 This letter notes the winning work's clear merit over the other prize-winning entries in content and craftmanship, and asks Lilburn to make some minor modifications to the score to make it ready for performance. The N.Z. Radio Record article includes a portion of the adjudicator's report. He describes it as 'a lovable work', comments on a specific passage as 'quite a marvel of both counterpoint and orchestration', and concludes with: 'A thoughtfully unified work whose contrasts are well ordered and whose climaxes are invariably broad and mighty and well worth while.' 7

Lilburn had sought Grainger's address from the Director of the National Broadcasting Service 8 so that he might express his thanks personally, and the letter transcribed above is this expression. In the interim he had been busy amending the score of Forest for performance and when returning this to the National Broadcasting Service he asked that it be performed only by the 'Wellington orchestra & M. de Mauny', as he had 'not a great deal' of faith in the others. 9 He then sought de Mauny's opinion on the effect of various changes he had made to the score and in reply was informed by the National Broadcasting Service that as it was so late in the season the orchestral parts could not be copied in time, and it would not be performed until the following year. A preliminary rehearsal had taken place by March 1937, 1() and the work was performed in May in the Wellington Town Hall by the Wellington Symphony Orchestra under Leon de Mauny. It was well reviewed. 11 The critic was forthright in his appreciation: the work 'made an unmistakable impression. . . . [The composer] has given the world something quite fresh and new in his interpretation of the moods of his forest. . . . Mr. Lilburn has something individual in his musical make-up.' A detailed description of the piece was provided, and the conclusion was that 'Mr. Lilburn employs the full orchestra, and his instincts are sure. He should go far in the world of composition.'

The direct result of winning the Percy Grainger competition for Douglas Lilburn was his decision to pursue a career in music. There were also other results. That a career in music could earn money helped to convince Lilburn’s father, a farmer, that his son had chosen a viable career, and the £25 prize money was of considerable assistance in travelling to London to study. In the composer’s own words

The turning point I suppose was that Percy Grainger prize . . . You know the sweet taste of fame, never had it so good since. It gave me £25 . . . enough to impress my family that there might be a bit of money in it you know. Not only that but my father had a letter from the President of the Farmers' Union congratulating him on his son's musical success . . . My father agreed to send me to London on the strength of this Percy Grainger prize. He agreed to give me an allowance . . . and he gave me a two-berth cabin to go in.

REFERENCES 1 A Search for Tradition (1984) and A Search for a Language (1985). 2 I wish to thank Professor Lilburn for graciously allowing the publication of this letter, which is reproduced by kind permission of the Grainger Museum Board, University of Melbourne. 3 A report on the results of the competition, in N.Z. Radio Record, 9 October 1936, 12-13.

4 For example, John Bird's Percy Grainger (London, 1976) and The Percy Grainger Companion, edited by Lewis Foreman (London, 1981). Some indication of the breadth of Grainger's interests can be gained from A Musical Genius from Australia; Selected Writings by and about Percy Grainger, compiled by Teresa Balough (Nedlands, 1982). 5 National Archives of New Zealand, BC 1, 1/4/2. 6 'A Bush Holiday Inspired Young Prize-Winner', N.Z. Radio Record, 9 October 1936, 12-13. 7 The judge's identity was not revealed to Lilburn, who had asked that his thanks be passed on (in a letter to the National Broadcasting Service, 29 September 1936, National Archives BC 1, 1/4/2). I have not located the judge's report or any correspondence with that person at National Archives. 8 Letter dated 29 September 1936 (National Archives BC 1, 1/4/2). 9 Letter from Lilburn to the Director, National Broadcasting Service, 5 October 1936 (National Archives BC 1, 1/4/2). 10 Letter from the Director, National Broadcasting Service to Lilburn dated 12 March 1937 (National Archives BC 1, 1/4/2). 11 The unsigned review appeared in the Dominion, 26 May 1937, p. 12, col. B. 12 In Douglas Lilburn: a Festschrift for Douglas Lilburn on His Retirement, edited by Valerie Harris and Philip Norman, second edition (Wellington, 1980), p. 19.