Douglas Lilburn's ashes are in the family grave at Aramoho Cemetery. Photo / Bevan Conley
Douglas Lilburn's ashes are in the family grave at Aramoho Cemetery. Photo / Bevan Conley
"To the Piano Player, I do not know who you are, but I wish to tell you that your incessant practising of exercises on the piano is torture to all in this house. If these long hours of torture go on I shall have to complain to the police." (Norman, 2006, Page 73-74). This is how New Zealand's greatest composer was welcomed upon his first visit (1937-1941) to England.
Douglas Gordon Lilburn was born on November 2, 1915, in Whanganui. He died on June 6, 2001, in Wellington. His ashes were placed in the family grave at Aramoho Cemetery.
Early life
Douglas, also called Gordon by his family, grew up on a pioneering farm called Drysdale situated in the Upper Turakina River Valley, 30km northwest of Hunterville.
He was the seventh (and youngest) child of Robert and Rosamond (nee Shield) Lilburn.
Drysdale, which is still in the Lilburn family and currently occupied by Hugh and Pru Lilburn, stretches from the Turakina River to the Whangaehu River and covers some 4040ha. Douglas was Hugh's great uncle.
"Douglas was a lovely man. I had met him a few times and he was always so courteous. It is very special living here with all his memories," Pru Lilburn said.
Hugh and Pru have made some extensive changes to the interior of the house, such as replacing the original kitchen with a modern kitchen. However, the wide, stately hall remains much the same, and is lined with photographs of Lilburn relatives and farm scenes of the past. The exterior looks much the same as the original dating back to 1910 when the house was completed, following a design by Rosamond, Douglas' mother.
Douglas started at the tiny Pukeroa Primary School in 1920, enjoying its happy, family-type atmosphere. "I explored old School Journals, scribbled on my slate, gardened outside while growing beans in wet blotting-paper inside and learned about the map of the world ... I found most of the work no problem because I could already read and quickly learnt to write fluently." (Norman, 2006).
Music was not a major focus in the family home; Rosamond's love was English literature and she wrote poetry, while Robert was intrigued by history. He was also a clever inventor, who designed and built the farm's generator, which did service until the arrival of the electricity grid in modern times.
Douglas' sister Louisa (1904-1987) did play the piano, providing Douglas with his earliest and treasured musical memories. "I am sensuously caught when she plays the Liszt 'Liebestraum', and shiver in ecstasy through the cadenza." (Hoskins, 2014, page 23).
A shift to Whanganui
In 1923 Robert decided to retire from farming and he, Rosamond and Louisa (20) headed off on an 18-month overseas trip to places as Australia, Morocco and Scotland. Elder son Jack (JD) assumed management of Drysdale, with his wife Edith. Another son Richard (Richie) farmed the Mangamahu land, with the second farm eventually named Inzevar.
Upon their return, Douglas felt his parents were somewhat akin to strangers and he had become accustomed to a more indulgent upbringing with Jack and Edith. He also gained a lot from Edith's love of music.
In 1925, Douglas was enrolled in Friends School in Whanganui, a Quaker School with progressive educational methods. Music was an integral part of the education.
Academically he thrived and gained his Proficiency Certificate a year earlier than usual. This allowed admission to Form 3.
In 1925 when Douglas was 9, Robert and Rosamond Lilburn bought a house in Whanganui, set in 1.2ha at 23 Peakes Rd. It was a huge bungalow built around 1890.
Rosamond, who was profoundly Christian, had definite ideas as to who her son should associate with. Once when Douglas was playing in this driveway with some local children, Rosamond told them to go and never return. "I should only play with nice children," I was told." (Norman, 2006, page 33). The consequence of her attitude was a somewhat lonely childhood and Douglas used to take long walks by himself. One of his favourite destinations was Virginia Lake.
In 1928 Douglas was enrolled at St George's School where he enjoyed choir singing and continued with his piano tuition. He won the 1928 Form 3 English and mathematics prizes.
Education in the Deep South
In 1930 he was sent to boarding at Waitaki Boys High School in the South Island, which he resented. He described the school as "hell" and was caned by a prefect within hours of arrival for practising his piano pieces at the wrong time.
The regime was strict, with open-air dormitories and cold water swims, even in winter.
However, he flourished as pianist with the school's orchestra and was allowed the sole privilege of playing the pipe organ in The Hall of Memories. In 1932, aged 16, he wrote his first piano composition, Sonata in C minor Opus 1.
Tertiary study at the University of Canterbury followed from 1934 to 1936. He enrolled in the one-year Certificate of Journalism course (Principles of Journalism and Practice of Journalism), plus a paper in philosophy and one in music.
Douglas entered and won the inaugural Percy Grainger prize in 1936. The prize was open to native-born New Zealand composers with the work reflecting NZ cultural and emotional characteristics. His winning entry was a tone poem titled Forest, based on a trip to Peel Forest in South Canterbury, a location closely associated with his friend Dame Ngaio Marsh.
Forest had its premiere on May 25, 1937, performed by the Wellington Symphony Orchestra in the Wellington Town Hall. It was also broadcast live on Radio 2YA.
London and Vaughan Williams
Lilburn realised that specialised musical tuition was now needed, with Ralph Vaughan Williams the inspirational living musician he cherished to guide him if possible. His father agreed to finance study in England. Douglas set sail in the Ruahine for England in 1937. He was accepted by the prestigious Royal College of Music, where Vaughan Williams was a tutor.
His first composition in England was the Drysdale Overture and he dedicated the score: "For my father and those who made Drysdale."
Lilburn was awarded several scholarships and prizes, such as the Foli Scholarship and Hubert Parry Prize.
Douglas Lilburn, one of New Zealand's greatest composers, was raised in the upper Turakina Valley. Photo / Supplied
Lilburn returned to New Zealand in June 1940, and spent time helping out on his brother's Taihape farm.
He was briefly appointed conductor of the National Broadcasting Service String Orchestra in 1941, but this was terminated, possibly because he refused to conduct music he considered was without musical merit.
He headed south to Christchurch, in an "... attempt to earn his living as a freelance composer and musician." (Norman, 2006, page 99).
Lilburn was closely associated with many of the remarkable people in the arts in general, even composing music in conjunction with some of them. For example, he combined with Denis Glover, putting the poet's Sings Harry to music (baritone and piano; 1953). He also wrote music to accompany Allan Curnow's poem Landfall in Unknown Seas " - one of his most widely performed works and stands as an icon of its age". (Norman, 2006, page 104).
From January to February 1946 he was composer-in-residence at the Cambridge Summer Music School, held at St Peter's School, Cambridge. He composed the Cambridge Overture at this time.
On a visit to Auckland he met RAK (Ron) Mason, whose poetry impressed him and he put two poems to music for voice and piano.
Another poet he met and admired was Dunedin's Charles Brasch, the founder of Landfall, who sent Lilburn his poetry for his appraisal.
When he moved to Wellington he became a close friend of the artist Rita Angus, who lived nearby at 194A Sidney St. Their relationship led to a pregnancy, although a miscarriage followed. He loved her paintings and during a lifelong friendship tried (and failed) to persuade her to sell her 1936 painting Cass (Hoskins, 2014, page 15).
In 1949 he was appointed as a lecturer in music at Victoria University. Initially, he commuted between Christchurch and Wellington. In 1963 he was promoted to Associate Professor of Music.
Some friends, such as Rita Angus, were upset that he had accepted full-time work as a lecturer, considering it would detract from his true vocation as a composer.
The year 1961 was important; he composed Symphony No 3, "a landmark composition for New Zealand music ..." (Norman, 2006, page 211). At the end of a performance on April 9, 1963, a young student leaped to his feet clapping and cheering; it was William Southgate. However, "... it also marked the termination of Lilburn's writing for traditional instruments" (Norman, 2006, page 214).
In 1961 he was asked to write music for a short film, Grand Canyon Uprun. This was a documentary on jet boats ascending the Grand Canyon.
Turning 50 in 1965 led to an outpouring of tributes, with a lot of Lilburn's music played, including on the YC stations. "It was the most concentrated broadcast of Lilburn's music up to this time ...." (Norman, 2006, page 224). Tributes were published in various publications - notably The Listener and Landfall, which had a letter of tribute signed by 44 leading NZ musicians and artists.
In 1970 he was made Professor of Music and Director of Electronic Music Studies. "But with this new electronic medium I can, for the first time, enter into and explore my own total heritage of sound, meanings all sounds, not just the narrow segments of them we've long regarded as being music." (Hoskins, 2014, page 19). In this he was a pioneer, although the new music was derided in some quarters as "a zombie on the horizon". (Hoskins, 2014, page 68).
In 1969 Lilburn was awarded an honorary doctorate in music at the University of Otago. The citation described him as "New Zealand's leading composer" (Norman, 2006, page 243) and mentioned his inspirational effect (by example and teaching) on the development of composition in this country.
When the Head of the Music Department (Victoria University) Frederic Page retired in 1969, Lilburn was bitter that he was overlooked in favour of 28-year-old Jenny McLeod. He sought solace in a cottage in Otago near Queensbury and spent hours absorbed in angst-ridden diary writing.
Although quality, not quantity, of electronic composition was the pattern, he had four works released by Kiwi Pacific Records in 1980 on an album called 'Soundscape', " the crowning achievement of Lilburn's electro-acoustic output" (Norman, 2006, page 295).
He retired from Victoria University in January 1980, although he was elected professor emeritus. There was a spate of recordings of his music in the 1980s, such as the Drysdale Overture (1986) and Prodigal Country (1987), although the publishing of his compositions faltered, largely due to his main publisher Price Milburn struggling to survive.
In retirement he kept busy, gardening (strictly organic), sorting his papers, letters and manuscripts, gardening, enjoying long walks, cooking for/seeing friends, long letters to friends, as well as writing letters of protest when he felt outraged on such issues as despoliation of the environment.
He won a Mobil Radio Award in 1990 for "Best NZ Produced Music Programme (serious music)" entitled 'Salutes to Seven Poets' - ARD (Rex) Fairburn, Keith Sinclair, Michael Joseph, James K Baxter, RAK (Ron) Mason, Kendrick Smithyman, and his lifelong friend Allan Curnow. "I'm utterly indebted to poet and writers ... and I'm similarly indebted to many painters ..." (Norman, 2006, page 309).
He accepted the Order of New Zealand (ONZ) in 1988 from Governor-General Sir Paul Reeves.
In conjunction with grandnephew Hugh Lilburn, Douglas arranged for 4ha of Drysdale to be fenced off and designated Karetu Scenic Reserve.
In November 1995 Lilburn turned 80. As part of the celebrations, Sir William Southgate conducted the NZSO, with the Drysdale Overture opening the programme.
A few days later pianist Michael Houston played Lilburn's Chaconne. Margaret Nielsen played Sonatina No 2, which the composer dedicated to her 30 years earlier.
In increasingly ill health, Lilburn opted to stop taking his medications in 2001 and was admitted to Wellington Hospital. Discharged on June 6, he went to his Ascot St home to enjoy the best wine he had ever tasted. He died the next day.
In July 2005 the Ascot St house was bought by the Lilburn Trust for $427,000 as a composer-in-residence facility. Gillian Whitehead, whose music Lilburn admired, became the inaugural resident in August 2005.
Bibliography Hoskins (ed), Robert, Douglas Lilburn: Memories of Early Years and other writings, Steele Roberts Aotearoa, Wellington, 2014 Lilburn, Hugh and Pru, Personal correspondence (email), 2015. Norman, Philip. Douglas Lilburn: His Life and Music, Canterbury University Press, Christchurch, 2006.
