Work

Programme Note

The title indicates a final farewell to a Hero, famous as one of New Zealand’s most important composers. The prelude is a lament, a wordless song that is mesto, thoughtfully sad, rather than gloomy. A motif quoted from Aotearoa Overture identifies the Hero, and us. The lyrical pensive prelude melody is composed with modal phrases evocative of Lilburn’s background. The fugal part energetically celebrates his academic status and international fame with a theme derived from transformations of the heroic E flat motif from Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony; this emerges only when my theme unravels its transformations towards the end. Just before the end each violin refers to the New Zealand National Anthem, and there is an impassioned cadence in the relative key of c-minor, but the last fading sound is an ambiguous interval. After Lilburn, what next?

Difficulty:

Intermediate

Influences:

• Culture - NZ
• Maori - culture

Dedication:

In memorium Douglas Lilburn

• Douglas Lilburn