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Work


Three Songs for Baritone and Viola

Year:  1958   ·  Duration:  10m

Year:  1958
Duration:  10m

Composer:   Douglas Lilburn

Films, Audio & Samples

Douglas Lilburn: Blow, Wind...

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Sample Score

Sample: Page 1

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About

Lilburn composed these songs in 1958 for the baritone Donald Munro and his wife the violist Jean McCartney, who gave the first broadcast performance.

The influence of serialism on the composer's style at this point in his career makes for a challenging vocal line, especially in the first two songs. Nonetheless, Lilburn's work capitalizes on the affinities between voice and viola, and exploits technical capabilities of the viola to evoke moods rather than painting the words. In the penultimate verse of "Warning of Winter", for example, the viola's wavering line, thickened with chords, heralds the darkness of winter that "descends the flowered pathway". Such subtle evocation of the text is also found in "Blow, Wind of Fruitfulness". Here the viola's wide leaps to high trills are to be executed with the bow placed over the fingerboard; this evokes the troubling paradoxes of spring, the "Birds that are silent now/And buds of barren springing". Between these bleak poles, the viola and voice pairing are used with bold irony in "Song of Allegiance". This march is a poet's humble yet robust reflection on his own position in comparison to the poetic geniuses of the past. Again Lilburn enlists the viola to speak with and as the poet: wide intervals, tense chords, and motivic stutters convey a poetic voice that is "cracked and harsh".


Commissioned note

Written for Donald Munro (baritone) and his wife Jean McCartney (viola)


Contents note

Warning of Winter (Ursula Bethel), Song of Allegiance (R.A.K. Mason), Blow Wind of Fruitfulness (James K. Baxter)


Text note

Texts by Ursula Bethel, R.A.K. Mason and James K. Baxter


Performance history

16 Feb 2006: Performed by Roger Wilson (baritone) and Peter Barber (viola)

17 Jul 2008: Notes from Lilburn

16 Jan 2015: Performed by Roger Wilson (baritone) and Peter Barber (viola) as part of the Philip Norman presentation "Tuition vs Intuition - Douglas Lilburn: His Music" at the Institute of Registered Music Teachers of New Zealand Conference in Wellington.

Performed by Barry Mora (baritone) and Gavin Saunders (viola)

Performed by Paul Whelan (baritone) and Timothy Deighton (viola)

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