Abstract:
Is there a New Zealand music? Nationalism and cultural identity began to emerge in
New Zealand during the 1930s and by the 1940s Douglas Lilburn was advocating the
need for a distinctive New Zealand music, a music that was 'related to the lives we
lead and to this country we live in'. Since then commentary on Lilburn's music has
generally assumed that it is distinctive of New Zealand, but how is it New Zealand?
This thesis challenges the assumption that Lilburn's music of the 1940s is a music that
expresses a New Zealand identity. It does this by making a comparison of Lilburn's
music, ideas, cultural context and intentions with composers, their intentions and contexts from other New World countries namely: Australia, America, Canada and
South Africa. This comparison examines concepts of musical identity in these
countries and looks at a composer of Lilburn's generation from each of these
countries and one of their works from the 1940s.
What emerges from this study is that all of these countries had claimed a musical
identity through the depiction of the natural landscape, or the 'land'. However, the music itself does not display characteristics that could justify it to be culturally unique and therefore representative of a specific region or country. It is shown that the cultural and historical context that these composers were working in was too much the same for it to justify a distinctiveness.