Aotearoa (overture)
Template:Short description Template:Use dmy dates Script error: No such module "Infobox".Template:Template otherScript error: No such module "Check for unknown parameters". Template:Italic title Aotearoa is a concert overture written for orchestra by New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn in 1940.[1] The overture is the first of three early works by Lilburn which centre on the theme of national identity; the other two are Landfall in Unknown Seas (1942), for narrator and orchestra, and the tone poem A Song of Islands (1946).
History and music
The title of the overture (Aotearoa) is taken from the Māori name for New Zealand.
Lilburn wrote the overture while he was still a student at London's Royal College of Music,[2] and it was premiered at a concert held to commemorate the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi at His Majesty's Theatre in London.[3] It was not performed in New Zealand until 1959, but it has since entered the country's standard orchestral repertory.[3]
Typical of Lilburn's early work, the overture features idiomatic writing for winds, especially flutes, and vigorous dynamic contrasts.Script error: No such module "Unsubst".
Composer Jack Body has said that the work "is the most frequently performed orchestral work by a New Zealand composer, and is likely to remain so".[4] Many commercial recordings have been made of the work; for example, Symphony of Sails performed by Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Miguel Harth-Bedoya in 2002.[1][4]
In 2011, the manuscript score was entered into the UNESCO Memory of the World Aotearoa New Zealand Ngā Mahara o te Ao register. It was the first item from the National Library of New Zealand to be added to the collection.[4]
Instrumentation
Woodwinds: 2 Flutes 2 Oboes 2 Clarinet 2 Bassoons Brass: 4 Horns 2 Trumpets 3 Trombones Percussions: Timpani Triangle Cymbals Strings: 2 Violins Violas Cello Double Bass
Notes
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