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Aotearoa (overture)

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Aotearoa is an overture written for orchestra by New Zealand composer Douglas Lilburn in 1940. The overture is one of three early works by Lilburn which center on the theme of national identity; the other two are 1944's Landfall in Unknown Seas, for narrator and orchestra, and the tone poem A Song of Islands of 1946. The title of the overture is taken from the Maori name for the islands.

Lilburn wrote the overture while he was still a student at London's Royal College of Music, and it was premiered in Great Britain, at His Majesty's Theater in London. It was not performed in New Zealand until 1959, but it has since entered the standard orchestral repertory there.

Typical of Lilburn's early work, the overture features idiomatic writing for winds, especially flutes, and vigorous dynamic contrasts.

At least two recordings of Aotearoa have been made.

See also

Continuum NZ, New Zealand Composers. New Zealand SO, Kenneth Young.

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