Lambton Quay was composed for a brass band competition held in 1957 under the auspices of the Australasian Performing Right Association and the New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation. Pruden imagined the piece as the depiction of a wharf that reflects a bustling city, and his exuberant score, with its flourishes, artfully placed rhythms, and the pertinent hint of nostalgia, never loses its freshness.
With Douglas Lilburn, John Ritchie and others, Larry Pruden belongs to the earliest generation of New Zealand composers to discover a genuine vernacular, and in his music is reflected the trail-blazing spirit of the pioneers, their passion for creativity and their rebelliousness of spirit. Throughout his output, whether the music is modest in scale and purely functional (civic fanfares and radio advertising jingles, for example) or more extended and overtly ‘serious’ in tone (such as the larger works for orchestra and strings), Pruden’s vivid response to urban society and rural life in New Zealand is revealed.
