Two Preludes from Occasional Pieces for Piano (1942-73)

This collection of sketches, studies and personal tributes was brought together for publication in 1975. Written mainly for amateurs, these pieces weave a personal narrative, giving voice to the gratitude of friendship, the fold of landscape and the articulation of musical tradition.

Evidently, in the first of the Two Preludes (1951) Lilburn had in mind the peeping call of the grey warbler, a small New Zealand bush bird. The upward waft of the second prelude releases a sense of airy vernal daring and an overbrimming of invention which Lilburn achieves in his greatest work; the lifting power resides in the upsurge of the language.