Noted N.Z. composer dies

Press, 4 October 1982, Page 3

Noted N.Z. composer dies

PA Wellington Larry Pruden. one of New Zealand’s best known composers. died at his Wellington home on Friday morning after a long illness. He’ was 57.

He was born and grew up in New Plymouth and remained always devoted to the Taranaki countryside. Mr Pruden went to his first Cambridge Music School in 1947. already an accomplished pianist and organist. He. subsequently left for London’s Guild Hall School of Music and Drama where he studied composition with Benjamin Frankel.

Mr Pruden returned to New Zealand three years later with his new English wife and took up an appointment with the Broadcasting Service and then in 1961. with the "Listener" as a programme sub-editor, but his heart was always in composing.

His compositions reflect his love of place.

"Harbour Nocturne" stimulated by Wellington's harbour was written for a Cambridge Music School orchestra. "Lampton Quay" speaks for itself, an overture that won first prize in an A.P.R A.-N.Z.B.S. competition.

"Haas! Highway." one of his most evocative works, was written for brass bands. It was the winning work in a > competition organised by the Wellington District Brass Bands Association in 1975. “Taranaki overture. ” written for the centenary of Taranaki, was first performed in New Plymouth by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. His several film scores for the National Film Unit also identify with his interest in landscape and life - "Rotorua." "Legend of the Birds." and the magical music that he wrote for a story of the albatross. Mr Pruden's “Dancers of Brittany."written for the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra and played more widely and more often than any of his music, set the pattern of his writing. He was never happier than at the Cambridge Music Schools at which he had not only been a student but was also composition tutor for a number of vears.