LANDFALL IN UNKNOWN SEAS

Te Ao Hou, December 1960, Page 57

LANDFALL IN UNKNOWN SEAS Poem by Allen Curnow Music by Douglas Lilburn Kiwi Records. Kiwi Records have added to their growing reputation by issuing a long-playing record, one side of which consists of perhaps the most distinguished artistic collaboration in our short European history: the marriage of music and language of Landfall in Unknown Seas. The poem by Allen Curnow, was commissioned in 1942 for the tercentenary of the discovery of New Zealand by Abel Tasman, and before the year was out, Douglas Lilburn composed three passages for string orchestra to accompany the public recital of the poem. The joint work has been performed many times since, always to enthusiastic audiences. Simply by sailling in a new direction, You could enlarge the world. So the first of the poem's three section sbegins, describing the moral and physical climate of voyages of exploration. an older country, Lodged in the searching mind, that would not tolerate So huge a hegemony of ignorance. Section II is crisp and active; the voyage is done, the new world found, exhilaration went off like a gun and so did the hostility of the resident tribes: Always to islanders danger in what comes over the sea. In the last section, the poet thinks of a world now totally discovered physically and he asks for more discoveries, in a different realm. Who reaches A future for us down from the high shelf Of spiritual daring? Mr Curnow reads his poem in a voice measured and confident, authentic and appropriate both to the poem and to his country. Mr Lilburn's music is played by the Alex Lindsay String Orchestra and conducted by Alex Lindsay. The orchestra knows the work well and plays it with a fine understanding and affection. Landfall in Unknown Seas would make an excellent Christmas gift, and is ideal for sending overseas as something characteristic of and personal to ‘our island story.’ B.M.