Elegy LP cover Photo: Kiwi Pacific Records Ltd
Peter Mechen looks into the history of Douglas Lilburn's 1951 song-cycle 'Elegy' on poems by Alistair Te Ariki Campbell.
He talks to singers and pianists who've performed the work over the years.
The poetry itself has long been considered as musical in its own right - which raises the question of how appropriate musical settings of poetry are in principle, and how viable Lilburn's are of Campbell's.
The poet himself was at first not pleased with Lilburn's settings, according to Campbell's biographer, Nelson Wattie.
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