Symphony No. 1 (Hill)

Symphony No. 1 in B-flat major, Stiles 1.3.4.1 Sy1, the so-called Maori Symphony, is the first symphony by Alfred Hill. Its first three movements were completed by 1898, but the last movement remained unfinished. This may have been the second symphony composed in the Antipodes (the first was George Marshall-Hall's C minor completed in Melbourne in December 1892). The first two movements (and maybe the fourth, if it was reconstructed correctly) of this symphony are the only symphonic movements by Hill not to be arranged from his earlier chamber music. The Finale was reconstructed by Allan Stiles, and the whole symphony got its first performance in 2007. The approximate duration is 40 minutes.

Hill could begin composing the first movement of the symphony in his Leipzig years (between 1887 and 1891). Originally it had no program. The first three movements are prefaced with some poems by Thomas Bracken related to Māori, but they were not initially intended for this piece: Hill added them after the success of his cantata Hinemoa. According to Allan Stiles, there are no real Māori musical elements in the symphony. The first two movements were prefaced with extracts from the poem The March of Rauparaha, the third with part of the poem Waipounamutu. These inscriptions led the symphony to bear the subtitle Maori in some sources.

The unfinished symphony may have been intended for a Wellington orchestra Hill conducted in 1892-1896. There are several reasons to think so: only two horns are required as well as two hand-tuned timpani (rather than pedal tuned ones). There is a copyist's contrabass part of the first three movements at the Mitchell Library, dated 1898, which gives the terminus ante quem for them.

The manuscripts of the first three movements are located at the National Library of Australia in Canberra. The draft score of the finale was nearly completed: it lacks only timpani part and dynamics (music), some brass parts are incomplete. Allan Stiles proposes two reasons why this composition remained unfinished: the one being Hill's growing interest in theatrical music, the other being the unlikely prospect of a complete performance.

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