ANTARCTICA EXPERIENCED THROUGH MUSIC
Capsule Comments on CDs about Antarctica
Valmar Kurol (2011)
NOTE:
This
valuable resource is kindly provided by Valmar Kurol (Montreal Antarctic
Society/Societe Antarctique de Montreal).
Valmar
Kurol can be reached directly at mtl.ant.soc@sympatico.ca
Launched: 27 May 2004. Last
Updated:
19 February 2006; 9 December 2006; 7 July 2007; 15 July 2007; 5 January 2008; 3
August 2008; 15 February 2009; 1 September 2009; 1 February 2010; 12 February
2010; 14 August 2010; 15 February 2011; 23 June 2011
There is no other music like the toneless
music of millions of years of accumulated silence, through which come bars of
unearthly colours. There is no
need for ears to hear the fugues played on this ice organ. Here nature has set aside for man a
domain of beauty and inspiration such as he cannot know elsewhere on this
planet. - Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd (The National Geographic Magazine, Oct.
1947).
In his 1986 treatise, The Ice - A Journey to
Antarctica,
American author and history professor Stephen Pyne argues that traditional
fiction could not find enough material in the Antarctic experience or the
Antarctic environment to construct typical novels. The range of potential experiences was much smaller than
elsewhere, the opportunity for surprise much less. Modernist literature was more inclined to follow Joseph
Conrad into the Heart of Darkness than to pursue Robert Scott into the
Antarctics Heart of Whiteness.
Instead the Antarctic has been largely a wasteland for imaginative
literature.
If one substitutes music for fiction/literature, the above comments may be just as
appropriate. The visual and
spiritual superlatives of Antarctica are now frequently expressed through
photographs, movies and coffee table books but to a lesser extent through
music. What kinds of tunes and
rhythms does the seventh continent inspire? Is there an Antarctic sound? Whatever the answers to these questions, it seems that there
is a scarcity of Antarctic-themed music for those with an appetite for it. The classical repertoire appears to be
minimal and it is the pop artists who have been making more Antarctic musical
noises, in some cases literally.
While earlier songs may have focused on urging listeners to keep the
continent pristine, much of the current crop seems to hold Antarctica as a
mirror/metaphor for the coldness and isolation people feel in their day to day
lives.
The following is a consumers guide to recorded
music that I have found over the past fifteen years, now mainly through the
Internet. There are very few
themed discs devoted entirely to Antarctica, but there are now many CDs with
individual songs entitled Antarctica or about The Ice. While this site is meant to be a listing and not a critical
or sociological discussion of the music, there are occasional commentaries,
which stand to be corrected or debated, as well as comments by some artists
about their tracks. A few
non-music CDs have been included for their Antarctic content (theatre,
recitation, comedy routines) but CD audio books have been excluded, with one
exception where the material was considered to be noteworthy.
The amount of music being made about Antarctica
seems to be increasing in recent years due to:
1) the relative ease of visiting Antarctica,
through tourist cruises, for direct inspiration;
2) the establishment of Artists and Writers
programs by governments of countries with bases in Antarctica, which provide
financial, logistical and promotional support;
3) the increasing focus on the continent
(particularly now because of the widescale interest in global warming);
4) the ease of composing and recording music
with consumer oriented software and digital instruments and 5) the increased
possibilities of finding a worldwide audience and marketplace through the
Internet with personal web sites or download/distribution sites with digital
files, without the need of CDs.
Of course, none of this guarantees that
interesting, popular or quality music will be made. To return to the questions at the beginning of this
introduction, (What kinds of tunes and rhythms does the seventh continent
inspire? Is there an Antarctic
sound?), based on this discography, the answer is, its everything and anything
people bring from their own varied backgrounds. The music listed herein includes the beautiful,
inspirational, comical, harsh and discordant to the outright boring.
Finally, many thanks to all the composers and
performers who have taken the time to provide comments about the reasons and
inspirations for their Antarctic-themed music. This has greatly helped to animate the discography. Any additions and comments to the music
listing are welcome. –
Valmar Kurol, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (mtl.ant.soc@sympatico.ca)
**************************************************************************************
Classical Antarctica: Ralph Vaughan Williams
SINFONIA ANTARTICA (Seventh Symphony) by Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Perhaps you have seen the vintage 1949 film Scott
of the Antarctic. The background music, by one of
Britains greatest 20th century composers, was later arranged into
his Seventh Symphony, which premiered in 1953 and is still considered to be the
mother of all recorded Antarctic music.
The scoring includes a wind machine and conveys the struggle and
desolation of Robert Scotts final journey. It is a dark, deep, dreary and depressing work, not to be
played on a Walkman or iPod on an exercise bike. There are many recorded versions and listeners may find
their individual tastes and preferences among the various issues.
The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestras recording
of this work in 1998 with conductor Kees Bakels, on the budget-priced NAXOS
label, is a real bargain at a third of the price of some of the more expensive
ones. The booklet notes are
informative but why, oh, why feature a cover photo of Greenlanders hunting in
the ice, when this is supposed to be the South? Naxos 8.550737
The second release in 1998 of this classic
Antarctic music, performed by the Hall Orchestra, conducted by Sir John
Barbirolli, is no spring penguin. The full symphony was premired in January
1953 by Barbirolli and the present performance was recorded in June 1953. This reissue on CD is now the oldest of
the eleven performances of the Symphony that were recorded and issued on disc.
The issued performances are:
1.
Sir
John Barbirolli, Hall Orchestra (Manchester), recorded June 1953; 1998 EMI 7243 5 665434 2 7
2.
Kees
Bakels, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, recorded September 1996; 1998 NAXOS
8.550737
3.
Andrew
Davis, BBC Symphony Orchestra, recorded March 1996; 1997 TELDEC 0630-13139-2
4.
Andr
Previn, London Symphony Orchestra, recorded 1968; 1995 BMG/RCA Classics 74321
29248; also issued as 1985 RCA VICTOR Gold Seal BMG 60590-2-RG and as 1987 RCA
VICTOR Gold Seal 6781-2-RG
5.
Raymond
Leppard, Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, recorded March 1992; 1993 KOSS
Classics KC - 2214
6.
Leonard
Slatkin, Philharmonia Orchestra, recorded June & November 1991, November
1992; 1993 BMG 09026-61195-2 (this release has been discontinued)
7.
A)
Adrian Boult, London Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded November 1969; 1991 EMI
Classics CDM 7 64020 2
B) Boults original mono recording by the same orchestra in December 1953 was reissued in a collection of Vaughan Williams symphonies in 2002; Decca 4732412. Also issued in 1989 as Decca/London 425 157-2
8.
Vernon
Handley, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded April 1990; 1991 EMI
Eminence CDM 7 64034 2; the same
performance is also available on a Classics for Pleasure compilation (2002) EMI 7243 5 75313
2 0
9.
Bryden
Thomson, London Symphony Orchestra, recorded June 1989; 1989 Chandos CHAN 8796
10.
Bernard
Haitink, London Philharmonic Orchestra, recorded 1985; 1986 EMI CDC 7 47516 2
SINFONIA ANTARTICA/SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (2009)
This is a superb compilation CD of British
music and vocal recordings related to the Golden Era of polar exploration,
curated by James Nice. The main
track is Ralph Vaughn Williams famed Sinfonia Antartica (7th Symphony), which
was completed in 1952 and was the reworking of his themes for the soundtrack of
the 1949 film Scott of the Antarctic.
The version here was recorded in 1953 by the London Philharmonic
Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Boult.
Also on the CD are seven thematic extracts from the film, totalling
8½ minutes, with the titles Prologue, Pony March, Penguins, Climbing the Glacier, The Return, Blizzard and Final Music, most of which are recognizable in
the full symphony movements. Most
of the music composed for the film was never recorded or included in the film
and only the shortened excerpts were used. Its performed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by
Ernest Irving and recorded in 1948.
Fortunately for aficionados, the full original film score became
available on a CD for the first time in 2002 on the Chandos label, with Rumon
Gamba conducting the BBC Philharmonic. (See below in this section.)
The real gems on the disc are two versions of the song Tis a Story That shall Live For Ever, recorded in 1913 by Stanley Kirkby and Robert Carr, two vocal artists of the era. According to the informative CD booklet liner notes, Tis a Story That Shall Live For Ever was written by P. Pelham and L. Wright, and first released on 78 rpm disc on March 5, 1913 by Victory Records, sung by Robert Carr (B47, 1668). The song pays fulsome tribute to Scotts ill-fated expedition of 1910-12, and press ads for the Victory disc promoting it as In Memory of Captain Scott and his Heroic Comrades. Two months later, on May 6, 1913, another edition of the Carr recording was issued by Diploma Records with a pictorial label, in commemoration of the British Hero - a record that should be in everyone's repertoire. It seems that Scott himself left no sound recordings to posterity. The Stanley Kirkby version of Tis a Story That Shall Live For Ever, which opens this CD was released on a green label Zonophone 78 rpm disc in 1913. Billed as English Descriptive, with orchestral accompaniment, the other side of the 78 featured Kirkbys version of Be British, a song based on the Titanic disaster. Kirkby was a popular and versatile baritone who made many hundreds of recordings. (Zonophone 1050, X-2-42486).
In addition, the CD presents two recitations by
Ernest Shackleton, one of which has appeared on commercially available historic
recordings and the other has been invisible. According to the interesting liner notes, Sir Ernest
Shackleton made two different sound recordings following the British Antarctic
Expedition 1907-09, otherwise known as the Nimrod Expedition, the first of
three expeditions to the Antarctic led by Shackleton. It was financed without institutional support and relied on
private loans and contributions, including sponsorship from HMV, who also
donated a gramophone and a bright lot of records to cheer the weary months
in the snow-bound regions. The first Shackleton recording was made in New
Zealand on June 23, 1909 and released as a 78 disc on HMV (D377) as A
Description of the Dash for the South Pole. Even by the standards of the day the
recording was crude, and although Shackleton claimed at this time that I
can talk much better than I can write,
this recording hardly does justice to his skills as an orator. At the same time Shackleton was under
pressure to complete an account of his 1907-09 polar expedition, published as The
Heart of the Antarctic in November 1909,
and ghost-written by Edward Saunders.
The reverse side of the HMV disc featured the recording The
Discovery of the North Pole, made in 1910
by Commander Robert Peary, who commanded an American expedition said to have
reached the North Pole in 1909, although today this claim is widely
disputed. The Shackleton recording
remained in the HMV catalogue as late as 1939. Less well known, the second Shackleton recording, titled My
South Polar Expedition, was made in London
on March 30, 1910 and released on Edison Blue Amberol cylinder (4M-473). An exceptionally rare sound recording,
at the close Shackleton can be heard - just - asking the engineer whether his
recording was successful.
CD41-024; www.ltmrecordings.com; (See also VOICES OF
HISTORY 2 - Arts, Science & Exploration (2005), THE VERY BEST HISTORIC VOICES (2007), HISTORIC VOICES IX - The Voices Collection (2008) and TIS A STORY THAT SHALL LIVE FOR EVER (1913) in the Non-Classical, all or
significantly Antarctic section.)
FROM VAUGHAN WILLIAMS ATTIC – Ralph
Vaughan Williams Personal Collection (2009)
This CD is a collection music transcribed from
Vaughan Williams personal collection of 78 rpm recordings of various
performances from 1925 to 1948.
Vaughan Williams classic 1953 Sinfonia Antartica (7th
Symphony) was developed from the soundtrack music of the British Ealing
Studios 1949 film Scott of the Antarctic.
The seven short movie pieces (totalling eight minutes), played by The
Philharmonia Orchestra in 1948, conducted by Ernest Irving, were first issued
on a 78 rpm record and represent various key scenes from the movie and most of
them are recognizable in the later full symphony movements. Track titles include Prologue, Pony March, Penguins, Climbing the Glacier, The Return, Blizzard and Final Music. Dutton CDBP 9790
THE FILM MUSIC OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS
Volume I (2002)
What may be Vaughan Williams best film score,
the music for Scott of the Antarctic, released in 1949, is now presented as a whole
for the first time on CD. In the
film, less than half of the original score was used; many of the movements
played on this CD were shortened for the film and have not been heard in full,
others were not used at all.
Vaughan Williams later reworked the film score into the Sinfonia
Antartica (7th Symphony), which still remains the standard for
classical Antarctic symphonic music today.
The 41-minute suite on this CD contains all the
music composed for the film over eighteen separately titled themes, nearly as
long as the full symphony. It is a
treat to hear the never-before-heard themes and music, which has, dare we say
it, been frozen and iced over for more than 50 years. The suite was played by the BBC Philharmonic under Rumon
Gamba. Chandos Chan 10007
VAUGHAN WILLIAMS - SYMPHONY NO. 6/ FILM
MUSIC (2000)
Vaughan Williams classic 1953 Sinfonia
Antartica (7th Symphony) was developed from the soundtrack music of
the British Ealing Studios 1949 film Scott of the Antarctic. The present CD of Vaughan Williams film music may be the
first to present the original film music in disc format. The seven short pieces (totalling eight
minutes), played by The Philharmonia Orchestra in 1948, conducted by Ernest
Irving, were first issued on a 78 rpm record and represent various key scenes
from the movie and most of them are recognizable in the later full symphony
movements. Pearl GEM 0107 www.pavilionrecords.com; The same pieces were also released on
another Pearl compilation, BRITISH FILM MUSIC Volume 1 (2000), which has a cover photo of a sun blaring over a
typical Antarctic coastal scene of mountains and pack ice. Pearl GEM 0100.
**************************************************************************************
Other Classical Antarctica:
LE DERNIER CONTINENT (THE LAST
CONTINENT) – Soundtrack by Simon Leclerc (2010) (Web site download only)
The Last Continent is a 2007 French
Canadian documentary film made by Quebecois biologist and film-maker Jean
Lemire about his 2005-06 voyage, lasting 430 days, to the Antarctic Peninsula
aboard the sailing vessel Sedna IV.
Lemires small crew of scientists and back-up specialists, including a
doctor and a psychologist, planned to document the threat of global warming on
the environment by allowing themselves to be icebound over the winter, which
would have allowed them the opportunity to explore the surroundings. Ironically, there was no ice to freeze
them in and they had to contend with winds that threatened the ship, lack of
easy access to the shore and the thawing of their iced-in winter food
caches. Their scripted filming
plans went astray with the unexpected drastic changes in lack of ice that they encountered,
evidence of the fast speed of warming in the Antarctic Peninsula area. Originally made in French, the English
film version features narration by Donald Sutherland. The films mellow orchestral soundtrack, 18 tracks
illustrating various facets of the Expedition, is a very melodic and subdued
production. It was nominated as best original documentary music, for the 2009
Gmeaux Awards, which
recognize French Canadian successes in Canadian television (equivalent to the
English Canadian Gemini Awards).
The composer, Simon
Leclerc, is an award-winning conductor, composer and arranger from Montreal who
has worked with many well known Quebec musicians, including the Montreal
Symphony Orchestra. He has also
composed and directed the music for the IMAX film Lost Worlds and has directed the Paramount Pictures
Orchestra for the TV series Star Trek. Available on iTunes.
PENGUIN DANCE – Music for String
Quartett by Hans Peter
Salentin (2010)
Hans Peter Salentin is a German jazz
trumpeter and composer who has played with numerous world-class artists and has
issued more than 17 CDs of various types of jazz music. He is a former professor of Jazz Trumpet
at the University of Wrzburg and currently works for a Dutch brass instrument
firm. This CD has a lively cover
of penguins jumping off an iceberg and contains polar-influenced tracks such as
Penguin Dance, Endless Summer Nights, Splitting
Iceberg, White and Grey and Whales, played by a
Bulgarian string quartet. The
melodic musical styles vary from contemplative minimalism to more boisterous
playfulness. In 2010, Hans Peter explained his reason
for the Antarctic theme to us: Some years ago, I watched a movie about Antarctica
on German TV, maybe National Geographic, strong colours, as you know, very
impressive, so I composed some music, in my way, which shows the beauty of this
nature, which might be gone in some years. I loved this idea to write this music for string quartet,
because it shows to me, how fragile everything is. Dewey Records 24579; www.hp-salentin.com;
www.myspace.com/hanspetersalentin
SHIMMERING LIGHT – Film Music of
Nigel Westlake (2009)
This is a compilation CD of many of
Australian composer Westlakes peaceful, majestic film scores. It includes music from commercially
popular films, lesser well-known films as well as previously unreleased tracks
and new arrangements of some older pieces. Included is the short track Threnody, with boy soprano and orchestra, which
was originally included as an instrumental-only version on Westlakes CD ANTARCTICA
– The Film Music (1992). This was the soundtrack for the 1991
IMAX film Antarctica. Also on the CD is the track Beneath
the Midnight Sun,
recorded in 2009, which is a rearranged violin and harp duo version of Scotts
Theme, a haunting track
on the ANTARCTICA soundtrack
disc. It was originally included
on the film music CD as two separate tracks, one scored for orchestra and the
other for orchestra and boy soprano.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC 476 3658
JASPER - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by Florian Tessloff (2009)
Jasper, a
penguin, is the leading character of a German television series of animated
shorts by Toons n Tales, from the early 2000s. It was made into a feature-length film for the
European market in 2008 as Jasper und das
Limonadenkomplott, but the English
version, titled Journey to the End of the World, has not yet been distributed in North America. According to the CD, Between the backdrops
of the icy South Pole and a colourful harbour city, unfolds the adventure of
the penguin brothers Jasper and Junior, who, with the help of 9-year old Emma,
rescue the eggs of the rare Kakapo bird from the evil hands of Dr. Block. The dynamic orchestral score by
Tessloff, performed by The Slovak National Symphony Orchestra and conducted by
Allan Wilson, includes the short polar tracks More Icebergs and South Pole Adventures. Moviescore
Media MMS-09019; www.moviescoremedia.com
ICEBERG by Pascal Contet and Wu Wei (2009)
This a French disc of unusual
music from a pair of instrumental virtuosos, French accordionist Pascal Contet
and Chinese sheng (a giant-sized mouth organ originating around 3000 B.C.)
artist Wu Wei, based in Germany.
The CD is a showcase of avant-garde and improvised music, with track
titles inspired by the names of different forms of icebergs. Title includes Blocky, Pinnacled 1, Amery Ice Shelf, Bergy
Bit, A Song of Ice, Pinnacled 2, Wedellsee, Wedge, Icebreaker, Bergie Seltzer and Dome. The
high pitched timbres and free-form soundscapes, like the ice they portray, may
offer a slippery and challenging footing for listeners grounded on more
traditional musical landscapes.
According to the liner notes, Iceberg is especially marked by a desire
for sound transformation and introspection particular to the music of Pascal
Contet and Wu Wei. A very pure
approach, sweetly and sensitively moving, which reveals their association as
far more transcendental and spiritual than experimental. Iceberg is a voyage, sliding massively,
regularly like an ice-breaker come to crack a visible layer of immaculate
pack-ice, provoking the instantaneous capturing of fugitive breaking before the
ice reassumes its majestic immobility.
In a deceptively calm environment, the music works as if in a process of
irisation. Propelled by a
shimmering ballet of two instruments answering each other,even at times losing
themselves in each otherAnd despite the apparent coldness of the decor, the
whitish luminosity washed in the wake of this musical expedition, no feel of
desolation, no dark thoughts. This
Iceberg cruise is a symbol of hope.
Hope generated by a will to surpass themselves acoustically, by a desire
for sound cohesion of two musicians who have rid themselves for a long time now
of all superfluous artifice and instrumental preconception. Radio France SIG 11056; www.pascalcontet.com;
www.wuweimusic.com
WHALE
WARRIORS by Brian Balmages (2009) (Web site download only)
Brian Balmages is an American composer, conductor,
producer and performer for wind, brass and orchestral music and his
commissioned works have been used by elementary schools and leading U.S.
orchestras. He is currently
Director of Instrumental Publications for The FJH Music Co., Inc. in Fort
Lauderdale, Florida. One of his
wind ensemble concert band pieces is the melodic 5½-minute Whale
Warriors, for grades 2.5-3. It is described on the publishers web
site as follows: Experience the stunning true story of Captain Paul Watson and
his crew as they set sail in the Antarctic in an attempt to sink whaling
ships! Based on these modern day
pirates, the music tells the story of their adventures as they use methods
that include stink bombs, prop foulers, and even the dreaded can opener! The music paints a picture of their
ship, the Farley Mowat, which is painted black with a Jolly Roger hoisted
up. The energy rises as they
engage other ships and risk their lives to save these beautiful defenseless
creatures. Awe inspiring! Brian told us in 2010 that the track
was inspired by the book of the same name by Peter Heller about Paul Watson
and the Sea Shepherd campaign. It
was a very interesting book to read with a lot of thought-provoking material. Download available for purchase from www.fjhmusic.com; www.brianbalmages.com
PIRATE FOR THE SEA - Original Motion
Pictures Soundtrack by
Aldo Shllaku (2009)
This is
the soundtrack to the documentary/biographical film, by Rob Colby, about the
life and career of Captain Paul Watson and his crews of volunteers. Watson was one of the co-founders the
Greenpeace Foundation and since 1977 has been better known as the founder and
principal activist of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society (SSCS). The SSCS is a leading campaigner to
protect marine wildlife around the globe, particularly seals on the Canadian
east coast and whales, both in the Arctic and Antarctic regions. His entanglements with the Japanese
Antarctic whaling fleet have been well publicized over the years and have been
the subject of both films and TV programs. Pirate for the Sea debuted at the 2008 Telluride (Colorado,
U.S.A.) Film Festival in 2008. The
composer and conductor of the music, Aldo Shllaku is of Albanian origin,
studied music in Montreal, Canada and is now based in Los Angeles, U.S.A., as a
composer, director and arranger of a variety of music styles. The instrumental music on the
soundtrack is played by a small orchestra in classical/New Age world music
styles to fit the moods from the Arctic north through the equator all the way
to the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.
This is an area surrounding Antarctica where the International Whaling
Commission has banned all commercial whaling. It is in this area that Japan still carries on whaling under
the guise of scientific research and against which the SSCS has taken its
protesting actions. On the whole,
the music on the disc is very melodic and generally serene but on its own,
without the visuals, may not be reflective of the aggressive and unpleasant
activities that have become the legendary public face of the SSCSs voyages.
Included
on the CD is Speeding into the Sanctuary, a 3-minute, 3-part musical portrayal of the
area. Aldo told us that The
director/producer of the Pirate for the Sea,
Ron Colby, saw another film that I had written the music for and contacted me
to discuss. This is how I got
involved. Once I saw the film and
because of the subject matter, I immediately accepted. The Whale Sanctuary track was inspired
simply by what this sanctuary is - an open, calm, safe ocean place for fish and
ocean mammals...until the illegal hunting begins. I had a lot information for every scene because the director
of the film was on board the ship with Paul Watson for the duration of the protection
expedition. Carpe Diem Music; aldoshllaku.com;
www.seashepherd.org
SYMPHONY NO. 1 FOR STRINGS: ANTARCTICA by Surtsey (2009) (Web site download only)
Dave Court is a Bath, U.K.-based
electronic artist who goes by the name of Surtsey (derived from the name of a
volcanic island formed in the 1960s off the coast of Iceland). This 30-minute minimalist work consists
of five movements, including A Song for Rainfall, A Song for Snow, A Song for Ice, A Song for Wind and Respite. The swaths of sorrowful synthesizer
strings combine elements of electronic ambient music with the string orchestra
styles of Pēteris Vasks and Arvo Prt, in which each change in tone is a major musical
event. The moods and sounds of Antarctica
bring to mind
the sadness and suffering in the music of these two East European Baltic
artists, as well as in that of Henryk Greckis
Symphony No. 3 (Symphony of Sorrowful Songs), a surprise international hit in
the 1990s for the Polish composer.
While Antarctica may not offer
the richness of sounds and variety found in the music of these world-class
artists, it conveys a very strong melancholy and is about Robert Scotts
1910-12 South Pole expedition.
We
asked Surtsey about his music and he told us, The piece was in
part inspired by Robert Falcon Scott and the ill-fated Terra Nova expedition. It was originally written as a single
35-minute ambient work but was split into movements to emphasise the thematic
changes. There was also originally
a short reprise after the third track, tentatively entitled The Flag but I cut this from the release version as I was unsure
about the way it interrupted the flow of the other pieces. The titles refer to the worsening
weather conditions that the party encountered, with the exception of the final
track, Respite, referring to the brave
sacrifice of Captain Oates and the tragic death of the rest of the party over
the next two weeks, being a release from the perceived burden of their
obligations and inhospitality of the continent. That piece ends with a series of coherent major chords which
are intended to draw a stark contrast to the consistently minor and atonal
themes of the rest of the movements.
The work overall was written to evoke emotions of emptiness, isolation
and helplessness, except the last track, which, ironically, was written to
convey a feeling of hope. A motif
is introduced halfway through the first movement and recurs in the second,
third and fourth, but not in the fifth, in an effort to reinforce this. The other motivation was that Ive
always harbored a fascination for the Antarctic, since I was a child. It seems to hold a powerful and
menacing yet fragile beauty, which I find hard to explain. Download available
free of charge under a Creative Commons License at www.monocromatica.com/netlabel/release/tube171.htm;
www.myspace.com/surtseymusic
THE EXPLORERS: A CENTURY OF DISCOVERY - Original
Television Soundtrack - Composed and
Conducted by Lee Holdridge (2008)
The Explorers was a 90-minute 1988 television special aired on American PBS to honor
the centennial of the National Geographic Society, produced by Nicolas Noxon
and narrated by E. G. Marshall. It
featured two dozen scientists and explorers from Alexander Graham Bell, one the
founding principals of the Society to prominent scientific explorers of the
day. The soundtrack music, never
previously released, was composed by Lee Holdridge, an American composer whose
early collaborations with Neil Diamond recordings led to the soundtrack for the
popular Jonathan Livingston Seagull movie. Holdridge has scored numerous other movies and television
series, composed classical concert works and worked with many major recording
artists. He has received six Emmys,
including one for this documentary for Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in
News and Documentary Programming - Music.
One of the tracks is Antarctic Summer / Byrd Flies
Over the South Pole, which portrays
the first flight over the South Pole.
The National Geographic society was one of the sponsors of Richard
Byrds United States Antarctic Expedition, in which Byrd, as navigator and
Bernt Balchen, the pilot and two others flew the Ford trimotor Floyd Bennett from Little America on the Ross Ice Shelf to the
Pole. Byrd became an American hero
and led four later Antarctic Expeditions.
According to the CD booklet notes, Holdridge scores the segment with
military-like snare drums and a musical march to reach the Pole. In 2010, Lee told us: The score for The
Explorers was composed to the film. Each cue I wrote was scoring whatever
the visual sequence on screen at that moment. Sometimes what I compose for a score might be in response to
a request by the director. In the
booklet notes, he further explains that I approach documentaries as if they
are dramas, Im helping convey the story and the emotions, pulling the viewer
deeper into the storyYou have to put your feelings into the filmYou work with
the narration as if that too is part of the score. In a way, the narration is the solo and you are the
underscore around it. Intrada ISE 1019
ON COURSE by Laurie Altman (2008)
Laurie Altman is an assistant professor of
music at Westminster Choir College of Rider University in Princeton, New
Jersey. He has received many
classical commissions for compositions and has performed as a jazz artist in
numerous clubs and events worldwide.
This CD is a compilation of his compositions dating from 1985 and
contains the 13-minute, 3-part Suite, Three Antarctic Songs for Baritone and
Piano, which
includes the tracks On Course, Within Limitless Space and Does an Emperor Penguin Meditate.
The baritone is Elem Eley, with Laurie Altman at the piano. The second piece is the
5½-minute On Course for Instrumental Octet, which includes flutes, clarinet,
piano vibraphone, violin, maracas and conductor. Laurie told us that the Antarctic pieces found their
inspiration from a trip that my wife and I took to Antarctica in February of
2006. The CD contains two On
Course Pieces: An instrumental Octet
and a setting of three Antarctic poems of mine for Baritone and Piano.
There were numerous other pieces that emerged as a result of that trip as well.
According to the liner notes for Three
Antarctic Songs, I
became haunted with trying to find a sound that would take me closer to the
emptiness, the vastness, the color and pristine stillness of that place. (Wide
spacings; few clusters; a joining of some – ancient and new). The two outer pieces of the set, On
Course and Does
an Emperor Penguin Meditate are short and relatively straightforward in their presentation. Within Limitless Space truly attempts to capture the
emptiness and vastness to which I alluded earlier. The three falsetto insertions were almost like a voice,
Shackletons perhaps, speaking (da lontano) from the sea, a faint ember, seemingly to
nowhere. On Course, the instrumental octet, is the
most overtly programmatic work on the CD.
It is to be heard with the breeze in your face, fourteen knots of speed
underfoot, all attended by weather, ship motion and the natural elements of
light, birds, ice and seals all around.
Structural content is almost song-like: AABCA with an intense and
dramatic ostinato mantra carrying the piece and its players forward and On
Course. It is for me a tone
painting, a work of color and vibrancy, never wavering in both its intensity
and relentlessness. The cover
photograph of misty blue-grey pancake sea ice was taken by Lauries wife,
Jeannine Hummel, on this 2006 trip with National Geographic.
Lyrics for On Course, about being in the Drake Passage:
The thrust, the push forward,Steady, Port Ten, Starboard Five, pitch and
roll, a wave, the hint of a breeze, Midships, getting there, vacuous
space. Waiting, observing, fingers
chilled, tears, the wind, frigid, unremitting, Steady, the sky, grey, painted
on, sculpted, an Albatross alone in search of, diving, drifting, Port Ten,
Seals floating, the thrust, the push breathless, surrounded all sides, water
spraying, Starboard Five, everything moving, Steady, forward, getting
there, fleeting, head wind, getting there, the thrust, the push, getting there,
forward, forever, On Course. On Course.
Lyrics for Within Limitless Space, about being in the Weddell Sea:
Within limitless space, an ice field blue, white and grey. Four a.m., a sky, textured, tufted with
light shards. Pin pricks, crystals
expanding, rolling, compressed, broken, blue, a Petrel in flight, seemingly, to
nowhere. Within limitless space,
The weight of an iceberg, below itself, rolling, calving breaking apart, the
eye sees beginning, limitless space to be filled (a music score), the
horizon. A Chinstrap Penguin,
floating sideways, seemingly, to nowhere.
In a turn a mountain broken off, something larger, before the sea,
yielding to nothing but itself. A
lone Weddell Seal, asleep, awakens to space, limitless (no less tomorrow than
today). Warmed by the sun deep in
a dive, seemingly, to nowhere.
Lyrics for Does an Emperor Penguin
Meditate?, on Booth
Island: Thirty five days, molting, tall upon snow and ice, frigid, a
promontory, wind, fifty knots, barely, a quiver. Determined, elemental proof of something so unique, a way of
being. Do you question As you
wait. Do you Dear Penguin, ever
Meditate?
Albany Records TROY1041; www.albanyrecords.com;
www.lauriealtman.com
MUSIC FROM SEVEN CONTINENTS Vol. 3 by the Cincinnati Boychoir (2008)
Founded in 1965, the Cincinnati Boychoir, directed by Randall Wolfe, gives numerous local subscription concerts and has performed with the Vienna Boys Choir, symphony orchestras, and gives concerts for community organizations as well as touring internationally. Their latest CD includes four song tracks related to the seventh continent, Southward, The Maids Lament and The Ice King by Gerald S. Doorly and Humpback Whales by Wendy Mae Chambers. The Morning was the relief ship sent to resupply Robert Scotts Discovery Expedition of 1901-04 and during its 1902 voyage to Antarctica, the third officer, Lieut. Gerald Doorly, a talented pianist and entertainer, and the chief engineer, J.D. Morrison, as lyricist, collaborated on a collection of songs that were performed during musical evenings on the ships piano, accompanied by riotous noisemaking. More in the vein of Victorian parlour songs than sea shanties, the songs were published in 1943, apparently in a very tame version of the originals. Wendy Mae Chambers is a New Jersey-based pianist and composer who travelled to the Antarctic Peninsula in 1999 and recorded a solo piano CD ANTARCTICA SUITE, which included Humpback Whales. Randall Wolfe told us that in concert The boys make sounds of whales and dolphins (and can imitate the sounds remarkably well), while some boys pour water from one plastic pitcher into another and also back and forth between plastic glasses, while other boys make bubble sounds with their lips. We ask the audience to close their eyes and imagine travelling underwater to Antarctica. The boys love this music! www.cincinnatiboychoir.org; (see also THE SONGS of the MORNING: a Musical Sketch by G. S. Doorly (2002) in this section below and also ANTARCTICA SUITE by Wendy Mae Chambers (1999) in the following Non-Classical, all or significantly Antarctic section.)
ELEPHANT
by Stefano Ianne (2008)
Ianne
is a Ravenna, Italy-based composer of modern symphonic music, at times
reminiscent of minimalism and a more pastoral Philip Glass. With three CDs, Iannes music is rich
with melodic strings and quiet arpeggios.
This CD, largely themed about a boy and an elephant, was recorded live
at the Dal Verme theatre in Milan by the theatres resident orchestra in 2007. It has the track Amundsen and we asked Stefano about it in 2009. He said: Yes, the track
Amundsen is related to the polar explorer
Roald Amundsen. When I was young,
I had intentions to be an explorer and Ive studied Amundsen. His story is wonderful and his passing
away, which happened in order to try to find Umberto Nobile in the North Pole,
is truly mysterious. Nobile was
an Italian explorer whose dirigible-type airship crashed during the return
flight from the North Pole in 1928.
Many international search and rescue planes were used in the rescue
operation. Polar hero Amundsen was
on one of planes, which disappeared and was never found. Sconfinarte; www.ianne.org;
www.myspace.com/stefanoianne
ANTARCTICA SAGA (AMUNDSEN TO THE SOUTH POLE by Mike Hannickel (c. 2007) (Web site download only)
Mike
Hannickel is a composer and music director in Californias Rocklin Unified
School District, specializing in elementary and junior high band and
orchestras. He has also conducted
his compositions in Hollywood-area studios and scored for independent movies,
documentaries and other productions.
Two of his school compositions for wind band include the 3-minute regal
march Antarctica Saga (Amundsen to the South Pole) and the more playful 2-minute Penguin Promenade. While not
issued on a commercial disc, the two pieces have been recorded as demos and are
available for free download and/or listening at the Web sites mentioned in this
listing. Mike told us in
2009: Since my publications are
mostly for school-aged musicians, I often try to incorporate some historical,
scientific, or literary component so teachers will be able to use the music as
a jumping off point for other lessons. Antarctica Saga was also an opportunity for young bands to sensibly use
non-traditional instruments and sounds (water glasses, etc.). www.curnowmusicpress.com; www.jwpepper.com
STRING THEORY and CINEMATIC WINGS by Jeffrey Gold (both
2007) (Web site download only)
Gold, based in Utah, is a multi-talented film producer, composer,
playwright and university film/theatre educator. From an early start as a published physicist and
mathematician, while still an undergraduate, his films, compositions and plays
have premired in both the U.S. and Britain
and won many awards. His
collection of instrumentals on String Theory includes the tracks Shackleton (Theme) and Shackleton (South Georgia Island). Cinematic
Wings has Shackletons Return and Antarctica by Air. All of these are
beautiful, lush, majestic pieces with rich symphonic strings. Jeffrey told us that The
motivation for the tracks is the inspiration that Antarctica alone generates. There are people drawn to Antarctica
for reasons they do not understand; I am one of those people. I suppose it is the pristine serenity
and Shackletons adventure is the best survival story in existence. www.jeffreygold.com
THE PEOPLE THAT TME FORGOT - Film Score by John Scott (2006)
This is the full orchestral soundtrack for the
1977 U.K. movie of the same name, directed by Kevin Connor, as not all the
tracks were used in the movie. It
was a sequel to the 1975 film The Land That Time Forgot, in which a German U-boat sinks a
British vessel during WWI, picks up the survivors and ends up in the south
polar seas at the continent of Caprona, populated by terrifying dinosaurs and
apemen. In this sequel, another
expedition sets out in 1919 to rescue the colleagues who were previously lost
and finds a tropical oasis in the middle of the Ice. Both movies are based on the 1918 Caspak trilogy by Edgar
Rice Burroughs. The two brief
Antarctic-related tracks on the CD are the dramatic Crossing the Ice Wall, and Return Across the Ice Wall,
this time a far
more relaxed musical passage.
John Scott is an
internationally-known musician, composer and orchestra conductor whose first
film soundtrack dates to 1965. As
a musician, Scott played the flute solo in the iconic Beatles song Youve
Got To Hide Your Love Away (from the movie Help) and was principal
saxophonist on the James Bond Goldfinger movie soundtrack. He has won
three Emmy Awards and since 2006 has been the Artistic Director of the
Hollywood Symphony Orchestra.
Scott also wrote the soundtrack score for the William Kronick-produced,
written and directed documentary film about The Transglobe Expedition, led by
Ranulph Fiennes. This team
circumnavigated the globe along its polar axis from North to South Poles, being
the first to do so, finishing in 1982.
JOS Records JSCD 132; www.josrecords.com. (See also TO THE ENDS OF
THE EARTH - Original Soundtrack Recording - music composed and
conducted by John Scott (1988) in this section.)
ICELIGHT by Michelle Ende
(2006)
Michelle Ende is a Tampa, Florida-area
resident and began her musical training at a young age with piano and organ and
later continued with conservatory training in composition and
orchestration. Her classical and
choral works have been recorded by the Bay Area Philharmonic and the Bay Area
Chamber Works, which specialize in local area composers. She is now a professor of International
Economics. With over 20 CDs, her
output has been prodigious, particularly in the last ten years. This CD is the last of three Planetary albums and
consists of four long ambient tracks taking us into the mysterious fogs, ice
and twilight of Antarctica. From
the liner notes: Fog: Within this landscape there exist vast caverns of fog, lifting images
in and out of sight. The landscape
varies in its shades of grey and white and fog moves over the ice in a creeping
fashion revealing magnificent towers of ice, vast caverns and glacier
valleys. Icelight: No sunlight or moonlight. Only icelight, a kind of half light in
which all things appear grey; another shade of ice as it were. Small points of light drift through the
overcast clouds, but it is only a halo; no real light or warmth. Chiaroscuro: From this darkness of clanking
ice and strange noises, the signs of Spring come drifting in slowly. Icelight gives way to new light;
sunlight, warm light, life light.
The most sprightly and melodic of the tracks is Penguins: The only life here are the
penguins atop the ice. Only they
break up the general sameness of the icescape. Cold winds huddle them together; the only source of warmth.
Michelle told us in
2009 about her inspiration for the music: I was exposed to Happy Feet
(the movie), March of the Penguins (the movie) and had just finished watching a
documentary on Scott and Shackleton and I was moved by the beauty of
Antarctica. www.annuitmusic.com
SHADOW DANCES - GUITAR MUSIC BY NIGEL
WESTLAKE - Played
by Slava Grigoryan (2006)
Australian Grigoryan (a native of Kazakhstan)
recorded this performance of fellow Australian Nigel Westlakes Antarctica
– Suite for Guitar and Orchestra in 2004 with the Melbourne Symphony
Orchestra. The guitar concerto was
completed in 1992 and had its origin from his soundtrack to the IMAX film of
the same name. The four movements,
totalling 23 minutes on this CD, rework musical ideas from the film, as well as
developing others not included in it.
The four tracks are The Last Place on Earth, Wooden Ships, Penguin Ballet and The Ice Core – Finale. ABC Classics 476 5744; www.rimshot.com.au (Nigel
Westlakes web site)
PLANET EARTH - Music from the BBC TV Series – music composed and conducted
by George Fenton (2006)
BBCs massive 11-part television documentary
about the earths various and extreme habitats goes from pole to pole and
oceans to mountains. The ICE
WORLDS instalment
includes the following lavish symphonic themes performed by the BBC Concert
Orchestra: Discovering Antarctica, The Humpbacks Bubblenet, Everything
Leaves but the Emperors, The disappearing Sea Ice, Lost in the Storm. EMI
0946 381891 2 1; www.bbc.co.uk/nature/animals/planetearth
DREAMINGS by Gondwana Voices (2006)
Gondwana Voices is Australias
national childrens choir, for ages 10 to 16, established in 1997 by artistic
director/conductor Lyn Williams to perform new and traditional music, which
showcases the country and its peoples.
It has traveled internationally and is committed to commissioning works
from Australian composers. On this
disc is also Principal Guest Conductor Mark OLeary, who is the founder and
director of another Australian childrens choir, Young Voices of
Melbourne. The CD contains an
Antarctic-related piece, Australian Daniel Walkers ode to the Southern Oceans
wandering albatross, The Wanderer. According to the liner notes, the
composer writes, The Wanderer is
about living your dreams. The
inspiration of this piece was the albatross, a lone traveler soaring on the
Antarctic winds, his destination wherever the currents may take him. I have always been in awe of these
magnificent birds, and the text I have written in some way pays homage to their
grace and determination. The
lyrics are: Let me go where the wind will go, let it take me over southern
shores. I will ride on the ocean
air, I will travel across ice and foam, far from home. And where no road will take you, where
few have gone before, its far beyond the ice-floe far below where my spirit
calls. Antarctic land! land of
unearthly light, where pale horizon escapes eternal night. Wumara, warawara. Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC
476 9093; www.gondwanavoices.com.au;
(See also BIRRALEE 10th ANNIVERSARY CONCERT LIVE (2005), referenced in this
section.)
ELEMENTAL: IMPRESSIONS OF THE
NATURAL WORLD by Mary Doumany (2005)
Mary Doumany is a Victoria,
Australia-based composer, harpist and singer who has performed with the
Melbourne, Sydney and Queensland Symphony Orchestras as well as
internationally. With a repertoire
covering music for opera, ballet, orchestra and jazz, she also has a great
interest in improvised music. Her
harp playing was included in the soundtracks for the movies Shine and The
Truman Story.
Elemental was her first CD of original solo harp compositions and was
written for a 36-string lever harp.
One of the tracks is Ice. According to Marys CD liner notes, The harp
has a timeless quality to its sound.
It is one of the oldest instruments and some have said that the first
harp was created out of sinews across a turtle shell. For me, the act of playing (striking strings made from
animal gut, with my bare hands) has a rawness and immediacy that belies the
ethereal sound I create. Much like
ice: It looks magical, and yet it can wreak havoc, as it has done in the
Northern Hemisphere this past winter.
I believe that the harp invokes the sounds of the natural world most
effectively. Mary told us in 2011
about the track: Its based on Ice in a geographical setting, so yes, both
Antarctica and the Arctic. I
certainly wasnt thinking about ice cubes from the refrigerator! This track had its Antarctic
performance premire in February 2011, being played by another renowned
Australian harp soloist, Alice Giles, who travelled to Antarctica in early 2011
on an Australian Antarctic Division Arts Fellowship. She is head of the Harp Area at the Australian National
University, and according to her University Web pages, went on the Australian
ship Aurora Australis to the Australian
bases, Mawson and Davis Stations, to perform and record music especially
written for the journey, as well as music that was heard in the Antarctic 100
years ago. Alice is the granddaughter of Dr. Cecil Madigan, who was a member of the 1911-14 First Australasian Antarctic Expedition. Alice was the first Australian
professional musician to perform in Antarctica and her musical presentations
were arranged to celebrate the Centenary of the First Australasian Antarctic
Expedition. www.aliceinantarctica.wordpess.com;
www.music.anu.edu.au/aliceinantarctica
SHOULD THIS BE FOUND: SIX SONGS ON SCOTTS LAST EXPEDITION by Perry Goldstein (2005) (Web site download only)
Perry Goldstein is Undergraduate Studies Director in the Department of Music and Director of the College of Arts, Culture and Humanities at State University of New York at Stony Brook. As a composer, his music has been heard in many countries and he specializes in saxophone and other wind instrument works. This 34-minute opus consists of six vocal pieces about the phases of Scotts tragic Terra Nova South Pole Expedition of 1910-12, including The Voyage Out, Land at Last, Penguins, Impressions on the March, In Winter Quarters and Summit, the Pole and Beyond, performed by the United States Military Academy Band of West Point, New York, directed by Col. Thomas Rotondi. Jr. The soprano is Sergeant First Class MaryKay Messenger. The song texts were compiled by the American novelist Richard Powers from Scotts own eloquent words, written in his classic expedition journal. While a melodic, operatic treatment of the history of the Expedition may not be quite the expected vehicle to portray the physical hardships encountered in Antarctica, it continues in the trend of contemporary historic opera and is a worthy addition to the Antarctic repertoire. It would be interesting to imagine a stage performance or multi-media presentation of this work. Perry told us in 2009 that I encountered the Scott story by chance while watching American Public Television one day many years ago. The documentary was especially moving when it described the letters Scott wrote about his men and to his wife when it was clear that he wasnt going to survive. I thought at the time that it would make a very moving set of songs, and years later I had the chance to try my hand at it when I was commissioned by the West Point Band to write a set of songs. The text was compiled from Scotts diaries by Richard Powers, a friend and acclaimed novelist. The performance, including text and program notes, is available for free download at www.usma.edu/band/recordings/found.htm
WORKS by Brian Bennett (2005)
This is a 4-CD box set of four of
Brian Bennetts film scores, which includes the soundtrack of GREAT NATURAL
WONDERS OF THE WORLD, a 2002 Christmas/New
Year BBC Natural History film produced by Peter Crawford and narrated by the
ubiquitous Sir David Attenborough.
One of the tracks in this visit to various landscapes of the earth is South
to Antarctica, a sweeping orchestral theme portraying the icy
mysteries of the continent. Brian
Bennett, in addition to having won many awards for his film and TV
compositions, arrangements and productions, was awarded the OBE from the Queen of
England in 2004 for his services to music. Brian is also a drummer and member of Britains iconic rock
group, the Shadows, which began as the backing band for Cliff Richard in 1959. They became one of the most successful
acts in Britain in the 1960s and went on to great acclaim as an independent
instrumental group with countless records. www.brianbennettmusic.co.uk
JOURNEYS by Young Voices of Melbourne (2005)
Young Voices of Melbourne is an Australian choir, founded in 1990, by its director, Mark OLeary. With 130 singers between 6 and 18 years of age, it has traveled internationally and is committed to the performance of new Australian music. One of the tracks on this disc is the 6½ minute Shackleton, for 3-part voices and piano, by the Sydney, Australia composer and performer Paul Jarman. The piece is from his song cycle Turn on the Open Sea, which pays tribute to the adventurers of the sea. It was commissioned for the Sydney Childrens Choir in 2001. According to the liner notes, The triumphant story of Sir Ernest Shackletons Endurance expedition to the Antarctic in 1914 has become one of the popular tales of modern exploration. Against all odds, Shackleton and his men survived a two-year ordeal, trapped without a ship, during a freezing winter in the most remote and unexplored region of the globe. Thanks to intuitive leadership and incredible persistence, Shackleton not only returned to Europe, but did so without losing a single crew member. The impossible boat journey across the great Southern Ocean in the 20-foot James Caird, and the successful navigation of South Georgia remains the greatest quest in the annals of the sea. On returning to England, several of the crew enlisted to fight on the red fields of Flanders, and within weeks, two men perished in battle. The song is a very beautiful hymn to the irony of their return – simple, elegant and one of our favourite Antarctic melodies. Lyrics are:
Old
man, looking out to the sea, This time hes leaving, Windswept hair and strong old
bones, Now gently fading no longer sailing.
Oh many
years ago, can you remember? The
haunting cry of a ship that drowned, Beneath the ice floe of the Weddell Sea.
Times
were hard, but we made it over, Made it over, they wonder why, Through the
cold, but we made it over, Made it over, theyll never know.
Two
years trapped in the southern sea, Far from our homeland, Roaring waves and
wailing winds, May well defeat us, but hopes were high. Oh please tell me why, were most
forgotten, Far away from a world at war, Who needs a hero, Who needs to know?
Times
were hard, but we made it over, Made it over, they wonder why, Through the
cold, but we made it over, Made it over, theyll never know. Why, why, did we have to come home to
war? Why, why, why? Try, try, tell
me what are we fighting for? Try, try, try.
Then,
on the red fields of Flanders, All men were fallen, A bloody war, fought on
every shore, Brought pain and sorrow to a sailing man.
But I
still hear the steam whistle blowing, Twas the day of wonders, Frozen tears
and heartfelt cheers, Never forgotten, We made it over.
Times
were hard, but we made it over, Made it over, they wonder why, Through the
cold, but we made it over, Made it over, theyll never know.
Why,
why, did we have to come home to war?
Why, why, why? Try, try,
tell me what are we fighting for?
Try, try, try.
Why,
why, did we have to come home to war?
Why, why why? Try, try tell
me what are we fighting for? Try,
try, try.
We made
it over! We made it over! YVMCD006; www.yvm.com.au
(See also NEW
LIGHT NEW HOPE by Gondwana Voices (2003) and BIRRALEE 10th ANNIVERSARY
CONCERT LIVE (2005), referenced in this
section.)
BIRRALEE 10th ANNIVERSARY
CONCERT LIVE (2005)
Brisbane, Australias Birralee
Voices is a community-based organization of nine choral ensembles, largely for
children and includes ages 5 to 25.
It was formed in 1995 and is directed by Julie Christiansen. It has travelled internationally, won
awards and promotes a variety of cultures, while promoting Australian
composers. Their anniversary CD
includes Paul Jarmans Shackleton, which
is reported to be one of the most widely performed choral works in
Australia. According to the
booklet notes, It doesnt seem to matter how many times Shackleton is performed around this country and overseas, young
people love to sing it and audience members love to hear it. A second Antarctic-related piece on the
CD is Australian Daniel Walkers ode to the albatross, The Wanderer.
According to the composer, The Wanderer is about living your dreams. The inspiration of this piece was the
albatross, a lone traveler soaring on the Antarctic winds, his destination
wherever the currents may take him.
I have always been in awe of these magnificent birds, and the text I
have written in some way pays homage to their grace and determination. The lyrics are: Let me go where the
wind will go, let it take me over southern shores. I will ride on the ocean air, I will travel across ice and
foam, far from home. And where no
road will take you, where few have gone before, its far beyond the ice-floe
far below where my spirit calls.
Antarctic land! land of unearthly light, where pale horizon escapes
eternal night. Wumara,
warawara. www.birralee.com (See also NEW LIGHT
NEW HOPE
by Gondwana Voices (2003), JOURNEYS by Young Voices of Melbourne (2005) and DREAMINGS by Gondwana Voices (2006), referenced in this section.)
ANTARCTICA by Elizabeth Brown (2005)
Elizabeth Brown, a New York (Brooklyn)-based composer and
flautist, is a 2007 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient and has composed for
various commissions. One of
her pieces is Antarctica, a 7-minute
alto flute solo with prerecorded sound accompaniment. While it has not been released on CD, Elizabeth provided a
recorded copy of her performance of it.
The flute seems an ideal instrument to convey ethereal Antarctic
impressions and the background instruments, windscapes, breathing and
vocalizations provide some great atmospherics. In 2008 Elizabeth provided us with her program notes for her
composition: During the winter of 2004-05, Sara Wheelers book Terra
Incognita: Travels in Antarctica was my
bedtime reading. I started to
dream about Antarctica, and this music was born in those dreams. I chose alto flute because of its range
and timbre, and the taped portion consists of natural sounds recorded in my
Brooklyn studio. Antarctica was commissioned by Patti Monson, who premiered it
on July 16th, 2005, at the Bang on a Can Summer Institute at Mass MoCA. www.elizabethbrowncomposer.com
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS Original Score by Alex Wurman (2005)
Whether a cynical marketing ploy or a desire
for cultural adaptation, the English version of this French film has serious
narration by Morgan Freeman and a studio orchestra playing a pleasant New Age
soundtrack by composer Wurman.
There are titles such as The Harshest Place on Earth (played on not so harsh-sounding
harps, flutes and tinkling piano), and other musical excursions such as Walk
Not Alone, The
March, Walk
Through Darkness, First
Steps and Arrival
at the Sea. The soundtrack sounds great with the
film but as a self-contained listening experience is a bit too sweet to convey
convincingly the harsh Antarctic home of the Emperor penguins. The film became a huge hit,
particularly for a documentary and the English version won the Oscar for best
documentary feature film of 2005.
Milan M2-36131; www.marchofthepenguins.com; (See also LA
MARCHE DE LEMPEREUR by Emilie Simon (2005) in the following Non-Classical, all or
significantly Antarctic section.)
AMSTERDAM – Brass Band
Music of the Netherlands (2005)
This CD of tracks from various
composers, played by the accomplished Provinciale Brassband Groningen,
conducted by Siemen Hoekstra, includes Antarctica, by Carl Wittrock, a Dutch composer and conductor (b. 1966). The liner notes explain that Carl
Wittrock became inspired by huge ice fields surrounding the south pole. Colorful and majestic sounds provide
the composition with a fascinating view of this 6th
continent. This composition
is a free impression of the spectacular scenery in the Antarctic. Melodies are linked together to convey
the various aspects of the landscape.
These melodies together with their simple harmonic accompaniments make
this work pleasant for both the listener and the musician. Carl told us in 2007 that The main reason was the
impressive nature. It is very
beautiful, but also untouchable and dangerous. The composition was made as a sort of movie music without
movie. Gobelin Records
05.002; www.gobelinmusic.com
INTRODUCING THE FANFARE BAND - Fanfarekorps Koninklijke Landmacht (2003)
The same piece of music, Antarctica, by Carl Wittrock, is also on this Dutch compilation CD of brass band music by the Royal Netherlands Army (FKKL) Fanfare Band, conducted by Jan Nellestijn. Gobelin Records 03.001 & 03.002; www.gobelinmusic.com
NATALE by Banda Colloredo (2002)
The Philharmonic Colloredo di Prato is an orchestra,
formed in 1893, based in Colloredo di Prato (Udine), Italy. This CD has their wind band version of
Carl Wittrocks Antarctica. www.filarmonicacolloredo.it
ANTARCTICA -
Carolus Magnus Ingelheimer Kaiserpfalz Blser (2000)
This is a German disc of various modern instrumental
music by Carolus Magnus Ingelheimer Kaiserpfalz Blser, an Ingelheim-based, German
wind orchestra conducted by Peter Vierneisel. The CD is named after the title track, Antarctica,
by Carl Wittrock, which gets a more nuanced and subdued treatment than the
brass band versions. GEMA ACO CD
10400
ANTARCTICA - Johan Willem Friso Kapel (unknown date)
Carl Wittrocks Antarctica, also appeared on another brass band compilation
disc of the same name, now discontinued, conducted by Gert Jansen. CD not verified.
AUBADE: Organ Music by Ohio Composers: Karel Paukert, Organ (2004)
This is
a CD of solo organ recitals by Paukert, a distinguished teacher, concert
performer and the long-time Curator of Musical Arts at the Cleveland Museum of
Art. Included on the disc is the
6½-minute track Erebus by Monica
Houghton, an award-winning composer and composition teacher for the Cleveland
Institute of Music Department of Preparatory and Continuing Education and Joint
Music Program with Case Western Reserve University. Her music has been performed internationally. Erebus was written in 2003 as a tribute to her older brother, a
geographer and mountaineer who passed away in November 1979 in the tragic crash
of the Air New Zealand plane that was on a sightseeing flight over
Antarctica. It crashed into Mount
Erebus in the McMurdo Station area and all 257 people on board were lost. According to Monicas note in the CD
booklet, In Greek mythology, Erebus was the son of Chaos and the father of
Aether (brightness) and Hemera (day).
Erebus and his sister Nyx (night) were also said to be the parents of
Eros, the god of love, and of Charon, the ferryman at the river Styx. Often, Erebus is referred to simply as
the place of shadows. Mount
Erebus was so named by the British explorer James Clark Ross, who discovered it
in 1840. The worlds most southernmost
volcano, Mount Erebus is situated on Ross Island, adjacent to McMurdo Sound, on
the New Zealand side of Antarctica.
The mountain rises directly from the sea to an astonishing altitude of
12,444 feet, where, on a clear day, a plume of smoke can be seen emanating from
its summit. My brother had both a
professional interest in and a personal love of mountains. I have tried to write a piece of music
that will do honor to my brothers memory, and at the same time convey a sense
of the awe and majesty that is characteristic of such a great mountain as the
one that took him away from us.
The Cleveland Museum of Art/Azica ACD 71229; www.monicahoughton.com
MUSIC TO PICTURE by Brian Bennett (2004)
This CD is a compilation of Brian
Bennetts great film and television music from TV mysteries, documentaries and
films in various musical styles, spanning thirty years. Also included are full tracks that did
not make it to the final productions of other broadcast works. Included is the melodic, orchestral The
Shackleton Variations, described in the CD
booklet as Brians musical interpretation of Ernest Shackletons heroic
Antarctic explorations. Brian
Bennett, in addition to having won many awards for his film and TV
compositions, arrangements and productions, was awarded the OBE from the Queen
of England in 2004 for his services to music. Brian is also a drummer and member of Britains iconic rock
group, the Shadows, which began as the backing band for Cliff Richard in 1959. They became one of the most successful
acts in Britain in the 1960s and went on to great acclaim as an independent
instrumental group with countless records. FLYCUB20108; www.brianbennettmusic.co.uk
THE HAROUN SONGBOOK - CHARLES WUORINEN SERIES by Charles Wuorinen (2004)
This is a collection of excerpts
from Wuorinens opera Haroun and the Sea of Stories, which is based on author Salman Rushdies 1990
childrens book of the same name.
Rushdie wrote the book as a fable and allegory after the well publicized
fatwa that led to his life of escape underground. The story revolves around a professional story teller who
loses his gift of gab. His son
then goes on adventures to return his fathers livelihood. The music on the CD, for four singers (soprano,
mezzo-soprano, tenor and bass-baritone) and piano accompaniment, was written by
Charles Wuorinen, an acclaimed modernist composer, pianist and conductor who
was the youngest composer to win the Pulitzer Prize in music in 1970. The lyrics are by English poet and
journalist James Fenton. One of
the adventures is a polar trip with the short track To the South Pole. Sample
lyrics: Its getting even colder And the waters are losing their colour. Were going the right way! We can tell! Before it was filthy!
Now its Hell!...You can stop a cheque. You can stop a leak or three. You can stop traffic, but You cant stop me. To the South Pole. Full speed ahead to the South PoleTo
the South PoleThese are the waters of neglect. These are the seas of disgrace. Give me a year and I expect I could clean this place. Albany Records TROY664; www.charleswuorinen.com
MIRRORS OF FIRE - Australian Guitar
Originals - Played
by Tim Kain (2004)
Australian Kain, together with the Tasmanian
Symphony Orchestra, perform (in 1997) Nigel Westlakes Antarctica - Suite
for Guitar and Orchestra, a 22-minute guitar concerto completed in 1992 that had its origin from
his soundtrack to the IMAX film of the same name. In four movements, it reworks musical ideas from the film as
well as developing others not included in it. Tall Poppies TP169; www.tallpoppies.net
The same recording of Antarctica - Suite for
Guitar and Orchestra,
with Tim Kain, is included in OUT OF THE BLUE (2004), a compilation of three works by
Westlake, performed by the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, conducted by David
Porcelijn. ABC Classics ABC 462
017-2; www.rimshot.com.au
MUSIC FROM SEVEN CONTINENTS Vol. 2 by the Cincinnati Boychoir (2004)
Founded in 1965, the Cincinnati Boychoir,
directed by Randall Wolfe, gives numerous local subscription concerts and has
performed with the Vienna Boys Choir, symphony orchestras, and gives concerts
for community organizations as well as touring internationally. The CD includes four lively song tracks
about the seventh continent, Antarctica, Penguins, Exploring and Memories.
Texts were by Bill Manhire (a New Zealand university professor and
poet), from the Book of Job and from the writings of Antarctic explorers Apsley
Cherry-Garrard and Ernest Shackleton, with music composed by Carlton Young, an
American professor, editor and composer of sacred music. Mr. Young told us that I've
been fascinated with the subject since childhood,
e.g., the explorations of Richard Byrd.
My recent interest in Antarctic explorers and explorations began in 1999
with my visit to the Antarctic Museum in
Christchurch, New Zealand. Cincinnati Boychoir
programs had featured six of the continents, but
not Antarctica. I agreed to
compose a setting, and Mr. Randall Wolfe, Choir Director, suggested some texts,
which I supplemented with my own research online
and in the standard bibliography, particularly
the biographies. www.cincinnatiboychoir.org
NEW LIGHT NEW HOPE by Gondwana Voices (2003)
Gondwana Voices is Australias
national childrens choir, for ages 10 to 16, established in 1997 by artistic
director/conductor Lyn Williams to perform new and traditional music, which
showcases the country and its peoples.
It has traveled internationally and is committed to commissioning works
from Australian composers. One of
the tracks on this disc is the 5½ minute Shackleton, a very moving, beautiful song by the Sydney,
Australia composer and performer Paul Jarman. The performance by choir and piano is especially enriched by
the accompaniment of a string section.
The piece is from his song cycle Turn on the Open Sea, which pays tribute to the adventurers of the
sea. It was commissioned for the
Sydney Childrens Choir in 2001.
It is a bittersweet tale of the survival Sir Ernest Shackletons
Endurance Expeditions Antarctic expeditioners and their return to a world
still at war. On this disc, the
conductor is also Mark OLeary, who is the founder and director of another
Australian childrens choir, Young Voices of Melbourne, which performed the
same piece on one of their CDs.
Australian Broadcasting Corporation ABC 472 822-2; www.gondwanavoices.com.au
(See
also JOURNEYS by Young Voices of Melbourne (2005) and BIRRALEE 10th
ANNIVERSARY CONCERT LIVE (2005), referenced in this
section.)
ANTARCTICA - NHK Television 50th Anniversary Nankyoku Project (2003)
NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Japans sole public broadcaster, commemorated the 50th anniversary of TV broadcasting in Japan in 2003 by establishing an HDTV broadcasting station in Antarctica in 2003. Located at Syowa Station, Japans base, this was Antarcticas first such station and the first time a film crew stayed there for more than a year. 153 live programs were made, including the showing of a solar eclipse, distributed to the Discovery Channel in North America, auroras and natural scenery. The commemorative CD (Japan Version) contains some very melodic orchestral tracks, accompanied by various exotic Oriental musical instruments plus a jazzy solo guitar track, conducted by Yoko Matsuo. Titles include Horizon, White Wind, Dry Valleys, Silence and Dawn. As we havent seen the TV programs, its not easy to relate the very pastoral-sounding CD music by itself to the Antarctic, without the visuals. Toshiba-EMI Ltd. Eastworld TOCT-25014
ICESCAPE FOR ORCHESTRA by Chris Cree Brown (2002)
Chris Cree Brown is the Director (Academic) of
the School of Music and Senior Lecturer at University of Canterbury,
Christchurch, New Zealand, as well as the composer of a variety of music. The
16-minute work resulted from a trip to Antarctica in 1999, supported by the
Artists to Antarctica programme of the New Zealand Antarctic Institute
(Antarctica New Zealand). His
first work produced under this programme was UNDER EREBUS (2000), a 15 minute electroacoustic
piece, that according to the liner notes was an attempt to create an
expressive work of sonic art that reflects my personal interpretation of the
environment of Antarctica and my experiences there. The range of sounds includes walking on snow, skuas, radio
communications, wind, seals, penguins and a whiteout. Other Antarctic compositions by Chris include Circulus
Antarcticus, a
dance commission with Bronwyn Judge, a choreographer who went down to The Ice
as part of the 2000 Artists to Antarctica programme and Antarctic Heart, music to go with a video by the
sculptor Virginia King, who was the other artist to travel to Antarctica in
1999 under the Artists to Antarctica programme. www.music.canterbury.ac.nz/CCBrownlink/chrispers.htm
MUSIC FOR THE SCOTIA CENTENARY (2002)
The 1902 Scottish National Antarctic Expedition under William Bruce was a successful, but today under heralded, two-year voyage of discovery during which Coats Land, along the Weddell Sea, was discovered. The expedition was also the first to use a motion picture camera in Antarctica as well as the first to document the use of bagpipes to serenade emperor penguins (by Gilbert Kerr). To celebrate the centenary of this expedition, The Royal Scottish Geographical Society, The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society, the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, B.B.C. Enterprises and piper Ian MacInnes collaborated to produce this CD.
The first half of the disc
consists of seven traditional Scottish country dance tunes with titles such as Antarctica
Bound, The Ice Cap, The Piper and the Penguin played by Neil Barron and his Scottish Dance
Band. The main event, however, is
a 24-minute orchestral suite, South,
by Dundee composer Gordon McPherson, played by the National Youth Orchestra of
Scotland, conducted by Nicolae Moldoveanu. It was commissioned by the orchestra, the Royal Scottish
Geographical Society and supported by the Scottish Arts Council and has now
been performed internationally.
From an appropriately windy opening through some jangly, icy dissonances,
this performance can take a proud place amongst the very few recorded
orchestral pieces that have attempted to portray the moody, icy seventh
continent. RSCDS CD032; www.rsgs.org
THE SONGS of the MORNING: a Musical Sketch by G. S. Doorly (2002)
The Morning was the relief ship sent to resupply Robert
Scotts Discovery
Expedition of 1901-04. During the Mornings 1902 voyage to Antarctica, the
third officer, Lieut. Gerald Doorly, a talented pianist and entertainer, and
the chief engineer, J.D. Morrison, as lyricist, collaborated on a collection of
songs that were performed during musical evenings on the ships piano,
accompanied by riotous noisemaking.
More in the vein of Victorian parlour songs than sea shanties, the songs
were published in 1943, apparently in a very tame version of the
originals.
The present hearty and robust recording was
undertaken as a Discovery centennial project and the Chorus contains all the adult male
descendants of Gerald Doorly, along with professional colleagues and interested
friends. The CD booklet includes
the lyrics and words of the spoken passages between songs. All royalties from the sale are to be
divided between the Dundee Heritage Trust and the New Zealand Antarctic
Heritage Trust for their work on the original Expeditions historic
artefacts. Reardon Publishing; www.reardon.co.uk
THE LIVING EDENS by Laura Karpman (2001)
This is the soundtrack from the
American PBS television series about the natural wonders of the world that was
broadcast over 1997-2001, produced by Alastair Fothergill, with narration by
Peter Coyote, Linda Hunt, Sally Kellerman and James Coburn. Laura Karpman, the Los Angeles-based
composer of the music, has won four Emmy awards during her career, including
two for episodes of The Living Edens
series. She has scored for many
other films and television programs, has won additional awards and has also
composed for opera, classical and other concert music. Included on the disc is the 4-minute
orchestral track South Georgia Suite
as well as the 2-minute CD closer South Georgia End Credits. Laura
told us in 2009 that We were thinking of a very classic approach, along the
lines of a modernist Vivaldi winter, when asked about the instrumentation
and musical styles used in the tracks.
This music was from the episode South Georgia Island: Paradise
of Ice and the production crew spent eight
months of filming around the island, spread over two years. South Georgia is an isolated sub
Antarctic island in the South Atlantic and is home to the worlds greatest
concentrations of fur seals, southern elephant seal, King penguins and
albatrosses. www.laurakarpman.com
INTO UNCHARTED SEAS by John Hearne (2001)
John Hearne, a British
composer/singer/conductor based in Scotland, was commissioned by Dundee
Orchestral Society to write an overture to commemorate the centenary of the
launching in Dundee of Robert Scotts Antarctic ship RRS Discovery in 1901. The ship itself has been preserved in Dundee, whose Symphony
Orchestra premired the 13-minute piece in 2001. It is a dramatic and undulating score,
portraying the rough and tumble of the seas the ship must have sailed through
in its long voyages. Although the
piece has not apparently been released commercially on CD, we are grateful to
John Hearne and Scottish Music Centre for making it available to us. www.scottishmusiccentre.com
SEA STAR by Martin Kiszko (music) and Anne Ridler
(words) 2001
Martin Kiszko, of Polish-British origin, is a
Bristol, UK-based composer who has orchestrated scores for over 200 films and
TV productions, including works for the BBC and ITV. Anne Ridler (1912-2001) was an editor and librettist,
considered to be Britains leading female poet. Sea Star is a 27-minute choral-orchestral work, performed by
the Spiritual Sounds Festival Orchestra & Choir at Clifton Cathedral
(Bristol) and conducted by David Ogden.
The composer-orchestrator, Martin Kiszko, told
us: The cantata was inspired by an Antarctic
voyage I made in 2001 as well as from the desire to write a work about
humankinds journey from the sea to space. While the words were completed first, the score remained
incomplete for several years and the liner notes explain that A turning point
for the musical birth of Sea Star came
in 2001 when I visited Antarctica.
For the first time many of the images that Anne had created in the poem
were experienced first hand: ice covered worlds, floes and hummocks, the
stillness or energy of the sea, the vast sky; the slow bubbling of ice thawing
and cracking or the sound of ice shelves calving into the sea causing waves to
break against the shore. Sea
Stars first tutti orchestral chord,
followed by the ebb and flow of gentle strings represent the first beats heard
and the aftermath of such a calving in the Antarctic panorama. Other sections of the score aim to
emulate the pattern of the landscape – the textures of snow and ice, the
sky and changing light – these images assisted the interpretation of the
text. Sea Star is a journey of even greater proportions than my Antarctic
expedition. It travels from the
depths of the oceans with its nascent aquatic life-forms, through land and sky
to the far reaches of space where other waterworlds exist in the icecaps of
Mars and ice-belts of Saturn. As
the characters in the text ascend these levels, it is as if they are on a quest
to understand their destiny.
Anne
Ridlers text for the icy, Antarctic-influenced section of the cantata,
subtitled The Earth, follows:
But
while ice covers your world, You do not wake. Cowled in darkness, Uttermost
depth of sleep. Ice built of water – water built into solids, Condensed
to crystal, unique in all the moving worlds, Yet cousin to other
constellations: Ice moons, ice planets, plunging comets. You do not wakeCowled
in darkness, Uttermost depth of sleep. On the surface, a dazzling whiteness;
Journeying inward, multiple rings of ice terrains; Floes and hummocks,
pinnacles, bastions, Fractured and folded.
Martins
web site also mentions that during his 2001 Antarctic trip, he composed,
performed and claimed a world first by for a spoof Antarctic National Anthem
(someone had to do it!) As to a
recording of it, Martin advised us that As for the Antarctic National Anthem
– this is a spoof piece recorded in Antarctica on video and not available
Im afraid. HOXA HS 2052-LE; www.martinkiszko.com
SHACKLETONS ANTARCTIC ADVENTURE –
Original Giant Motion Picture Soundtrack Composed by Sam Cardon (2001)
Cardon is an American Emmy award-winning
composer, who also worked on a 2002 Winter Olympics project. The IMAX films superb opening iceberg
panorama is not to be missed, and the juxtaposition of historic photos of the
Endurance Expedition with the present-day recreation flows seamlessly
throughout this first-class film.
The film score, played by the Northwest Sinfonia, conducted by Kurt
Bestor, provides a variety of music: majestic orchestral themes, marching band
music, melancholic Celtic pipes, fiddles, banjos and a Hovhanessque horn solo,
reflective of the era and the activities the music portrays. Musical tracks include, among others, Wintering
in the Pack, Hope
and Survival, Into
the Unknown/A Stern Night, A Grim Landfall and On to South Georgia. A more informative
liner/booklet with notes about the music, the Endurance and filming expeditions
would have been a welcome inclusion with the CD. WGBH Music (BMI)/ White Mountain Films Music JR74222
SHACKLETON – Original Score by Adrian Johnston (2001)
This was a two-part four-hour TV dramatization
of Shackletons Endurance Expedition, directed by Charles Sturridge and
featuring the prominent British actor Kenneth Branagh in the title role. Although said to be thoroughly
researched, the film received some criticism for spending too long on the
pre-Expedition details and not nearly enough time on The Ice, Elephant Island,
South Georgia or the final rescue.
The attractive orchestral sound track by British composer Johnston is
performed on CD by the Philharmonia Orchestra, conducted by Terry Davies. Track titles portray scenes such as Sighting
Ice, Locked in
the Ice, Antarctic
Night, Five
Miles a Day, Sighting
Land and Cracking
Ice. Channel 4 Music C4M00172
SIR PETER MAXWELL DAVIES
Of special interest to classicists, the British
Antarctic Survey and the London Philharmonia Orchestra commissioned prolific
British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies to compose an Antarctic Symphony, his 8th Symphony, for
its premire in May 2001. In
1997-1998 Sir Peter spent three weeks at Britains Rothera Base on the
Antarctic Peninsula experiencing life there. The BAS said, Through this commission we hope to raise
awareness of Antarctica as a unique scientific laboratory among people whose
interests normally lie within the Arts.
In turn we at BAS very much look forward to learning more about the
world of serious music. Sir
Peters eloquent Antarctic diary is available at his web site. A CD recording and/or downloading of
the symphony, once available on his web site, has been discontinued. The 41-minute recording by the Bremen
Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003 provides a range of sounds from dissonances to
melodic passages, reflecting the composers impressions and observations of his
trip.
A stylistically similar companion piece, the
21-minute High on the Slopes of Terror, was composed in 1999 for the National
Association of Youth Orchestras and was the first musical work resulting from
Sir Peters Antarctic trip. The
title refers to the extinct volcano on Ross Island near McMurdo Sound, Mt.
Terror and the virtuoso work was recorded in 2001 by the UKs Chethams
Symphony Orchestra, the youth orchestra of Chethams School of Music.
In 2007, the Purcell School Symphony Orchestra, Britains oldest
specialist music school, based in the London, U.K.-area, premired Sir Peters Port
Lockroy, Antarctica, for symphony orchestra. This 11-minute piece, with Simon Rattle conducting, was
commissioned by the School for the opening of its new Music Centre. The subject of the symphony, Port
Lockroy, on Wiencke Island on the Antarctic Peninsula, is a natural harbour and
was used as the site of a British base for Operation Tabarin during the years
of World War II and was staffed up to 1962. The now-restored base building is maintained as an historic
site and is a very popular landing site for Antarctic tourist ships. www.maxopus.com
LULIE the ICEBERG - Music by Jeffrey Stock, Story by
Her Imperial Highness Princess Hisako of Takamado of Japan (1999)
Based on the Princess childrens book, written
after she saw a lone iceberg drifting off Greenland, the magical tale centers
around a quest for the origins and destiny of life as seen through the eyes of
an innocent and very brave iceberg, Lulie, as he embarks on a courageous ocean
journey between the Arctic and the Antarctic, the two oldest living continents
on the planet. One of the
movements is entitled South Pole.
Recorded at Carnegie Hall, the performance is
narrated by Sam Waterston and the musicians include the Orchestra of St.
Lukes, Betty Baisch's Choral Associates, Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Pamela Frank
(violin) and Paul Winter (saxophone).
This CD is hard to miss with the colourful
iceberg, emperor penguins and humpback whales on the cover. Produced in co-operation with UNICEF
and Icebridge, a forum of scientists and educators dedicated to the promotion
of knowledge about the polar regions and the oceans. Sony Classical SK 61665
ON THE LAST FRONTIER by Einojuhani Rautavaara (1999)
This Finnish classical composer has become well
known to North American audiences in recent years, particularly for his
haunting 1972 Cantus Arcticus, an ode to the land of the Arctic Circle. On the Last Frontier (A Fantasy for Chorus and Orchestra,
1997) is based on
the composer's interest, going back to childhood, in Edgar Allan Poes The
Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym. Published in 1837, this
novella about Pym and a group of sailors marooned on a tropical island at the
South Pole with a race of savages is considered to be seminal in Antarctic
fiction and has spawned numerous like-minded stories. As Rautavaara approached his 70th year, he took
the book's closing plot and developed his own rich musical themes of imagined
lands not yet explored. Ondine ODE
921-2
WALKING WITH DINOSAURS - Music from the BBC
TV Series -
composed by Benjamin Bartlett (1999)
The BBC Concert Orchestra takes us back in time
to the Mesozoic era when dinosaurs ruled the land. The soundtrack includes the rather short Spirits of the
Ice Forest which
explores the exotic woodland Antarctic - mirrored by a romantic theme tinged
with Hispanic harmony and the peaceful Antarctic Spring. BBC Music 7243 523458 2 3
2000 TODAY - a World Symphony for the
Millennium -
composed and conducted by Tan Dun (1999)
An international consortium of television
broadcasters commissioned this dynamic musical mosaic for a millennium
satellite transmission. The music
presents a combination of classical western instrumentation including the BBC
Concert Orchestra, choirs, soloists, world instruments and chants to capture
the poetic spirit of the worlds regions. Included is the percussive Antarctica. Sony Classical SK 61529
LUBOMR BRABEC PLAYS BACH IN ANTARCTICA by Lubomr Brabec (1997)
The CD title is somewhat misleading as this
music was recorded in the Czech Republic; however, the liner notes indicate
that classical guitarist Brabec performed these works on his 1997 trip to
Antarctica on board a Greenpeace ship and at one of the bases. Just as Antarctica was unknown, not to
mention unvisited, in J. S. Bachs day, Bach himself was only known to a narrow
group of connoisseurs. I think
there are certain parallels: the grandeur, monumental beauty and power of
Bachs music, and the mysterious fascination and power of this mystic continent
that belongs to no-one and yet everyone.
In both these entities, Antarctica and Bachs oeuvre, we can sense the
presence of something transcendent, something that goes beyond us. It was to the greater glory of this
principle, God, that Bach wrote this music.
Brabec may be on to something here, as we await
someone to lug a grand piano or bring a brass band to the shores of Antarctica
for what might truly be the first professional recording of a musical performance
on the continent. Supraphon SU
3338-2 131
FROM AUSTRALIA – John Williams, guitar (1994)
This CD of world premire recordings by
Australian composers includes Antarctica - Suite for Guitar and Orchestra by Australian Nigel Westlake. Westlake wrote the score for the IMAX
film Antarctica and
later reworked
it into this longer 1992 guitar concerto in four movements. Highlights are the stately Wooden
Ships and a
shimmering piece called Penguin Ballet, which captures emperor penguins frolicking
beneath the ice. Sony Classical
SK53 361
ANTARCTIC SYMPHONY – various composers (1993)
This CD is a compilation by the Australian
Broadcasting Corporation of existing older, non-Antarctic classical music,
interspersed with the actual sounds of Antarctic wildlife and human activities
on The Ice, in an effort to evoke a feeling of Antarctica. The music includes pieces by Vivaldi,
Durufl, Boccherini, Roussel, Sibelius and Nielsen. The non-musical interludes include a
kitchen sink of sounds of penguins, seals, petrels, skuas, katabatic winds,
huskies, ships moving in ice, helicopters and radio room/flight operation
conversations.
According to the liner notes, Antarctica is a
wilderness most people have some idea of, though very few have been there. Perhaps Australians are more aware;
Antarctica is closer to us, though still very inaccessible. We have a national responsibility for
part of it, and part is a very large area indeed. Many of us will know someone who has been there, maybe even
someone whose life was changed by spending time there. The race to the South Pole, lost to
Amundsen by Scott and his party, the drawn out suffering and human loss as they
tried to return – these are among the Australian epics, tales to children
and remembered by adults.
The makers of this record havent visited
Antarctica, though they received the sound recordings from people who
have. For us, the sound effects
were the introduction to the Antarctic world. As on the previous discs in this series, the idea is to
appeal to the aural imagination, stimulating it with music and natural sounds,
together and side by side.
The first paradox we found was that Antarctica
seemed to demand the inclusion of some human sounds. In our other wildernesses, bush and sea, music provided the
humanising element. In ANTARCTIC
SYMPHONY there are
even more bird and animal presences than in Sea Symphony, but the sounds
captured on tape constantly remind the listener that any human presence is a
struggle against the elements. We
have introduced human voices for the first time, so that we can wonder that
people are there at all.
Symphony mainly implies music from the
European tradition. The sounds,
rather than the music in this series, evoke the landscape, but it is no
accident that music which can live with Antarctica was composed close to the
northern, Arctic wastes
Paradox No. 2: the trackless wastes of ice and
snow seemed to call for a wider, not a narrower range of music and musical
emotions. A strange environment,
so that strange music is not out of place, like Boccherinis startling
eighteenth century phantasms of a Spanish city by night. Humour, from the dogs and their bluff
handlers, releases an energy and directness typical of the music of Roussel,
the ships officer turned composer.
The seasons in Antarctica, we imagine, could hardly be like those of
Vivaldis Venice, but his music, matching a poem describing an icy winter
scene, seems right as our soundscape approaches the great southernmost
continent ABC
Music/Phonogram/Polygram 514 639-2
ANTARCTICA - The Film Music, composed by Nigel Westlake (1992)
The 37-minute CD of the score of the IMAX film Antarctica has thirteen mostly short
orchestral tracks of various themes portrayed in the movie, four of which were
developed into the previously mentioned guitar concerto. The CD is well played and recorded and
the music, conducted by Carl Vine, conveys the dramatics of its theme
titles. Tall Poppies TP012; www.tallpoppies.net;
www.rimshot.com.au
TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH - Original
Soundtrack Recording
- music composed and conducted by John Scott (1988)
This is the soundtrack for the William
Kronick-produced, written and directed documentary film about The Transglobe
Expedition, led by Ranulph Fiennes.
Over a three-year period ending in 1982, the team circumnavigated the
globe along its polar axis from North to South Poles, being the first to do
so. The orchestral music is a
pleasant listening journey and the Antarctic tracks include the titles Shackleton, Reaching Antarctica, On to the
South Pole and The
Scott Tragedy. Prometheus PCD102
DAS OPFER (THE SACRIFICE) by Winfried Zillig (1936) (appears to be unrecorded)
This opera was based on an original prize-winning play, Captain Scotts Expedition to the South Pole, which was completed in 1930 and premired successfully at the Hamburg State Opera, by unbalanced German physician and writer Reinhard Goering (no relation to his infamous WW II namesake), who pursued themes of mans self-determination and perseverance in his writings. In 1936 he began the libretto for the opera to be based on his play, with music by German atonalist Winfried Zillig. Called The Sacrifice, it was first performed in 1937 but had only three performances, although it furthered Zilligs musical career. The operatic work was revived in West Germany in 1961 and presentations included penguins as a Greek chorus to the dissonant score, which is still in print and available for purchase through music publishers on the Internet.
**************************************************************************************
Non-Classical, all Antarctic or with
significant Antarctic content:
ANTARCTICA EP by
Sanderson Dear (2011) (Web site download only)
Sanderson Dear has been a Toronto,
Canada-based DJ since 1987 and a music producer/writer of techno and minimal,
ambient music since 2001. His
5-track EP has the tracks Parasomnia, It
fell From The Sky and three mixes, totalling 21
minutes, of the ambient track Antarctica, that
pulsate and drip in an unrelenting, hypnotizing tempo, not unlike a glacier on
its path to the sea. Sanderson
explained the music to us: Id started writing the song It
Fell From The Sky after rewatching John
Carpenters The Thing awhile
back. I wanted to compose a piece
to encompass aspects of that movie.
Id left it alone for a year or so and started piecing together a second
tune at the time, unrelated, called Parasomnia, based on another flick and decided this one would
work well with the first. Thats
when I decided to theme an EP around Antarctica. Parasomnia doesnt really give you much of a glimpse but it
deals with the paranoid aspect of things when a person or persons are isolated
from civilization for long durations.
The title track came about because I wanted to tie all the songs under
an umbrella and thought it was perfect to complete The Thing
reference by writing a tune about the continent itself: crisp, cold and
clean. Arjen Schat and David
Roiseux further expanded on both with their remixes. Arjens especially captures the expansive nature of
Antarctica, while Davids is the perfect sequel to my original mix. www.myspace.com/stasisrecordings;
www.stasisrecordings.com
THE ANTARCTIC by the
Chimneys (2011) (Web site download only)
The
Chimneys are a Brooklyn-N.Y. based quartet, led by banjo-playing Alex
Greiner. Their first recording is
a 4-song EP about the first expeditions to the South Pole, in 1911-12 and the
rivalry between Robert Scotts British explorers and Norwegian Roald Amundsens
group. The 23-minute concept
record has the tracks Amundsens Dream,
At Polheim, Terra Australis and Salt of the Earth. The first songs two are
about Amundsen, the third about Robert Scott and the last is about Apsley
Cherry-Garrard, one of Scotts expeditioners, known for his long trek with two
others to collect emperor penguin eggs, described in his landmark book The Worst
Journey in the World. The songs are a wonder of quirky vocals
and tempos, backed by banjo, mandolin, accordion and other rock
instruments. www.myspace.com/chimneys; chimneys.bandcamp.com/album/the-antarctic
ANTARCTICA EP by Andrey
Subbotin (2011) (Web site download only)
Andrey
Subbotin is a Russia-based progressive house/techno electronic DJ and
artist. His current EP has a
23-minute suite of three energetic instrumental dance pieces titled Antarctica, Iceberg and Ross
Ice Shelf. www.myspace.com/djandreysubbotin;
www.andreysubbotin.all.dj
ANTARCTICA by Craig
Vear (2011) (Web site download only)
Craig Vear is a
British electroacoustic composer and musician who won an Arts Council England
Fellowship, in conjunction with the British Antarctic Surveys Artists and
Writers Programme, to spend three months over 2003/04 on British bases in the
Antarctic Peninsula area. This
resulted in his 2005 multi-media CD and DVD Antarctica, which included a
small book of his diaries and other commentaries, a CD of recorded Antarctic
wildlife sounds, ice breaking and glacial melting, and a video. This new recording consists of 57 minutes of electroacoustic
soundscapes not previously issued and includes Iceberg (Rothera Point), Uranus Glacier (Adelaide Island), Katabatic Wind (Sky Blue), Adlie Penguins (Jenny Island) and R.R.S. James Clark Ross Hold #2 (Lemaire
Channel). Gruen Digital GrDl 089/11; www.myspace.com/craigvear;
www.ev2.co.uk; (See also ANTARCTICA - Musical Images from the
Frozen Continent by Craig Vear (2005) in this section and SUMMERHOUSES by Craig
Vear (2009) in the individual songs section.)
ANTARCTIC MUSIC by Michael
Mollura (2011) (Web site download only)
Michael
Mollura is a Los Angeles, California-based theatre and film composer, who began
his career writing for off-Broadway productions in New York. He has written scores for two movies
which premired at the 2010 and 2011 Sundance Film Festivals. The music on this album is the
soundtrack for a private 36-minute DVD, Antarctica - Inner Journeys in the
Outer World, made in 2009 by Dr. Robert Romanyshyn, a
philosopher, author and psychotherapist at Pacifica Graduate Institute, near
Santa Barbara, California. The DVD
consists of haunting still photos of the mountains and ice of the Antarctic
Peninsula coast, accompanied by the soothing, spiritual narration of Dr.
Romanyshyn. As a stand-alone
soundtrack, the 38-minute, 6-track suite begins as a calm minimalist ambient
piece and in the final tracks picks up steam, culminating in a very melodic interplay
between piano and violin. According
to the publicity for a workshop given by Dr. Romanyshyn in Cincinnati in 2011, The
Melting Polar Ice: Inner Journeys in the Outer World, the presentation,
which drew on the video and music, will
explore the intertwining of psyche and nature in the context of the ecological
crisis of the melting polar ice.
The Web announcement of another of Dr. Romanyshyns seminars said: The
DVD unfolds the grounds for a radical eco-psychology based in the power of this
Antarctic landscape, to restore the broken aesthetic connection between the
flesh of the human body and the flesh of the world. As it reveals the awe-ful Antarctic beauty of stillness and
silence, it taps into the feeling function as, perhaps below the radar of mind,
our natal bond to the world. www.michaelmolluramusic.com;
www.mythopoetry.com/mythopoetics/scholar11_video_antarctica.html
ANTARCTIC THE MUSICAL by Dugald
McLaren and Dr. Dana Michelle Bergstrom (2011) (live theatre)
According to the Australian
musicals Web site, Antarctic The Musical
will be a major cultural event during the Antarctic Centenary Year (2011-12),
celebrating 100 years of Australian Antarctic explorationAntarctic
is a story about the lives of a small contemporary expedition during their year
down south and of a love that develops unexpectedly. Imagine a place so hauntingly beautiful that it gets
into your soul, yet so unforgiving, to venture out unprepared means death. Now imagine traveling to this place
with only nine people youve just met with no chance of going home for a year. Youre just thrown into the mix. You work, you play, you struggle, and
you live and love. And where is this
place? Antarctica in the 21st
Century. Youre down south for
peace and science and your life will never be the same againThe
expeditioners work hard, party hard but at all times they must follow the hard
rules, developed over generations to keep people alive. The rules are simple: never say die, be
true to yourself and kind to others, and always tell someone where youre going The music and lyrics were written by Australian
singer/songwriter Dugald McLaren (a.k.a. Mac Lauren), with the book and production
by Dr. Dana Michelle Bergstrom, an
ecologist. Both have extensive
Antarctic experiences. Allan
Jeffrey and Leiz
Moore will direct the show and Charlie Hull will be the musical supervisor. Opening night will be October 20, 2011
at Princes Wharf No. 1, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia. www.antarcticthemusical.com; www.maclaurenmusic.com
THE GRAND DESIGN by Day Six
(2010)
Day Six is
a veteran Dutch progressive metal rock band from Noord-Brabant,
Netherlands, formed in 2002. This
is a concept album about an alien spaceship found in Antarcticas Lake Vostok
and the story follows the five weather scientists who discovered the ship. The 70 minutes of exacting, dynamic
music ranges from epic arena rock to heavy metal. Robbie
van Stiphout, the groups guitarist and vocalist, explained the theme of the CD
to us in 2011: The idea for The Grand Design is based on the works of Erich von
Dniken. The result of it
is an album with a complete story, divided in different chapters. However, theres a main theme that can
be sensed throughout the entire album, which is the disclosure of the existence
of extraterrestrial life and contact.
The story is about five weather scientists who uncover a long lost E.T.
spaceship under the ice of Lake Vostok, Antarctica. They decide to enter the ship themselves, where they find
the answers to the most fundamental questions of life and the existence and
evolutionary process of mankind. Being
enthusiastic and maybe a little nave as to cover-ups, they try to release
their findings through mainstream media only to bump into government
interference. Our scientists are
locked up in mental institutions where agents try to erase their experiences
from their memories and condition them with a self-image of a deluded mind. However, the powerful energies they
felt inside the ship strengthened them with a strong sense of hope and
telepathic capabilities. They
start hearing voices in their heads from the others and from extraterrestrial beings. When alone in their hospital rooms, the
scientists contact each other this way to devise a new plan of disclosure. Every track on The Grand Design is a
separate chapter of this story and stands on its own, which gives us the
freedom to put our live set-list in any order that seems best for any
particular show. Lion Music
LMC287; www.myspace.com/daysixweb
THE CALL OF CTHULHU - AT THE
MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (BERGE DES WAHNSINNS) -
Soundtrack by Erdenstern (2010)
Erdenstern is a Hamburg, Germany-based trio of
musicians who, according to their Web site, professionally
compose and produce soundtracks for role playing games. Our music resembles movie scores when
it comes to being an emotional, musical backdrop for different situations,
while we also take great care for the versatility in different game systems and
the musical independence of the composition. This soundtrack is based on the 1999 role playing novel, Beyond
the Mountains of Madness, by Charles and
Janyce Engan et al., in which a 1933 Antarctic expedition is launched to
unravel the mystery of the fateful story in H. P. Lovecrafts 1931 Antarctic
novella At the Mountains of Madness. In that tale, a Byrd-era Antarctic
expedition discovers the unmentionable terrors of a lost underground
civilization. The various CD
tracks, based on events in the sequel book, vary in styles from grand
orchestral scores to quieter, jazzy interludes and spooky, fear-inducing music
portraying monsters. The CD booklet
notes are in French and German. We
asked the group about their production of this CD and they replied: We have released this music in
collaboration with a French publisher that has released a role playing campaign
based on that story. In the U.S.,
Chaosium released a similar story as Beyond the Mountains of Madness; the players are part of the expedition, which
followed, in search of the remains of their predecessors. Erdenstern
1100108-1; www.erdenstern.com;
www.myspace.com/erdenstern
I, MOUNTAIN by Cana (2010) (cassette only)
Cana is the black metal solo project of
Hampshire/Sussex, U.-K.-based Andrew Curtis-Brignell. Originally released in 2007 as a limited-issue EP, this
21-minute soundscape track is based on H. P. Lovecrafts 1931 Antarctic novella
At the Mountains of Madness,
in which Byrd-era
Antarctic expeditioners discover the remains of an ancient civilization and
meet the horrors of its still-existing monsters. The music begins with soft crystalline guitar, which slowly
develops into the screeches and howls associated with the storys descent into
terror and madness. DSR-EVIL-IV; www.myspace.com/cainaband; www.caina.150m.com
DECEPTION ISLAND by Bella
Koshka (2010)
Bella Koshka is a Minneapolis,
U.S.A.-based alt-rock quintet, fronted by a female vocalist and a violinist,
who play dramatic, Gothic-flavoured, moody musical mini-dramas. The CD is named after Antarcticas
Deception Island and according to their Web site, the music is a cinematic landscape and its echoing remains. A journey through time to an old,
forgotten place. This is the epic
tale of Deception Island. The
tracks on the CD have Deception Island-appropriate titles such as Winter, Subterranean, Caldera, Pendulum Road,
and Cathedral. The real Deception Island is a U-shaped
still-active volcanic caldera that became a safe harbour for Antarctic sealers
from the early 1800s and later became the site of intense whale oil processing
in the early 1900s. Numerous small
research stations have also been located there and it remains one of the top
attractions for visiting tourist ships.
www.myspace.com/bellakoshka;
www.bellakoshka.com
60
SOUTH by Second Thought (2010)
Ross
Baker, a Leeds, U.K.-based musician began his experimental synthesizer solo
project, Second Thought, in 1999.
His current album of electronic and ambient sound washes and aural
paintings is based on H. P. Lovecrafts Antarctic horror novella At the
Mountains of Madness and includes tracks with icy titles such
as Tekeli-li, Ice Shelf, Snow (I &
II), Meltwater, Icebergs (I & II) and At
the Mountains of Madness.
Ross explained the
reason for the record: My girlfriend lent me a book by H. P. Lovecraft and the
first story, At The Mountains Of Madness, really inspired me with wonderful vivid descriptions of
the Antarctic landscape; so much that the music I began to write at the time
seemed to reflect that, so I took the idea further and themed the whole album
around it. Ambientlive Records
ALR3092; www.myspace.com/vacuumroad;
www.secondthought.co.uk
THE COMPLETE RADIO FREE ANTARCTICA
TAPES by The Owl Watches (2010)
The Owl Watches is the solo music
project of Atlanta, Georgia-based guitarist and multi-instrumentalist Phil McKenna,
aided by a few friends on other instruments. The CD booklet has a print of an Antarctic territorial
claims map, a picture of an Emperor penguin and an historic explorers
hut. The music is
relaxed-sounding, experimental progressive jazz/rock and one of the free-form
guitar tracks has the interesting title, Our Audience is Mostly Penguins and
Scientists. Phil told us about the reason
for the Antarctic setting: The idea for this,
well, icy-themed album arose from a rather hilarious conversation involving gig
horror stories. That set me
thinking about what if a hapless band got stuck playing in Antarctica, miles
from anywhere, and thus I concocted this little story:
Imagine
if you will that The Owl Watches was an actual touring band, complete with a
less-than-competent Reuben Kincaid-like manager. Said manager gets the brilliant idea of booking the band for
a 5-night engagement at a scientific outpost in Antarctica, where he assures
them their career will reach a new level of greatness. Eventually, the band packs up its gear
and winter clothes and boards a C-130 transport headed for The Frozen White
South.
Once
there, the first 2 nights go less than swimmingly, with the audience bleating
out requests for Celine Dion, Slim Whitman and obscure Albanian coal miners
songs. Later, the band retreats to
a secret storage room and discusses either firing their manager or staging an accident. Sensing that his untimely demise may be
imminent, the manager absconds with both plane and pilot, leaving our heroes
stranded. The scientists take pity
on the hapless band after this bit of outrageous fortune, and radio for a new
plane to get them back home. However,
it wont be available for at least 2 days. Making the best of a bad situation, the band discovers a
small radio station, Radio Free Antarctica a short distance away by dogsled. Radio Free Antarctica kept itself on
the air against great odds, due in part to the generosity of the king of a
small obscure island nation on The Dead Sea, and by station staffers siphoning
gas for their generator from unsuspecting scientific outposts.
The last anyone knew, the band set up and recorded several new pieces that were being road tested or were in various stages of development, when during the last track, a horrific avalanche struck (which was rumored to have been deliberately started). The bands fate still remains a mystery; further compounding the mystery was the fact that the master tape reel was found several miles away by another expedition some months later. By some miracle, the tape survived and has been restored for your dining and dancing pleasure. 4 The Boids 4TB0001; www.myspace.com/theowlsmusic
ANTARCTICA
by David Maranha (2010) (Vinyl LP
only)
Portugal-based David Maranha, an organist, violinist
and architect, has been playing avant garde jazz since 1986 as a solo artist,
with collaborators as well as and with his group Osso Extico. This limited-release LP has a 20-minute
track on each side consisting of hypnotic minimalist dirges with percussion,
organ, strings and guitar. We
asked David for the reason for the title of the record and he said: I guess it was the idea of arid white landscape. The press release on his website blog
says: Like the great white expanse of the titular continent, it can be taken
in simply as a glorious wash of sound; listen to it closely, however, and
youll hear the smallest details jump out in high relief: a feather can move a
mountain. Roaratorio Roar18; www.myspace.com/ossoexotico;
davidmaranha.blogspot.com
ARCTIC/ANTARCTIC
by Marcus Fischer (2010) (Web site download only)
Marcus Fischer is a Portland, Oregon-based musician
and multimedia artist who explores sight and sound through music and film. His current album of ambient electronic
music has three Arctic tracks and
three Antarctic tracks. In between is the single track Tropica. According
to his Web site, Arctic/Antarctic is centered around a series of guitar based
improvisationsThe first 1/3 of the Antarctic portion is based on the slow
shifting of loop points within a larger guitar loop. The rest of Antarctic contrasts with prior
sections. Rather than using
digital processes, this portion relies only on loops created using a system of
modified analog cassette tapes.
These cassettes were played back and rerecorded at a distance capturing
some of the surrounding sounds such as cats moving about the room and hints of
nearby construction. Marcus told
us that The reason for the Arctic/Antarctic
theme is, (beyond just being fascinated by the continent itself), taking the
idea of different but similar landscapes and environments and translating that
into textural music. On first
sight/sound it can be stark and cold without much detail but the more you
look/listen the details emerge and what seemed cold is now a little warmer. www.mapmap.ch; luxusarctica.wordpress.com
FATHOM
by Douglas Quin (2010) (Vinyl LP
only)
American sound recordist Douglas Quin has been recording
Antarctic sounds since 1996, when he received a grant from the U. S. National
Science Foundations Antarctic Artists and Writers Program to work in
Antarctica. Recorded with the use
of hydrophones (underwater microphones), this limited edition record has Arctic
walruses and Beluga whales on the first side. The second side has sounds of icebergs and brash ice,
recorded near Palmer Station on the Antarctic Peninsula and Weddell seals,
leopard seals, orcas and ice fractures from McMurdo Sound on the second
side. Recording is both an art and
a science and according to the record labels Web site, The recordings have
been gathered over a period of 15 years, capturing an extraordinary palette of
sonic voices, events, spaces, and textures. To the human ear, these soundscapes are haunting and
otherworldly; yet they are very much of this world - out of earreach. The tracks are minimally edited and are
his first field recordings to be archived in vinyl. The record is packaged in an attractive cover with an
artistic sleeve. The sleeve notes,
by Ren van Peer state that The environments captured in sound by
Douglas Quin, and presented on this album, are situated in areas at the exremes
of the globe - they are not beneficial to human life. Compared to visual representations, however realistic those
may be, they work on a different level.
The recordings cut right through the armour of armchair content
(reinforcing the notion that what we hear is more evocative than what we
see). They make instantly clear
that what you are listening to is an alien world. A world that is conjured up in staggering and disturbing
detail before your very ears.
TAIGA 11; www.taigarecords.com; www.dqmedia.com. (See also ANTARCTICA
by Douglas Quin
(1998) in this section.)
TEKELI-LI – A Soundtrack to the Adventures
of A. G. Pym by Psi Corps (2009)
This is a joint project of Russias Alisa Coral, a
space metal musician and Australian Michael Blackman, who have also
collaborated on several CDs under the band name Space Mirrors. According to
their Web site, Psi Corps is a side project of Alisa Coral from Space Mirrors. The purpose of this project is to
exploit a soundtrack to a book concept.
It can be any style or genre, the main ambition is to transfer the
feeling and images of the story into the music soundscapes.
The Narrative of Arthur Gordon
Pym of Nantucket, by the American macabre
mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe, published in 1838, is a classic of Antarctic
fiction and tells the tale of A. G. Pym, a young man who stows away on a
whaling ship, Grampus, which undergoes mutiny and is finally wrecked on its way
to the Southern Ocean. Pym and a
mutineer are finally rescued by another ship heading south. Crossing through an ice barrier on the
way to the South Pole, they are marooned on an island by its malevolent
inhabitants. They manage to escape
on a small boat, which hurtles into a mysterious chasm blocked by a large white
shrouded human figure and giant white birds overhead, crying Tekeli-li!
The track titles refer to various chronological
references in the story: Party at Barnards (Is Over), On Board the Ariel, On Board the Grampus, Tsalal,
Further South and Tekeli-li. The
manic music superbly portrays a troubled voyage and particularly in the closing
track Tekeli-li, the swirling
guitars, synthesizers and percussion propel us into the core of the raging
maelstrom. The CD booklet also has
colourful artwork showing the harrowed, shipwrecked survivors barely surviving
on ice flows. RAIG R040; www.myspace.com/psicorpstekelili;
www.spacemirrors.com; www.myspace.com/spacemirrors; (See also MAJESTIC-12:
A HIDDEN PRESENCE by Space Mirrors
(2008) in the Individual Songs section.)
CHATTERMARKS - Field
Recordings from Palmer Station, Antarctica by
Cheryl E. Leonard (2009)
Cheryl Leonard is an
award-winning California-based composer, performer and instrument builder,
specializing in natural object instruments and performances. In 2008-09 she went to the Antarctic
Peninsulas Palmer Station American scientific base on a grant from the U.S.
National Science Foundations Antarctic Artists and Writers Program. This CD is a presentation of the raw
sounds of penguins of various ages, various forms of floating and melting ice,
elephant seals and even a storm.
According to Cheryls liner notes, I went to the Ice to create music
using natural sounds and materials, but I began by simply listening. I needed to first experience, explore,
and try to understand this unique place: its ecosystems, weather, landscapes
and soundsSome of these field recording studies have been incorporated into
my compositions, but many of them are fascinating and musical in their own
right. The title of this CD seems
very appropriate since the tracks do sound like friendly chattering, whether
between penguins or seals and especially in the brash ice/iceberg tracks. A musical CD release was planned for
2010 and Cheryl told us it might be combined with a DVD of composed music and
images. Great Hoary Marmot Music GHMM 004; www.allwaysnorth.com; www.musicfromtheice.blogspot.com
POLARIS by Juno Morse (2009) (Web site download only)
Juno Morse (a.k.a. Gregor Huber) is a
Switzerland-based electronic musician whose album takes us to Antarctica
through majestic soundscapes with track titles such as Frozen Animals, The Long Sleep, Dark Blue Water, White Noise, Glass Monolith, Floating Snowflakes, On Mount Erebus, Amundsens Last Outpost, and Light Crystal Cloud. According to his recording label Web site, When I was lying
in summer 2009 under the sun of Provence in the pool, I read the word Polaris
on the hose of the pool-cleaning robot.
The name seemed awkward for this machine and seemed to be appropriate
more for refrigerators or ice-machines.
Apart from that the name also reminded me of the book Solaris of
science fiction author Stanislaw Lem.
This extraordinary book has been filmed already three times with rather
little success, the last time in 2002.
However, remarkable is the soundtrack by Cliff Martinez for this last
film. It accompanies me since
thenOn my search for Ice-music I only discovered one, but very important
album: Antarctica by Vangelis.
This work has been composed in 1983 for a film with the same name and is
unmatched since thenInspired by Cliff, Vangelis and the pool-cleaning robot, I
decided to compose an icy, sparkling, wide and still album. Gregor told us about two of his tracks
in 2010: On Mount Erebus: While
I was composing this part it reminded me of a song from Vangelis from his album
China called Himalaya. So I
looked for a significant mountain in the Antarctic. I found Mount Erebus and liked its shape and name. Amundsens Last Outpost: While I was combing through the massive information
about Antarctica, I read about the expeditions and came across Roald
Amundsen. I imagined his South
Pole outpost to be very desolate and melancholic and that matched quite well to
this part. Available from
www.cdbaby.com and iTunes; www.hult.ch
WHITEOUT - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (2009)
This is the soundtrack disc to
the Antarctic who-done-it action movie of the same name, based on the main character from the Whiteout
comic book series
by Greg Rucka and Steve Lieber. It
features Kate Beckinsale as Carrie Stetko, a U.S marshal on Antarctica who has
to investigate a murder on the continent, which may be related to a secret
drilling project. The movie
received tepid, or more appropriately, frosty reviews for the plot. The dark and dramatic orchestral
soundtrack music, composed by John Frizzell, has tracks with titles such as Aurora
Australis, Base
Camp, Vostok
Attack, Frost
Bite, The Storm
Approaches, Last
Plane Out, and The
Whiteout. Varse Saraband 302 066 986 2; www.whiteoutmovie.com
CINEMATIC
MUSE by Brandon Visel (2009) (Web
site download only)
Brandon
Visel is a California-based film composer whose album consists of orchestral
and acoustic music inspired for film.
Included are two tracks, Antarctica 1 and Antarctica 2,
which were part of the soundtrack music written for the 60-minute documentary
film about artist Lita Albuquerques December 2006 large-scale art
installation, Stellar Axis: Antarctica
on the Ross Sea Ice Shelf near McMurdo Sound in Antarctica. The two tracks are meditational and
Oriental-sounding and the soundtrack music on the documentary admirably conveys
the sense of tranquility and grandeur of the wide, white flat landscape of the
Ice Shelf. Lita Albuquerque is a California-based
large-scale installation artist, painter and sculptor, known internationally
for earth art in natural landscapes.
Stellar Axis: Antarctica was
funded under the U.S. National Science Foundations Antarctic Artists and
Writers Program in 2006 and the project consisted of ninety-nine blue spheres
being spread over the icescape, aligned with and mirroring the brightest stars
in the sky above. This was a major
logistical undertaking with three years of preparations and involved the
manufacture of the spheres and assistance from an astronomer, photographer and
cinematographer. The actual
installation, documentation and dismantling took three weeks and was done under
demanding environmental constraints and regulations. The event also included overhead filming and a performance
by McMurdo Station staff portraying the motion of the stars at the poles. The progress of the whole enterprises
was filmed over the years by artist and documentary filmmaker Sophie Dia
Pegrum, also based in California.
Sophia explained to us about the project and music: The Antarctic is a
deeply affecting place, both geographically and philosophically. One of the most wonderful things about
working on this project was working with the composer Brandon Visel, who
captured the feel and grandeur of the experience beautifully. His score really became the adherence
that the film needed. It is hard
to express such a place of terrific violence and beauty visually. After coming back I felt almost
hopelessly inadequate to represent the experience. Music tracks available from iTunes and CD Baby.com; a DVD of the film is also available via
Sophia Dia Pegrum. www.brandonvisel.com; www.myspace.com/brandonvisel; www.77below.com; www.stellaraxis.com; www.litaalbuquerque.com; www.sophiadia.com
ERNEST SHACKLETON LOVES ME by GrooveLily (under development in
2009)
GrooveLily
is a New York, N.Y.-based vocal/violin/keyboard/drums pop/rock trio (Valerie
Vigoda, Brendan Milburn, and Gene Lewin) that has been together since 1994 and
in recent years has expanded to musical theatre, with successful collaborations
in numerous musicals. A current
project is Ernest Shackleton Loves Me, described by the group on its Web site as a
one-woman fever-dream musical about a video games music writer who is
contacted by Ernest Shackleton, who shares his Antarctic journeys with her as
both struggle toward new horizons.
Its based on a book by Joe DiPietro, with lyrics by group members Valerie
Vigoda, who is also the sole actor and music by Brendan Milburn. In August 2009, early-stage workshop
performances were held in Palo Alto, California and in October three more
pieces were presented at a pub theatre evening in New York City. One of the songs from it, Were On
Our Way, is a
rousing banjo-backed sea shanty about leaving home, sung by Ernest Shackletons
character (Brendan Milburn), who promises to find land and return to his
darling wife, available from iTunes.
Valerie Vigoda, the groups vocalist and violinist extraordinaire, told us
in 2009 that We have been intrigued by Shackleton for several years,
and are writing a one-woman musical in which the main character discovers and
is changed by his amazing story. We
just did a workshop and 3 readings of the show at TheatreWorks in Palo Alto,
which helped us immensely as we develop the piece. We are hoping that we can do a full production before too
long, and incorporate some of the actual visuals from Shackletons Endurance
journey as projections during the show.
The rest of the music, we hope, will be available when we get farther
along. www.groovelily.com
TICKET TO ANTARCTICA by KevOz (2009)
Kevin
Osborn is a Chicago-based independent synthesizer/keyboard artist who has
recorded many New Age and instrumental albums in various styles during the past
ten years. His recent cruise to
Antarctica inspired this album.
Kevin explained to us: My wife and I went on an Antarctic cruise in
January 2008, mostly because it was one of our last continents to visit; little
did I know that it would become one of my favorite trips of all time! I had such a wonderful time there that
I was inspired to create an album of music about my experiences on Antarctica. The wonderful sights, the sounds -
whether it be choruses of penguins or just the calm near the Lemaire Channel,
the feelings and emotions. Ive
done my best to pour it all into an album. This is the first time Ive created an album based on my
travel experiences and it probably wont be my last, as Ive had such a blast
putting the music and artwork together.
The CD liner notes further explain: The first cruise I ever took
was a trip to Antarctica with my wife.
You might be thinking, Why would you go there - wouldnt it just be
freezing cold? What about the
Caribbean? I must admit, it
sounded strange to me at first, too.
But, I got more and more psyched about it as our trip drew nearer. And by the time our boat left Ushuaia,
Argentina, I just couldnt wait to see the great ice. As we passed through the rough waters
of the Drake Passage en route to Deception Island (our first of several
destinations), my excitement was building to a crescendo. Just what would I see? How would it feel? I knew it would be an experience Id
never forget, and I just couldnt wait to get thereIn short, Antarctica is a
place like no other on Earth – or, Im guessing, any other planet. Its equal parts beautiful, eerie,
jubilant, and somber. And this is
my Ticket To Antarctica. May it be
yours, too. The 11 tracks include
Ticket to Antarctica, Crossing
the Drake Passage, Deception
Island, Zodiac Cruise, Blue Ice,
Penguin Dance, Antarctic
Lullaby, The Last Continent, 20 Hours of Sunshine, Iceberg Maker and Return Voyage.
Kevins Web site has a separate Antarctica section along with detailed travel
notes to each track. www.kevoz.com
ANTARCTICA: THE MUSICAL by Dogmatic Music
(2009)
Dogmatic Music is a quartet of teachers and musicians from the New South
Wales region in Australia, which has been recording and entertaining in a
variety of musical styles since 2004, with help from many other family
members. They have performed at
public and school events and their music and theatre pieces have been used by
schools directly. Antarctica: The
Musical
is their fourth CD and contains 14 tracks with various Antarctic themes,
including karaoke instrumental tracks for a sing-along. The song styles range from rock to
country and rap. Titles include: Antarctica, 200 Million Years
Ago, Aristotle
Rap, The
Sailors Song, The Seals Lament, Antarctic Anthem, Antarctic Fever, Crevasse, Shackleton, Scott of the
Antarctic,
Mawson Walked, Im a Whale and The Penguin Stomp. According to the CD booklet, The songs are easy to play and
sing. Each one tells a story or
carries a message about some aspect of Antarctica, from its formation and
exploration, to its hostile but delicate environment and the creatures that
inhabit it. Together, they present
a unique, engaging and enjoyable learning experience. The CD comes with a songbook of music
and lyrics, a classroom study guide and script/libretto for a primary school
play with up to 17 narrators. The
group told us in 2009: This music and play was written for upper
primary school students as most study Antarctica as part of the Human Studies
and Its Environment course in schools in New South Wales, Australia. Our music is meant to be fun, the idea
being to engage students in music and drama while they learn about Antarcticas
ancient and more recent history, the explorers, Antarcticas animals and
environment. All upper level
primary students (10-12 year olds) in New South Wales, Australia, are required
to study Antarctica so its pitched at that level. One of our group, Paul McGee, was teaching the topic for
years and found that students remembered more and engaged with the topic more
through music and drama. KIA009; www.dogmaticmusic.net
SHACKLETONS VOYAGE by Eureka (2009)
Eureka is the 51-minute musical project of Germanys Frank Bossert, an established rock musician, who tells the story of Ernest Shackletons famous Endurance Expedition of 1914-16 in a series of 15, largely instrumental tracks, themed around the various phases of the Expedition and its survival stages. Frank told us in 2009 that I saw a documentary on the German/French TV channel ARTE in the year 2000/2001 and I was so fascinated by the story and the character of Ernest Shackleton that I had the idea of creating a concept album in an art rock style. It took a few more years to realise this.
In addition to a few tracks of narration by
British thespian Ian Dickinson, there are veteran guest artists on vocals and
instruments such as Uilleann pipes and whistle to provide a Celtic flavour, in
keeping with the origins of some of the expeditioners. Track titles include The Last
Adventure, Departure, The Challenge, Grytviken Whaling Station, Heading South, Icebound, Plenty of Time, The Turning Point, Going Home, Into the Lifeboats, Elephant Island, In Search of Relief, The Rescue and We Had Seen God. The music, in a progressive rock style with guitars and
synthesizers, at times symphonic, matches the moods of the themes of the
songs. Lyrics for Going Home: We lost our ship in a wasteland
of ice. No time to look back if we
want to survive. We missed our
aim, but what still can be done is to save everyone. No glorious fame, ship and stores are gone, were left on
our own – were going home!
Were going home now – Our ship is gone but our will is
strong. Well survive –
Were coming home. Were going
home now – No missions won but our hope is not gone. Well return – were coming
home. We drag our boats through
impassable heights. No time to
waste – we just fight for our lives. We missed our aim – we just fight for our lives. We missed our aim, but what still must
be done is to save everyone. No
glorious fame, ship and stores are gone, were left on our own – were
going home. Ironically, at that
point they still had months of camping on ice, Elephant Island and the South Georgia rescue still ahead of
them. There is also the poignant
and arguably the most memorable track, Will You Ever Return, sung by a female trio, from the
unusual point of view of Shackletons wife Emily (lyrics: So long ago, that I
heard your voice, so long ago, that I felt your loving touch. All the tears that Ive cried for you,
all the prayers that Ive sent, All the love that I feel, Can not bring you
back home, All the fears that have passed, All the darkness around, can not
give me an answer now – Will you ever return? So long ago, that I saw your smile, So long ago, that I
fooled around with you. So long
ago, that I held your hand, So long ago, that I danced around you. The CD includes a very complete booklet
with Frank Hurleys famous expedition photographs illustrating each track, as
well as track explanatory notes.
The CD cover also has a Hurley photo of the Endurance, frozen in the
ice. SPV 28022 CD;
www.eureka-music.de
SONIC ANTARCTICA by Andrea Polli (2009)
Andrea Polli is a digital media artist who is an
Associate Professor of Electronic Arts at the University of New Mexico and
formerly an Associate Professor of Film and Media at Hunter College, part of
the CUNY organization. According
to her Web site, Her work addresses issues
related to science and technology in contemporary society. She is interested in global systems,
the real time interconnectivity of these systems, and the effect of these
systems on individuals. Pollis
work with science, technology and media has been presented widely in over 100
presentations, exhibitions and performances internationally, has been
recognized by numerous grants, residencies and awards including UNESCO. She currently works in collaboration
with atmospheric scientists to develop systems for understanding storm and
climate through sound (called sonification). During the 2007/08 Antarctic
season she spent seven weeks in Antarctica under the U.S. National Science
Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers Program, recording interviews and
videos with weather, climate and earth scientists and recording the sounds of
natural and work-related mechanical and human activities. Areas travelled included McMurdo Sound,
the Dry Valleys and the South Pole.
The resulting CD, limited to 500 copies, presents 10 tracks, including recordings
of helicopters and radio transmissions from the Williams Field landing area,
sounds from Taylor Glacier, Castle Rock and Lake Hoare, weather balloon
launching activities at the South Pole and polar philosophy from a cast of
prominent researchers on their activities and on global warming. Gruenrekorder Gruen064/LC09488; www.andreapolli.com;
www.gruenrekorder.de
TERRA NOVA: SINFONIA ANTARCTICA by DJ Spooky (2008) (not yet released as a
recording)
DJ Spooky That Subliminal Kid (a.k.a. Paul
D. Miller is a New York, N.Y.-based composer, musician, writer, lecturer and
multi-media artist who has had international performances and presentations of
his works. According to his Web
site, In December 2007 and January 2008 Paul D. Miller went to Antarctica to
shoot a film and make a large scale multimedia performance work that will be an
acoustic portrait of a rapidly changing continent called Terra Nova:
Sinfonia Antarctica. Sinfonia
Antarctica transforms Millers first person encounter with the harsh,
dynamic landscape of Antarctica into multimedia portraits with music composed
from the different geographies that make up the land mass. Its about the environment, sound, hip
hop, electronic music and what it means to be a composer in the 21st centuryMillers
field recordings from a portable studio, set up to capture the acoustic
qualities of Antarctic ice forms, reflect a changing and even vanishing
environment under duress. Coupled with historic, scientific, and geographical
visual material, Terra Nova: Sinfonia Antarctica is a seventy minute
performance, creating a unique and powerful moment around mans relationship
with nature
Using digital media, video, and high tech
recording equipment, DJ Spooky will go to Antarctica and paint an acoustic
portrait of this rapidly transforming environmenthe aims to bring Antarctica
to the contemporary imagination by digitally reconstructing it: historical
maps, travelers journals over the last several centuries, crystalline ices
resonant frequencies, and the Earths magnet poles - will all be paints for the
audio palette he will work with. Essentially,
he will go to the continent and create a recording studio that will be portable
enough to move all over the territoryFor the purposes of this project, the
idea of looking at the places beyond the realms of everyday life in the
industrialized 21st century world, puts the continent front and center into the
idea of making a map of the continent in sound.
Sinfonia Antarctica will be an acoustic portrait of a rapidly
transforming continent made of ice and condensation. In many ways, because there is little rain, the interior of
the continent is technically one of the largest deserts in the world. What Sinfonia Antarctica proposes
to do is explore the realm of fiction and ideas that underlie almost all
perceptions of Antarctica - from the interior desert plains, to the
Transantarctic Mountains that divide the continent, the Suite will take samples
of the different conditions, and transform them into multi-media portraits with
music composed from the different geographies that make up the land mass.
The work was commissioned by a number of
international arts festivals and institutions and is played by a string trio
with piano along with hip-hop and sampled digital accompaniment. With integrated Antarctic video
projections, it has been performed by the International Contemporary Ensemble
(ICE) as well as by other local ensembles in the United States. The Alter Ego Ensemble has performed it
in Europe and Australia.
In 2009 Paul D. Miller presented The
Science of Terra Nova,
which
was about the changes in
Antarctica related to global climate change, at the American Museum of Natural
History in New York, a presentation incorporating his Terra Nova:
Sinfonia Antarctica.
In 2010 Paul went to the High Arctic for
his Arctic Rhythms/Ice Music project with Cape Farewell, a charitable
organization working to encourage artists to produce art based on scientific
research, to engage the public in global warming issues. According to his Web site, I am in the
High Arctic creating a series of drafts for several compositions that Ill
eventually turn into several string quartet pieces, a gallery show, and a
symphony out of the experience. Im
looking at how to collect impressions of the landscape, distill the material
into something that I can use in the compositions (visually, sonically, and for
writing as well), and arrive at a point where sound and art can create
portraits of whats going on up here.
Paul told us in late 2010: Im now in production on
my Arctic project, which is part 2 of what I did with my South Pole scenario. www.djspooky.com;
www.myspace.com/djspooky
ANTARCTICA ZEN (2008)
This is French disc, by Yiric Illians, in a Zen
series of recordings of themed New Age and relaxing electronic instrumental
music. The restful tracks include
Antarctic titles such as Erebus Station, The Ross Barrier, Penguins Song, Polar Breath, Orcas, Iceberg, Ice Children and White Mountain. EMI Music France 509992659502 3
LES EXPDITIONS POLAIRES FRANAISES by Paul-mile Victor, Robert Gessain and Claude
Lorius (2008)
This a 3-disc spoken-word package, by three eminent French polar explorers, academics and scientists, in their native French language. Paul-mile Victor (d. 1995) is well known for his 1934-35 traverse of Greenland and a year spent in the study of Inuit culture, for founding after WWII the Expditions polaires Franaises, Frances then-leading polar organization and for his Antarctic research from the era of the 1957 International Geophysical Year onwards. His CD covers both polar areas and there is a 17-minute Antarctic interview from 1962, which was conducted with students from a French school. Robert Gessain (d. 1986) was a doctor and ethnologist and was also on the Greenland expedition with P- Victor and his CD is related to Inuit culture, recorded in 1982. Claude Lorius has been a prominent glaciologist from the days of the 1957 International Geophysical Year and was notably involved with ice coring at the famed Russian Vostok Antarctic base. He became president of the Expditions polaires Franaises following the death of P- Victor. In 1992 he established the French Institute for Polar Research and Technology. Lorius CD contains a 1986 interview with French students about Antarctic science and there is a further segment recorded in 2006 related to the then upcoming 2007-09 International Geophysical Year. There is an extensive 48-page booklet with the box set, describing the background science and culture of their work and discussions.
This commercially released disc
is a real gem for its record of significant polar activities from people who
were directly involved. It sets an
example for other nations to record and disseminate to the public the records
of their own accomplishments, in whatever fields. Frmeaux & Associs FA 5211
ANTARCTICA - Music and Nature Sounds (2008) (Web site download only)
The Belgian Biosphere label
specializes in relaxation music, including sounds of nature and environmental
themes in various New Age styles.
This disc includes both frothy and languid New Age and ambient-style
instrumentals with titles such as Daybreak on the Ice field, Snow Dreams, Parad Ice, Flight
Over the Antarctic, Iceberg, The Wild Continent, Crystal Desert , Glacier at Springtime
and Love Season. Available on various music download
sites such as iTunes. www.biosphere.com
SERVE CHILLED by Medwyn Goodall and Tim Rock (2008)
Cornwall, U.K.-based Goodall is a prolific master New Age
composer, musician and producer of thematic CDs. According to the liner notes, his latest melodic work is
inspired by a unique environment under threat from global warmingthe CD also
incorporates the actual atmospheres of snowstorms, ice caves and under a frozen
sea. The sounds of penguins,
whales and seals weave in and out of the music as it takes you across a white
world. The CD liner has a great
photo of a sinister looking, weather-sculpted iceberg as well as penguins and
seals on icy shorelines. MG Music
MGCD105; www.mgmusic.ltd.uk
ANTARCTIC SONGBOOK by Ian Tamblyn (2008)
Ian Tamblyn is a veteran Ottawa-area musician,
playwright and educator/guide on nature cruise ships, who has made trips to
both the Arctic and Antarctic regions.
During the 2007-08 Students on Ice Expedition to the Antarctic
Peninsula, which included about 64 international students and 25
educators/chaperones, Tamblyn was the team minstrel. He told us that the songs were written for the most part on
the expedition, with a few from his previous CDs. These songs are a tribute to Antarctica and according to the
liner notes, added a whole new way of understanding, appreciating and
digesting everything we were experiencing. Most of the students had them memorized before we returned
to South America! And now we have
this CD as a lasting memory, gift and legacy for the International Polar Year
and our incredible journey of discovery to the bottom of the world. The tracks of melodic, acoustical
folk-rock include such titles as Paradise Bay, Albatross, Gentoo Penguin, With the Whales-Deception Island and The Emperors. Students on Ice is a Gatineau, Qubec-based award-winning
program led by Geoff Green, dedicated
to providing high school and university youth with educational expeditions
to the Arctic and Antarctic regions, accompanies by world-class teams of
scientists, environmentalists and other specialists. ITCD-2008; www.tamblyn.com; www.studentsonice.com; (See also GYRE
(2009), ANGELS
SHARE (2004) and THE
BODY NEEDS TO TRAVEL (1997)
by Ian Tamblyn in the following Individual Antarctic songs section.)
ELEGI FOR ROALD AMUNDSEN by Hornorkesteret (2008)
(Web site download only)
This anniversary tribute collection
to polar hero Roald Amundsen may well be one of the most original and unusual
recorded musical portrayals of an Antarctic theme. Jonas M. Qvale is the founder and a member of Norwegian
group Hornorkesteret, formed in 1999 as an experimental art project, which has
played in concert halls, museums, in the woods, on mountaintops and contributed
to films and theatre. He told us
that I run a band called Hornorkesteret, The Norwegian Polar Orchestra,
and we play soundscapes and experimental music on stringed reindeer antlers,
stones, drums flutes, logs, ice, coffee percolators and other things. Our main musical concern is the forces
of nature, and in particular how they are expressed in the Polar Regions. We have also been very inspired by
polar exploration and the period from 1860-1920, when the last white areas on
the globe were charted and conquered.
We also find inspiration in the animals of the Polar Regions and their
struggle to survive.
By amplifying the reindeer
antlers with contact microphones, we are able to get a range of unusual sounds -
from the underwater calls of Arctic and Antarctic animals like walrus, seals,
various whales and penguins to creaking ship hulls, ice floes, ice shelves
breaking off and howling winds.
We have just released an MP3 single commemorating the 80 years since polar hero Roald Amundsen disappeared in the Arctic with the seaplane Latham 47. The title track, Elegi for Roald Amundsen features the vocals of another great Norwegian polar hero, Fridtjof Nansen, taken from his speech at Amundsens funeral. Two other tracks related to Amundsen are included on this release, Mot Sydpolen (Towards the South Pole), an imagined soundtrack to the trek towards the Pole in 1911, and Mandolin Under et Vindu (Mandolin Under a Window), which looks at Amundsens youth and his early determination to make a name for himself in the Polar regions. Finally, a live version of the title track is included, recorded at the memorial monument at Amundsens birthplace in Borge, Norway at a memorial ceremony on the 18th of June 2008, complete with birdsong and rustling leaves.
Towards the South Pole is a wonder of feral squawks, bleats and percussion, underlain by a menacing bass and as marching music might be more than adequate to encourage anyone to trek to the Pole and back. www.hornorkesteret.no; www.myspace.com/hornorkesteret
An off-shoot project began in
2001 with Hornorkesteret recordings that were inadequate due to technical and
other sound problems. These were
organized along with material from other electronical sound sources under the
cultural sharing network ORIGAMI ANTARKTIKA. According to their
website, the goal is to freeze down, time-stretch, to punctuate or blur these
sounds. To submerge everything in
the black waters of Lake Vostok, perhaps never to come back, perhaps to become
new soundscapes one day. The low
activity of this unit is due to extremely cold temperatures. When things are frozen, the atoms dont
die or stop moving, they just slow waaaay down. www.myspace.com/origamiantarktika
SOUNDS OF AUSTRALIA – THE NATIONAL REGISTRY OF RECORDED SOUND – National Film & Sound Archive (2008)
According to the CD booklet
notes, The National Film and Sound Archives of Australia develops, preserves,
maintains and promotes a national audiovisual collection as an Australian
statutory authority created in 2008 from a previous non-statutory agency. The National Registry of Recorded Sound
was begun in 2007 as a way of highlighting Australias rich sound
heritage. Each year, ten entries
are added to an ever-growing list of iconic sound recordings of all genres (not
just recorded music but also spoken word, radio serials, advertising jingles
and so on), from all periods and across all sound media. The CD presents various musical groups,
indigenous musicians and Aboriginal songs. A puzzling inclusion is Sir Ernest Shackletons 1910
recording of My South Polar Expedition. This is the less well-known of his two
recorded recitations about the British 1907-09 Nimrod Antarctic Expedition. This Expedition was not known as an
Australian venture, although it did have several Australian crewmen and
scientists (including Edgeworth David and Douglas Mawson, who later went on to
Antarctic fame in his own right.)
ABC 476 6812; www.nfsa.gov.au;
(See
also HISTORIC VOICES IX – The Voices Collection (2008) following in
this section.)
HISTORIC
VOICES IX - The Voices Collection (2008)
This CD
of speeches by famous people such as Mahatma Gandhi, Albert Einstein and Babe
Ruth includes Ernest Shackletons My South Polar Expedition, a
recitation from March 30, 1910 and the lesser known of the two separate
recordings made by him. It
describes the British 1907-09 Nimrod Antarctic Expedition led by Shackleton. Unfortunately, for a series such as
this, the CD does not have any background liner notes to any of the tracks,
indicating recording dates or the contexts of the speeches. Also on this disc is a 20-second
excerpt track Reaching the North Pole by Robert Peary, from the recording The
Discovery of the North Pole, which was recorded in 1910 by Peary about his expedition, which
claimed to have reached the North Pole in 1909. This latter recording was on the reverse side of the first,
better known 78 rpm recording made by Shackleton in 1909, A Description of
the Dash for the South Pole. Saland Publishing SP180; (See also the compilation disc SINFONIA
ANTARTICA/SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (2009) in the Classical Antarctica: Ralph
Vaughan Williams commentary section at the beginning of this Discography and THE
VERY BEST HISTORIC VOICES (2007) following in this section.)
THE VERY BEST HISTORIC VOICES (2007)
According to the CD cover, the disc includes
25 rare recordings from some of the most important people at the turn of the
20th century, such as speeches from five American presidents,
Commander Robert Peary (talking in 1910 about the discovery of the North Pole),
Thomas Edison, Oscar Wilde, Harry Houdini, Buffalo Bill Cody and an 1890 speech
by Florence Nightingale. Also
included is Ernest Shackletons My South Polar Expedition, a recitation from March 30, 1910
and the lesser known of the two separate recordings made by him. It describes the British 1907-09 Nimrod
Antarctic Expedition led by Shackleton.
Also on this disc is the track The Discovery of the North Pole, which was recorded in 1910 by
Peary about his expedition, which claimed to have reached the North Pole in
1909. This latter recording was
the reverse side of the first, more commonly known 78 rpm recording made by
Shackleton in 1909, A Description of the Dash for the South Pole. The CD was compiled by Bill Seper (Illinois, U.S.A.). Blue Denim Records 92107; (See also the compilation disc SINFONIA
ANTARTICA/SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (2009) in the Classical Antarctica: Ralph
Vaughan Williams commentary section at the beginning of this Discography and HISTORIC VOICES IX - The Voices Collection (2008) in this section.)
DEEP_FRIEZE by Sleep Research Facility (2007)
Sleep Research Facility is the solo project of
Glasgow, U.K.-based ambient sound artist Kevin Doherty. According to his Website site, Sleep
Research Facility explores notions of awareness and perception in the
sub/unconscious listener. Focusing
primarily on sound bereft of rhythm based energies, SRF(acility)s goal is to
provide listening environments wherein the music simply adds texture to the
silence. SRF entertains the idea
that music can forgoe notions of compositional architecture, resulting in noise
which draws attention away from itself, leaving room for the listener to focus
on other things (or, focus on nothing at all). SRF puts emphasis on these aesthetics in the search for a
kind of play me quiet sound suitable for listening to actively or passively
depending on circumstances, creating an aural experience which guides the mind
through gentle misdirection rather than forcing its attention, allowing
listeners to drift in their own diversified thoughts.
His fourth CD of ambient sonics
and soundscapes is based on the solitary bleakness of the Antarctic and the five
long minimalist tracks are named for Antarctic geographic co-ordinates: 79S
83W, 72S 149E, 82S 62E, 86S 115W and 80S
96E.
Kev told us in 2010 about the background of the music: Hmmmmm, what
inspired the Deep Frieze album...?
The Antarctic environment is so pure and motionless and (for the most
part) still unsullied by mankind. Its
a huge emptiness begging to be filled with stories and imagination. It evokes tranquility but harbours
darkness and danger in its serene beauty as well. Its probably one of the last great unexplored regions of
our planet, still holding deep secrets within its frozen wasteland. There is life there, as well as death. The co-ordinates for the track titles
were chosen arbitrarily, but I looked to scatter them evenly and randomly
across the map, hopefully representing the vast nothingness as opposed to
anything that might be thought of as a tourist attraction. Who could resist exploring this! Either in person or artistically.
The Website notes to the CD state that The polar
regions are awe-inspiring environments of inhospitable minimalism, and at the
same time theres a beautiful serenity to be found in their uncharted bleakness
as well. Theres a powerful purity
and a timelessness to be found there: snow which has lain un-trampled for
millennia and ice which formed eons ago; mountain ranges and deserts and rivers
to be found if you look. Here
deep, resonant, abyss-like tones shine forth from icy chasms below as whiteout blasts
across the vast and largely uncharted expanse of emptiness above. Chilled, though not necessarily
chilling. There is a certain
comforting warmth in the encroaching slumber of hypothermia. Cold spring CSR72CD; www.myspace.com/sleepresearchfacility;
www.resonance-net.com
ANTARCTIC by Mac Lauren (undated)
(Web site download only)
Mac Lauren, from Hobart, Tasmania is an Australian singer-songwriter who has travelled his native land, designed and built green power units and been an electrical contractor. He overwintered in Antarctica and produced three songs from his experiences for his web site. Peace of Mind is a relaxing guitar/harmonica instrumental. The other two tracks are sung in a husky baritone and are very expressive of the strong emotions of beauty and longing brought out by The Ice. Lyrics to Antarctic: And the beauty of it all becomes clear, as we draw near. South of here theres an ocean as wide as any known. Grey mountains marching endlessly, the albatross above surfs the air, fortune we share. Antarctic, the beauty of silence, land of the storm. Lift off the deck into a perfect sky, perfect sky. Once around the ship and were climbing high. Around the horizon cathedrals float in a frozen sea. I recall her icy breath over me. Antarctic, the beauty of silence, land of the storm. Antarctic, the beauty of silence, land of the storm.
Lyrics to Return to Australia: : Where have you been, long lost son? Finally, spring has come. Stretch the days. Draw the life, back to this land, this
land of ice. Why does a world so
cold, bring fire to the soul? This
line on the map in the mess, reading daily, sailing south southwest. Moving an inch a day, slowly and surely
coming our way. Red ship is in the
bay. Stand by to R.T.A. Ill never leave you cold. Ill warm your heart and soul. Im tired of loving over the
phone. Im meant to hold you. Im coming home. Red ship is in the bay. Im on for R.T.A. Ill never leave you cold. Ill warm your heart and soul, your
heart and soul. Red ship is in the
bay. Stand by to R.T.A. Were coming home. www.maclaurenmusic.com
CARTOGRAPHER by E.S. Posthumus, featuring Luna Sans (2007)
According to the liner notes, In 1929, the ancient map Piri Reis was discovered in Constantinople. The map is extraordinary because it depicts bays and islands on the Antarctic coast which have been concealed under ice for at least 6,000 years. What civilization was capable of such exploration that long ago? On Cartographer, we imagine that these explorers were from the tiny island of Numa in the Southern Indian Ocean. As advanced seafarers, they navigated every corner of the Earth. We have created a language unique to them and tell stories through song that describe their creation, discoveries and ultimate demise. Piri Reis (Admiral) was an Ottoman seafarer and cartographer who compiled a now controversial map of the world in 1513. The surviving part shows the coasts of Western Europe, Africa and the Brazilian regions of eastern South America. The South American outlines have been claimed by some writers since the mid-1960s to show an ice-free eastern Antarctic Peninsula coast, though this is unproven. Many others believe this interpretation belongs in the fantasy world of Von Danikens Chariot of the Gods.
The composers of the music are
two brothers based in Los Angeles, California, with the unlikely-sounding names
of Helmut and Franz Vonlichten, also reported to be pseudonyms for two real
brothers who have written numerous soundtrack pieces for TV programs and film
studios. The music on the disc is
big orchestral World Music, largely with a Latin sound with some Mid-Eastern
influences. The package contains
two discs, one with vocals by the wonderful Luna Sans to lush instrumental
tracks and the second has an even fuller all-instrumental treatment. Its great listening, but with the
tropical flavour, it takes a great imagination to pretend that any of the lands
portrayed musically could be overlain by miles of ice today. Wigshop Records WS2237;
www.esposthumus.com
ANTARCTICA SUITE by Hunter Johnson
(2007) (Web site download only)
Hunter Johnson is a
California-based musician who grew up in Southeast Asia and moved to Portland,
Oregon for his high school years.
He has worked independently as an artist and producer for musical
projects and for television. This
downloadable suite of 13 melodic, instrumental synthesizer pieces began as
musical impressions for the paintings and photographs of the visual artist, J.
J. LHeureux, also based in California.
LHeureux has visited the continent five times and has been an Antarctic
expedition artist with Quark Expeditions.
The themed track titles will be familiar to any Antarctic visitor and
include Wilderness Theme, Encounter with Sea & Ice, All Ice Melts, Penguins in
Paradise Bay, Frozen Rivers, Walk to the Rookery, Dawn Down Iceberg Alley, White Wilderness, Lemaire Passage, Ice Caps Melting, Crossing the Circle and Zodiac
Exploration. In late 2007, Johnson
accompanied LHeureux and a Swiss filmmaker on board the Golden Fleece, a
65-foot motor sloop, which circumnavigated South Georgia, and is composing
background music for the video adventure.
www.hunterjohnsonmusic.com;
www.jjlheureux.com; www.penguinspirit.com
ANTARCTICA by Gill de la tourette (2007) (Web site
download only)
De la tourette (Steven Tevels) is a Belgian
native and electronica artist. His
39-minute, 6-track Antarctica is a bleak, minimalist ambient work and according to the web site, is a concept CD dedicated to the experimental pioneers who
discovered and explored Antarctica...The first impressions of an untouched mighty
new land. Extreme circumstances,
never ending icy winds, random noisy silence, white absolute monochrome
landscapes, hunger, cold, no daylight in winter, the suffering, tiredness and
isolation...An audiosonic story, a melodic journey through a world of dissected
and strangely reassembled tones. On
first listen, these soundscapes could easily sound like a stuttering mess, but
give it time and the stutters become a string orchestra and the glitches become
the delicate sound of a glockenspiel
ca080; www.clinicalarchives.blogspot.com;
www.myspace.com/gilldelatourette
ANTARCTICA by Metamorfrozen (2007) (Web site download only)
This
dynamic 80-minute ambient work, containing 10 instrumental tracks, on a Polish
net label dedicated to industrial, dark ambient, power electronica and
experimental music, is especially for all explorers of Polar landscapes. Titles include Metamorformation, Polar Plateau, Snow
Petrels Over the Pole, Diamond Dust, Dark Days Under Mount Terror, Aurora Australis,
Subglacial Lakes, Winds Over the
Cold Emptiness, Ice-o-lation and Mountains of Madness. No
information on the artist in the Web site. KEMn53; www.kaos-ex-machina.pl/promotions
ERNEST SHACKLETON BIG BAND ORCHESTRA (2007 and 2005) (Web site downloads only)
The ESBBO is the ambient
recording project of the Lille, France-based artist who records under the name
of Kaneda. His eight-track,
41-minute Artic Opera from 2005 is
described on the Web site as polar ambient...a
journey into Antarctica with sounds from ice and sea. The seven-track, 46-minute Rest in Ice from 2007
is described as polar, always polar. In 2009 Kaneda told us: The
reason for the Ernest Shackleton Big Band Orchestra is really simple. In fact, since I was very young, Ive
always been fascinated by Antarctica and other very cold places. I started producing ambient music a few
years ago and had no name for the project. I just used my surname, Kaneda. After a concert, I asked a friend about his feelings. He just said that it was polar. No other words...that was the only word
he could say about my music. So I
found that polar was accurate and I searched for a name. While I was looking at a video about
Ernest Shackleton, I realized that the technology didnt allow his team to
record sounds but only pictures. I
imagined that Ernest Shackleton is still alive and continues his journeys
through polar lands and Im his sound engineer. www.knd.world.free.fr;
www.myspace.com/kanedafeatmoineau;
www.archive.org
ENDURANCE by Irezumi (2007)
Irezumi is a former techno artist, based in
France, who has created an album of richly desolate ambient music based on
Shackletons Endurance Expedition.
Haunting voiceovers on several of the tracks add to the imagined reality
of the drama on ice, water and land, as portrayed in the music. A six panel digipak of bleak black and
white photos, of what looks like Frank Hurleys photographs of South Georgian
mountains and glaciers, adds to the listening experience. As to the reason for the CD, a
representative of the record label told us that, Irezumi read some stuff
about Shackleton, I think he also saw some documentaries. And it was enough for him to make an
album. Snowblood Snow01; www.myspace.com/irezumimusic
TILL ANTARCTICA by Elisa Korenne (2007)
Till Antarctica may well be the catchiest, upbeat, cant-get-it-out-of-your-head Antarctic tune weve come across. Its the theme song for the play Antarctica, which was written by Carolyn Raship and premired at the New York City Fringe Festival in 2007. The play is about two schoolgirls who meet at school and plan to go to Antarctica to find the magnetic South Pole. Elisa Korenne is a New York-based singer/composer with numerous songwriting awards to her credit. While the song has not yet been commercially issued on a CD, we are eager to see take its rightful place as one of the greats of recorded Antarctic tunes. A song sample may be heard on the myspace website listed below. Sample lyrics: Blue ice may freeze our feet, Blubbers all there is to eat, Im with youNo matter where you want to go, Ill stay by your side, you know, Ill see it through, Ill stay with you, Till Antarctica. If penguins steal our sleeping bags, You break your legs on the icy crags, Im with you. The wind could wail loud and cold, Snow blindness could take hold, Im with you, Im with you. Elisa told us that I haven't been to Antarctica (the only continent I haven't been to!) and I hear its incredible. My images of Antarctica come from a variety of sources. Mainly, they come from the text of the play itself. The song was almost an accident. I was at a writing retreat trying to write a musical, and I was procrastinating. I read the play, and figured I ought to at least write a song based on it as a fun exercise if I wasnt going to be writing my musical. The other places my images come from are photographs Ive seen of my friend kayaking the Arctic and photographs of the Endurance journey in Antarctica. www.elisakorenne.com; www.myspace.com/antarcticatheplay
ANTARCTICA
- Nature Recordings by Global Journey
(2007)
Global
Journey is a music, audio and video programming and distribution firm,
dedicated to many and various lifestyle and nature themes, with offices in the
U.K. and U.S. Its CDs are composed
and performed by professional musicians and artists and the firm specializes in
non mainstream markets. The Antarctica CD is a 51-minute presentation of wind, pounding water,
storms and various wildlife sounds.
According to the liner notes Antarctica is a place of such raw beauty and
unspoilt landscapes, a stunning wilderness of great importance. The polar experience is one of awe
inspiring imagery from the Southern Lights (Aurora Australis) and
whale-watching to the amazing penguin colonies and the glacial configurations. Global Journey CD GJ3715;
www.global-journey.com
ANTARCTICA - A Portrait in Wildlife and
Natural Sound
(2007)
Originally released on LP in 1971, this
48-minute British CD is a collection of 16 tracks of natural Antarctic sounds,
including penguins, seals, birds, ice movement, blizzard, spring, rough seas
and huskies. It was recorded over
1969-70 and produced by the then British Antarctic Survey meteorologist/filmmaker
and later author, Edwin Mickleburgh.
He has provided an extensive liner booklet with copious notes about the
nature and wildlife of each recorded scene. Saydisc CD-SDL219; www.saydisc.com
ICE – PIANO SLIGHTLY CHILLED (2007) by Fiona Joy Hawkins; ANGEL
ABOVE MY PIANO by Fiona
Joy Hawkins (2006)
Fiona Joy is an Australian painter and pianist
whose 2006 CD of romantic New Age piano presents a suite of Antarctic
Interludes, which
includes Crystal Desert, Dance of the Penguins, Flight of the Albatross and Angel Above My Piano. Her 2007 CD, with added percussion and accompaniment,
contains Antarctic Wings, a perkier sounding reprise of Flight of the Albatross from her 2006 disc, as well as Snow
Bird, a vocal
version of the same piece. She told us in 2007: I went out of
New Zealand and into Hobart, Australia on an Orion Expedition Cruise (2005) -
we went to the Antarctic Continent – most boats only go from South
America to the Peninsula. I
believe that less than six boats go there each year – we went to the
lowest latitude you can sail to. The
boat was fantastic and had two pianos on board – thus I could write as I
looked out the window. As I am a conceptual writer, I need subject
matter, and Antarctica is perfect to write music about. In my mind I captured what it is like,
I hope other people agree – I guess its always something personal. I have to be
honest, there were several places I went that I could hear no music whatsoever
– it was simply too desolate and there was too much hardship (Scotts
Hut) – but the beauty of the ocean, the glaciers, the sunset, the
mountains and the wildlife were irresistible to write about. Fionas Antarctic video clips,
including scenes of her playing the piano on the ship, have appeared on www.youtube.com (use Penguin Whisperer in the
search box). Little Hartley Music
FJH002 (2006 disc) and FJH003 (2007 disc); www.fionajoyhawkins.com;
www.littlehartleymusic.com
THE ANTARCTIC BALLADS by Cliff Wedgbury (2006)
Cliff Wedgbury is a Cork, Ireland-based
literary writer and performing artist and broadcaster who has produced his own
folk song tribute to the heroes of the Golden Era of Antarctic exploration of
the early 1900s. According to the
liner notes, he was originally inspired as a youngster in 1956 when he visited
the R.S.S. Discovery, the ship used on Robert Scotts 1901-04 first Antarctic
expedition, which was then docked in London, England. In 2009, Cliff told us that My interest began one
hot summer Sunday afternoon when my late father took myself and my older sister
up to central London from our home in the suburbs, to visit Capt. Scotts first
Antarctic ship Discovery, which was berthed at that time on the Thames. After that visit and the stories he
told us of Antarctic exploration, I saved up my pocket-money and purchased a
second-hand copy of South With Scott by Lt. Teddy Evans. As a teenager I learnt folk guitar, and
began writing songs, but it is only in the past nine years that I wrote the
Antarctic ballads, spurred on by reading, Unsung Hero by Michael Smith, about
Irishman Tom Crean. I sang at the
unveiling ceremony of his statue by his two surviving daughters. I also sang my ballads below decks on Discovery
with Scotts grandson, Edward Wilsons nephew David, and Lt. Teddy Evans son
Broke. Last November (2008), I
sang at the Shackleton Museum in Athy, Co. Kildare. The CD has 12 tuneful songs, sung in an earnest, earthy
baritone voice with guitar accompaniment.
Titles include five ballads, The Ballads of Robert Falcon Scott,
Ernest Shackleton, Teddy Evans, Of The Invalid and Tom Crean. Other songs include Soldier,
Soldier, Where The Icebergs Flow, Sailor
Boy, Sweethearts and Wives, Daddy Will You Tell Us, Emilys Song and Each Dawn Seems So New. The CD comes with a booklet with the
Scott and Shackleton histories, all the song lyrics plus music notation for The
Ballad of Ernest Shackleton and The
Ballad of Tom Crean, who was a hero of both
Scotts and Shackletons expeditions.
www.myspace.com/cliffwedgbury
ANTARCTICA SONGS by The Aquatic Ape Theory (2006) (Web site
download only)
TAAT is the alter ego of San Diego-based Jim
Behrens. This collection of folksy
roots rock was recorded at the Australian Antarctic base, Davis Station and
mixed onboard the supply ship RSV Aurora Australis. Tracks include White White (sample lyrics: White white, everywhere you
look is white, Sunlight comin up from below. My face is turning red, its time for me to go to bed and
dream of dreams of home. Ive been
puttin in my time of workin on the line, and in this strange empty place
filled with snow, day turns to night, someone forgot to turn off the lights.),
Sun Dogs, Amery, Vegemite and In a Tent (In a blizzard).
We asked Jim in 2008 about the background of
his music and he provided the following remarkable biography: I am a
geophysicist, and was fortunate enough to spend two summer seasons working in
Antarctica as a post-doc at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. I made a website during my second
season (2006-07) where you can learn about the project and day-to-day life in
the Antarctic: http://loose-tooth.ucsd.edu. At the top of the science page there
is a link to a YouTube video I put together that gives a good summary as
well. On the links page there is
a link to photographs from the 2005-06 season, when the songs were written and
recorded.
I brought my guitar and harmonicas, along with a bare-bones recording rig, during that first season, 2005-06. I spent two solid months living in tents on the Amery Ice Shelf as part of a 6-person field team, which is when I wrote the songs and lyrics. We were collecting seismic data by laying out geophone arrays and setting off small charges of dynamite, to measure the thickness of the ice and the depth of the seawater beneath us. One of the women in the team (Marianne Okal) was a classically-trained violinist, she brought a mandolin which she played wonderfully, and we wrote the music to Amery together, and she wrote her part for Sun Dogs. The album cover photo is a timed self-portrait of us posing in front of the midnight sun out on the ice shelf. We spent the final month of the season based back at Davis Station, where I stayed up late many nights to record the tracks in an empty room in the science building. The hard walls and high ceiling created a nice natural reverb. There is a band hut at Davis as well, and there were a surprising number of musicians down there that season. I set up and recorded the drum tracks in the hut one afternoon, after most everything else had been recorded to a click track. I played all the instruments except for some of the mandolin parts. I mixed the songs during the two-week icebreaker transit back to Hobart, Tasmania, and sent them off to get mastered once I returned to California.
The lyrics for White White, Sun Dogs, and Amery are my interpretations of and meditations on life on the ice shelf: being so far from home and spending the holidays with a small group of relative strangers; the overwhelming beauty, remoteness, and hostility of the environment; the interpersonal conflicts as well as the camaraderie; the mental and physical strain that accumulated over two months out there. I came up with the bridge for White White while on a long snowmobile transit one fine morning. The line sun dogs, halos, iridescent rainbows refers to the unusual atmospheric optical effects that occur in the cold, clean air down there. One night when I got out of my tent around 2 am and a low fog had settled on the ice shelf, there were sun dogs projected into the fog that looked to be about 10 meters away from my face. Astonishing. Vegemite is about me learning to love the stuff. The expedition was run by the Australian Antarctic Division, and so there was an endless supply of Vegemite. I wrote that one in about 10 minutes, and recorded the guitar and vocals on the first take. In aTent (In a Blizzard) is actually two overlapping ambient sound recordings, made with the internal mic on my laptop, in two different tents on successive nights during a week-long blizzard. I had intended to record some spare, simple guitar to go with it, but ran out of time. I brought gear down again for the second season, but it was shorter, and when I was at Davis Station I had many more opportunities to get out on long multi-day hikes in the local area, which I couldnt pass up. I made time for music as well, but was mostly jamming with the other musicians at the base, and never really got any substantial recording done.
Well thats probably more that
you wanted to know, but its not often that someone asks me about the music I
make, which is my true passion in life. I always travel with at least a
guitar, and am always writing songs as I go. I got about halfway through
a proper album earlier this year, but had to put it on hold – Ive been
at sea in the Arctic now since May, but all the background noise on a ship makes
it a bad place to record. Anyway, Ill be back home soon, and back to my
studio with new songs in my head.
www.jimbo.cc
HELLO ANTARCTICA by Max Marlow and Ma5kin3 (2006)
(Web site download only)
Max Marlow is a German electronic musician
whose 26-minute Hello Antarctica suite of five ambient tracks contains some
appropriately sinister, icy themes that would be ideal background soundtracks
for a creepy movie involving escapes through deep glaciers, crevasses and
underground caverns. Metro024; www.retropublik.net;
www.myspace.com/maxmarlow
THE COLDEST PLACE ON EARTH by Green Bean Music (2006)
Green Bean, based in Evanston, Illinois was
formed in 2002 by teacher Bill Corrough and songwriter/producer Ryan Bassler to
create enjoyable musical productions for students, teachers and parents. Their web sites says that, Kids want
to hear and sing songs that their big brothers and sisters listen to, not songs
that sound like what adults think they like. There are twelve musicals in their CD catalogue and this is
a great one, about Antarctica, with the tracks The Coldest Place on Earth, Race to the Pole, Ice Formations, Antarctic Penguins, and Which Way is North. The up-beat songs are in three sets, with the first
performed by Green Bean, the second has vocals by a group of children and the
third has instrumentals only, for a sing along. The performance package also includes a data disc with the
lyrics, music, spoken parts for the musical presentation and additional
information about Antarctica with Web site references. Ryan told us that, Our music
company has been writing 2-3 musicals a year, and one of the recurring themes
has been the Continents, so Antarctica was bound to happen sometime. Probably one of the only times you'll
hear 200 kids singing about Ernest Shackleton.
Polyholiday Records phcdr206; www.greenbeanmusic.com
BLOODY SEA by Merzbow (2006)
Merzbow is a Japanese experimental electronic
music project begun by Masami Akita in 1979. Alone or with numerous collaborators, he has released
numerous CDs as well as books and articles about subcultures and recently,
animal rights. Music may be a
generous description of his abstract synthesizer mosaics, which might otherwise
be described as noise. The present
CD is a three-part Anti-Whaling Song, which may take more than three listenings to
absorb. The sound is harsh and
difficult to listen to, in keeping with the harsh, bloody and unpleasant topic.
The CD cover notes present a strident polemic
against so-called Japanese scientific whaling in the Antarctic, which begins: In November, 2006, the Japanese whaling fleet will set sail
for the icy waters of Antarctica.
Their target - 50 Humpback Whales, 50 Fin Whales and almost l000 Minke
Whales. In the next l6 years,
unless this obscene scientific whaling program, known as JARPA 2, is stopped,
the Japanese whaling fleet will slaughter l7,000 Minke Whales, 800 Humpbacks
and 800 Fin Whales. The murder of
these beautiful creatures spells the end of the global moratorium on the
killing of whales as Japans so-called scientific whaling is nothing more
than a commercial killing operation.
The Japanese Government subsidises its whaling industry with thousands
of dollars each year. Japanese
warehouses are piled high with mountains of unused whale meat. School children are given whale
hamburgers and sausages in an attempt to turn them on to eating whale
meat. The truth is that the market
for whale meat in Japan is almost non-existent. Yet still the Japanese Government pursues its deadly agenda
of turning the worlds oceans into a slaughterhouse for whales. Old whalers who worked in Antarctica in
the fifties, when thousands and thousands of whales were killed, cannot wipe
the memories of the hideous slaughter from their minds..
Tell
your family, friends, workmates that the whales will die unless we, the people
act. There is legal action which
can be taken to stop the slaughter.
There is hope. Miracles can
happen, but we must create the magic.
The whales demand no less.
The great mind in the waters is calling on caring humans to ensure their
survival. This call is nothing
less than the crossroads of our humanity, our survival. Do it! VIVO2006022CD; www.merzbow.net
DARK ADVENTURE RADIO THEATRE PRESENTS H. P.
LOVECRAFTS AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS (2006)
The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society (of
Glendale, California) has adapted one of Lovecrafts best regarded stories in
the form of a spooky 75 minute radio play in the way it might have been
produced in the 1930s. If you ever
thought that early life oozed out of a tropical Antarctica, then this is for
you. The story, originally written
in 1931, appeared as a serialized edition in Astounding Stories in 1936 and was published as a
novella in 1939. Byrd-era
Antarctic technology is combined with unbounded sci-fi imagination in a
university Antarctic expedition gone wrong. Despite the exaggerated imagery, this classic story asks a
good question – how far should science go for the sake of curiosity? It concludes that some things are
better left unearthed. www.cthulhulives.org
HP LOVECRAFT was also the name of a 1960s
eclectic Chicago and later Marin County, California folk rock/ psychedelic band,
which issued two records in 1967 and 1968. Both were issued as a CD package in 2000 and the second, HP
LOVECRAFT II (1968)
contains the track At the Mountains of Madness.
Apparently about a bad acid trip, no Antarctic content is discernible,
despite the notable title.
Collectors Choice Music 314542821-2; www.collectorschoicemusic.com
HAPPY FEET - Music from the Motion Picture (2006)
The Warner Bros. film about Mumbles, the
Antarctic penguin who cant sing but can tap dance up a storm became an early
box office success and won the Oscar for best animated feature film of
2006. The recycled dance music of
the soundtrack is sung by many currently hip singers but unfortunately there
was no apparent attempt here to create fresh music that would be Antarctic in
lyrics or mood. Warner
Sunset/Atlantic CD83998; www.happyfeetmovie.com
ANTARCTIC JOURNAL – Original
Soundtrack composed
by Kenji Kawai (2005)
South Korean director Yim Pil-Sung has made an
Antarctic mystery and psychological thriller about six expeditioners crossing
the continent. After they find a
journal from another expedition that disappeared 80 years ago, turmoil and
terror abound. The soundtrack is
pretty bleak and bare, likely matching the mood of the film, which has not yet
caught any publicity in North America.
Sony Music Direct (Japan) Inc. MHCP 840
ANTARCTICA - Musical Images from the Frozen
Continent by Craig
Vear (2005)
Vear, a British
electroacoustic composer and musician, won an Arts Council England Fellowship,
in conjunction with the British Antarctic Surveys Artists and Writers
Programme, to spend three months over 2003/04 on British bases in the Antarctic
Peninsula area. The result was the
multi-media Antarctica, which includes a small book of his diaries and other
commentaries, a CD of recorded Antarctic wildlife sounds, ice breaking and
glacial melting, and a DVD. The
DVD includes an electro-acoustic composition comprised of original field
recordings of wildlife, mechanical and human sounds, portraying the interactions
of the people with their environments.
Enlighten Entertainment Ltd.; www.ev2.co.uk; www.myspace.com/craigvear; (See
also ANTARCTICA by Craig Vear (2011) in this section and SUMMERHOUSES by Craig
Vear (2009) in the individual songs section.)
LA MARCHE DE LEMPEREUR by Emilie Simon (2005)
This is the soundtrack for the French film of
the same name by Luc Jacquet (English title: March of the Penguins), a soaring
flockumentary about the harsh frozen world of Emperor penguins. The original French version of the film
has actors cutely voicing penguins while the English version has narration by
Morgan Freeman and a different soundtrack. The original French film music, by Simon, a French singer
and instrumentalist, is in an electropop New Age style with English vocals,
reminiscent of Icelandic singer Bjrk.
Some of the song titles include The Frozen World, Antarctic, Baby Penguins, Aurora Australis. All is White, Footprints in the Snow. Barclay 9827008.
There is also a version of this disc with the English title MARCH OF
THE EMPRESS (2005) Milan
M2-36276; (See also
MARCH OF THE PENGUINS Original Score by Alex Wurman (2005) in the preceding Classical Antarctica
commentary.)
VOICES OF HISTORY 2 - Arts, Science &
Exploration (2005)
In this second set of vocal recordings of
famous people from the British Library Sound Archive, there is a 3.48 minute
recitation by Ernest Shackleton titled A description of the dash for the
South Pole,
recorded on June 23, 1909.
Shackleton very briefly outlines the British Antarctic (Nimrod)
Expedition of 1907-09, which he led and which was the first to scale Mount
Erebus and send men to the South Magnetic Pole. Shackleton and three others came within 112 miles of the
South Pole itself, before conditions made them turn back. He ends with a quote from Robert
Service, famous for his poetry of Canadas northern Yukon area. British Library NSACD 19-20; www.bl.uk/soundarchive;
(See also the
compilation SINFONIA ANTARTICA/SCOTT OF THE ANTARCTIC (2009) in the Classical Antarctica:
Ralph Vaughan Williams section and LET US NOT FORGET – A Tribute to
the Phonograph - Historic Speech Recordings (1973) in this
section.)
YETI SOCIETY by Harald Grosskopf (2004)
Harald Grosskopf is a veteran German drummer/percussionist and composer in the electronic music world for his own groups as well as a performer with other artists. His fifth solo album, with an iceberg on the back cover, has Shackletons 1914-16 Endurance Expedition to Antarctica as its overall theme. The interesting, tuneful beat-heavy tracks include Circumspection, Bravery, Elephant Island, Endurance, South Georgia, Broad Liquids and Endeavourance. Harald explained to us in 2009 the reason for his general Antarctic theme on the album: I was very much inspired by reading the incredible logbook/diary of Sir Ernest Shackleton. His strength and intelligence made them successfully cross, in a tiny lifeboat, the damned cold southern ice sea for more than 600 miles, with most primitive navigation tools, in rough seas with bad sightings (upon sun and stars) and saved his comrades lives, after another year of several painful tries, with the loss of just one man out of thirty somethingMost thrilling! Groove GR 110; www.haraldgrosskopf.de
HIDDEN LANDSCAPE: LAKE VOSTOK by various artists (2004)
Eight Australian musicians have each
contributed a track of ambient music in this disc dedicated to Antarcticas
largest subglacial lake. It is
located under more than two miles of ice and believed to be up to 15 million
years old. The water in the lake,
from the melting of the underside of the ice sheet, may be up to one million
years old. The dark toned music on
the disc, while not a bubbly listening experience, captures well, the timeless
and languid nature of water hidden over frozen eons of time. These would be great soundtracks for
cinema. Track titles include some
very descriptive themes: Silent Voices of the Extremophiles-Bright Steel
Blind Waters, Under
a Blue Sun, Atlantis
Blueprints and Beneath
the Lake-Subatomic Movements. The 72-minute CD was
compiled by Australian ambient musician and promoter Zac Keiller and includes
one of his own pieces, Beyond the Ice-Submergence-Exploration. He told us in 2008 that I was watching a documentary
on Lake Vostok one day and the idea of the lake inspired my imagination. I thought that the premise would lend
itself to some fascinating sound pieces, and luckily it all worked out. Dreamland Recordings (no record #
given); www.dreamlandrecordings.com
LAKE VOSTOK by Sternenspringer (2004) (Web site download
only)
Sternenspringer is the musical project of two
Frankfurt, Germany-based ambient/techno electronic musicians, Jrgen Rieger and
Gerd Neusser. This 23-minute,
4-track work, Lake Vostok, named for Antarcticas mysterious subsurface lake, has the following
description in the Web site: icy
textures and tricky rhythmic elements fill the range, that sternenspringer span
in each track - a movie for the big screen in four aural scenes. The duo told us in 2008 that for
the sternenspringer music we are looking always for a kind of topic. In this case we read an article in a
newspaper (journal) and were
fascinated about this natural phenomenon and decided to create some
techno/electro tracks. We hope the
music mirrored this unique natural
spectacle. Tonatom.038; www.tonatom.net;
www.sternenspringer.de
BIRD SONGS IN THE ANTARCTIC INCLUDING SOUTH
GEORGIA & FALKLAND ISLANDS (2004)
Recorded from the Explorer II, this 31-minute
British CD has tracks of 24 birds and penguins recorded from the Antarctic
Peninsula area, South Georgia, Falkland Islands and Ushuaia. Mandarin Productions MP CD5; www.mandarinproductions.com
MUSIC FROM CHRISTOPHER KULIKOWSKIs
RETROGADE by
Stephen Melillo (2004)
Quickly shot in a short time with a low budget,
this sci-fi film stars Dolph Lundgren.
Its about a group of scientists, travelling back from the future to the
present time, who land on the Antarctic pack ice, where the polar research
vessel, Nathaniel Palmer, is chasing a comet and has itself become trapped in
the same ice. Throw in some deadly
extraterrestrial bacteria and mutinous space travellers, and things are not
looking good on board the ship.
Unfortunately, the film has had no exposure in North America and may
have limited distribution/availability on DVD. Although the CD package is bare bones with only a track
listing, Stephen Mellilos entire score, including the track Antarctica, is suitably spooky and may be
better than the film. Mellilo, an
American conductor, educator and composer, has scored over 950 works for films,
ensembles and symphonies and his work has been nominated for Academy and Emmy
awards. Stormworks; www.cdbaby.com
ANTARCTINA by YNEY (2004)
This CD of instrumental tracks related to
Antarctica was recorded in Moscow by a trio of established avant-garde Russian
musicians (Yuri Orlov, Andrei Kireev & Igor Shaposhnikov). The bouncy, though repetitive,
percussive electronic music has titles such as Appearance from Above, Stroll, Flight over the Continent, Fly Out, Return to Bosom and Light of the Antarctina Star. While the CD booklet is in Russian, the track titles are
also listed in English.
Electroshock Records ELCD 041; www.electroshock.ru
T & Ts REAL TRAVELS IN ANTARCTICA -
Original Soundtrack Music composed and recorded by Thomas Downie (2004)
A 23-minute disc containing 12 themes with
titles from numerous places along the Antarctic Peninsula, such as King
George Island, Deception
Island and Lemaire
Channel. The short melodic orchestral sounding
pieces are from T & Ts Antarctica DVD of a 2004 Peninsula trip on board
the M/V Orlova. TTRT004;
www.ttrealtravels.com
ALIEN VS. PREDATOR - Original Motion Picture
Soundtrack, music
by Harald Kloser (2004)
As much we always look forward to the very rare
movie set in Antarctica, this one could have just as easily been based in a
desert or in a jungle. The
Antarctic became irrelevant to the theme of aliens fighting it out in a pyramid
built deep in the ice by three ancient cultures. The eerie instrumental soundtrack music, similar to that of
another spooky Antarctic movie, The Thing, contains a tune entitled Antarctica and likely the first and only
musical track ever to be named Bouvetya Island, the most isolated island on the planet, in
the Southern Ocean. Varse
Sarabande 302 066 605 2; www.avp-movie.com
SEA OF GLORY Americas Voyage of Discovery -
The U.S. Exploring Expedition 1838-1842 by Nathaniel Philbrick, read by Dennis
Boutsikaris (2003)
While CD audio books are otherwise not being
listed in this music Discography, this 5-CD, 6-hour package is the exception,
and is a superb invitation/teaser for reading the book by Philbrick. According to the cover notes, The U.S.
Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842 was one of the most ambitious undertakings of
the nineteenth century. They
discovered a new southern continent, which Wilkes would name Antarctica. They were the first Americans to reach
the treacherous Columbia River; the first to chart dozens of newly discovered
islands all across the Pacific.
The story pivots around Charles Wilkes – a self-destructive dynamo
who undermined his own prodigious feats by alienating his crew and officers,
fighting battles with his sponsors, and jealously guarding what should have
been a proud national legacy.
Polar historian Laurence Kirwan described the
U.S. Ex Ex as the worst prepared and most controversial expedition to sail the
Antarctic seas (ref. Lonely Planet Antarctica). Although Antarctic exploration was only part of its mandate,
it managed to follow 1250 miles of East Antarctic coastline, later known as
Terre Adlie and Wilkes Land, making, arguably, the first east continental sighting just days before
the French Expedition under Dumont dUrville. CDs 2 & 3 cover the voyages to the South Shetland
Islands and along the Adlie Coast, respectively. Penguin Audiobooks 80023-6; www.penguin.com; (See also FAIR WINDS
AND A FOLLOWING SEA by
The Boarding Party (2003) - The Old Peacock - in the following Individual Antarctic songs
section.)
ANTARCTIC MOSAIC by Maurizio Bianchi (2003)
Italian composer of sonic dissonance, Bianchi
has produced a 74-minute two-part collage and pastiche of electronic sounds and
noises. According to the English
translation of his Italian liner notes, Being eager for immaculate spaces and
for spheres of pure sentiment, I felt need to take inspiration from the
so-called frozen continent, the unique place in which the human presence
doesnt completely contaminate the habitat yet. The hostile surroundings and the prohibitive temperatures
rendered possible the perpetuation of the most uncontaminated and stimulating
frozen paradise. Yes, this is
the most appropriate term as probably, in the beginning, Antarctica was an
immense park or paradise; but after the post-Flood upsetting events (from the
autumn of 2370 BC onwards), when unexpectedly and suddenly the temperatures
fell many centigrade degrees, all at once this continent became cold, turning
into the present Antarctica. All
of this is well emphasized in the first track called Antarctic, while in the
second one, Mosaic, the listeners mind is projected into the immediate
future, when, after the decontamination process of human presence on the Earth,
the temperatures will return milder.
Maybe even the ex-frozen continent will be colonized in a peaceful and
rational manner by the New Earths members, a new human society which will
transform the whole planet into a wonderful Paradise, to eternal glory of He
Who from the beginning proposed that this is how it must be. To all of you, current members of that
future New Earth, a warm and enthusiastic Have a good listening! EEsT Records 15MB015
VOSTOK by Craig Padilla (2002)
Padilla is a northern California-based
electronic musician and performer with a preference for older analog
synthesizers. Vostok is a relaxing, 51-minute
single-track ambient instrumental.
As with Antarctica, nothing much changes for long stretches of time, but
also nothing stays the same. According
to the liner notes, Inspired by the mysterious depths of the hidden lake under
Antarctica, VOSTOK is a haunting voyage into an unknown space filled with
wonder and awe. Padilla
masterfully crafts a subterranean soundworld, transforming electronic
instruments into subtle abstract beauty that feels no less organic than
inorganic, in this visionary longform ambient work. Padillas own liner notes describe it as music realized in
contemplation of the inner stillness reflected by a distant, sub-glacial lake
beneath Antarctica. Jewel-like and
crystalline, yet dark, cool, and ancient the muse of Lake Vostok flowed through
me like a resonant glacier. Now
this unique, vibrant soundscape flows to you. I hope that you find the vision and sonic space as riveting
and transforming as I have.
Peace.
Craig told us in 2007 that I hope you
are enjoying the musical atmosphere.
I remember when I recorded that piece: I had just read a
fascinating article in WIRED Magazine about how satellites had discovered an
unknown lake underneath a lot of ice.
According to the article, once it was discovered, scientists theorized
that the hidden lake may contain many keys to the origins of life since the
water was uncontaminated by our atmosphere for millions of years! So, they began to drill a hole down to
the water when they suddenly realized that by doing so theyd expose the lake
to our atmosphere, and so they stopped the drilling by a few meters of hitting
the water!
It was a very interesting story, to say the least! (Also during that time, I had been listening to some long-form ambient music that was nice, but not too terribly interesting from a musical/long song stand-point.) So, a day or so later, I went into the recording studio to create a long-form ambient piece that could be heard during sleep, but it also had to hold the interest of the listener. In other words, I didnt want to create wallpaper ambient music. I wanted to make music that wasnt distracting so somebody could study or sleep with it on in the background, and at the same time it had to be interesting so that somebody could sit down and just listen to it from beginning to end and enjoy the experience (and I think I was quite successful!)
I recorded the track live in one
take! The light wind sounds and heavy slow-moving glacial bass lines
made me think of the article I had just read; and the rest is history!
This track was unlike anything I was recording at the time, but I really
enjoyed it and still do! (And thankfully, so does my wife!) Spotted Peccary Music SPM-1401; www.craigpadilla.com
ANTARCTICA REVISITED by Mr. I, Gary Huntbatch and Anise
Abdulla (2002)
British Columbia, Canada-based teacher and
musician-entertainer Mr I (Yurgen Ilaender) has produced many CDs about
geography and science for kids. He
told us, I have worked in Montessori pre-schools for nearly twenty years
now. Antarctica is a popular
Montessori theme. The children can
study an environment not spoiled by man.
Lots of wonderful things happen in the classroom. The songs came from several years of
teaching the young children about Antarctica. The CD includes 17 tracks with titles such as Land So Far
Away, Antarctica Song,
Seals, McMurdo
Station, Food Chain,
Crusty Krill and
An Ice Rap. The CD was completely redone is 2007
and reissued in 2008 with new vocals and instrumental tracks under the title of
ANTARCTICA. ANT-6 and ANT-7; www.childmusicmri.com
(See also ALL COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD by Mr. I, Gary Q & the Rainbow Singers (2009) in the following Individual
Antarctic songs section.)
ELEPHANT ISLAND by Adam Schabtach (2002)
There is an eye-catching cover photo of the
bleak ice-coated island of Shackletons legendary 1914-16 Endurance Expedition,
taken by a retired Rear Admiral of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration. The musical
content comprises a single 66-minute synthesizer piece composed and recorded in
a continuous improvisation. Its
pretty much just a long drawn out monotonic ambient dirge - not an awful lot going
on there, which in its way may well be echoing the survival routine of much of
the Expedition. ATOM CD 17;
www.atomiccity.com
MARTY QUINN PRESENTS THE CLIMATE
SYMPHONY by Marty Quinn
(2001)
According to its Web site, Design Rhythmics
Sonification Research Lab works with scientists and museums to turn information
and data into music. Why music? Not only do we love music, but it just
so happens that music is composed of a very rich palette of qualities upon
which data may be mapped and thereby perceived by the brain through the
auditory channel. Music stimulates
cognition and memory, and offers those who are blind or visually handicapped
the opportunity to understand information and gain knowledge in new ways. By working with scientists who are shedding
new light on our world, and the museums and centers who are helping to
disseminate it, we seek to create innovative, pleasurable and accessible audio
information presentation solutions for the public to get it by hearingThe DRSRL is a new direction in the synthesis between
science, music, and the arts. We
provide sonification services to enhance the scientific public outreach efforts
for research groups throughout the world. Its principal is New Hampshire-based computer scientist and
composer/percussionist Marty Quinn.
The present CD is a four-part lecture
presentation of How 110,000 years of Earths ice core data was mapped into
music, including the 7½-minute Symphony itself, an arpeggiated
synthesizer/percussion track that goes through its paces at increasing speed
over time.
Ice core samples were taken from the
Greenland Ice Sheet by a team led by Dr. Paul Mayewski, Director of the Climate
Change Research Center at the University of New Hampshire. Changing concentrations of eight major
ions taken from the ice samples, over time periods, outlined the history of
atmospheric circulation through changes in the continental ice sheets. Various ion concentration data values
were then related to pitches and different instruments, as they varied time. Sun and ocean cycles, volcanic
activity, the earths wobble, changing tilt and elliptical orbit were also
introduced through other instruments with changing pitches and beat variations.
The Climate Symphony multi-media
presentation was originally premired in 2000 at The American Museum of Natural
History in New York, where pre-show music derived from sonified radar scans
from Antarcticas Ross Sea Ice shelf were also presented. In 2000, it was also shown at the
National Science Foundation in Washington by invitation of the Directors
Office of Public Affairs and the Office of Polar Programs and has had later
presentations. The Climate
Symphony is also included on Marty Quinns compilation CD of musical mappings of other natural data, MUSIC
OF THE EARTH, SUN, PLANETS & SPACE – Volume I (2005); www.drsrl.com
TIME TRAVEL IS LONELY by John Vanderslice (2001)
Vanderslice is a San Francisco-based indie
folk-rock artist/story teller and producer. His second CD is a concept album about his apparently
fictional brother, who is a snow-trapped programmer at an Antarctic geology
field camp. The nine diary entries
in the liner notes reveal the mental decline of the brother, particularly after
he loses his computers E-mail connection and hard drive to a virus. The songs, while not Antarctic in
content, echo this state of regression, which ends with visions of Tiananmen
Square and the sinking of the Kursk submarine. At first, the diarist is lucid: I am not going to say its cold
here, and I wont tell you about the vast, infinite emptiness that draws every
sad lonely feeling out of your breathless soul and drops it on the bluish snow,
right at your polypropylene boots.
Later on, his mind wanders: I am going crazy. I crawl out of my hut to scrape my windows, I cant bear to
be stuck in a white frosted box with nothing but the shortwave. The sun crests up around 9 pm and fades
after an hour or so. Have I told
you about whiteouts? USGS survival
manual: a polar hazard where all horizon definition between land and sky, solid
ground & coast, vanishes. We
are in a whiteout. A little girl
has been coming by at night, she lives at McMurdo Base, (which seems far) but
she comes to talk she tells me my station is an ECHELON relay base. I need to look into this. She said I should smash it up! Ahh youth. I need to talk to you soon. The CD cover has a striking but spooky drawing of a blue,
black, white ocean frozen ocean scene with reddish sky with a silhouetted
Endurance crushed in the ice. The
CD itself is embossed with a crevassed modern van superimposed over the wreck
of the Endurance. Barsuk Records
bark17; www.johnvanderslice.com
WHALE CHASING MEN - Songs of Whaling in Ice
and Sun by Harry
Robertson (2001)
Harry Robertson (1923-1995) was a native
Glaswegian who immigrated to Australia in 1952, worked during 1950-51 as an
engineer with the Norwegian whaling fleet in the Antarctic and wintered over at
South Georgia. He became a seminal
influence in the Australian folk movement of the 1960s and made the
above-titled LP in 1971. Through the efforts of his widow and
friends, the LP was released on CD in 2001 by Australias National Screen &
Sound Archive as its first folk reissue.
Through spoken introductions and instrumental accompaniments, the songs
and chanteys mince no words about the gruesome, hard scenes of the whaling
experience and Antarctic references abound. The lyrics of the Antarctic track, The Antarctic Fleet, are:
I went down south a-whaling, to the
land of ice and snow, And eight-and-twenty pounds a month, was all I had to
show, For being on a little ship like sardine in a can, And eating salty pork
and beef, they stewed up in a pan.
Chorus: Heigh-ho!
Whale-oh, Wi the Antarctic fleet, Ive got a drip upon me nose and Im frozen
in the feet.
South Georgia is an island, it is a Whaling Base, And only men in search of
whales, would go to such a place, No entertainment does exist unless you make
home brew, Then we would have some singing and, wed have some fighting too.
Our gunner came from Norway, like
many of the crew, And others spoke wi Scottish tongues, as Whalers often do,
But when the ship was closing in to make the bloody kill, The Scotsmen and
Norwegians worked together with a will.
We sailed down to the Weddell Sea
where the big Blues can be found, We chased between the icebergs and, we chased
them round and round, And when they couldnt run no more, and fought to draw
their breath, Our gunners shot harpoons in them, till they floated still in
death.
For months we sailed the ocean,
and wearied with the toil, Of slaughter and of killing just to get that smelly
oil, And when the savage storms blew and snow kept falling down, I often wished
that I was back, in dear old Glasgow town.
Its twenty years since Ive been
there, and I wont go there again, I didnt like the climate but, I liked the
Whaling Men, And even in the sunshine now, when I walk along the street, Ive
got a drip upon me nose, and Ive still got frozen feet. ScreenSound Australia CD/SSA/WC0022; www.nfsa.afc.gov.au; (See also FOLKLORIC RECORDING: Folk Songs
Sung by Harry Robertson and Don Henderson (1967) in the Individual Songs section.)
THE ICESTOCK 2001 PROJECT (2001)
The first music compilation disc from
Antarctica includes live performances at the Coffee House and the Womens
Soire at the U.S. McMurdo Station.
Organized by G.W. Krauss, the project was a labour of love, undertaken
and completed by volunteers. While
the cold weather and dry air may cause numb fingers and warped musical
instruments, Icestock has now become an annual musical festival on New Years
Day. The inaugural CD manages to
cover a lot of ground, or should we say, icy terrain, through various styles
over the 24 tracks. Information
available at: kuwona@bigfoot.com
BLUE SUBMARINE NO. 6 - AONOROKUGO - Original
Soundtrack by the
Thrill (2000)
Originally the name of a Japanese manga print
comic book series, Blue Submarine No. 6 became a four part video animation TV
program in 1998 and was reported to be in planning for a live-action
movie. Based in the near future
when the oceans have flooded most of the earths coastlines, the series
villain/ rogue scientist has a base of operations at the South Pole and is
trying to induce a polar switch with the aid of the South Poles geothermal
energy, in order to teach his brand of humanity to mankind. War later ensues on Antarctica, with
the good guys on Blue Submarine No. 6, part of a peacekeeping force, leading
the way to confront the enemy.
Antarctica, meanwhile, has been transformed into the tropics. The series finally ends with the pole
shift stopped and an uneasy truce for the sake of humanity. Japanese big band/rock group the
Thrill, formed in 1990, provides some very energetic music for the series. Toshiba-EMI Futureland TYVY-10036; www.thethrill.info
PENGUINS ON THE MOON by Sack Trick (2000)
The British Sack Trick is a revolving group of
comedic musicians, in the vein of the late 1960s Bonzo Dog Band. This CD is a heavy metal/music
hall/rock musical about a group of penguins in Antarctica who take a spaceship
to the moon. However, the moon is
not the tropical paradise they imagined and tiring of moon dust cheese and anxious
for a meal of fish, our intrepid explorers returned to the only place they
ever truly called home, having proved themselves to be real lunar chicks. An
entertaining and well played musical trip, with illustrated cartoon lyrics,
from a group of crazies. The
CD was reissued in 2009 on its 9½ year anniversary and Chris Dale, the
albums narrator, bassist/guitarist told us in 2009 about the reason for the
original CD: The motivation was at first something quite random. We wanted to do an abstract concept
album, and thought up two themes, penguins and the moon, just because they didnt
normally match. But then we got
quite involved in the whole plot and concept and did a lot of background
reading into both penguins and the moon.
What started off as a bit of a joke, went quite deep in the end. ORG 212; Raw Power Records RP-017; www.sacktrick.com
VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY Dedicated To The Memory
Of Robert Falcon Scott by D. E. Farmer/Soulspace Music (2000)
Arizona-based composer and musician Farmer has
recently issued this CD of contemporary, romantic instrumental synthesizer
music as his score to an imagined movie about Scott's 1911-12 tragic South Pole
journey. What a marvellous story,
and what a testament to the indomitable human spirit! I hope that the music somehow can act as a memorial of sorts
to Robert and Kathleen Scott. The
11 tracks include titles such as Entering the Ice Pack, Winter at McMurdo Sound, Tea at Mabel Beardsley's, Beat the Norwegians: The Race
is On!, Arrival at the South Pole: January
1912, Kathleen
Scott's Theme. mp3.com 39391
and 167618; www.soundclic.com
WHITE OUT by Johannes Schmoelling (2000)
Schmoelling is a former member of Tangerine
Dream, an internationally successful German recording and touring
synthesizer/electronic music group formed in the late 1960s. The current CD is a remixed and
expanded version of the 1990 original.
The 10 melodic instrumental tracks include titles such as White Out,
Navigators Chatter, Icewalk, A Great Continent, A long Way Home. In his web site, Schmoelling explains his
idealistic intuition that electronic music can create a spacious open landscape
via the detour of the Antarctic.
The sounds that I have used and changed will
in no way deny their origin. They
are noises; the sound of a sonar, the crackling and squeaking of radio sets,
machines, the far-away screeching of birds – and if we close our eyes,
then with each noise we immediately connect to some image of a landscape or
surroundings. For me, this was a
reason to compose entire noise passages – a kind of foundation out of
which the music actually is born.
In a scientific book on the Antarctic, I read
of an optical phenomenon, which occurs under certain conditions of temperature
and of the air: WHITE OUT. It is a
loss of space sensation. The white
erases space, sky and earth flow into each other, a space without depth and
without horizon is created.
Maybe a concept album is nothing else but a
voyage, a departure to another place, which slowly uncovers itself, a shore
that comes closer and piles up as a mountain of ice. Arrival, first announced over the radio, the whirr of machine
noises, entertainment music filling up the crewmens room.
Suddenly (where on the map appeared just an
immense white spot), there is firm ground under your feet and you see: garbage,
food throwouts, tin cans, as if to be preserved for eternity, discarded oil
residue and a tire rut leading to the horizon, where an industrial complex
arises, and then unconsciously, the feeling that here, at the very end of the
world, a war announces itself, that the machines are already in position, that
the fronts are lined up, and when you look around, there is the oldest
landscape in the world (a war with the purpose of eradicating the history of
nature: WHITE OUT.)
As I finalized the work on the album, Reinhold
Messner and Arved Fuchs departed for the Antarctic. Not like before (as was still done in the last century) to
remove the white spots from the map nor with the aim (as at the turn of the
century) to hoist the flag of every which country, but solely because of the
landscape itself, purely because of its being such and nothing else (at the
present time).
And I thought that as a child, even in my
wildest dreams, it never occurred to me that just taking a walk could one day
become a political act. Viktoriapark
VP 00-1; www.johannesschmoelling.de
This CD is a solo project of Briton Kev Fox, who explains in his web site: The three titles on A Distant Memory of Home were composed specifically for an event that took place in June 2000. Adelie Penguin 1993:207 is now a permanent exhibit in Cheltenham Museum as an interesting piece of Antarctic history. It was brought to England as a stuffed specimen by Edward Wilson, returning from his first Antarctic Expedition in 1904, but for many years he stood on a window ledge in Shurdington Village School. He was donated by the Wilson family, as a memento of the local hero, when he failed to return from the fatal attempt on the South Pole with Captain Scott in 1912.
Between June 2nd and June 4th 2000 the Penguin revisited the Village for a weekend of celebrations and over the three days I performed the tracks on A Distant Memory of Home under the watchful eye of the penguin himself, in the 14th century village church.
Intending to portray a longing for the far-off icy wilderness of Antarctica the title piece was recorded live on Saturday 3rd June. The two remaining tracks were written to represent the penguin in his element (On the Ice Floe) and in his display case (In the Museum Case) and were recorded live in Jaguar Sound Studios, using only sources and themes from the title track.
The three pieces move through the freezing winds and seas of the South Polar regions and as the memories fade into the dusty solitude of a glass case, the sounds of the white continent still echoing in the distance.
AAR002; www.ochre.co.uk/90south
THE BARRIER SILENCE by 90 South (1999)
The CD title was taken from Dr. Edward Wilsons
poem of the same name, written during Scotts Terra Nova South Pole Antarctic
Expedition of 1910-13. The CD was
recorded in a studio at Cheltenham, U.K., home of Dr. Wilson and has as its
cover a Wilson painting of Hut Point, headquarters of Scotts first Antarctic
Expedition of 1901-04. The back
cover has a photo of one of the motor sledges used on the Terra Nova
Expedition. A final Antarctic
reference is included in the liner notes with a photo of Admiral Byrds
airplane, Floyd Bennett, landing at his base, Little America at the Bay of
Whales. The two instrumental
Antarctic tracks on the CD include Hut Point and Cape Crozier, the latter a reference to the
destination of the 1911 mid-winter polar journey described by Apsley
Cherry-Garrard in his famous book, The Worst Journey in the World. The music, by Kev Fox, is a
guitar/synthesizer/percussion-based ambient sound. Ochre Records OCH014LCD; www.ochre.co.uk/90south
THE CENTURY IN SOUND (1999)
In this set of recordings of actual speeches or
people reminiscing about events from 1901-1999, taken from the British Library
National Sound Archive, there is an excerpted 1.54 minute recitation by Ernest
Shackleton titled 1909 Expedition to the South Pole. The original 3.48 minute recording was made on June 23,
1909, in which Shackleton very briefly outlines the British Antarctic (Nimrod)
Expedition of 1907-09, which he led and which was the first to scale Mount
Erebus and send men to the South Magnetic Pole. Shackleton and three others came within 112 miles of the
South Pole itself, before conditions made them turn back. This excerpt ends with Shackleton
saying the British flag has flown over both the North and South Magnetic Poles,
followed by the main theme from Sir Edward Elgars Pomp and Circumstance March
No. 1. NSA CD 8; (See also the compilation SINFONIA ANTARTICA/SCOTT OF
THE ANTARCTIC (2009)
in the Classical Antarctica: Ralph Vaughan Williams section.)
FROST 79 40 by Andreas Ammer, F. M. Einheit, Pan Sonic and Gry (1999)
This is a 1998 live recording at
the German Stadttheater Oberhausen and is a musical and spoken (in German and
English) presentation of Robert Scotts diary from his polar expedition and the
tragic return attempt after his team reached the South Pole in 1912. The recording takes its title from the
latitude of their final resting place.
Ammer is a German freelance writer, television journalist and radio and
stage playwright. Einheit (Frank
Martin Strauss) is a German electronic musician and percussionist who has
issued solo CDs as well as collaborations with others. The 25 tracks, of varying length, are
backed by various electronic and industrial soundscapes providing a suitably
bleak and dark musical backing to the narration and singing. F. M. Einheit told us in 2009 about the
reason for the production: We were curious why people do such things in order
to bring fame home to the fatherland.
Funny idea. There will be a
re-release in spring 2010. FM
4.5.1 9185-2; Available from iTunes; www.fmeinheit.org; www.myspace.com/fmeinheitfmeinheit
ANTARTICA by Gale Revilla (1999)
Gale Revilla is a prolific Nevada-based
composer and synthesizer artist with over 20 spiritual New Age CDs in her
catalogue. This one includes
titles such as Horizons, Crystal Storms, The Lost City, Ice Goddess, Antartica,
Aurora Australis,
Adelie Coast and
Leviathan Temple. Her
assistant informed us that Gale had studied about Ancient Civilizations from
many books for decades. One of her
favorite topics was Atlantis and the Ancient land of Lemuria. Those were the foundations that
motivated her to compose the Antartica, Lost Continents and the Mystic
Lands albums. Another of her
favorites in Ancient Civilizations and Empires was, Ancient Egypt. This brought on her motivation to
compose her award winning album Series, Pharaohs. Another album that deals with the Dark Age Empires and
Dragons is her album, Draconis. Her
Native American albums deal with her ancestors and their dying ancient
language. So three were composed
in dedication to her ancestors of centuries past: Day of the Wolf, Liquid
Visions and Whispering Winds on the Red Road. Morning Star Records; www.galerevilla.com
ANTARCTICA SUITE by Wendy Mae Chambers (1999)
Wendy Mae Chambers is a New
Jersey-based musician who visited the Antarctic Peninsula in 1999 as a tourist
and subsequently recorded a CD of piano solo compositions inspired by her
trip. The 13 instrumental tracks, which
Wendy Mae said were modelled after Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition, include titles
descriptive of the wildlife and sights she saw, such as Blue Ice, Penguin Rookery,
Albatross,
Waltz of the Krill, Chinstrap Penguins, Humpback Whales, Weddell Seals and Skua. The chiming chordal and percussive
sounds of her piano are very evocative of the various images she sets out to
portray. www.wendymae.com
ANTARCTIC ARRIVAL - a Tribute to a Frozen
Land by Valmar
Kurol and Marc-Andr Bourbonnais (1999)
This Montreal, Canada-produced CD contains ten
thematic instrumental pieces in New Age/light rock/classical styles, based on
Kurols three visits to Antarctica in the 1990s. Titles include Antarctic Arrival, Never Mind the Icebergs, Flight
of the Albatross, Antarctica
World Beat Theme, Underwater
Waltz, Penguin
Stroll, Seekers
of the Pole, Aurora
Australis, March of the Glaciers, White Winter Curtain. There are also bonus tracks with vocal renditions of two of
the instrumentals. The CD is
available from mtl.ant.soc@sympatico.ca, www.antarcticarrival.com, or by download
on iTunes and Amazon.com.
THE
JUPITER MENACE - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack by
Synergy (1998)
The
Jupiter Menace was a 1984 American film documentary of questionable
science, narrated by George Kennedy, about the devastating effects of the
planet Jupiter on Earth during planetary alignments. The soundtrack of synthesizer music is by Larry Fast, a
U.S.-based synthesizer musician, composer and electronics designer who has
recorded under his project name Synergy.
He has also worked with many international acts such as Peter Gabriel,
Yes and Hall & Oates. The CD
has two short synthesizer instrumental Antarctica-related tracks, The
Mystery of Piri Reis and Return to Admiral Byrds Camp. Piri Reis was an Ottoman-Turkish
admiral whose 1513 world map has been alleged to show part of the Antarctic
Peninsula coastline. The program
hints that the only way the coast under the present ice cap could have been
known was if the continent had been free of ice at the time the map was
made. It also implied that the
periodic build up of ice at Admiral Byrds Camp at his 1928 Little America
Base, i. e. the South Pole region, would lead to a toppling and shift of the
globe. Chronicles 314 558 047-2
ANTARCTICA by Douglas Quin (1998)
This is a CD of natural sounds from the field
produced by Douglas Quin for the Wild Sanctuary series of wildlife recordings. Stereo/surround microphones were
used to record Weddell and leopard seals, orcas, and emperor and Adlie
penguins. Of special note are the
creaks and groans heard from the Canada Glacier and Wind Harps from the Taylor
Valley. The liner notes say that
To create this kind of magic with natural sound takes time, enormous patience,
perseverance, and a keen compositional sense to make lyrical the material heard
on this album. Sounds from the
Antarctic present the ultimate test. Miramar 09006-23113-2 (See
also THE DREAMS OF GAIA by
various artists (1999) and MUSICWORKS 69 (1997) in the
Individual Songs section.)
ANTARCTIC by Mnica X (1998) (Vinyl LP only)
Mnica X is a veteran Spanish DJ and music
promoter/performer who has garnered European and international success with her
touring. This is one of her
earliest singles records and has the three tracks, Antarctic, No Frost (Extreme Cold Version) and Antarctic Melody. Beginning with frosty winds and chants of cold, the
electronic disco music is surprisingly subdued for the genre. The record cover has a catchy
purple/blue hue with a photo of icebergs, overseen by a pair of staring, icy
eyes. Monica X told us in 2008
that the reason for the Antarctic
record was that this place is so far from Spain and we thought about this concept
one summer with hot weather, so we did it to refresh our lives. Dixland Records MX DIX 012;
www.djmonicax.com
TRAVELLERS TALES FROM ANTARCTICA by David & Phil Massey
(1998/1996)
This British CD of instrumental synthesizer New
Age music is part of a collection of Relaxation, Ambient and World Music. The liner notes explain: Perhaps the
most awe inspiring region on earth – Antarctica. Her beauty, mystery, and presence has
called to adventurers for eons and yet she still remains the most unexplored
continent on or planet. This
spiritually expansive Travellers Tale will unfold visions of space, grandeur
and virgin beauty through a magnificent season of superb musical
observation. Some of the track
titles include, Ice Bergs, Vinson Massif, Alone at the Pole, Glacier,
Penguin, The
Coldest Place on Earth. Northstar Music NSMCD
146; www.northstarmusic.co.uk
ANTARTIDA by John Cale (1995)
This is a musical soundtrack to a
Spanish-American film by Manuel Huerga, not so much about Antarctica as a place
but rather, as a state of mind.
Cale is a former member of the rock group Velvet Underground. The music consists of short, sparse,
haunting, melodic themes - Antarctica seems perfectly suited to be a source of
inspiration for minimalist composition.
Les Disques du Crpuscule TWI-1008
The theme song for this soundtrack has its
origin in a Cale song, Antarctica Starts Here found on his solo recording PARIS 1919 (1973). Reprise/Warner Bros. Records Inc. 2131-2
A newer version of this song is also found on
Cales PARIS SEVEILLE (1992), a collection of his soundtracks and music for ballet. MASO CD 90042
A live solo vocal/piano performance by John
Cale of this song, recorded at the Zeche Bochum club in Bochum, Germany in
March 1984 was released on the double CD album JOHN CALE AND BAND LIVE (2010); MIG 90302 2CD/ LC 23370.
The same song, Antarctica Starts Here