ANTARCTICA EXPERIENCED THROUGH MUSIC - Capsule Comments on some currently available CDs about Antarctica

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 Britain's greatest 20^th century composers, was later arranged into his Seventh Symphony, which premiered in 1953 and is considered to be the mother of all Antarctic music. The scoring includes a wind machine and conveys the struggle and desolation of Robert Scott’s final journey. It is a dark, deep, dreary and depressing work, not to be played on a Walkman 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 Orchestra's 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 Hallé Orchestra, conducted by Sir John Barbirolli, is no spring penguin. The full symphony was premièred in January 1953 by Barbirolli and the present performance was recorded in June 1953. This reissue on CD is now the oldest of the ten or so performances of the Symphony currently available on disc. EMI 7243 5 66543 2 7

The issued performances are:

1. Sir John Barbirolli, Hallé 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. A) André Previn, London Symphony Orchestra, recorded 1968; 1995 BMG/RCA 74321 29248

B) André Previn, London Symphony Orchestra, recorded 1968; 1985 BMG 60590-2-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) Boult’s original mono recording by the same orchestra in December 1953 was reissued in a collection of Vaughan Williams’ symphonies in 2002; Decca 4732412.

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

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 (7^th 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 (7^th Symphony) was developed from the soundtrack music of the British Ealing Studio's 1949 film Scott of the Antarctic. The present CD 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, conducted by Ernest Irving, represent various key scenes from the movie and most of them are recognizable in the later full symphony movements. GEM 0107 www.pavilionrecords.com

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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 Westlake’s 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 Westlake’s web site)

PLANET EARTH - Music from the BBC TV Series – music composed and conducted by George Fenton (2006)

BBC’s massive 11-part television documentary about the earth’s 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

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 L’EMPEREUR by Emilie Simon (2005) in the following “non-Classical all or significantly Antarctic” commentary.)

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 “6^th” 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 mean 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

ANTARCTICA - Johan Willem Friso Kapel (unknown date)

Carl Wittrock’s Antarctica, also appeared on another brass band compilation disc of the same name, now discontinued, conducted by Gert Jansen.

MIRRORS OF FIRE - Australian Guitar Originals - Played by Tim Kain (2004)

Australian Kain, together with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra, perform (in 1997) Nigel Westlake’s 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

ANTARCTICA - NHK Television 50^th Anniversary Nankyoku Project (2003)

NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation), Japan’s sole public broadcaster, commemorated the 50^th anniversary of TV broadcasting in Japan in 2003 by establishing an HDTV broadcasting station in Antarctica in 2003. Located at Syowa Station, Japan’s base, this was Antarctica’s 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 haven’t seen the TV programs, it’s 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 Scott’s Discovery Expedition of 1901-04. During the Morning’s 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 ship’s piano, accompanied by riotous noisemaking. More 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 Expedition’s historic artefacts. Reardon Publishing; www.reardon.co.uk

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 Scott’s Antarctic ship RRS Discovery in 1901. The ship itself has been preserved in Dundee, whose Symphony Orchestra premièred 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 the author 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 Britain’s 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 humankind’s 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 Star’s 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 Ridler’s 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 wake…Cowled 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.”

Martin’s 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 I’m afraid.” HOXA HS 2052-LE; www.martinkiszko.com

SHACKLETON’S 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 film’s 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 Shackleton’s 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 8^thSymphony, for its première in May 2001. In 1997-98 Sir Peter spent three weeks at Britain’s 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 Peter’s eloquent Antarctic diary is available at his web site and a CD recording and/or downloading of the symphony is also available at www.maxopus.com. The 41-minute recording by the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003 provides a range of sounds from dissonances to melodic passages, reflecting the composer’s 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 Peter’s 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 UK’s Chetham’s Symphony Orchestra, the youth orchestra of Chetham’s School of Music. This piece is also available for download or on CD from Sir Peter’s web site at 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’ children’s 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. Luke’s, 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 Poe’s 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 70^th 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 world’s regions”. Included is the percussive Antarctica. Sony Classical SK 61529

LUBOMÍR BRABEC PLAYS BACH IN ANTARCTICA by Lubomír 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. Bach’s 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 Bach’s 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 Bach’s 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 première 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

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

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Non-Classical, all Antarctic or with significant Antarctic content:

TILL ANTARCTICA by Elisa Korenne (2007)

Till Antarctica may well be the catchiest, upbeat, can’t-get-it-out-of-your-head Antarctic tune we’ve come across. It’s the theme song for the play Antarctica, which was written by Carolyn Raship and premièred 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, Blubber’s all there is to eat, I’m with you…No matter where you want to go, I’ll stay by your side, you know, I’ll see it through, I’ll stay with you, Till Antarctica. If penguins steal our sleeping bags, You break your legs on the icy crags, I’m with you. The wind could wail loud and cold, Snow blindness could take hold, I’m with you, I’m with you.” Elisa told us that “I haven't been to Antarctica (the only continent I haven't been to!) and I hear it's 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 wasn't going to be writing my musical. The other places my images come from are photographs I've seen of my friend kayaking the Arctic and photographs of the Endurance journey in Antarctica.” www.elisakorenne.com; www.myspace.com/antarcticatheplay

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

ANGEL ABOVE MY PIANO by Fiona Joy Hawkins (2006)

Fiona Joy is an Australian painter and pianist whose current 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. She told us, “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 it’s 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 (Scott’s Hut) – but the beauty of the ocean, the glaciers, the sunset, the mountains and the wildlife were irresistible to write about.” Fiona’s Antarctic video clips, including scenes of her playing the piano on the ship, are currently on www.youtube.com (use Penguin Whisperer in the search box). Little Hartley Music FJH002; www.fionajoyhawkins.com; www.littlehartleymusic.com

DARK ADVENTURE RADIO THEATRE PRESENTS H. P. LOVECRAFT’S “AT THE MOUNTAINS OF MADNESS” (2006)

The H. P. Lovecraft Historical Society (of Glendale, California) has adapted one of Lovecraft’s 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 curios