Week 12: Sounds of Silence

Lectures 1&2:

Antarctic Songs and Occasional Instrumental Music (Carolyn Philpott - Conservatorium of Music)
Music and poems from the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. The 'Songs' were composed during the voyage of Morning to relieve Captain Scott and company aboard Discovery in 1902, as part of the British National Antarctic Expedition 1901-1904. With music composed by Lieut. G.S.Doorly, and lyrics by Chief Engineer Morrison and other officers, including Ernest Shackleton.

The Scotia Suite of Scottish Country Dances honouring the achievements of William Speirs Bruce and commemorating the voyage of the Scotia, the research vessel of the Scottish National Antarctic Expedition 1902-1904. Dances devised by Roy Goldring. Music composed and arranged by Muriel Johnstone for the Scotia Centenary Programme of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in collaboration with the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society.

Natural Music of the Environment
Douglas Quin - Antarctica is full of music and the musicians are Emperor Penguins, Weddell Seals and their pups, and Wind and Glaciers. Douglas Quin is an artist with a microphone. His music and soundscape projects have been recorded on CD, as well as performed at numerous festivals and venues and broadcast internationally on radio.

In a decade of recording wildlife, Quin's field work has taken him from the mountain rainforests of Madagascar to the Brazilian Amazon and from Antarctica to the Alaskan Arctic. His recordings have been used by scientists and zoos internationally for research and education and he has designed media exhibitry for numerous museums, including most recently, the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of Natural History and the Chicago Academy of Sciences.

Orchestral Music of the Antarctic
Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote the film score for the film Scott of the Antarctic (1948). The film tells the well-known story of Scott's attempt to be the first party at the South Pole and the death of the polar party on their return towards their hut on Ross Island. The film score faithfully followed the action of the film and ended in a triumphant outburst after the death of Scott. Over the following years Vaughan Williams revisited the story and decided to recast the music into a symphony.(Sinfonia Antarctica -1952) However he ended it very differently - an ending where the music leaves the listener outside the tent with the wind howling and nature reigning supreme.

Tutorial: TBA