Antarctica
directed by John Weiley and filmed in
IMAX drew its global impact from impressive
photography (some stills from the film
are printed in the insert notes) and
from Nigel Westlake’s very fine score.
As I mentioned in a recent review (Timothy
Kain – Mirrors of Fire on Tall Poppies
TP 169), the composer reworked some
of the music of his film score into
a suite for guitar and orchestra written
for John Williams, in much the same
way as Vaughan Williams reworking some
of the music for Scott of the Antarctic
into his Seventh Symphony. Westlake’s
well-crafted, slightly eclectic but
effective music is quite different from
that by Vaughan Williams, although he
too uses wordless soprano and boy soprano
voices. So, it is both interesting and
rewarding to be able to listen to Westlake’s
film score to realise how he approached
his task when reworking some of the
music for the concert hall. A film score
is often made of relatively short cues
that do not lend themselves to extended
reworking all too easily. Actually,
two cues from the film score have been
recycled into the suite for guitar and
orchestra almost as they stand in the
film score (albeit slightly revised
and expanded), viz. the atmospheric
miniature tone poem Wooden ships
and the delightful Scherzo Penguin
play. The last place on earth
[track 2] also provides much of
the music heard in the Antarctica
suite, and so do the final tracks [12
– Finale and 13 – Postlude] in the suite’s
last movement. Westlake’s film score
nevertheless includes several longer
cues such as The last place on earth
[track 2] and Meltponds/Dry valleys/The
Ice Core [track 7] that are rather
more developed and some of which also
made its way into the suite. The film
score, however, is well worth hearing
on its own right because it includes
a good deal of really fine music, in
turn lyrical and brutal, serious and
funny. The funniest track is, no doubt,
Penguin circus [track 5], a delightful
Scherzo mostly for percussion, complete
with slide whistle and honking horns,
and ending with that arch-cliché
of circus music, i.e. a side drum roll
followed by the "circus chord".
There are also many more lyrical sections
such as the already mentioned Wooden
ships [track 9], Threnody
[track 4] and Scott’s theme.
Westlake also sees to it that some coherence
is achieved by the use of some recurrent
motives.
Westlake’s score is
for fairly limited orchestral forces,
strings, horns and trumpets (apparently
recorded in multi-tracking), an important
part for cello (I even think that the
concert suite might have been for cello
and orchestra rather than for guitar
and orchestra), guitar, percussion and
parts for wordless soprano and boy soprano
(a bit à la Vaughan Williams
although the music is quite different
but equally effective). It also seems
that some electronic devices may have
been used (multi-tracking, etc.), but
always tastefully. As such, Antarctica
is as fine a film score as one may wish
: superbly crafted, quite attractive
and very accessible; and the performance
by soloists and an ad hoc orchestra
conducted by fellow-composer Carl Vine
is excellent.
Hubert Culot
see also review
by Neil Horner
David Pereira (cello); Louise Johnson (harp);
Timothy Kain (guitar); Philippe Marc Anquetil
(boy soprano); Christine Douglas (soprano);
Geoffrey Collinson (horns); Paul Goodchild (trumpets);
Orchestra; Carl Vine 
