ANTARCTICA EXPERIENCED THROUGH MUSIC 

Sections:  Classical Antarctica   l  Non Classical Antarctica   l   Individual Songs

Capsule Comments on CDs about Antarctica © Valmar Kurol (2009)

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 Antarctic’s 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 consumer’s 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, it’s 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 to the music listing are welcome. 

 – Valmar Kurol, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

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Sections:  Classical Antarctica   l  Non Classical Antarctica   l   Individual Songs