Original footage of the Mawson expedition to the Antarctic by Frank Hurley. A combination of a live piano and percussion, as well as short sections of pre-recorded soundtrack, (clarinets, oboe/cor-anglais and French horn) composed for the Sydney Film Festival, and Tasmanian 10 Days on an Island Festival.
Video Clip
(excerpt included by kind permission of National Film and Sound Archive)
This score was an ‘experimental’ performance approach to a strange film, which consisted of a series of different, although not particularly related scenes shot by Frank Hurley on the now famous Mawson expedition to the Antarctic in the early 20 century. Commissioned as a performance project by the Sydney Film Festival, it was to be screened with a score/soundtrack I created for live musicians, (improvising on piano and percussion) as well as pre-recorded material for wind instruments (clarinet, oboe/cor anglais and French horn) in certain sections of the film.
It is interesting for me to revisit this project after may years of watching (with an increasing sense of frustration, bordering on despair) ‘nature’ films, increasingly contrived docu-drama-sympho-narrative-mentaries, (yes, that is a very long word, and I made it up myself!) where the images/nature are not allowed to speak for themselves, and, increasingly anthropomorphised, given human emotions, drives, and ‘meaning’ through ponderous and overblown symphonic scores…..
Yes, the human mind/brain is a strange and amazing thing; a profoundly complex multi-channelled processing device which can handle so much but, at times, maybe far too much for that part of the psyche, (generally silent and intuitive) that relates, and responds directly to the real….. (oh dear, I do tend to go on a bit!)
Home of the Blizzard was a remarkable film, an almost dream-like collection of different scenes: human, animal, and awesome and desolate nature which, even without sound ‘speak’ for themselves, –yes, music can be good, but let it simply create a space where the viewer can experience their own thoughts and feelings.
R.C. – 22nd Feb, 09
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