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The Blue Planet: (George Fenton) Wildly popular in the United
Kingdom, this eight-hour long series of shows by the BBC Natural History Unit aired
in 2001 after years of collecting breathtaking original footage to create one of the
most comprehensive ocean wildlife films of all time. The ambitious project offered a
look into nearly every element of marine life, and its spectacular cinematography
earned it both respect and popular success on the BBC. It was among the first of a
new generation of incredible wildlife productions for television that culminated in
Planet Earth later in the decade. Three years prior to the debut of
The
Blue Planet, as the film was being assembled by teams of photographers from
around the globe, the producers approached one of the foremost British composers of
television and film, George Fenton, to compose the lengthy mass of music required
for the episodes. The event allowed Fenton the opportunity to write for a
magnificent scope that would be expected for an IMAX project, leaving no instrument
unused in an effort to adequately compliment the expansive and diverse elements of
the sea. After the completion of the score, the BBC Concert Orchestra and the Choir
of Magdalen College in Oxford were so impressed and enthusiastic about their own
performances of the score that a live concert of music from the show was arranged by
the composer. On October 13th, 2001, both performing groups assembled with Fenton in
the Royal Festival Hall to present highlights from the score while the show's David
Attenborough narrated passages from the program projected onto a giant screen in the
hall. The spectacle was followed, naturally, by a highly anticipated CD album of the
music. Nobody could have expected that Fenton's music for
The Blue Planet
would introduce a style that was destined to dominate his career in the 2000's. As
impressive as this score seemed at the time, Fenton elaborated on the same ideas for
the
Deep Blue big screen adaptation of the show a few years later and,
eventually, take the concept a step further for television's
Planet
Earth.
It's often been the case that large scale nature shows, whether
they exist on IMAX screens or television screens, offer composers a chance to write
explosive themes and action passages of considerable length that they would
otherwise not be able to expand upon for a feature film full of rapid
synchronization points. What Fenton produced for
The Blue Planet is really
not much different from what you'd expect from the usual large ensemble, massively
epic score for an IMAX venue. Collectors of Fenton's works who clamored for his
occasional outbursts of immense themes and orchestral power were finally given the
opportunity to hear the five-time Academy Award nominated composer explode with
lengthy renditions of several harmoniously immense full ensemble motifs. Like all
nature programs, though, there are extremes between cues for large vistas and those
for microscopic organisms. In this case, the difference in the styles within
Fenton's score exists, in the most general sense, between the jelly fish and surfing
snail kind of silly animals and the deadly or serious shark and whale variety.
Whereas the impressive species are accompanied by ripping, large cues of epic
proportions usually reserved for fantasy and adventure scores, the smaller, "cuter"
species are accompanied by a Mediterranean pop-like lounge sounds, and your ability
to sift out the program sequences that interest you will determine how much you
enjoy this album. The modern acoustical rhythms in the fluffier cues are tolerable,
though weak compared to the power of the fully symphonic material. The slightly
ethnic flavor in "Spinning Dolphins," exhibiting a Latin style that is strangely
reminiscent of Jerry Goldsmith's Silver Age material for Latin settings, stands
apart from the otherwise understated, electronic rhythms of a light rock variety
that provide a bubbly underscore for the less intimidating species. It's likely that
film music fans will quickly skip these parts in favor of the more robust orchestral
and choral cues, and rightfully so. While the diversity speaks to Fenton's talents,
the album's biggest detriment is the basic inconsistency necessitated by the show's
various topics.
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For good reason, the title theme for
The Blue Planet is what
attracted the most attention to Fenton's score. As it graced the opening of each
program, viewers were treated to a resoundingly superb statement of the theme with
magnificent choral depth. The pulsating strings over the opening half of the theme
are a remarkably effective method of addressing the movement of water. Being the
choir's only performance on the album, the title track stands alone as not only the
highlight of the show and album, but of the collective mass of film and television
music for all of 2001. The composition may be relatively simple in its construction,
but what it lacks in originality is more than compensated for by its overwhelming
size. Fenton would rearrange this theme and utilize it with arguably better results
in
Deep Blue. Three other tracks, sans choir, exhibit the same powerful
performances from the full orchestral ensemble. "Sardine Run," "Blue Whale," and
"Emperors" also offer some of the best action sequences of 2001 on album, with
explosive brass performances that bounce off the walls with enthusiasm. Together
with several impressive orchestral cues of lesser volume later in the album
(including the ethereal "Frozen Oceans" late on the album), there are fifteen to
twenty minutes of extremely engaging orchestral material to be heard on the product.
All of the ensemble performances are easy to digest, and although the acoustic and
synthetic cues with modern rhythms may be tougher to enjoy, those fifteen to twenty
minutes of orchestral majesty more than justify the price of the album. The only
significant failing of the lighter sections on album is their odd mixing; the sound
quality begins rather muted and picks up in both gain levels and clarity in later
passages. The album was pressed by the BBC itself and therefore demanded a higher
import price for Americans who stood no chance of finding it in retail stores.
Online stores, including soundtrack specialty outlets, initially offered it for
reasonable prices as an import from the U.K. or Australia. While it's easy to
recommend
Deep Blue as a less expensive and better rounded listening
experience,
The Blue Planet's opening title track is still among the best
overall performance of the concept's main theme available. Both are highly
recommended.
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| Bias Check: | For George Fenton reviews at Filmtracks, the average editorial rating
is 3.64 (in 14 reviews)
and the average viewer rating is 3.47
(in 15,812 votes). The maximum rating is 5 stars.
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