COMMEMORATIVE ISSUE

Antarctic Symphony

Issue Date: November 2000








The commissioning of an Antarctic Symphony is intended to bridge the cultural gap that exists between arts and science, as well as making a significant contribution to British music. The commission commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of the writing of Sinfonia Antarctica (Symphony No. 7) by Ralph Vaughan Williams. The symphony was commissioned by the British Antarctic Survey and the Philarmonia Orchestra with assistance from the Arts Council and South Bank Trust.

The composer who accepted the invitation to write the symphony was Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, widely known as "Max". The commission made an unusual demand on the composer, that he should visit the Antarctic with the British Antarctic Survey to draw inspiration for writing the music. Max left the UK on December 15 1997 and returned on January 11 1998. He was accompanied by his manager Mrs Judy Arnold and staff from the British Antarctic Survey (the Directors Assistant, a Photographer, and Information Officer).

The travel to the Antarctic included the "air-bridge" Royal Air Force flight from the UK to the Falkland Islands and a five day voyage on the RRS James Clark Ross passing down the spectacular Antarctic Peninsula to Rothera research station. Max spent two and a half weeks in the Antarctic at Rothera. During his time he visited field parties, camped with an assistant on Jones Ice Shelf and stayed at the remote Fossil Bluff field hut on Alexander Island. At the end of the stay he flew to the Falkland Islands on the BAS Dash-7 aircraft. The visit attracted much worldwide media attention.

The first performance of the Antarctic Symphony is on May 6 2001 at a Gala Concert at the Royal Festival Hall to celebrate its fiftieth anniversary. Other performances are planned in England at the St. Magnus Festival in Orkney in June 2001, and at Paris and San Francisco.

Whilst in the Antarctic, Max was interviewed about his aspirations for the symphony and he wrote a detailed diary which was published on his website www.maxopus.com. The topics in these stamps reflect those which impressed him and may well be translated into the musical strands of the symphony. The theme of each stamp is made clearer by the diary entry related to it.

The music on the stamps and First Day Cover is taken from the opening bars of the symphony.

37p - RRS James Clark Ross and track cut through the ice.

A final day on RRS James Clark Ross, of a splendour to outshine even these extraordinary days. We ploughed through the ice fields in brilliant sunshine, wrapped up on deck on our windproof multi-layers, any exposed skin liberally smeared with anti-sun goo. Everyone balaclavaed and anonymous behind intensely black BAS issus goggles, with essential black side-flaps - sea ice and distant snowy peaks thrust millions of crystal needles into any unprotected eyes. Disconcerting, in the infinite silence hushing the hundreds of gleaming square miles around us, to hear the crack and split before the bow of the ship, then roar along keel to stern in a tumultuous clatter of slabs and shards.

37p - Camp on Jones Ice Shelf

I spent a few hours walking by myself, in peace, along the edge of the ice shelf. It would have been worth coming to Antarctica just for this. The cliff faces are alive with the crack of ice, the whoosh of tumbling snowdrift, the rustle and clatter of falling scree. Occasionally there is a really startling boom, reminiscent of the one o'clock cannon above Edinburgh's Princes Street - or an even more spine-tingling deep, deep gong stroke, as a small geological event changes the landscape just one iota, in the course of its eternal metamorphosis. There is almost no wind, but occasionally an astonishing sound whistles gently from the peaks to the south, almost subliminal at first, but growing into an alto-flutish lament that resonates somewhere between your ears, then reveals its true origin when a high and complex counterpoint, suggesting ghostly oriental flutes, creates a sonorous wandering tone, softly pulsing across the whole ice shelf.

43p - The Frozen Sea

A walk around Rothera Point takes you into a world light-years away from the base. The view across the sea ice to distant mountains is stupendous. The silence is as absolute as possible, the sight of sea ice, icebergs, distant snow-covered mountains, rocks with algae and moss, snow still covering some of the rock, part tinged green and rose with snow-algae - all just heartrendingly beautiful.

43p - Iceberg

The sea is full of ice again, but free ice that has wandered here now the former rigid cover has split and in part melted - this, consisting of icebergs and floating bits, freely comes and goes, bunching up here and leaving the sea free there. For the first time the sea smells of sea and there is enough open water for Weddell seals to nose about and bask one ice floes. .... The ice is luminous to the farthest distance. Broken sheets of it creak and moan - polystyrene sounds, as the sea mildly rocks and nudges them along. Penguins on distant rocks honk, their sounds carrying for miles in the stillness. An unidentified whale blows. The seals demonstrate their considerable vocabulary, as gentle snorts, wheezes and warbles sound from all directions.

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies

With over 200 published works in every medium which are continually performed all over the world, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is acclaimed as one of the foremost composers of our time. He lives in the Orkney Islands off the north coast of Scotland where he writes most of his music. He has written across the widest gamut of musical genre, and in many styles. The power to communicate forcefully and directly with his audiences manifests itself whether it be in his profoundly argued symphonic works, whether it be in the delightful music-theater works written and performed by non-specialist children or whether it be in his sometimes outrageous witty light orchestral works. He has written operas, ballets, and seven symphonies hailed by The Times as being "the most important symphonic cycle since Shostakovich".

He is the Associate Conductor/Composer of the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra in London, the Composer/Conductor of the BBC Philarmonic on Manchester and the Composer Laureate of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra.

Stamp Details

Designer: Nick Shewring
Photographs: British Antarctic Survey
Printer: The House of Questa
Process: Lithography
Stamp size: 28.45 x 42.58 mm
Sheet size: 50 (2 x 25)
Values: 37p, 37p, 43p, 43p.
Text: Dr J Paren, British Antarctic Survey.



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