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Composed by
ALEX WURMAN

Rating
* * * *

Album running time
41:37

Performed by
THE HOLLYWOOD STUDIO SYMPHONY
led by
RALPH MORRISON
conducted by
JEFFREY SCHINDLER

Orchestration
TOM CALDERARO

Engineered by
SAMUEL LEHMER
LARRY MAH
Music Editor
ELLEN SEGAL
Produced by
ALEX WURMAN

Released by
MILAN
Serial number
M2-36131

Artwork copyright (c) 2005 Warner Bros. Entertainment, Inc.; review copyright (c) 2005 James Southall

 

MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

Beautifully-crafted music for an inspirational tale

A review by JAMES SOUTHALL

Penguins are one of nature's wonders.  A big penguinphile myself (there, I've said it - I'd never expected that information to make its way into a review), their extraordinary ability to survive - and, indeed, thrive - in the harshest conditions on earth never ceases to amaze me.  Working wonderfully well together, yet retaining extremely distinct personalities from one another, they see off numerous predators, both from the sea and from the weather, coming through the toughest winters still intact.  A story about a family of emperor penguins, covering a yearly cycle in their lives, has been turned into a documentary by the French filmmaker Luc Jacquet, and has become a real sleeper hit in America.  When first released in France it featured an original score by composer Emilie Simon, but the American release has been rescored by Alex Wurman.

Wurman is an alumnus of Media Ventures where he wrote (uncredited) additional music for various Hans Zimmer scores, but unlike other MV graduates, his solo scoring career has not involved leaping from one $100m blockbuster to the next, but following the rather more traditional route of scoring various independent films, most notably Thirteen Conversations About One Thing and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.  Also unlike his fellow MV graduates (to be a bit harsh), he seems to have a distinctive voice of his own and he isn't afraid to impose his own musical personality on a score - which is certainly to be commended!

March of the Penguins is easily the strongest score by Wurman to be released on CD so far.  He writes in his brief liner notes how the film's lack of dialogue (though it does feature narration by Morgan Freeman) was liberating and gave him a rare chance to write expressive music, and this shows in the results.  Natural history documentaries do provide composers with fine opportunities - as shown by George Fenton's recent scores for The Blue Planet and Deep Blue - though Wurman adopts a very different approach here than Fenton did when he scored the superlative Life in the Freezer, David Attenborough's documentary about wildlife in the Antarctic (which is one of the most wonderful things I've ever watched on television).  There, Fenton very much emphasised the bleak conditions with his synthesised music, but here Wurman gives the "characters" a wonderful warmth, playing against the conditions, and really humanises them - as the film tries to do - with his suggestions of emotions.

Indeed, the score this most resembles is Mark Isham's excellent IMAX score Galapagos.  It opens with an expressive and beautiful portrait of the wilderness in "The Harshest Place on Earth", with Wurman's distinctive music proving to be wonderfully colourful and detailed.  Later, the composer introduces really genuine emotion: "Found Love" could come from a proper Hollywood romance; "First Steps" is really touching, capturing the love of a mother; "The Dangers Return" offers a different set of emotions and is tense and anguished; but then "Reunited" offers the perfect antidote, with some lovely piano music.  With orchestration favourite flute, bassoon, piano and harp, Wurman paints a wonderful picture of these remarkable animals and the environment in which they must somehow survive, and he does so with a great deal of flair.  March of the Penguins is a beautiful, uplifting score and makes a terrific album. 

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Tracks

  1. The Harshest Place on Earth (3:56)
  2. Walk Not Alone (:41)
  3. The March (5:22)
  4. Found Love (3:59)
  5. The Egg Arrives (2:27)
  6. The Mothers' Second Journey (2:01)
  7. Arrival at the Sea (3:12)
  8. Walk through Darkness (6:19)
  9. First Steps (3:19)
  10. The Dangers Remain (3:15)
  11. Reunited (2:17)
  12. Going Home for the First Time (4:43)