Africa

Africa was a four hour documentary made for television that charted the evolution and history of the continent. This ambitious project evidently required something a little extra in the scoring and so in their wisdom, the producers turned to Alex North. The original LP of this score quickly went out of print on release and so this is a welcome CD release. The album comprises the half hour symphony and a twenty minute suite of music from the original score. I must admit that this isn't quite the striking, instantly enjoyable piece of North I was expecting. I assumed it would take a modestly standard approach which would emphasise the expanses of wilderness, but North choose to score it in such a way that he highlighted the brutal and primitive elements.

Little of the music on the disc is easy listening and the first movement of the symphony is almost entirely atonal, with mixtures of percussion, dissonant strings and occasional hits from the brass and woodwinds. The concept of the piece is to demonstrate the movement from chaos into order and such as the work progresses. With each movement, snippets of more melodic material take over from percussive hits and seemingly random orchestral hits. Not until the third movement does any melodic material truly establish itself, although North still adds layers of eerie high end strings in dissonant counterpoint. Toward the end of the third movement, the general restraint is replaced with exciting rhythms and crunching brass chords. The final movement has considerable more dynamism with strange, irregular meters with brass and percussion bouncing off one another almost randomly.

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the score itself is the Prelude which is what was called the Entr'acte for the rejected 2001 score. Apparently, the sheet music for this cue was mis-filed in with the 2001 music and was never intended for that score, so when Jerry Goldsmith and the team at Varese came to record it, naturally assumed its role within 2001. I've always found this particular piece to be somewhat stilted, as though some of the instrumental parts aren't playing when they should. I wondered if it was something to do with Goldsmith's conducting, but evidently this is how North intended it should sound. The source of the material for the symphony is quite apparent, even if there are some surprising extras such as the dance-like Victoria Falls.

I suspect that had North scored Planet of the Apes, he would have written something similar to this. The brutal, percussive writing is very much in the same vein as Goldsmith's classic effort. I must admit that it isn't an album I would wholeheartedly recommend anyone to try. This kind of uncompromising writing can be difficult to take and I can quite understand why people would find it difficult to connect to the music. However, at a purely technical level, North's music is yet another example of his position as being one of the most accomplished composers ever to write for cinema. The packaging is excellent with detailed liner notes about the symphony and score, making this an essential purchase for all North fans.