Music for a Blue Planet
Blue Planet is an iconic mix of video and music. The score enhances the drama and brings out the emotion in the stunning images.
We challenged our students to apply their composition skills to create new music to accompany the footage.
Digital Composition module 2019-20
Seventeen students taking 'Digital Composition' composed and produced an entirely new music score for the film. It's a difficult task - creating sounds to develop a story while complementing the timing of the images. We think you'll agree they've done a stunning job. Enjoy watching!
I've encouraged each composer to find and bring out their unique voices into these compositions. As such, there is an extensive range of musical style and instrumentation. For some, the technology is very new to them, and they've faced a steep learning curve. But it's been such a great success, and all the more impressive when you consider the challenges students have faced this academic year. I'm so proud of their achievements.
Live performance Blue Planet 2
The previous year it was students on our 'Composing for Words, Theatre and Moving Image' module who had the challenge of creating new music for Blue Planet.
In an incredible live event, performers from the Mussoc student society played some of these student compositions to accompany a screening of the film and help raise awareness of climate change. Distinguished film composer George Fenton, an Honorary Professor of Film Music in the Department, gave the students feedback on their scores-in-progress ahead of the screening.
The Blue Planet 2 project was created to join together UoN student composers and performers whilst highlighting the issues surrounding climate crisis. I wanted to create a way to address the ways in which human life is destroying the planet, but in a way that was more beautiful to the audience, so that they could appreciate what exists before it's too late, hence my choosing of the BBC's Blue Planet 2.
The series as a whole perfectly encapsulates the beauty which our planet possesses, and by composing new music for the stunning video footage, it allowed musicians to really get into the soundworld of the planet and hopefully the concert was able to remind people that we are not alone in this world!
See more examples of students' work