CLScapades http://cls.posterous.com City of London Sinfonia blog posterous.com Tue, 24 Jan 2012 03:34:00 -0800 Conquering the Antarctic - The People : Edward Wilson http://cls.posterous.com/the-people-profiles-of-other-team-members http://cls.posterous.com/the-people-profiles-of-other-team-members

 

New_image

Our Conquering the Antarctic tour celebrates the achievements of Captain Scott, the most well-known of the five-man party that reached the South Pole a hundred years ago in 1912. As the inspirational leader of the team, his personal qualities, courage and charisma were reflected in his journals and letters, which provide a moving picture of the expedition that endures today.

But what of the other four men Scott selected to accompany him to the Pole? They were Wilson, Bowers, Evans and Oates. Over the next four days, we profile the other members of Scott’s team, beginning today with Dr Edward Wilson.

 


Edward Wilson

Edward_wilson_2_250x300

Born in Cheltenham in 1872, Edward Wilson was an artist and naturalist, who first joined Captain Scott aboard the Discovery as Assistant Surgeon and Vertebrate Zoologist to the British National Antarctic Expedition (1901-1904). In 1910 he returned to the Antarctic with Scott aboard the Terra Nova as Chief of the Scientific Staff. He was devoted to the study of Antarctic specimens and highly skilled at watercolour painting, particularly at capturing the colours, wildlife and light of the Antarctic.

‘Uncle Bill,’ as Wilson became known to the other explorers, was friendly and affectionate, and succeeded in mastering his temper thanks to a strong Christian faith. Scott selected him for the trek to the South Pole, which delighted him, and he continued his pursuit of scientific discovery even after the pole was reached, stopping with the rest of the team to collect 16kg of geological specimens.

Wilson’s is the last letter thought to have been written by any member of the polar party. Dated March 1912, the letter, written to his friend Reginald Smith, refers to his unfinished book about disease in grouse, his only regret at the time of his death. "We shall make a forlorn effort to reach the next depot but it means 22 miles and we are none of us fit to face it. I want to say how I have valued your friendship … I have no fear of death, only sorrow for my wife and for my dear people. Otherwise all is well. I should like to have seen the grouse book but it is not allowed to me. God's will be done." 

It is believed that Wilson died alongside Bowers and Scott in late March 1912. The three bodies were found in their tent by a rescue party the following November.

 

 

Conquering the Antarctic - the Scott Centenary Concert Tour

 A celebration in music, words and images

Stephen Layton, conductor
Robert Murray, tenor
Hugh Bonneville, narrator

3-8 February and 3 March 2012

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/2053654/cls.logo.high_copy.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4TkaSSgy6Gxb City of London Sinfonia CLS City of London Sinfonia
Tue, 17 Jan 2012 04:25:00 -0800 Conquering the Antarctic - The Place http://cls.posterous.com/94607423 http://cls.posterous.com/94607423

Ahead of our Conquering the Antarctic concert tour, starting next month, we're immersing ourselves in all things Antarctic. Here are some interesting facts about the most mysterious and fascinating of continents...

 

Mp900427750

 

  • The Antarctic is the world’s highest, driest, coldest and windiest continent (as well as the last to be discovered).
  • Ancient Greek geographers were the first to guess there was a large landmass around the South Pole. They named it Anti-Arkitkos (‘the opposite of the Arctic’).
  • Wind speeds of up to 351km (218 miles) per hour have been recorded.
  • In 1983, the coldest temperature ever was recorded at a freezing -89.2 degrees Celsius (-128.56 degrees Fahrenheit).
  • The distance between the UK and Antarctica is 11,000 miles (17702.784 km).
  • Ice in the middle of the continent can be up to 2500m (2 miles) thick.
  • Antarctica is more than 58 times bigger than Great Britain.
  • The pole moves with the ice at the rate of ten metres per year – each summer it has to be put back to its rightful geographical place.
  • Antarctic ice sheets store 70% of the world’s fresh water.
  • In Antarctica’s Dry Valleys, less than 6cm (2.4 in) of snow falls in a whole year.
  • Although there are no trees, more than 100 million birds nest and breed on the Antarctic.
  • Today, around 1,200 people spend the winter on Antarctica – about a third are scientists and the rest are support staff.
  • On average, ice sheets are nearly 2.5km (1.5 miles) thick – that’s the same as ten Canary Wharf towers on top of each other.
  • Thanks to high levels of oxygen in the water, sea spiders grow up to 30cm (12 in) across!

Conquering the Antarctic - the Scott Centenary Concert Tour

A celebration in music, words and images

Stephen Layton, conductor
Robert Murray, tenor
Hugh Bonneville, narrator

3-8 February and 3 March 2012

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/2053654/cls.logo.high_copy.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4TkaSSgy6Gxb City of London Sinfonia CLS City of London Sinfonia
Wed, 04 Jan 2012 06:15:00 -0800 Conquering the Antarctic - In Pictures http://cls.posterous.com/conquering-the-antarctic-in-pictures-27980 http://cls.posterous.com/conquering-the-antarctic-in-pictures-27980

P2005_5_0186-cropped

 

Our Conquering the Antarctic concert tour, a celebration of the centenary of Captain Scott’s expedition to the South Pole 1910-1912, in partnership with the Scott Polar Resarch Institute, Cambridge, begins this February. Alongside our performances of moving and evocative musical tributes by Ralph Vaughan Williams and Cecilia McDowall, we will be showing the stunning expedition photography of Herbert Ponting, which is remarkable for its quality and beauty.


P2005_5_0560-cropped

Ponting’s images portray the day-to-day life of the expedition, focusing on the camp from which the team made its exploratory treks. Through these pictures, we can witness the busy but methodical way the group went about conducting research in the frozen landscape, utilising cutting-edge scientific techniques and instruments. Though the expedition is now remembered for Scott’s doomed attempt to reach the South Pole, this selection of images goes some way towards conjuring up the team’s more contented and companionable times. You might have spotted some of the pictures on the BBC’s recent Frozen Planet series!

Images: SPRI, University of Cambridge

P2005_5_1181-master
P2005_5_0013-cropped

P2005_5_0406-cropped
P2005_5_0446-cropped

P2005_5_0538-cropped

P2005_5_0567-cropped

 

P2005_5_0357-cropped

Scott_alone_image_web


Conquering the Antarctic
3-8 Feb & 3 March 2012
Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cheltenham, and London

In partnership with Scott Polar Research Institute, University of Cambridge

 

P2005_5_1279-cropped

 

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/2053654/cls.logo.high_copy.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4TkaSSgy6Gxb City of London Sinfonia CLS City of London Sinfonia
Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:21:51 -0800 Who was Captain Scott? http://cls.posterous.com/who-was-captain-scott http://cls.posterous.com/who-was-captain-scott

We asked our newest Marketing recruit, Alice, to help us discover who Captain Scott really was ahead of our Conquering the Antarctic concert tour in February.

Scott_alone_image_web-low_res

Now remembered as a ‘race to the Pole,’ the tale of Captain Scott’s ill-fated expedition to the Antarctic from 1910-1912 has acquired the dimensions of a myth. But we are able to discover a good deal about what really happened on the expedition from Scott’s diaries, which give a vivid and moving depiction of the challenges the hard-working team faced.

Who was this man, whose personal qualities were so central to the expedition, and whose diaries, discovered by a rescue mission three months after his death, continue to provide a moving and emotive demonstration of his resolve and dignity in such unthinkable circumstances? What drove him to undertake this monumental challenge?

Born in 1868, Robert Falcon Scott joined a Royal Navy training ship at the age of thirteen. From 1900 to 1904, he commanded a British trip to the Antarctic, and from 1907-1909, Scott’s erstwhile companion Shackleton led a further British Antarctic Expedition to the Antarctic, locating the South Pole high on the ice plateau. Scott planned to finish what Shackleton had begun, and a further privately-funded expedition was raised which led to the purchase of the expedition ship, the Terra Nova, for £12,500.

Although he declared that the "main object of the expedition is to reach the South Pole and secure for the British Empire the honour of that achievement," Scott also had geological, biological and meteorological goals. The British team faced competition from the Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, who had abandoned earlier attempts to reach the North Pole in favour of being the first to get to the South. Despite this element of competition, Scott’s diaries reveal that he refused to abandon the pursuit of science, however difficult and unrelenting the freezing conditions.

When they reached the Pole in January 1912, the malnourished and frostbitten explorers found that the Norwegian team had got there first. Some believe that tragedy would have been prevented if the British team had ‘won’—they would have been in better spirits. As it was, they all met their deaths soon after. As Scott wrote in his journal, “These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale.”


To read the full version of this blog post, visit our website
Image courtesy of SPRI, University of Cambridge


Conquering the Antarctic
2-8 Feb & 3 March 2012
Birmingham, Cambridge, Cardiff, Cheltenham, London

Permalink | Leave a comment  »

]]>
http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/2053654/cls.logo.high_copy.jpg http://posterous.com/users/4TkaSSgy6Gxb City of London Sinfonia CLS City of London Sinfonia