Detail from photo by Herbert Ponting 2/12/1911

 Ice, the element that dominates all life in Antarctica and turns what would be a archipelago into a vast expansive continent 3,820,000 square kilometres larger than Europe. I have found this vital element of Antarctica surprisingly hard to write a musical composition on. The main problem is that Antarctica is a very quite desolate place, and only a few people have any form of emotional attachment to the place, also I have never been there. So instead of trying to write a tone poem about a place that I have only ever seen on the TV screen, I have instead decided to try and capture the feelings that the early explorers of Antarctica would have felt visiting the white continent. I'm working on an instrumental piece for mandolin, violin and guitar which we'll perform on the opening night.