David Attenborough’s longtime field-recordings passion project
Sir David Attenborough is famous for his natural-history TV series and documentaries. Life On Earth, Living Planet, The Life Of Birds, The Private Life Of Plants, Life In The Undergrowth and, most recently, Blue Planet
have all been shown in many countries. His hushed, almost whispered narration to all these fascinating films is now part of the broadcasting ether.
And if you’re a Briton — say, born like I was in the 1950s — then Attenborough was an important part of your childhood. His programme Zoo Quest, in murky TV monochrome, was a favourite; who could forget the intrepid zoologist, up to his waist in bat guano on a search for dung beetles? Along with Johnny Morris’ Animal Magic,
which began in 1962, Attenborough’s programme introduced many children to the delights of the Animal Kingdom.
While Attenborough is recognised globally for his natural-history documentaries, not so many people know that he was a key player in the development of the BBC’s switch to colour and programme development. He set up the new channel BBC 2, which introduced foreign films, wacky comedy like Monty Python’s Flying Circus
and live snooker coverage, as well as prestige series like Bronowski’s Ascent Of Man and Kenneth Clarke’s Civilisation. TV was fun back in those days.
Despite being the first controller of BBC 2, Attenborough always made sure his contracts contained a clause to allow him to go off on the road to make documentaries, and from the 1950s right up to the most recent documentaries he has always returned to his first love — making films about natural history.
And during his early years making documentaries, he also did something that was revealed only in 2016 in a programme for BBC Radio: between 1954 and 1963, when he travelled extensively, he made lots of sound field recordings of groups of people playing their traditional music, some of which have now vanished.
Two years after the radio show, Attenborough has worked with BBC producer Julian May to release a double CD of his field recordings: David Attenborough: My Field Recordings From Across The Planet (Wrasse), which came out last week. The recordings were made in West Africa, South America, Madagascar, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Pacific islands and Northern Australia. May has written a fascinating story on the background to Attenborough’s contribution to world music in the current issue of Songlines magazine (www.songlines.co.uk).
It turns out that the theme tune for Zoo Quest was taken from field recordings in Paraguay. The song Guira Campana ( The Bell Bird), performed by Trio Los Paraguayos, featured Central American harps and became well known in Britain; in fact, when the band arrived to perform in the country, they were surprised to discover that many people in Britain already knew their music. So, you can add “world-music promoter” to the Attenborough list of firsts. (He also made a radio series with Alan Lomax on British folk music called Song Hunter.) It may well be that Attenborough tops the UK charts this Christmas season with his field recordings, making him, at 92, certainly one of the oldest people to hit the top spot. (Dame Vera Lynn is the oldest, at 100, to have an album in the top 10, and I think Sir Cliff Richards has the record at the tender age of 68.)
So if you’re a fan of Attenborough’s work or enjoy field recordings, then this double CD would be a perfect New Year’s gift for yourself. More information can be found at www.wrasserecords.com.
There are a few other classic sets of field recordings that interested readers may like to try out. Novelist and composer Paul Bowles made thousands of hours of field recordings in 1959 in Morocco for the Library of Congress. Dust to Digital’s four CD box set — Music Of Morocco — captures music that no longer exists in Morocco. Also worth considering is the wonderful set of field recordings from Indonesia by the Fahnestock brothers, Bruce and Sheridan, in 1941,
Music For The Gods: The Fahnestock South Sea Expedition (Rykodisc), as well as the essential 4-CD set of early recordings in Southeast Asia, Longing For The Past (Dust to Digital).