What was on Robert Falcon Scott’s iPod?
Scott, perhaps better known as Scott of the Antarctic, perished on his attempted return from the South Pole, after learning that he had been beaten to the mark by his rival, Roald Amundsen.
I learned of the existence of this fascinating EMI collection while presenting my explorers show on WPRB this Thursday:
The 2012 release replicates and remasters material drawn from the several hundred 78 rpm records donated to the expedition by The Gramophone Company (later to become EMI). Repertoire ranges from opera and operetta to music hall to brass band to drawing room ballads to hymns to ragtime, and looks to provide some informative glimpses of what the men on Scott’s team must have listened to when searching for inspiration or dreaming of home.
The set is currently unavailable in the United States, but may be downloaded or obtained by way of secondhand dealers operating through Amazon UK. I just bought the only used copy posted on the site of its American counterpart for a penny!
This country, and by extension the world, has really got some misplaced priorities. I don’t expect everyone to like what I like, but I do despair for the future of music, which is to say music history. If only I had some of Scott’s stoicism in the face of certain defeat…