John Scott: Parc Oceanique Cousteau (1989) / Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

Photo credit: Audun Rikardsen/Unforgettable Underwater Photography. I CLAIM NO OWNERSHIP. This is used strictly for educational purposes.

ABOUT THE SCORE: Opened in 1989, the Parc Oceanique Cousteau was an oceanographic attraction located at the Forum des Halles of Paris. Too expensive and unwieldy to maintain its real estate, the park sadly closed just three years later in 1992. However, it allowed long-time Jacques Cousteau collaborator John Scott to pen music for the attraction, intended to provide excitement and atmosphere for the park (and also meant to be looped as needed in different areas of the attraction). The nature of the venue and inspiration from both Cousteau's guidance and the oceanic subject matter, however, allowed John Scott to write evocative and massive-sounding music as rich as any of his documentary efforts with the famed explorer.

Armed with an outsized battery of Royal Philharmonic players and a large recording venue, the score soars with evocative melodies and intricate textures. A powerful organ and soft application of synthesizers allows Scott to expand the pallet further, and in no better place is this tapestry richly-sown than in the show-stopping nine-plus minute "Dominion of the Blue Whale" (Beginning at 6:06 in this suite), an incredibly powerful yet restrained tone poem dedicated to the massive cetaceans. Note especially the incredibly rich chords at 8:17, filled with the requisite longing an romanticism totally unique to this composer's harmonic language. The melody heard therein was a favorite of Cousteau's, and was further revisited by the composer in two pieces, both posthumously dedicated to the explorer/filmmaker: Scott's final effort for the documentarian, "Beneath the Mirror of Lake Baikal" (1997) and a later concert work for narrator and orchestra, "L'Homme Que S'en Vola" (year unknown), in which the 'Dominion' theme is given a heraldic cameo during the closing bars.

This is the kind of rich and evocative scoring that makes John Scott's output so rich and flavorful - abundant with mystery, romance and longing.