Secrets Of The Penguins

Music for wildlife films tend to do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of storytelling. With Secrets of the Penguins, there are core emotional pillars that we wanted to get across musically. We wanted to have warmth and positivity, so even with moments of threat or loss I had to focus on bringing out an element of hope. There’s also a sense of maternal and paternal love towards the chicks and this incredible bond.

We were going for something a little bit different here, a bit more modern, so in terms of the music and choice of sound palette, I used acoustic Instruments blended with organic electronics which had to have an air of sophistication but not feel childish. So I used the solo violin, viola, cello and flutes / woodwinds supported by tuned percussion, voice, and subtle synths and electronics. At times there are bold percussive hand made rhythms supported by hand claps and finger clicks; a ‘home made, hand crafted’ type score at times.

We didn’t want a big, bombastic orchestral score; it needed to be more chamber sized and intimate, so the size of the music matches the size of the penguins. Initially I scored the epic vastness of the Antarctic, and that was a mistake. We really needed to score the penguins, not score the environment, and that was the key to unlocking the score, which is why we went for something more intimate. You want experience it from the Penguin’s perspective and not score the desolate vastness of the harsh landscapes.

We wanted to use the voice as a core element but we didn’t want a big choral epic choir sound either. So, using the human female voice worked well, but we used it in a rhythmical wordless way.

We wanted something that would match the quirkiness and the body movements of the penguins. Some of the stories and body movements are very comedic. They’re slightly odd looking when moving about on land, and the music needed to have a sense of that oddity about it. But I don’t like convention and clichés, so we had to work hard at trying not to ‘mickey-mouse’ the music and score every movement that the penguins do, otherwise, it just becomes like a Tom & Jerry cartoon.

There was no need to over emphasise this with music. The humour was already there. To get across this natural cuteness we used the hand pan and bells.

It was all about forging emotional intimate connections with the colony. So moments such as the ones with the solitary chick really tug at the heart strings. To achieve this I used a ‘sonic mnemonic with a bending flute type song that worked as a motif for them. It sounds like a little animal call and has this aching beautiful ancient call about it… like the call of a baby crying for its mother.

The main theme also has a rhythmical edgy string based edge to it that you hear in key moments across the series.