Peter Maxwell Davies

One foot in Eden

| hoyheritage

The British Film Institute have released the 1978 film One Foot in Eden free to view on YouTube. The film is a portrait of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies and of Orkney.

The poetry of George Mackay Brown, Robert Rendall and Edwin Muir features, as does the ferry to Moaness, the cliffs of Hoy and Rackwick.

Throughout the film, Davies’ often sparse, experimental music accompanies the majestic island landscapes, giving a sense of both their ancient beauty and their danger. 

Davies worked across many styles of music, and the film includes extracts from Ave Maris Stella, O Magnum Mysterium and the final scene of his opera The Martyrdom of Saint Magnus. We also hear George Mackay Brown reading his own verse, as well as quotations from the works of Edwin Muir, Robert Rendell and the ancient Orkneyinga Saga.

– from BFI website

You can find out more about Max and Hoy here.

And you can catch Max and George in the Tales o Hoy episode ‘Hidden Valley of Light’ here.

Rackwick: The Valley by the Sea

| hoyheritage

A fine film here with archive BBC recordings from 1982 with Max and George Mackay Brown. Recording, editing and radio production by Howie Firth. Music from Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Symphony No. 1 and Renaissance Scottish Dances. Moving images by Selena S. Kuzman. Photographs from the Gunnie Moberg Archive, Orkney Library and Archive and the Bevan family. Posted by Orkney International Science Festival.

 

Hoy Max extended

| hoyheritage

The Hoy Max exhibition has been extended in a reduced form until Thursday 27 July. You can still catch the remarkable photographs of Max by Gunnie Moberg and much of the information from the exhibition has been gathered in to folders. You will soon be able to get a wonderful insight into the work of Max and the influence of Hoy on his music through this a video from Orkney International Science Festival which we will post shortly.