Moladh na Maighdinn
Thursday 24th February 2005, 7.00pm
On Thursday 24 February at 7.00pm BBC2 Alba screens another, and intriguingly different, Gaelic mountain film. Moladh Na Maighdinn is a richly-textured visual, verbal and musical weave linking and exploring the motivations behind climbing mountains and writing poetry.
In the mid 18th century, Duncan Ban MacIntyre composed his much loved Moladh Beinn Dobhrain ("In Praise of Beinn Dorain"), a long poem celebrating the flora and fauna - especially deer - of the Argyll mountain on whose slopes he had spent many years as a hunter and keeper. The poem - intended to be sung to pipes accompaniment and indeed with a structure reflecting classical "piobroch" - has come to be recognised as one of the finest nature poems not simply in Gaelic but in any language.
Moladh Na Maighdinn, produced by Douglas Eadie, directed by Douglas Campbell and with music by Allan Macdonald. Gaelic poet, Domhnall Uilleam Stiubhairt, takes on both the physical challenges of A'Mhaighdean in Wester Ross and the even more considerable creative challenge involved in writing a contemporary poem in tribute to Duncan Ban's masterpiece.
Moladh na Maighdinn is produced by Pelicula Films and funded by the Gaelic Media Service.
For further information:
Douglas Eadie
Tel - 01334 655 357
