• 2(pic).2.1+bcl.asx.tsx.1/2220/timp.2perc/pf/str(8.8.6.4.2)
  • 14 min

Programme Note

Boreraig is a remote village on the Isle of Skye, which was cleared to make way for sheep in 1853. The inhabitants, mainly crofters, were sent in ships to New Zealand after brutal evictions. The piece was originally planned when, in 1994, I first visited the abandoned yet remarkably preserved croft houses of Boreraig, which can only be reached on foot. I felt an eerie, ghostly sensation as I walked among the ruins and imagined the events of 1853. The basic outline of the piece is a chronological history of the place: before habitation, during habitation, the clearances and the aftermath. However, the piece is more personal than programmatic or political.

© Stuart MacRae

Scores

Preview the score

Reviews

"But there's another point in this evocative portrait of a deserted island village, where, breathtakingly, the activity suddenly subsides and, with a carpet of beautiful string chords, gentle percussion, and the softest wah-wah trumpets, it is absolutely clear that here is a young man with a real voice. And that was emphasized also in the superbly-crafted coda - a chill picture of desolation and bleakness."
Michael Tumelty, The Herald
7th August 2005
"Written when MacRae was only 18, this assured if episodic work was a vivid representation of events and emoticons that made imaginative use of a large orchestra to tirring effect. A traditional dance rhythm evoked the community's happier times, the sheer scaler of the orchestration the rugged grandeur of its mountain surroundings and the ghostly glissandos the windswept desolation of what remains of the village."
Inverness Courier
5th May 1999