Descent

DESCENT
INTO
THE
MAELSTROM
A TREATMENT

In April 2018, film director Jan Vardøen
will transport The Arctic Philharmonic
Orchestra to the top of a mountain in
Lofoten, the otherworldly range of islands
in the Arctic Circle of Norway.
Here the orchestra will perform
Philip Glass’ composition “Descent into
the Maelstrom”, a 66-minute dramatic
interpretation of Edgar Allan Poe’s short
story of the same name.
Edgar Allan Poe
The Arctic Philharmonic Orchestra

At the start of the documentary we will
be introduced to several inhabitants of
the Lofoten Islands and their jobs. A
sheep herder on the remote island of
Røst, a fighter pilot stationed at the Bodø
squadron, the skipper of a trawler
preparing for the spring cod fishing
season, the captain of a lifeboat receiving
an emergency call, the crew of a Sea
King rescue helicopter as they scramble
to answer a Mayday out at sea.
And we will meet Philip Glass in his
native New York.
We will follow the rehearsals of the
60-piece orchestra as they work with the
conductor and sound engineers on the
perfectly acoustically balanced stage of
the “Stormen” music hall in Bodø.
The synthesizer parts will be
performed by the capable keyboard
players of the Norwegian prog-jazz band,
Jaga Jazzist.
In the background we will be hearing
the sounds of the sea, the harsh weather,
crackling radio transmissions, the
orchestra tuning up and rehearsing.
After 15 minutes of establishing our
characters and their environment the
music will start to play.
We will follow the members of the
orchestra as they scale the mighty
mountain, one by one and in groups,
carrying their instruments.
As the music continues and the
orchestra comes together we will move
to the characters as they go about
their business:
The sheep farmer as she picks up
her sheep on a large aluminium landing
craft. The sheep are wild and roam the
mountainsides untended until they
are fetched by the farmer for shearing
or slaughter.
The fisherman catches enormous
cod by line every early spring as countless
numbers of fish migrate to the Lofoten
Islands to spawn. The sea is full of small
boats, all competing to catch the most
and their small craft are soon filled to the
gunwales with writhing silver cod, blood
and guts.
When the weather is so bad that
nothing can move the only vessel
available is the ambulance boat that can
Philip Glass
motor out to the most extreme islands
and pick up an injured farmer or woman
in labour and transport them to hospital.
These boats are unsinkable and it seems
as if they spend most of the journey
underneath the churning waves.
The fighter pilot dives between the
deep valleys, skims the surface of the sea,
rises impossibly fast and almost scrapes
the paint off his belly on the sharp crags
on the mountaintops.

A trawler has fouled his gear with his net,
the motor is useless and his boat is being
dragged relentlessly closer to a reef. He
sends out a mayday as he and his crew don
survival suits.
Men are woken from their sleep; they
rush to the harbour, donning boots and
oilskins. A lifeboat is launched.
A Sea King rescue helicopter picks up
the mayday signal and takes off. The pilots
communicate with the trawler captain and
the skipper on the lifeboat and when they
arrive the crew of the trawler is already in
the water. The rescue divers winch down
and pick up the men, one by one, in the
thunderous downdraft of the rotors and the
pitching of the roiling sea.
And all the while the orchestra plays,
the music increasing in intensity, speed and
power. As the piece nears its climax we
follow a crowd that is gathering. They have
also climbed the mountain and amongst
them we see the pilot, the captain, the sheep
farmer, the fisherman, the people of Lofoten.
And Philip Glass.
The music ends and the sky is filled
with the green swirls of the Aurora Borealis.