James MacMillan Turns 60!!
written by Chelle Stearns
This has been a monumental year for Scottish composer, Sir James MacMillan. In celebration of his 60th birthday, his works have been featured at festivals throughout 2019, including the BBC Proms, The Edinburgh International Festival, and the White Light Festival at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York. Works such as his popular percussion concerto, Veni, Veni, Emanuel, and his work for Choir and orchestra, Seven Last Words from the Cross, were featured throughout the year, as well as performances of his lesser known concertos for Trombone and Saxophone.[1] In addition, MacMillan has written a memoir about his life and music, A Scot’s Song, a short but inspiring read. The first academic book on MacMillan was published this summer, which traces and comments up on his compositional development, Phillip A. Cooke’s The Music of James MacMillan. Also, look out for The Cambridge Companion to James MacMillan next March or April, edited by George Parsons and Robert Scholl. If you have never discovered Sir James MacMillan’s work, this is the year!
This past summer saw two new works by MacMillan premiered. The first was “Toccata,” for solo organ commissioned and premiered by John Scott Whiteley, Organist Emeritus of York Minster, at the Three Choirs Festival in Gloucester on July 29, 2019.[2] The second was his new symphony, Symphony №5 “Le Grand Inconnu” (the Great Unknown).[3] The symphony is a mediation on the Holy Spirit inspired by biblical texts, the ancient hymn tune “Veni Creator Spiritus,” and the poetry of St. John of the Cross. The symphony was commissioned by philanthropist John Studzinski specifically for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. Christophers conducted the premiere on August 17, 2019 at Usher Hall for the Edinburgh International Festival, which featured The Sixteen, Genesis Sixteen, and The Scottish Chamber Orchestra. This symphony is exemplary of MacMillan’s ability to bring sacred themes into the concert hall with both generosity and personal conviction.
MacMillan’s work often bridges the sacred and the secular. He is mindful that others do not always share his religious convictions, so is purposeful to leave room for multiple interpretations of his music. As one commentator from the Guardian notes, James MacMillan is “…a composer so confident of his own musical language that he makes it instantly communicative to his listeners,” while another commentator gloried that in his Violin Concerto, “MacMillan’s Catholicism was kept well under wraps.”[4] Regardless, he does not shy away from incorporating ancient hymn tunes and liturgical intent, yet, he asserts, his first concern is the music language. Music, in his mind, should not conform to extra musical themes or ideas but develop as music does. He believes music requires its own logic and way of thinking, and refers (rather provocatively!) to the transformation of extramusical material into pure music as a kind of “transubstantiation,” thus attributing a sacramental weight to his compositional process.[5]
Overall, MacMillan is an intriguing spiritually and theologically informed/inspired composer, whose music is also a joy to hear. If you are looking for a place to begin your listening, I highly recommend Harry Christophers and The Sixteen’s CD, Miserere, which features the wondrous titular work (the last minute or so of this piece is worth the entire album) as well as his Strathclyde Motets. The SCSM Blog will feature various works by MacMillan, so visit us at https://medium.com/society-for-christian-scholarship-in-music for more listening.
If you are looking for an opportunity to hear both MacMillan and his music, you are in luck. At the upcoming White Light Festival at Lincoln Center on November 7th, 2019, SCSM’s own Andrew Shenton will be interviewing MacMillan before Harry Christophers leads the Britten Sinfonia and The Sixteen in the US premiere of MacMillan’s Miserere and Stabat Mater.[6]
Endnotes:
1. For a list of all of the 2019 concerts which featured MacMillan’s music, go to https://www.jamesmacmillan.co.uk/performances. To peruse MacMillan’s scores, go to: https://www.boosey.com/cr/perusals/powersearch_results.cshtml?search=james+macmillan&input.x=0&input.y=0.
2. James MacMillan, “Toccata,” Boosey & Hawkes website, 2019, https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/James-MacMillan-Toccata/102921.
3. James MacMillan, “Symphony №5 ‘Le Grand Inconnu’,” Boosey & Hawkes website, 2018, https://www.boosey.com/cr/music/James-MacMillan-Symphony-No-5-Le-grand-Inconnu/102048.
4. The Guardian quote is from the Boosey & Hawkes website, https://www.boosey.com/composer/james+macmillan. Edward Seckerson. “London Symphony Orchestra / Gergiev, Barbican Hall, London.” The Independent, May 13, 2010. https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/london-symphony-orchestra-gergiev-barbican-hall-london-1972513.html.
5. See James MacMillan and Richard McGregor. “James MacMillan: a conversation and commentary.” The Musical Times 151:1912 (Autumn 2010), 69–100.
6. For more information see, http://www.lincolncenter.org/white-light-festival/show/macmillan-stabat-mater.
