A SCOTSMAN FOR THE PEOPLE

 

We certainly know from artists who write about why they do what they do,  that  it comes from a place deep within them and if it comes from a deep faith, then we are all the better for it. This goes for music as well as visual arts.

We have over the years listened to JAMES MacMILLIAN's  “Seven Last Words from the Cross” during Holy Week.  I came across an article a few weeks ago which led me do some research on this Scottish composer, who many think is one of Britain’s best today.

Sir MacMillan's music is infused with the spiritual and his Roman Catholic faith has inspired many of his sacred works, such as, Magnificat (1999), and several Masses. This central strand of his life and compositions was marked by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in early 2005, with a survey of his music entitled “From Darkness into Light”

Sir  MacMillan and his wife are lay Dominicans, and he has collaborated with Michael Symmons Roberts, a Catholic poet, and also Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Perhaps his most political work is Cantos Sagrados (1990), a setting of Latin American poetry by Ariel Dorfman and Ana Maria Mendoza, combining elements of liberation theology with more conventional religious texts. He has explicitly stated that his aim in writing this work was to emphasize 'a deeper solidarity with the poor of that subcontinent' in the context of political repression.

Scottish traditional music has also had a profound musical influence, and is frequently discernible in his works. When the Scottish Parliament was reconvened in 1999 after 292 years, a fanfare composed by him accompanied the Queen into the chamber. Weeks after the opening ceremony,  he launched a vigorous attack on sectarianism in Scotland, particularly anti-Catholicism, in a speech entitled "Scotland's Shame".

His Mass of  2000 was commissioned by Westminster Cathedral and contains sections which the congregation may join in singing.  Similarly, the St Anne's Mass and Galloway Mass do not require advanced musicianship, being designed to be taught to a congregation.

One of his most important commissions (by the Bishops' Conferences of England & Wales and of Scotland) was to write a new Mass setting for choir and congregation to be sung at two of the three Masses celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI during his Apostolic and state visit to Great Britain in 2010. 

First sung at Mass at Bellahouston Park, Glasgow, on 16 September it was sung again at the Mass and beatification of John Henry Newman at Cofton Park, Birmingham, on 19 September).

“My first aspiration is getting my music to work: to have its own consistency, and a message and a meaning; and then to be able to communicate it, through fellow-musicians, to the listener. It’s a three-way communication that is mystical and magical, and can be really wonderful."

He is a passionate advocacy of community involvement in music and set up the burgeoning music festival The Cumnock Tryst in 2013. Much of his music reflects his strong Scottish roots and interest in all aspects of musical tradition.

“I think music today is as important as ever. It’s a language that speaks beyond words and images, and that’s why it’s so mysterious, and so strangely beautiful.”

There is a wonderful interview on  EWTN- 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tY5K-pCD8Ks