Page 160 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

conscious of some wear and tear, but in certain aspects of life do feel older
and perhaps a little wiser.

“For ten years, I wrote music for my own congregation, at St Columba’s in
Glasgow. I would compose responsorial psalms on the Saturday and

rehearse them briefly before the service. Although it’s one of the most
difficult things I do as a composer, it’s also one of the most enjoyable.
“In fact, since my student days in Edinburgh, I’ve regularly participated in
the Gregorian or Dominican chanting of the crucifixion story on Good
Friday. This simple music has had an overriding influence on the shape
and character of my own writing for congregation, and on my Passion

settings.

“This music is appropriate for the most modest parishes: any congregation
should be able to sing them. The responses are short enough and simple,
and, with the repetitive nature of the psalms, they’re designed to be picked
up quickly.” These responsories are used in churches around the world.

The flow of sacred settings includes two Passions (St John and St Luke),
a Stabat Mater, and Seven Last Words of Our Saviour from the

Cross. Since it was the Day of Preparation, a vast 70-minute work, also
unveiled at Edinburgh, draws on both St John’s and St Matthew’s Gospels.
His percussion concerto Veni, veni, Emmanuel is performed worldwide.
“For next year,” he tells me, “I am writing a Christmas Oratorio, to be
performed in Australia, Amsterdam, and New York.”

MARC MARNIE/EDINBURGH FESTIVALMARC MARNIE/EDINBURGH FESTIVAL
James MacMillan’s five Culham Motets (Friday 16 August at the
Greyfriars Kirk), were composed, he explains, “for the consecration [in
2015] of the Chapel of Christ the Redeemer at Culham College. It’s not
often a new Catholic chapel is built; so this occasion had a special
resonance for me.” His Mass of Blessed John Henry Newman also has a
congregational part.

It has been aptly said of MacMillan that “His musical language is flooded

with influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social
conscience and close bond with Celtic folk music; plus influences from
Far Eastern, Scandinavian and East European music.”

His first symphony, Vigil, forms part of a triptych, Triduum, which
includes his concerto, The World’s Ransoming, for cor anglais and
orchestra, which alludes to Maundy Thursday, and his Good Friday-
themed Cello Concerto. His third symphony, Silence, poses probing

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