Page 167 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

Devout: the Holy Spirit is praised in Mahler’s Symphony No 8 CREDIT: ERICH AUERBACH
So is he really the first composer to tackle this topic? “In modern times I think I may be. In the
Renaissance composers often praised the Trinity, and, of course, Mahler praises the Third Person
in the tremendous last movement of his Symphony No 8, where he sets the medieval poem Veni
Creator Spiritus (Come Holy Spirit). I wanted to do something different, find a way of expressing
something about the Trinity with the resources of modern music.”

It’s an enticing prospect. Across the two millennia of the Christian era, the idea of the Holy Trinity
has inspired theologians and philosophers to extravagant but often mystifying
speculations. Perhaps music can shed a new and more illuminating light on it.

James MacMillan’s Symphony No 5 Le Grand Inconnu will be performed at the
Edinburgh Festival on Aug 17. Tickets: 0131 473 2000; eif.co.uk and at the Barbican
London EC2 on Oct 14. Tickets: 020 7638 8891; barbican.org.uk

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