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Programme

‘I don’t believe any composer can write in an ideological or temperamental vacuum. You have got to be able to respond to something innate in your psychology, otherwise it has no personal integrity.’

James MacMillan

The choral works of James MacMillan take their inspiration from several sources, but the abiding themes tend to be the Catholic Church and Scottish traditional culture. And he has a particular gift to respond to particular events or buildings.

The most substantial work on this recording is Cantos Sagrados, which takes as its starting point the searingly powerful poetry of the Latin American poets Ariel Dorfman and Ana Maria Mendoza. The composer’s settings of poems concerned with political repression coupled with traditional religious texts make for a powerful exploration of liberation theology, by turns delicate and terrifying. He has written as follows:

‘In writing this work I wanted to compose something which was both timeless and contemporary, both sacred and secular. The title (‘sacred songs’) is therefore slightly misleading as the three poems are concerned with political repression in Latin America and are deliberately coupled with traditional religious texts to emphasise a deeper solidarity with the poor of that subcontinent.

‘It was my interest in liberation theology which made me combine the poems of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo in Argentina with the texts of the Latin mass in Busqueda (an earlier music-theatre work) and has now led me to attempt a similar synthesis of ideas in Cantos Sagrados.

‘The voices in Ariel Dorfman’s poems belong to those who suffer a particular type of political repression: the ‘disappearance’ of political prisoners. Ana Maria Mendoza’s poem about the Virgin of Guadalupe tackles the same problem by asking a more fundamental cultural and historical question.’

Of the other works, the majority are settings of Latin or English religious texts, often written for particular occasions or places. A Child’s Prayer, for instance, was dedicated to the dead of the Dunblane tragedy. On 13 March 1996, Thomas Hamilton entered Dunblane Primary School in Scotland, shot dead Mrs Gwen Mayor and 16 members of her class and inflicted gunshot wounds on 10 other pupils and three other members of the teaching staff, before committing suicide. The event naturally caused widespread shock throughout the world. This setting of traditional words was first performed on 4 July 1996 at Westminster Abbey. Two solo trebles sing a soaring melody over a repeated ‘welcome’ sung by the lower voices, culminating in repetitions of the word ‘joy’. Thus is the grief caused by the loss of the children and their teacher transcended by a celebration of life.

Commissioned in the name of Sir Thomas Armstrong by the Musicians Benevolent Fund for performance at the St Cecilia’s Day Service in St Paul’s Cathedral in 1994, Christus Vincit is a monumental piece of musical architecture built on just seven words. The composer constantly surprises us, for instance by setting the initial words ‘Christ conquers’ in the most delicate and tentative manner, albeit introducing the motives that will be built upon, arch upon arch, as the great Cathedral itself, as the piece progresses to its climax. But a single voice is abandoned by the choir, as she sings a final ‘Alleluia’ alone, as if from the very cupola itself.

St Aloysius, the subject of Divo Aloysio Sacrum, died at the young age of 23, having helped victims of the plague before suffering the same fate himself. He has become known as the patron of Catholic youth. This motet was composed for the Jesuit church of St Aloysius, Garnethill, Glasgow, where the text is inscribed over the door. The choir sings first in English, in a direct and forceful manner that might be compared with the proclaiming nature of the text on the outside of the church. The composer then invites us inside, using more a more mystic style, and the Latin text, to conjure up a contemplation of the saint. Finally we return outside as the text continues to ring in our ears, as incisively as the peal of the church bells across the city.

Seinte Mari Moder Milde was commissioned by King’s College, Cambridge, for the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in 1995. The interplay between the medieval English and Latin of the macaronic text is dramatised by bold dynamic contrasts: after the initial angelic exultations, the quiet Latin responses appear to emerge from the very bowels of the earth. Eventually, after yet more canonic writing for the choir against arabesques from the organ, it is the Latin text that comes to the fore, with ‘Precantis!’. But after a single tenor appears to be left alone singing almost in desperation, two sopranos wend their way back to silence with magical repetitions of ‘Infantis!’.

The newest piece on this recording is Tremunt videntes angeli, which was commissioned for the dedication service of the Millennium Window in the Resurrection Chapel of St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh, and first performed there on Ascension Day 2002. The window was designed by the Edinburgh-born Eduardo Paolozzi. The motet falls into three parts, to match the three stanzas of the poem, although the final two lines of the first stanza are ‘extracted’ from their original position and used instead as a refrain to each stanza, sung homophonically by the whole choir. The first two stanzas are sung, by the male and female voices respectively, in a tight canonic interplay of lilting Scottish rhythms. But for the final stanza, the composer asks the lower voices to improvise the word ‘Alleluia’ on a set of pitches, with the remarkable direction sotto voce, lontano, delicato, sospirando, tranquillo, sempre ppp. Meanwhile the sopranos are wholly liberated, proclaiming in thirds an effusive hymn to Jesus, before the refrain closes the motet once more.

The two secular works on the recording are settings of poems by that most Scottish of poets, Robert Burns, and in both cases, the poet originally supplied a melody of his own. In So Deep, an arrangement of O my Luve’s like a red, red rose, MacMillan merely provides a gently ebbing undercurrent to the original melody. By contrast, in The Gallant Weaver, MacMillan has dispensed with the somewhat four-square original melody by Burns, and composed an entirely original part-song, whose folk-like idiom seems to echo far more closely the wistful nature of the poetry. Initially employing the composer’s favourite canonic device, this time with three soprano lines, the ever-changing choral harmony then bewitches the senses into a dreamlike state. As the second verse draws to a close, the singers appear to fade into the very colours of the countryside evoked in the poem.

Sam Laughton, February 2004

Texts

[1] Divo Aloysio Sacrum

Saint Aloysius pray for us.
Divo Aloysio sacrum.

[2] The Gallant Weaver

Where Cart rins rowin to the sea,
By mony a flow’r and spreading tree,
There lives a lad, the lad for me,
He is the gallant Weaver.

Oh I had wooers aught or nine,
They gied me rings and ribbons fine,
And I was feared my heart would tine,
And I gied it to the Weaver.

My daddy sign’d the tocher-band
To gie the lad that has the land,
But to my heart I’ll add my hand,
And give it to the Weaver.

While birds rejoice in leafy bowers;
While bees delight in op’ning flowers;
While corn grows green in simmer showers,
I love my gallant Weaver.

[3] A Child’s Prayer

Welcome Jesu,
Deep in my soul forever stay,
Joy and love my heart are filling
On this glad Communion day.

[4] Seinte Mari Moder Milde

Seinte Mari moder milde,
    Mater salutaris;
Feirest flour of eni felde
    Vere nuncuparis.
Thorou ihesu crist thou were wid childe;
Thou bring me of my thouhtes wilde
    Potente,
That maket me to dethe tee
    Repente.

Mi thounc is wilde as is the ro
    Luto gratulante.
Ho werchet me ful muchel wo
    Illaque favente.
Bote yef he wole wende me fro,
Ic wene myn herte breket a two
    Fervore.
Ic am ifaiht bo day ant naiht
    Dolore.

Suete levedi, flour of alle,
    Vere consolatrix,
Thou be myn help that I ne fall,
    Cunctis reparatrix!
Mildest queen ant best icorn,
Niht ant day thou be me forn
    Precantis!
Yef me grace to see thi face
    Infantis!

[5] Tremunt videntes angeli

Tremunt videntes angeli
versam vicem mortalium:
culpat caro, purgat caro,
regnat caro Verbum Dei.

Tu, Christe, nostrum gaudium
manens perenne praemium,
mundi regis qui fabricam,
mundana vincens gaudia.

Iesu, tibi sit Gloria,
qui scandis ad caelestia,
cum Patre et almo Spiritu,
in sempiterna saecula. Amen.

Angels tremble at the sight
of mortal man’s lot overturned;
flesh condemns, flesh purifies,
the Word of God made flesh now reigns.

You, Christ, are our joy,
enduring, everlasting prize,
you rule the fabric of the world,
surpassing worldly joys.

Jesus, unto you be glory,
who to the heavens now ascend,
with the Father and the kindly Spirit,
for eternal ages. Amen.

[6] Cantos Sagrados, I - Identity

What did you say—they found another one?
—I can’t hear you—this morning
another one floating
in the river?
talk louder—so you didn’t even dare
no one can identify him?
the police said not even his mother
    not even the mother who bore him
    not even she could
they said that?
the other women already tried—I can’t understand what you’re saying,
they turned him over and looked at his face, his hands they looked at,
    right,
they’re all waiting together,
silent, in mourning,
on the riverbank,
they took him out of the water
he’s naked
    as the day he was born,
there’s a police captain
and they won’t leave until I get there?
He doesn’t belong to anybody,
you say he doesn’t belong to anybody?
    tell them I’m getting dressed,
        I’m leaving now
    if the captain’s the same one as
        last time
    he knows
        what will happen
        that body will have my name -
        my son’s my husband’s
            my father’s
        name
I’ll sign the papers tell them
    tell them I’m on my way,
        wait for me
and don’t let that captain touch him
don’t let that captain take one step closer
    to him.
Tell them not to worry:
I can bury my own dead.

Libera animas omnium fidelium defunctorum
de poenis inferni, et de profundo lacu: Libera
eas de ore leonis ne absorbeat eas tartarus,
ne cadant in obscuram.

Deliver the souls of all the faithful departed from the pains of hell and from the depths of the pit:
deliver them from the lion’s mouth, that hell devour them not, that they fall not into darkness.

[7] Cantos Sagrados, II - Virgin of Guadalupe

Sweet Virgin of Guadalupe,
    oh virgin of the gentle eyes,
dark-eyed virgin,
    good Lady, my love,
painted by God’s own hand
    on the cloak of the Indian Juan Diego,
Sweet virgin, my love,
who commanded the bishop
to build you a shrine,
where my brothers the Indians lived
in Tapeyepac in Mexico,
outside the city. Flogged and burned
were these poor little ones,
despised, deceived and mocked,
my brothers the Indians.
A thousand times mistreated,
a thousand thousand killed.

What did you say to the bishop?
    "You will build me a house
        outside the city, where I will wait,
    where I can hear the cries,
        the pleas of my Indian children."

Sweet Virgin of Guadalupe,
oh virgin of the gentle eyes,
dark-eyed virgin, my girl,
my love, I want to ask you
this question, dear mother:

Why is it that in Spain,
    on the far side of our hills and valleys,
        across the sea,
why is there
    another Virgin of Guadalupe,
            Patron Saint of the Conquerors?
            men with great beards, men on horses,
    men with swords and fire,
who crush and burn our homes,
    and the Indians,
    your children,
                still inside?

Why is it. Sweet Virgin,
        sweet mother,
why is there another Virgin of Guadalupe,
‘Patroness of the Conquerors’?

Salve Mater coeli porta Virga florens
et exorta David ex prosapia.

Hail Mother, portal of heaven Flowering Virgin, sprung from the line of David.

[8] Cantos Sagrados, III - Sun Stone

They put the prisoner
against the wall.
A soldier ties his hands.
His fingers touch him—strong,
gentle, saying goodbye.
—Forgive me, compañero—
says the voice in a whisper.
The echo of his voice
and of
    those fingers on his arm
fills his body with light
    I tell you his body fills with light
and he almost does not hear
the sound of the shots.

Et incarnatus est de spiritu sancto.
Ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est.
Crucifixus etiam pro nobis.

He became incarnate of the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified.

[9] Christus Vincit

Christus vincit,
Christus regnat,
Christus imperat.

Alleluia!

Christ conquers,
Christ is King,
Christ is lord of all.

Alleluia!

[10] So Deep

O, my Luve’s like a red, red rose,
that’s newly sprung in June:
O, my Luve’s like the melodie,
that’s sweetly play’d in tune.

As fair art thou my bonnie lass,
so deep in luve am I:
and I will luve thee still, my dear,
till a’ the seas gang dry.

Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
and the rocks melt wi’ the sun;
I will luve thee still, my dear,
while the sands o’ life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only Luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
tho’ it were ten thousand mile.

James MacMillan (b. 1959)

James MacMillan read music at Edinburgh University and took Doctoral studies in composition at Durham University with John Casken. After working as a lecturer at Manchester University, he returned to Scotland and settled in Glasgow. The successful premiere of Tryst at the 1990 St Magnus Festival led to his appointment as Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Between 1992 and 2002 he was Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s Music of Today series of contemporary music concerts. MacMillan is internationally active as a conductor and in 2000 was appointed Composer/Conductor with the BBC Philharmonic. He was awarded a CBE in January 2004.

In addition to The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which launched MacMillan’s international career at the BBC Proms in 1990, his orchestral output includes the percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, premiered by Evelyn Glennie in 1992 and which has since received over 300 performances and has been programmed by leading international orchestras and conductors including the New York Philharmonic under Leonard Slatkin, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Andrew Davis, and the Detroit Symphony under Neeme Järvi. MacMillan’s music has been programmed extensively at international music festivals, including the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, the Bergen Festival in 1997, the South Bank Centre’s 1997 Raising Sparks festival in London devoted to his music, and the Queensland Biennial in 1999. A documentary film portrait of MacMillan by Robert Bee was screened on ITV’s South Bank Show in January 2003.

Works by MacMillan also include Seven Last Words from the Cross for chorus and string orchestra, screened on BBC TV during Holy Week 1994, Inés de Castro, premiered by Scottish Opera and toured to Porto in 2001, a triptych of orchestral works commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra: The World’s Ransoming, a Cello Concerto for Mstislav Rostropovich, and Symphony: ‘Vigil’ premiered under the baton of Rostropovich in 1997, and Quickening for The Hilliard Ensemble, chorus and orchestra, co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra. MacMillan’s Symphony No.2 was commissioned by the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and premiered in 1999, and his first score for the BBC Philharmonic, The Birds of Rhiannon, received its first performance at the 2001 BBC Proms in London.

In terms of recordings, the Koch Schwann disc of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie and Tryst won the 1993 Gramophone Contemporary Music Record of the Year Award, and the BMG recording of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel won the 1993 Classic CD Award for Contemporary Music. A second recording of Veni, Veni, Emmanuel has been released on the Naxos label, featuring Colin Currie. A series of MacMillan discs on the BIS label has to date included the complete Triduum conducted by Osmo Vänskä, the clarinet concerto Ninian, the trumpet concerto Epiclesis, Symphony No.2, and music for string quartet. Other acclaimed recordings include a choral collection including Mass on Hyperion. Recent releases include Raising Sparks on Black Box, The Birds of Rhiannon on Chandos, and a second recording of The Confession of Isobel Gowdie on BIS.

Recent MacMillan works include A Deep but Dazzling Darkness for solo violin and large ensemble, co-commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra and the Saratoga Chamber Music Festival, and Symphony No.3: Silence, co-commissioned by BBC/NHK and premiered in Tokyo in April 2003. Future works have been commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and Welsh National Opera.