The Scottish composer Sir James MacMillan is one of the major figures of contemporary music, with a world-wide reputation for his modernist engagement with religious images and stories. Beginning with a substantial foreword from the composer himself, this collection of scholarly essays offers analytical, musicological, and theological perspectives on a selection of MacMillan's musical works. The volume includes a study of embodiment in MacMillan's music; a theological study of his St Luke Passion; an examination of the importance of lament in a selection of his works; a chapter on the centrality of musical borrowing to MacMillan's practice; a discussion of his liturgical music; and detailed analyses of other works including The World's Ransoming and the seminal Seven Last Words from the Cross. The chapters provide fresh insights on MacMillan's musical world, his compositional practice, and his relationship to modernity.
Edited by:
George Parsons,
Robert Sholl (Royal Academy of Music,
London)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 244mm,
Width: 170mm,
Spine: 14mm
Weight: 464g
ISBN: 9781108716871
ISBN 10: 1108716873
Series: Cambridge Composer Studies
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 10 November 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Active
Foreword Sir James MacMillan; Introduction George Parsons and Robert Sholl; 1. The struggle with conviction: a trio of string quartets Arnold Whittall; 2. Conflicting modernities and a modernity of conflict in James MacMillan's The World's Ransoming George Parsons; 3. In Memoriam: James MacMillan's violin concerto as modernist lament Chelle Stearns; 4. Reincarnating 'The Tryst': the endurance of a simple love song Dominic Wells; 5. Exquisite violence: imagery, embodiment and transformation in MacMillan Robert Sholl; 6. Making the familiar as unfamiliar: MacMillan's St Luke Passion Jeremy S. Begbie; 7. MacMillan's 'mission' and the Passion settings Richard E. McGregor; 8. A cluster of gathering shadows: exposition and exegesis in Seven Last Words from the Cross Andrew Shenton; 9. James MacMillan's The Sun Danced: Mary, miracle, and mysticism Peter Bannister; 10. 'Shrouded in doubts and fears': the liturgical music of James MacMillan Phillip Cooke; 11. Containing chaos? Aspects of medieval liturgy in James MacMillan's Visitatio Sepulchri Lisa Colton.
George Parsons studied Music at the University of Oxford, where he was Organ Scholar at The Queen's College. He is a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, an independent researcher and is currently training for Christian ministry at the London Seminary. Robert Sholl is a Professor of Music at the University of West London and teaches at the Royal Academy of Music. He is a performer and writer on music, specialising in twentieth-century music and publishing extensively in this area. He is editor of Contemporary Music and Spirituality (with Sander van Maas, 2016).
