Tenebrae Responsories Strathclyde Motets Strathclyde Motets Missa Brevis Introit

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Dominus dabitbenignitatem Tenebrae ResponsoriesIII–JesumTradidit In splendoribussanctorum Agnus Dei Kyrie Videns Dominus Gloria Tenebrae ResponsoriesII–Tradiderunt me Tenebrae ResponsoriesI–Tenebrae factaesunt At theConclusion Capp New ChoralMusicby t Sedebit DominusRex Mitte manumtuam Design by John Haxby courtesy ofTheArt Surgery Cover photographby JohnHaxby, Post-Production byJulia ThomasatFinespliceLtd Hobbs Produced andEngineeredbyPhilip 18 Recorded inGreyfriarsKirk,Edinburgh, “Give meJustice” Factus estrepente Data estmihi Sanctus e th –21 n e st April April e bra lla Nova 2007 e James MacMillan James MacMillan

directed by Alan Tavener

TENEBRAE page 2 Picture of James MacMillan – Courtesy of Arena PAL Arena of Courtesy – MacMillan James of Picture

James MacMillan page 3 James MacMillan talks to Rebecca Tavener about his choral music … Britten and Leighton, and certainly something of the species counterpoint page 4 that I was trying to absorb as well: although it’s not Renaissance pastiche, it’s page 5 Rebecca Tavener: You have always been associated with music that has meaning, a form of archaic counterpoint given a modern flavour. particularly works that have an historical, political, or spiritual significance, Rebecca Tavener: The Missa Brevis speaks in a very different voice from the a cappella but it seems as though you are producing more a cappella sacred music music you are producing today: there is a ‘straightness’ of line and a minimal/ nowadays, is that correct? Has it become more of a priority and, if so, why restrained use of drama that evokes the sacred music of the high Renaissance do you think this is occurring at this time? – the post-Council of Trent approach, if you like. How much did you feel the James MacMillan: I’ve always loved writing for voices and choirs, with or without shades of composers like Palestrina and Victoria looking over your shoulder accompaniment, and it’s something that became ingrained very early on, at the time you were writing it? How did you feel about it when you got it round about the time I was a teenager, when in fact I wrote the Missa Brevis. ‘out of the drawer’ again? Having decided to revisit it and prepare it for Obviously there was something very important going on there at school with performance and publication today, did you feel it needed any revision? the school choir and Bert Richardson, my teacher at Cumnock Academy, and that experience has lived with me. I have noticed, especially in the last five James MacMillan: Yes, it did. Just little tweaks here and there – it was like the adult years or so, that the amount of choral writing, both accompanied and a composer helping the boy composer out, I suppose, but it’s 97% the way I cappella, has increased a lot, and there’s a facility there that comes very wrote it. It has always been in the background – I’ve gone through my life fluently from me and I love doing it. taking things out of my catalogue if I thought they were mundane or not mature, but there was always something about this piece that made me feel Rebecca Tavener: The music on this disc actually spans around thirty years of your very proud of it. We sang the Sanctus with the school choir and I liked the career, so starting in chronological order with that early Missa Brevis: what way it worked, and I remember Paisley Abbey Choir singing the Sanctus under were the circumstances of its composition? George MacPhee while I was still at school – it was very nice. On making a renewed study of it, I decided I liked it a lot and I wanted to get it out there James MacMillan: I was just experimenting on my own, I was 17 at the time, and I was so I tidied it up – really, I tidied up the Kyrie and some of the word-setting hearing a lot of music and developing an early interest in song and also in the Sanctus, but the Gloria, Agnus Dei and the Ite Missa est (cf At The early polyphony. The choir at school was singing Palestrina, Lassus and Byrd Conclusion) are as they were. as well as JS Bach and Telemann, and it just sparked something in me, and I was writing lots of things, but the one piece I really enjoyed writing was Rebecca Tavener: The Missa Brevis is probably the most obviously ‘useful’ and user- this Missa Brevis. I was discovering lots of 20th century choral music as well, friendly music on this CD, suitable probably for most good parish church particularly music by Benjamin Britten and Kenneth Leighton, and in fact it M illan choirs, but when we move onto your cycle of Strathclyde Motets the technical M illan ac ac was at that time that I decided to go and study with Kenneth Leighton in demands go up a gear, and we can also see a distinct journey in terms of the Edinburgh after school. Listening back thirty years on for the first time, in musical and technical devices you have employed as the cycle has progressed. Where did the idea for the cycle come from? some of these movements of the Missa Brevis, I can hear those influences, James M James M James MacMillan: The Strathclyde Motets grew out of ongoing discussions between mystical quality – designed to hang in the air at that most mystical moment page 7 Alan Tavener, Brendan Slevin, the Roman Catholic Chaplain at Strathclyde page 6 as people are receiving the host – do you think about the communicant’s University, and myself. We drew the Strathclyde University Chamber Choir personal response at that moment? into an ongoing project at the Chaplaincy, and now at St Columba’s Church James MacMillan: I think so. Having heard these motets in context, there’s a kind of in Maryhill, that they would come a few times a year and sing the liturgy for suspended animation about them. They don’t seem to go anywhere, they us and I would write a series of new Communion motets for them. kind of float as an entity, and there are one or two ideas that sort of ease Rebecca Tavener: Has the connection with the University of Strathclyde in some way into being and just exist, and then it stops. For that reason I have noticed a informed the way you write, or was this entirely dictated by the strengths and different mood and a different sensation about these motets. characteristics of Strathclyde University Chamber Choir? Has the scoring, I’m getting more and more interested in what liturgy is, and use of divisi etc been influenced by the make-up of that choir? exploring what might work best for Mass, either in the music that I write or the music that I use, because I have my own little choir at St Columba’s now. James MacMillan: I think so. I’m aware that some of my choral music that has been There are important node points in the Mass that seem to attract some sort commissioned by or for groups such as Cappella Nova, Westminster Cathedral of spiritual energy. One of those is the Sanctus, where the congregation on or the BBC Singers, is of a technical difficulty that some very good church earth is united, as it were, with the choirs of angels and saints in heaven in a choirs can find quite awkward at times, so I wanted to do experiments on kind of cosmic liturgy. Something changes there, and of course the culmination a technical level, but maybe dropping the difficulty notch just a little bit, of that great movement in the liturgy is the sacrifice of the Eucharist and maybe not as much as the Missa Brevis, but just enough so that good church the reception of the Eucharist, so that in a sense the culmination of all that choirs or good amateur concert choirs could have a go at without causing is this moment of reflection where the communicants and congregation are them too much stress. I also wanted to write music that would work for the deep in introspection as individuals, and also as a community, reflecting on liturgy – our liturgy at the University and also at the Dominican Parish in this mystical but loving union that they have. Glasgow – and which also might have a life beyond the liturgy, and also beyond the Roman Catholic Church, so that other denominations and even Rebecca Tavener: There’s a strong link here to the medieval concept of earthly choirs secular choirs would be able to take this music on. joining with the heavenly chorus – Hildegard of Bingen believed, for example, I have noticed a change in style: the sparse, strictly contrapuntal that this mystical conjunction occurred when all sacred music was sung. style of the Missa Brevis has evolved, and there’s a greater concern for So far, you have concentrated on Communion motets, in other words colour, I think, and also a different approach to time – liturgical time – maybe each text is the Latin ‘Proper’ for the feast concerned that would have been because of having spent a lifetime attending liturgies and being interested in sung for many centuries in Gregorian Chant at the moment of Communion.

what a choir can bring to sacred worship, especially while people are in quiet M illan Did you set out only to write Communion motets? Did you prefer those texts M illan

meditation after receiving Communion. ac to the other Propers, or was the decision simply practical? ac

Rebecca Tavener: Does their position in the liturgy, within the drama of the Mass, inform James MacMillan: I wanted there to be a common denominator in the first batch, but

their style? It seems to me that they share, to a greater or lesser extent, a James M also the nature of the liturgy at the University and St Columba’s allowed me to James M really explore the text at that point. I knew there would be silence in the church Rebecca Tavener: Does this have the potential to erode the church’s traditional role page 8 – Catholic churches can be very noisy places sometimes because of the children as a patron of the arts? page 9 and all the movement – but usually at Communion it is quiet, so it seemed the James MacMillan: Yes, well there’s a lot of suspicion about the religious artist but best time to have the singers do something a little bit more complex. there needn’t be, and in the artistic world music especially has always held Rebecca Tavener: There is an obvious comparison to be drawn with William Byrd’s a candle for the sacred right through the 20th century. Perhaps in the other monumental collection of Gradualia – is there a game-plan here or are you arts they’ve gone down other roads, round corners and even into cul-de- just seeing how it goes? Are settings of the other Propers on the cards? This sacs, but in music composers especially have always been on a search for could be the most significant British collection of Latin motets since Byrd! the sacred – whether it’s actually writing for the churches or not. You can detect this degree of searching in Shoenberg, Stravinsky, even in the work James MacMillan: Well I am seeing how it goes! I’m sure Communion motets will continue of John Cage with his interest in eastern religions, and in British composers but I’m branching out – one possible new direction might be a forthcoming like Britten, Leighton, John Tavener, and Jonathan Harvey and so on … and BBC broadcast from St Columba’s which looks as though it may be morning you see it in eastern Europe too – when the Iron Curtain came down this prayer – Lauds rather than Mass – in which case what I’d really like to do for whole abundance of religious composers: Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Silvestrov, the SUCC is a setting of the Benedictus, the Canticle of Zachariah, that’s not Arvo Pärt etc. Music has always held this candle for the sacred and for that usually set to music. reason I feel quite confident in what I’m doing. I feel very much part of the Rebecca Tavener: Byrd lived through a time of religious persecution and his music mainstream rather than a kind of rebel. was the fruit of deeply-held faith expressed against a back-drop of danger. Rebecca Tavener: You’ve also been producing quite accessible and simple Introits and Those intense levels of persecution may be a thing of the past, but do you Responsorial Psalms as you go along for your own choir at St Columba’s, and feel there are any significant obstacles put in the path of a Roman Catholic we’ve included one such item, the Introit “Give me Justice”, on the disc – it composer today? seems to us that there would be a great demand for a formal collection of similar congregational items from you, perhaps covering the major festivals? James MacMillan: It’s not just an issue for Roman Catholic artists, but we live in a time of renewed secular aggression about religion and a lack of understanding of James MacMillan: It is a distinct possibility – I had been thinking of gathering a full the nuances of religion born out of perceived fundamentalism in a number of Psalter before doing anything about it but I decided that would take years. different religions. We live in a time of religious fanaticism as well, and the What I’ve decided to do is put together a collection of disparate items that mainstream churches: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian etc, are taking I’ve written for the congregation and for the SUCC, and bits from here and the brunt of this, not just in the world of the arts but also in the wider world, there. There’s stuff I’ve written for an Edinburgh parish: a new setting of the and there is a kind of secular fundamentalism, almost as a counterpart to the M illan Our Father Doxology Great Amen M illan

ac , a and the . There’s another thing I wrote ac religious fundamentalism, which has taken root in the public debate. This is for my eldest child’s First Communion which is sung in some parishes – just very worrying and it doesn’t make for a complex and nuanced understanding items that have collected and they work for RC parishes and choirs, but I or even discussion about religious matters. James M think they have a life beyond in other denominations as well. Choirs are James M always looking for something simple to sing and I can see these working in James MacMillan: That’s the first time I’ve realised that, so it certainly wasn’t conscious.

many different ways as well as fulfilling the need for quite elementary choirs Yes, I can see that it’s there, especially in that similar repeated cadential page 11 page 10 to sing something new. formula. Now you mention it I can see it, although it wasn’t deliberate.

Rebecca Tavener: In a recent interview about your new for Welsh National Rebecca Tavener: Amongst the Strathclyde Motets, In splendoribus sanctorum stands Opera, The Sacrifice, you spoke of a liturgical influence on your operatic alone in having a semi-improvised accompaniment. How did that choral writing, has this influence been working the other way? One review of come about and do you have plans for incorporating instruments into future Cappella Nova’s performance of Videns Dominus at the St Magnus Festival works in the cycle? mentioned its operatic intensity, do you see any real difference in writing for a church choir or opera chorus? James MacMillan: I’ll certainly be thinking about it. This was the odd-one-out for a couple of reasons. It was written for my own little ad hoc choir at St James MacMillan: I hadn’t thought about the cross-fertilisation of the two worlds, but Columba’s rather than the visiting SUCC. That’s a choir who come together I’m sure it must be there – I’m certainly aware of the different sound worlds because they love singing but who maybe don’t have the skills of a regular and traditions, and was aware of the different sound quality that the WNO group. Some members read music but most don’t, so there’s a lot of note- Chorus produces, and the fact that they would be involved in a very dramatic bashing involved, and so I wanted to write something that would be much narrative – very much part of the action in the new opera – but I’m sure more simple. It’s a kind of repeated chant, there’s not much in the way of that some cross-fertilisation is going on. The big piece I’m writing just now harmonisation, just a couple of drones and a shifting middle part. There is a setting of the St John Passion and there is a very liturgical influence was a request from the clergy for a motet for Midnight Mass so I wrote a occurring, with almost chant-like writing for some of the choruses, especially fairly virtuosic trumpet part and we got a student along to give the first for the narrator’s choir, but the composition of this has just come off the performance. St Columba’s has a beautiful acoustic and I think we’ll be back of completion of the opera so it is very dramatic and theatrical. There wanting to use it more for music and we might have students from the Royal is a kind of hybrid world, some conscious and some subconscious. Scottish Academy of Music & Drama involved as instrumentalists, which could Rebecca Tavener: So there is musical baggage travelling around between small and impact on what I write in the future. large-scale works and, perhaps, unfinished business from one work that gets Rebecca Tavener: In the Tenebrae Responsories the level of technical difficulty for rounded off in another? the singers rises perhaps another two gears! Your setting is madrigalian (in James MacMillan: I think so, that’s right, absolutely. the purest sense) in its episodic, close attention to the words, and virtuosic – did you find the commission to write for eight soloists rather than a choir Rebecca Tavener: When you use self-quotation it is not usually in a very obvious way. liberating from a technical point of view? When we spot such self-quotation the listener is bound to feel some resonance M illan M illan ac ac from the earlier work. For example, you seem to refer to the ‘It is finished’ James MacMillan: Yes, in that case in particular I knew who the singers were going to be, chords from The Seven Last Words in Dominus dabit benignitatem, is there a and there’s no point in shirking the realities of these commissions – that some commissioning bodies, in a sense, invite you to write for their strengths – their theological significance there? James M James M professional strengths and their virtuosic strengths, whether its Cappella off these motets so that they can be done separately. One of them is the Nova or the BBC Singers or The Sixteen. You rise to those challenges with the Judas mercator which would also work on its own, and it came from the same page 12 page 13 hope that the piece will have a life beyond the first performances, of course, experience as writing for Cappella Nova, the same sort of world. but I think its important both for the composer and the choral world to have different levels of difficulty, and I’ve certainly enjoyed over the years Rebecca Tavener: What about more recent composers such as Poulenc? Was his influence writing those virtuosic pieces like Mhairi that I wrote for the BBC Singers present at all? some time ago, but that still that leaves a vacuum for simpler pieces. As far as James MacMillan: Yes, I think he has to be. I’ve conducted some of his choral music Tenebrae Responsories the are concerned, I was aware of the great historical quite recently, and he brings a different, non-British perspective, and it’s settings by Victoria and Gesualdo and they overruled my head a bit. important to remember this other world beyond the great wealth of British st th Rebecca Tavener: How did you select from all the texts on offer? I think I suggested repertoire. In the 21 century now it seems as though the great 20 century anything from the three great Holy Week Offices of Tenebrae, opening French choral tradition of Poulenc and Duruflé has died, or is dying, which up possibilities that included all twenty-seven Tenebrae Responsories, the is a great shame. But now we have the Baltic states with composers like Pärt Lamentations of Jeremiah, penitential Psalms such as the Miserere etc. What etc, so its important to be open to those different worlds. Poulenc’s music is was it about these three texts that compelled you to select them? so colourful and expressive in different ways – there’s a great joy in his music, and I’m very attracted to it. James MacMillan: I think I decided to focus on the Good Friday Responsories, but I didn’t want to set them all from the same Nocturne (each Office contains three Rebecca Tavener: This is not Cappella Nova’s first MacMillan premiere, of course, it’s Nocturnes, each of which contains three Responsories), but I may go back to the third, in fact. We were touched and delighted that the work is very ‘us’, them in the future and write more. I wanted to spread the chronology a bit to hold much of our own history as a group in it. We found references, we felt, on the Friday by choosing two from one Nocturne and one from another. to The Seven Last Words and to the ornamental virtuosity of the maverick late-medieval Scottish genius Robert Carver – the latter particularly in the Rebecca Tavener: Did you feel the weight of the great Renaissance masters who set these trio sections – were you thinking of him? words bearing down on you at all? I’m thinking particularly of Gesualdo, of course, whose anguished way with harmony you seem to be making a tribute James MacMillan: I think so, he has been very much in the background of my thoughts to in passages such as ‘et sicut gigantes’. for lots of reasons, but particularly since writing my own O bone Jesu for The Sixteen when I made a study of the Carver. Carver is such an important James MacMillan: I think I was very aware of that context behind me, also the figure for Scottish music – he’s the great Scottish pre-Reformation composer Responsory texts have been with me a while. I even used bits and pieces in who gives us this wealth of music, and I think Scottish musicians hungrily look The Seven Last Words at moments where those texts are interpolated. Even in M illan M illan

ac back to his music and that era as a time of great outpouring of fruitfulness. ac the Passion setting, as well as the St John narrative, I’m interpolating Latin motets at moments of reflection throughout, and most are from the Good Rebecca Tavener: This work contains a number of stylistic features that are appearing Friday liturgy, and there’s also an extra one. I’m hoping eventually to siphon in your choral music at the moment, the most significant being the James M James M ornamentation which reflects both Celtic and middle-eastern traditions. This stave while the rest are singing below – the opposite in pitch terms of how east/west feeling comes together particularly at the cantorial lament at the these effects are usually created, but have I oversignified the effect of the page 14 page 15 end of the Tenebrae Responsories but, as far as I am aware, these highly corporate humming moments such as the end of the second Responsory by ornamented lines have been a feature in your work for more than a decade. suggesting the ‘helplessly voiceless’ interpretation? Did this arise out of your interest in Scottish traditional music? James MacMillan: In the political sense, yes, it’s more about pushing more and more James MacMillan: I think so, yes, I used to play and sing a lot of Scottish and Irish possibilities out of the sound of a choir without going into perverse territory, traditional music, when I was younger, in a band that went round the pubs I want these things to be a natural extension of what the voice can do. and clubs. I think that was a very useful way of absorbing that world and Rebecca Tavener: You have now produced a vast corpus of Holy Week works in varied the musical style got under my skin. Initially I began by making allusions scorings such as: voices with instruments (Seven Last Words); orchestral to it very consciously, but it’s become more unconscious ever since, so it (Triduum); a cappella (Tenebrae Responsories) and now the large-scale St has got under my skin and I’m glad its there. But it also has connections John Passion. Do you think that you will be returning again and again to with the middle-eastern world. The two traditions share a similar concern for the narrative of Holy Week and its liturgies as a major ongoing creative ornamentation, which I’m getting more and more interested in. influence? Rebecca Tavener: It seems to be what the human voice naturally wants to do, a kind James MacMillan: Probably. It certainly has been the case that I’ve been circling around of inbuilt vocal instinct that crosses cultural boundaries. More recently those days in a series of different ways, not just the ones you have listed. still, humming is becoming a regular colour. In the Tenebrae Responsories There’s also Visitatio Sepulchri which is a masque-type opera – I’m re-working I interpreted this as a device used to signify almost inexpressible feelings that as a choral piece, actually – and then things like Fourteen Little Pictures that go beyond words – was this a fair analysis? It reminded me at times of a for piano trio which represents the Stations of the Cross. I will keep going work for humming solo octet by Rihm, Mit geschlossenem Mund, in which the back, one way or another, and there are always new seams of territory there: composer was trying to express the voicelessness of political prisoners. the Lamentations of Jeremiah that you mentioned earlier might be something James MacMillan: The closed mouth thing has begun to enter my palate, as it were, and for the future. I’m trying to remember where I first used it. I think it might have been in The Rebecca Tavener: What role does today’s creative artist have in interpreting or Quickening, actually, where there’s a line that talks about ‘the dumb choirs of promulgating the concept of spirituality in art? Is there an element of Pentecost’ and I think that had a big influence. I also think it’s a way of, in a exegesis, like a priest interpreting scripture through a sermon, in the music purely practical sense, extending the palate and making another almost orches- when you set Biblical and/or liturgical texts? Looking at your back-catalogue, tral colour available to the choir, especially when you combine normal singing M illan works such as Cantos Sagrados seem to have a subtext of Liberation Theology M illan

with humming so you’ve got a kind of background and foreground effect. ac – was or is this still important to you? ac

Rebecca Tavener: Yes, there’s a particularly interesting and unusual moment in the James MacMillan: Certainly there was – Cantos Sagrados was written at the time of Tenebrae Responsories where the sopranos are humming up high above the James M Busqueda in the late 1980s and there was something in the Church and the James M wider world about Liberation Theology: some simply call it the ‘preferential James MacMillan: I’m actually involved in writing a few choral pieces just now, some option for the oppressed’, which has transformed itself. Liberation Theology with organ accompaniment, one of which is for a Presbyterian church in the page 17 page 16 has had its day and become an historical thing, but the experience the USA, and there’s a setting of a Psalm in German I’ll be doing for Helmut church is going through has been invaluable because it has reminded us of Rilling. I’m also writing something for Nigel Perrin’s choir the Bath Camerata the central importance within the Gospel of taking the poor’s side, as it were, – a kind of hybrid piece with texts mostly from the Stabat Mater but also bits and that’s not a political statement, it’s in with the bricks of the Gospel. of carols, actually. I think that lots of people, regardless of what they believe, if they Rebecca Tavener: Another Holy Week work? are lovers of music, think of it as the most spiritual art-form, and I think that’s absolutely true. You can see even in our own times this search, as I was James MacMillan: Absolutely. saying earlier, by so many different types of composers with different world- views to explore the reality of what music as a spiritual art-form means. So James MacMillan for me, I’m just another of those people involved in that journey to discover, or rediscover, the sacred in our world through music. James MacMillan read music at Edinburgh University and took My approach to text is very instinctive and comes from the kind Doctoral studies in composition at Durham University with John of person I am. I never set these texts simply as a musical exercise, I am Casken. After working as a lecturer at Manchester University, inspired or pushed to write the music in the first place by the text and he returned to Scotland and settled in Glasgow. The successful its theology and its background, so it’s absolutely rooted in the tradition premiere of Tryst at the 1990 St Magnus Festival led to his – an inspiration that comes from the tradition and from the scripture and a appointment as Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber desire to interpret it. I never want my music to ‘preach’, and I don’t use my Orchestra. Between 1992 and 2002 he was Artistic Director of the Philharmonia music to push some kind of agenda. I am a lay Dominican and the Order is Orchestra’s Music of Today series of contemporary music concerts. MacMillan is called the ‘Order of Preachers’, and it is an interesting concept in a world internationally active as a conductor and in 2000 was appointed Composer/Conductor where preaching is such a loaded and negative word that you have to remind with the BBC Philharmonic. He was awarded a CBE in January 2004. yourself continually of the charisms of St Dominic. What he and others such as St Thomas Aquinas and St Catherine were about was witnessing the love In addition to The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which launched MacMillan’s of God through their own lives, one way or another, and you become aware international career at the BBC Proms in 1990, his orchestral output includes the of other ways of being witnesses, not just by what you say but also through percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, premiered by Evelyn Glennie in 1992 and what you do. What I do is write music, so in that sense I see it as flowing from which has since received over 350 performances and has been programmed by leading international orchestras and conductors including the New York Philharmonic under

a kind of Dominican charism, and therefore it’s probably best to avoid the M illan M illan Leonard Slatkin, the Philadelphia Orchestra under Andrew Davis, and the Detroit word ‘preacher’ and see it in terms of the word ‘witness’. ac ac Symphony under Neeme Järvi. MacMillan’s music has been programmed extensively Rebecca Tavener: Finally, can you give us a hint about any future a cappella works in at international music festivals, including the Edinburgh Festival in 1993, the Bergen

hand or in mind? James M Festival in 1997, the South Bank Centre’s 1997 Raising Sparks festival in London, the James M ‘Silence’ ‘Silence’ James MacMillan ispublishedexclusively byBoosey&Hawkes. James MacMillan York City Ballet, and YorkBallet, City Concerto No.2 Concerto Concerto ok b Mciln lo include also MacMillan by Works Mass Epiclesis Contemporary Music. MacMillan discs on the BIS label include the complete the include label BIS the on discs MacMillan Music. Contemporary the London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Boston Symphony Boston Orchestra, Concertgebouw Royal Orchestra, Symphony London the n em o rcrig, h Kc Shan ic of disc Schwann Koch the recordings, of terms In works commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra: Symphony London the by commissioned works Orchestra, Minnesota OrchestraandTakács Quartet. A 2005. in Weekend Composer Barbican BBC the and 1999, in Biennial Queensland Disney Hall with soloist Wayne Marshall and the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted Philharmonic Angeles Los the and WayneMarshall soloist with Hall Disney Black Boxlabels. Bank Showin2003. and the BMG recording of recording BMG the and and n srn oceta sree o BC V uig oy ek 1994, Week Holy during TV BBC on screened orchestra, string and orchestra, co-commissioned by the BBC Proms and the Philadelphia Orchestra. orchestra, co-commissionedbytheBBCPromsandPhiladelphia Recent MacMillan works include works MacMillan Recent conducted by Osmo Vänskä, the concerto clarinet the Vänskä, Osmo by conducted Reprinted by kindpermissionof Boosey&Hawkes by Esa-Pekka Salonen. Future works have been commissioned by Welsh National Opera, includes composer the by and 1997, in Rostropovich of baton orchestral of triptych a 2001, in Porto to toured and Opera Scottish by premiered documentary film portrait of MacMillan by Robert Bee was screened on ITV’s South ITV’s on screened was Bee Robert by MacMillan of portrait film documentary Tryst and S and which won a Classical Brit award in 2006. Other acclaimed recordings include recordings acclaimed Other 2006. in award Brit Classical a won which . A new MacMillan series on Chandos with the BBC Philharmonic conducted Philharmonic BBC the with Chandos on series MacMillan new A . won the 1993 Gramophone Contemporary Music Record of the YearAward, the of Record Music Contemporary Gramophone 1993 the won even Last Words from the Cross the from Words Last even first performed with choreography by Christopher Wheeldon at New at Wheeldon Christopher by choreography with performed first for Mstislav Rostropovich, and Rostropovich, Mstislav for A Scotch Bestiary Scotch A The Veni, Veni, Emmanuel Veni, Veni, Symphony No.3: Symphony Quickening ee Ls Wrs rm h Cross the from Words Last Seven commissioned to inaugurate the new organ at organ new the inaugurate to commissioned , The Birds of Rhiannon of Birds The on Hyperion and discs on the Naxos and Naxos the on discs and Hyperion on Symphony: for The Hilliard Ensemble, chorus and chorus Ensemble, Hilliard The for won the 1993 Classic CD Award for Award CD Classic 1993 the won

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James MacMillan page 18 s lo“aos o is efracs f otmoay music” contemporary of performances its for unrivalled “famous also is an has Tavener, Rebecca and Alan reputation as champions of Scotland’s unique treasury by of early vocal music. The group 1982 in founded Nova, Cappella mezzo soprano countertenor baritone soprano trumpet: tenor bass : : : : : :

*the eightsoloistsin Mark O’Keeffe Edward Caswell*, John Milne Edward Caswell*, Paul Charrier*, GregSkidmore Lister,GrahamNeal*,TomMalcolm Bennett,Clifford Phillips* Alexander L’Estrange*, RichardWyn Roberts* Heather Cairncross,AnneLewis Francis Cooper,LibbyCrabtree,Micaela Haslam*,RebeccaTavener* Tenebrae Responsories Te Guardian) (The Cappella Nova Cappella having ,

CAPPELLA NOVA page 19 visit thegroup’s websiteat For a full discography, biographies, pictorial archive and details of forthcoming events, Nova iscurrentlyVocal EnsembleinResidenceattheUniversityofStrathclyde. Sheena Wellington, Sister Sledge, Theatre Cryptic and The Scottish Ensemble. Cappella Scottish Brass Ensemble, The St Sessions, PetersburgJohn Glennie, Baroque Evelyn Brass, Orchestra, TomSymphony Scottish Fleming, Concerto BBC Caledonia, the including artists and groups of range wide a with platform the shared has group The Scotland. of Museum National the of opening the at Queen The HM of presence the in Sweeney On St Andrew’s Day 1998 the group premiered a specially commissioned work by William ofScottishearlymusic. ground-breaking performances their for Awards Award Scotland Living Glenfiddich Enterprise a and Society Rights Performing the several from are awards Nova’s Cappella Among USA. the abroad, and Russia times many toured has group including several the visits to Germany and France, and tours in Ireland, Belgium, festivals,Hungary, British Besides many programme. outreach in popular appearances a as well as Scotland across season concert a promote to Council Arts Scottish the from funding receives Company The Carver. for well-known championing the music of the 16 Gaudeamus particularly is group the and (ASV) times’, modern in premieres ‘world are which of all label, Classics Sanctuary the for music renaissance and medieval of ten including CDs, 14 made has Canty, ensemble, offshoot medieval its and Nova Cappella Craig Armstrong. Hate iobairst an Tartanthe film for Short Sweeney William by soundtrack award-winning the recorded Cross Week, Holy for cantata MacMillan’s James and 3, Radio oratorio, three-hour monumental Tavener’s John include These 1986. since works new 60 than more premiered and commissioned by The Delgados. Future premieres include new works by Sir John Tavenerand John Sir by works new include premieres Future Delgados. The by

(1994) . In 2003 they provided ensemble vocals for the critically-acclaimed album critically-acclaimed the for vocals ensemble provided they 2003 In . , which was the subject of seven short films for BBC2 TV. In 1996 they 1996 In TV. BBC2 for films short seven of subject the was which , www.cappella-nova.com Resurrection th century Scottish polyphonist, Robert ee Ls Wrs rm the from Words Last Seven

(1990) bodat n BBC on broadcast ,

CAPPELLA NOVA page 20 Motets Choir which regularly appears as a ‘backing group’ with Canty and Cappella Nova. Choir which regularlyappears asa‘backinggroup’ withCantyandCappella Alan, Plainsong Scottish The including choirs community and series workshop public popular Nova, Cappella directing Besides church. Company’sincreasingly the the leads TavenerCaswell, Rebecca Edward with and together as well as locale the serve to choir community a directs also he Parishwhere Church, Jordanhill of Choirmaster and Romantic Scottish partsongs: the compose to continuing is MacMillan James which for group (the Choir Chamber University Strathclyde including ensembles, and orchestras choirs, student of range wide a of direction the with series concert professional a of promotion the and teaching combines he where Strathclyde, of University the at Music of Director is ARCM and ARCO diplomas, and conducting with Roderick Bryden and George Hurst. He Organ Scholarship to Brasenose College. He studied organ with Nicholas Danby, gaining Alan Tavener read music at the University of Oxford where he was awarded the Heberden ) which has toured many times in Europe, and has recently released a debut CD of Sae fresh and fair . Since 1980, he has also been Organist Alan Tavener Strathclyde

ALAN TAVENER page 21 Strathclyde Motets Missa Brevis page 22 1. Mitte manum tuam 4. Kyrie eleison. Christe eleison. Kyrie eleison. page 23 Communion Motet for the Second Sunday of Easter Lord, have mercy, Christ, have mercy, Lord, have mercy. To John O’Connor, OP Mitte manum tuam et cognosce loca clavorum, alleluia: 5. Gloria in excelsis Deo. et noli esse incredulus se fidelis, alleluia. Et in terra pax hominibus bone voluntatis. Laudamus te. Benedicimus te. Adoramus te. Glorificamus te. Stretch forth your hand, and feel the place where the nails were, alleluia: Gratias agimus tibi propter magnam gloriam tuam. and be not doubtful but believing, alleluia, alleluia. Domine Deus, rex caelestis, Deus Pater omnipotens. 2. In splendoribus sanctorum Domine fili unigenite, Jesu Christi. Domine Deus, agnus Dei, Filius Patris. Communion Motet for Christmas Midnight Mass Qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis. To Gordian Marshall, OP Qui tollis peccata mundi, suscipe deprecationem nostram. Qui sedes ad dexteram Patris, miserere nobis. In splendoribus sanctorum, ex utero ante luciferum genuite. Quoniam tu solus sanctus. Tu solus Dominus. Amidst the splendours of the heavenly sanctuary, from the womb, Tu solus altissimus, Jesu Christe. before the morning star, I have begotten you. Cum Sancto Spiritu in gloria Dei Patris. Amen. Glory to God in the highest, 3. Introit “Give me Justice” Introit for the Fifth Sunday of Lent and peace to his people on earth. Lord God, heavenly King, almighty God and Father, Give me justice O God, and defend my cause against the wicked; we worship you, we give you thanks, we praise you for your glory. rescue me from deceitful and unjust men. You, O God, are my refuge. Lord Jesus Christ, only Son of the Father, Emitte lucem tuam, et veritatem tuam; ipsa me deduxerunt, Lord God, Lamb of God, et adduxerunt in montem sanctum tuum, et tabernacula tua. you take away the sin of the world: have mercy on us; Send forth your light and your truth; these have led me and brought me you are seated at the right hand of the Father: receive our prayer. to your holy mountain and to the place of your dwelling. For you alone are the Holy One, you alone are the Lord, Gloria Patri et Filio, et Spiritui Sancto; sicut erat in principio, YD E M OT T S / IN TRO I You alone are the Most High, Jesus Christ, et nunc et semper, et in saecula saeculorum, amen. with the Holy Spirit, in the glory of God the Father. Amen. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Spirit;

As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen S TR A TH CL MISSA BR EVIS

6. 8. 7. Thanks be toGod. The Massisended. Amen. May almightyGodbless you,theFatherandSon HolySpirit. And alsowithyou. The Lordbewithyou. Deo gratias. Ite missaest. Amen. Benedicat vosominpotensDeus,Pater etSpritusSanctus. etFilius Et cumspiritutuo. Dominus vobiscum: At theConclusion Lamb ofGod,youtake awaythesinsofworld:grantuspeace. Lamb ofGod,youtake awaythesinsofworld:havemercyonus. Lamb ofGod,youtake awaythesinsofworld:havemercyonus. peccatamundi,donanobispacem. Agnus Dei,quitollis peccatamundi,misererenobis. Agnus Dei,quitollis Agnus Dei Hosanna inthehighest. Blessed ishewhocomesinthenameofLord. Hosanna inthehighest. ofyourglory.Heaven andeartharefull Holy, holy,holyLord,Godofpowerandmight, Hosanna inexcelsis. Benedictus Hosanna inexcelsis. Pleni suntcaelietterragloriatua. Sanctus , sanctus,sanctusDominusDeussabaoth. , qui tollis peccatamundi,misererenobis. , quitollis quivenitinnominedomini.

MISSA BREVIS page 24 Strathclyde Motets 10. 11. 9. and theyspoke alleluia. ofthegreatthings Godhaddone, alleluia, withtheHolySpirit, and they werefilled where theyweresitting, alleluia; Suddenly, asoundcame fromheavenlike therushofamighty wind,intheplace alleluia. loquentes magnalia Dei, alleluia, etrepletisuntomnesSpirituSancto, ubierant sedentes,alleluia; Factus estrepentedecaelosonusadvenientis spiritusvehementis, To BrendanSlevin,OP Communion MotetfortheFeastofPentecost (WhitSunday) Factus estrepente Lord, yougiveusChrist,&c. blesshispeopleinpeace. sitonhisthroneforever; theLordwill The Lordwill Help ustolivebytheGospelandbringjoyofhiskingdom. creation,asfoodforeverlastinglife. Lord, yougiveusChrist,theKingofall Sedebit DominusRexinaeternum:benedicetpopulosuopace. To RobertPollock, OP Communion MotetfortheFeastofChristKing Sedebit DominusRex alleluia. and oftheSonHolySpirit,alleluia, nations,baptisingtheminthenameofFather go thereforeandteachall powerhasbeengiventomeinheavenandonearth,alleluia; All alleluia! etSpiritusSancti,alleluia, et Filii Euntes, doceteomnesgentes,baptizanteseosinnominePatris Data estmihiomnispotestasincaeloetterra.Alleluia! Communion MotetfortheFeastofAscension Data estmihi To HisGrace,TheArchbishopofGlasgow, MarioConti

MISSA BREVIS page 25 12. Videns Dominus 15. Tradiderunt me in manus impiorum, They delivered me into the hands of the Communion Motet for the Fifth Sunday of Lent et inter iniquos proiecerunt me, et non impious, and cast me out amongst the page 27 page 26 To Alan Tavener pepercerunt animae meae: wicked, and spared not my soul: Videns Dominus flentes sorores Lazari ad monumentum, congregati sunt adversum me fortes: the powerful gathered together against me: lacrimatus est coram Iudaeis, et clamabat: Lazare, veni foras. Et sicut gigantes steterunt contra me. and like giants they stood against me: Et prodiit ligatis manibus et pedibus, qui fuerat quatriduanus mortuus. Alieni insurrexerunt adversum me, strangers have risen up against me, et fortes quasierunt animam meam. and the mighty have sought after my soul. When the Lord saw the sisters of Lazarus in tears near the tomb, he wept in the presence of the Jews and cried: ‘Lazarus, come forth.’ 16. Jesum tradidit impius summis The wicked man betrayed Jesus And out he came, hands and feet bound, the man who had been dead for four days. principibus sacerdotum, et senioribus to the chief priests and elders populi: Petrus autem sequebatur of the people. But Peter followed him 13. Dominus dabit benignitatem eum a longe, ut videret finem. afar off, to see the end. Communion Motet for the First Sunday of Advent Adduxerunt autem eum ad Caipham And they led him to Caiaphas, To the Parish of St Columba’s, Maryhill, Glasgow principem sacerdotum, ubi scribae the chief priest, where the Scribes Dominus dabit benignitatem: et terra nostra dabit fructum suum. Amen. et pharisaei convenerant. and Pharisees were met together. The Lord will bestow his loving kindness, and our land will yield its fruit. Amen

Tenebrae Responsories Cappella Nova is extremely grateful to the following donors without whose generous support, both financial and spiritual, this recording could not have been realised: Commissioned by Cappella Nova with subsidy from the Scottish Arts Council, SERAPHIM : Anonymous, in memory of Benjamin Thomas Gibson the National Lottery and the PRS Foundation Dr Gabriele Kuhn • Marie McQuillan • David A Shapton To Catherine and Nigel Gibbs as a wedding gift CHERUBIM : Violet Barr • Susan M Beadle • Freda Blackwood • Dr Pamela J Boxx Robert Fothringham • Colin & Kathleen McPhail • David J B Murie And it was made dark, when 14. Tenebrae factae sunt, dum Jamie Reid-Baxter • Mary Sneddon • Phyl Tavener crucifixissent Jesum Judaei: et circa Jesus was crucified by the people: and ANGELS around about the ninth hour Jesus cried : Anonymous • Trish Burnet • Una M Campbell • Sheila Colvin horam nonam exclamavit Jesus voce Alastair H Cruickshank • James Clarkson, in memory of Anna Clarkson magna: Deus meus, ut quid me out with a great voice: ‘O my God, why hast The Downes Family • Dr Jillian Galbraith • Elizabeth Gibson • Mae & Jack Goldie dereliquisti? thou forsaken me?’ Caroline McCaffrey • Iain McGlashan • Dr Margaret A Mackay • Calum MacLean Et inclinato capite, emissit spiritum. And, inclining his head, he gave up his spirit. Ann Neill • Shantiketu • Adrian Shaw Gerry & Mairi Sigerson • Mick Swithinbank Exclamans Jesus voce magna, ait: Jesus cried out with a great voice: Graeme Taylor Pater, in manus tuas commendo ‘Father, into thy hands I commend SAINTS : Robert Harvey • Andrea Jack • Derek A Mickel • Archie Shearer

spiritum meum. my spirit.’ T ENE BR AE R ES PO NS OR IES Margaret Thomson • Iain Torrance T ENE BR AE R ES PO NS OR IES CKD 301

The English translation of Final Blessing and Dismissal (At the Conclusion) from The Roman Missal © 1973, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc.(ICEL). All rights reserved. The English translation of Kyrie Eleison, Gloria in Excelsis, Sanctus and Benedictus, and Agnus Dei by the International Consultation on English Texts. The English translation of the Strathclyde Motets and the verse of the Introit “Give me Justice” are taken from the Gregorian Missal, St Peter’s Abbey, Solesmes © 1990.

Cappella Nova gratefully acknowledges the following bodies which generously supported the commission of James MacMillan’s Tenebrae Responsories: The Scottish Arts Council • The PRS Foundation • The Hope-Scott Trust • The Binks Trust

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