James MacMillan
Dancing to the SNP’s tunes
Scottish music and culture is playing second fiddle to an increasingly nationalist and socialist agenda
The therapy of forty voices
My attempt to emulate Tallis was initially terrifying, but now that the work is finished I am quite bereft
Music makes us socially mobile
Scottish nationalists seem out to destroy a precious musical heritage built up over many generations
In composer’s Sistine heaven
To hear my Stabat Mater sung in Michelangelo’s chapel was the high point of my musical life
A constant search for the sacred
Religion plays an integral role in modern music even when it is composed by non-believers
The ring of authority
Ernest Newman’s towering biography of Wagner helped to shape my own view of the composer
The quality of divine mercy
Look to Beethoven to answer Adorno’s famous post-Holocaust critique of Western culture
In search of perfect pitch
Many composers, including me, love football so much that we are inspired by the beautiful game
Sweet singing in the choir
Dumbing down church music and liturgy has emptied the pews. Our tradition deserves better
Psalms in Praise of Scotland’s Past
Thomas Wode’s part-books show the centrality of music in Scottish life just before the Reformation
Why Remoaners should back Boris
“Boris, ironically, now offers Remoaners the best chance of a soft Brexit, or at least a sensible one. And to those who want a second referendum—’the people’s vote’—there may even be a chance of that too.”
On the road
“In the summer of 1980, in the grip of some Kerouac-ish fantasy, I opted to hitch-hike from Laredo to New York”
Discovering the Great War of China
A third of a million Chinese labourers helped the Allies defeat the Kaiser, but their huge unsung contribution ended in betrayal