James MacMillan Studies

Eleven international scholars analyse key works by Sir James MacMillan, and contextualise his unique musical-theological approach.

This volume opens up the music and conceptual world of Sir James MacMillan. In it an international team of scholars analyses a broad selection of MacMillan's works. It engages with central features of MacMillan's compositions, especially the intersections between religion, spirituality and compositional approaches.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.