Articles By James MacMillan
July/August 2018
Scottish nationalists seem out to destroy a precious musical heritage built up over many generations
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June 2018
To hear my Stabat Mater sung in Michelangelo’s chapel was the high point of my musical life
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April 2018
Religion plays an integral role in modern music even when it is composed by non-believers
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March 2018
Ernest Newman’s towering biography of Wagner helped to shape my own view of the composer
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February 2018
Look to Beethoven to answer Adorno’s famous post-Holocaust critique of Western culture
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November 2017
Many composers, including me, love football so much that we are inspired by the beautiful game
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October 2017
Dumbing down church music and liturgy has emptied the pews. Our tradition deserves better
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September 2017
Thomas Wode’s part-books show the centrality of music in Scottish life just before the Reformation
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July/August 2017
From choirs to colliery bands, the Cumnock Tryst festival celebrates the social aspect of music
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June 2017
The work of the Continent’s great composers is rooted in a culture long predating the age of revolution
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May 2017
Young composers are still gripped by the urge to make music, and now to break down cultural barriers
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July/August 2016
Despite the retreat from faith, many modern composers are inspired by true spirituality
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October 2015
Beethoven set the bar impossibly high but composers like myself still regard it as the ultimate challenge
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October 2011
Folk music has long been influenced by ultra-Left politics. Yet as the example of composer Cornelius Cardew has shown, even those with Communist sympathies have things to teach us about community music
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June 2011
A working-class Scottish upbringing taught James Macmillan about music and fatherhood. If only more artists would take up the mantle
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November 2009
"The prophets of Marxist-inspired modernism are in retreat right across the board. They are perplexed at how the world has gone. Their view has not prevailed, even in modern music. Everything, including our understanding of recent history, is up for grabs."
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About James MacMillan
James MacMillan is a Scottish composer whose specially commissioned congrgational Mass was performed when Pope Benedict beatified Cardinal Newman during his visit to Britain in 2010. In May 2012, his new Violin Concerto - written for Vadim Repin - received its global premiere.
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