Composer James MacMillan

https://www.heraldscotland.com/news/17548457.twenty-years-after-scotlands-shame-sir-james-macmillan-on-that-speech-his-60th-birthday-and-his-new-fifth-symphony/?fbclid=IwAR2EtAudQErE2jatz79RS8HSjmlT5gfTKSlcP4_6xFV39yUwewCn5agTGSQ

Extract

“He said: “I am very proud about it, I’ve been coming to the Edinburgh Festival since I was a teenage boy. I remember the first time, it was probably 1977, even before I started university, and I saw Mary Queen of Scots by Thea Musgrave, I heard The Rite of Spring, pieces by John Tavener, all these things – I saw [Yehudi] Menuhin play Beethoven.”

La Grand Inconnu is a French term, ‘The Great Unknown’, which is often associated with the Holy Spirit, the composer said.

MacMillan, who is 59 until July, added: “In English it means ‘the great unknown’, but it can mean something completely different. It is for two choirs, and an orchestra, and there are four soloists.

“It is a exploration and reflection on spirit, the Holy Spirit for for example.

“There are texts, I have a little [Saint] John of the Cross in there. But generally it is words, and sounds, that got it going: for example the Hebrew word for breath is ‘ruach’, and the Greek word is ‘pneuma’, and the Latin word is ‘spiritus’, so you can see where I am going with that.”

The second movement is is inspired by words in each language for water, and the final movement ruminates on the words for fire.

He added: “Why the Holy Spirit? Well I suppose its the most mysterious thing about the faith, I suppose.

“All of Christianity is a mystery, I suppose, but the idea of this third person, its the one we cannot really relate to. We can get the Father, and we can get the son, because he was an historical figure, but the Holy Spirit: what is that about? So there is a mystery there that fascinates me.

“Also, I think for secular people, it is what is most fascinating about the Trinity. What is this spirit thing? It is not just the arts world, I think society in general is rediscovering spirituality, the spirit, it means a lot to people, especially in the world of music.

“People talk about music being the most spiritual of the arts: they’re not talking about conventional religion, like me, but they mean something by that, and they use that for the impact music has on their life, which is transformative. So for all those reasons I thought it was a good way to go.””