James MacMillan

This work came about through a collaborative experiment with the sculptress Sue Jane Taylor. It is a pensive and reflective work for strings and percussion lasting about fifteen minutes, and is mostly...

Atmospheric settings of poems in Scottish and in English by William Soutar (1898-1943), a central figure in the Scottish literary renaissance: Scots Song (6 mins), Ballad (4 mins) and The Children (6...

In the tradition of music written in homage to a dead artist, this work was composed for Thomas Trotter in commemoration of the French painter Georges Rouault (1871-1958). A leading figure in the arti...

Setting of a passage from Khalil Gibran's The Prophet, dating from 1984 and only recently released by the composer. The powerful imagery in the text is brought to life in the music. Suitable for inter...

An attractive addition to the contemporary organ repertory this suite of three contrasting movements was commissioned by the University of St Andrews in celebration of its 600th Anniversary.

Commissioned by John Scott Whiteley, Organist Emeritus of York Minster, who gave the first performance in July 2019 at Gloucester Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival. Cast in a single, eigh...

In its original scoring for mixed voices MacMillan's The Gallant Weaver has become a favourite; this arrangement now extends the setting to upper voices. Paul Spicer comments, 'This ideal introduction...

This work was composed in 2020 and was commissioned by the Lord Burghley 500 Foundation for a Service of Thanksgiving in Westminster Abbey to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of William Ce...

Setting of a prayer by Mother Cornelia Connelly, foundress of the Society of the Holy Child Jesus in 1846 and latterly Mayfield School. In 1863 she was inspired to transform the ruins of the Old Palac...

Setting of Latin text combining a versicle at Matins on the Feast of St Andrew with a fragment of a prayer attributed to him.

Short motet commissioned by St Dominic’s Sixth Form College, Harrow-on-the-Hill, UK, to celebrate its 40th anniversary. MacMillan chose a text which is entirely appropriate to young people about to be...

This is an approachable and affecting setting of a devotional poem by the revered Carmelite nun St Thérèse of Lisieux (1873–97). The choral writing, marked ‘placid’, comprises simple four-part homopho...

This short but awe-inspiring ceremonial piece was commissioned by Westminster Cathedral for the visit of Pope Benedict XVI in 2010. Organ, brass and timpani thunder around the sung text, ‘You are Pete...

A welcome addition to this composer’s output of secular choral works, Oh Sleep! is a beautiful and lyrical setting which will be appreciated by choirs both amateur and professional. It was composed to...

Composed for performance at the 2022 Cumnock Tryst, the community-based annual music festival established by James MacMillan in the Ayrshire town where he grew up. MacMillan comments that “my earliest...

Von der Britten Sinfonia und der Town Hall in Birmingham in Auftrag gegeben, wurde das Stück 2009-10 komponiert. Seine Uraufführung erlebte es mit Nicholas Daniel als Solisten und der Britten Sinfonie...

Etwas zurückhaltend was written in 1982 when the composer was a student at the University of Durham. The piece was forgotten until 2009, when MacMillan realised that much within its ideas seemed curre...

Composed in 2007, this 25-minute work was commissioned by Southbank Centre for its Associate Artists, the Takács Quartet. A major addition to the contemporary string quartet repertory, the San Francis...

This publication gathers together three miniatures for string quartet, all composed 'in memoriam' a particular individual. Memento (4 minutes) was written in memory of the composer's friend, David Hun...

Composed in 1988 and revised in 1991, this 28-minute work was commissioned by the University of Glasgow’s McEwen Bequest. The composer stated in 1991, "My first string quartet, Visions of a November S...

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