James MacMillan

This carol, extracted from James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio (2020), is an arrangement of the traditional Hebridean melody, ‘Tàladh Chrìosda’, with English text derived from the Scottish Gaelic of...

James MacMillan is the pre-eminent Scottish composer of his generation. This attractive five-minute Advent/Christmas carol for choir and organ sets a poem by Michael Symmons Roberts, a frequent collab...

10 scores

Setting of Lux aeterna, the communion motet from the Requiem Mass, composed in memoriam James MacMillan Snr, the composer's father. Above a drone sustained throughout the three-minute span the voice w...

Composed in 2015, Stabat Mater was commissioned by the Genesis Foundation for Harry Christophers and The Sixteen. Scored for mixed chorus and string orchestra it is a long-awaited sequel to the early...

Tuireadh is Gaelic for a lament (or requiem) for the dead, and this work is dedicated to the victims of the Piper Alpha disaster and their families. On the evening of 6 July 1988 a fire broke out on t...

This five-minute duo was commissioned and first performed by Scott Dickinson and Andrew Berridge, for more than twenty years the first desk viola players of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. This i...

Virtuosic, single-movement work of 15 minutes' duration commissioned for the Nash Ensemble and the 2007 Cheltenham Music Festival. Horn players may perform from the horn & piano reduction of the Conce...

Composer's Notes In writing this work I wanted to compose something which was both timeless and contemporary, both sacred and secular. The title (Sacred Songs) is therefore slightly misleading as the...

The Death of Oscar (2012) is a miniature tone poem drawing upon the legend of the bardic poet Ossian and the death of his son Oscar. In the legends of Ossian, Oscar challenged the High King Cairbre to...

A major addition to the concertante trombone repertory, this single-movement work lasting 30 minutes was premiered in 2017 by Jörgen van Rijen and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Iván...

Scored for soprano saxophone and string orchestra, the composer states that this short concerto is based on archetypes of Scottish traditional music. The first movement, March, Strathspey and Reel, fo...

Berserkers were special warriors common to the Vikings and the ancient Celtic tribes who would work themselves into a frenzy with mead, mushrooms and hyperventilation to achieve performances of feroci...

New, corrected edition of MacMillan's breakthrough work, a sensation at the 1990 BBC Proms. The work is now firmly established in the contemporary orchestral repertoire worldwide and championed by lea...

Composed in 2021 and dedicated to the soloist Nicola Benedetti, this work was written as a memorial tribute to the Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, who died the previous year and was a major musi...

Study Scores

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...

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...

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...

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...

A seraph is a celestial being or angel, usually and traditionally associated with trumpets. MacMillan's Seraph is a concertino for trumpet and strings, in three short, contrasting movements, and a wel...

Gemischter Chor (SATB) und Streichorchester Widely admired as one of MacMillan's finest achievements, his Seven Last Words promises an absorbing and moving experience in concert, for performers and au...