Sir James Macmillan: Scotland's Great Composer on his Influences: Faith, Heritage & Tradition
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- Опубликовано: 26 сен 2019
- Sir James MacMillan is one of today’s most successful composers and is also internationally active as a conductor. His musical language is flooded with influences from his Scottish heritage, Catholic faith, social conscience and close connection with Celtic folk music, blended with influences from Far Eastern, Scandinavian and Eastern European music.
In this interview Sir James recounts the guilt he felt about about toying with communism in his youth, composing his first piece of music at the age of 10, and the importance to his life played by sacred music.
He holds that unlike other areas of art, music contains a spirituality not found in paintings or the spoken word. Thus, there is an acknowledgement and openmindedness among musicians of music's Judeo-Christian heritage/origins. This is something he feels many in the wider artistic world find perplexing and difficult to understand or accept. Consequently there is an assumption that one's political allegiances must be broader left politically.
He touches on the Scottish Referendum which, whilst not initially a Left-Right divide, has since seen the nationalist side become very left wing and anti-English.
On the broader subject of philosophy, he mentions the derision and almost chilling response received to comments he made about the philosophy underscoring much classical music -- in particular, when he had occasion to quote Sir Roger Scruton.
Sir James also laments the chance encounters the public might have with classical music are on the wane. Sir James and other musicians he knows first discovered classical music on BBC 1 etc. Yet today those opportunities are few and far between if not forever removed.
He feels this is particularly regrettable given the strong position in which British classical music currently finds itself -- especially in comparison with the "top down culture" that drives current German and French classical music, and which the public finds hard to relate to.
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MacMillan is a quiet pool of wisdom in a sea of froth.
Thank you gentlemen.
James Macmillan. As eloquent as he is musical. Great video Peter. Many thanks.
Thank you so much Peter for producing this channel. Please keep putting out your content
Your channel is fast becoming one of the most varied and interesting I'm watching, really enjoying the great guests and conversations. Many thanks!
Wonderful. Thank you. This channel is a little treasure.
I don’t know very much about music, but I do love The Sixteen. Will look out for James MacMillan’s music now. Thank you.
What a wonderful interview. Many thanks
Thank you for that! I know nothing about Sir James except that he is a venerated Scottish composer, so I was one of those who, by default, would have assumed him to be one of the globalist/lefty/EU/Common Purpose secular intellectuals that dominate the arts world. Instead we have interesting, measured, wry and well-observed conversation from a religious political conservative. Quelle surprise!
I went to school in the 70s. I played the trumpet in school and the local church. I also liked to play football,. That was the two things that took up most of my free time, now if you close the church and stop the schools from playing football, what do you think will happen? If you tell the young children that they can change sex if they want. They can even be a boy in the morning and a girl in the afternoon if they so desire. Back it up with the threat of the law for anyone who disagrees and sent that child to school not with a trumpet but a mobile phone which has instant porn in their pocket. Now you tell me , will that change our culture?
Absolutely...it already has.
Add to that another religion being imposed...it’s makes me believe in conspiracies that are going about.
Great conversation. If there was ever a nominee for an anti-IainBanks it would be him!😄
Mature calm measured insightful discussion. Thank you for this and for reminding me that such things can still exist in public discourse.
Wonderful blether! MacMillan is a national treasure, and a beacon for reason and balance. A great Christian man.
Your first Scot Peter, time for another, how about Alexander Stoddart ?
I think he is a very good composer, and I have quite a lot of CD:s with his music.
Good stuff
As a teen I listened to live Met productions on CBC' s Saturday Afternoon at the Opera. There were all sorts of classical music shows. Now even classical music shows have become politicized. Ugh. I enjoyed this conversation.
His Tu Es Petrus is hair-tingling....find it on RUclips
Thanks for the unexpected musical video! I have to disagree about James' point on Stravinsky though.... The rite of spring comes to mind. There were composers who rejected religion outright, such as Shostakovich, who was a renowned Atheist.
So Rule Brittania, Jerusalem, etc have become comic silly songs around (19m 28sec)?
I found it rather bizzare that so many people singing these historically patriotic songs were waving EU flags on last night of the proms. I guess that does turn it into a bit of a joke.
@@bassman2246 When you put it like that, but then he goes onto talk about turning the last night of the proms into a battleground.
Unfortunate phrasing on their part. Such pieces of art are structurally uncomplicated because they are designed to work on an emotional level rather that a purely intellectual level. But, such art can then be distorted by the performers and the observers. If I ever met someone who admitted to waving an EU flag or wearing an EU beret at the Proms, I would have to walk away.
Alan Kendall Methinks you misunderstand the man!
@@rahbourelas6457 The last night of the proms was a celebration of popular music, not a coded polemic one way or the other. It's sad to see them being appropriated in this way.
Great conversation ... but his compositions are painful to my ears.
FretsUK I haven’t heard much by him yet and am a musician myself so must search.
I wish Catholic’s would just say Christians.
I'm with you, but many Christians don't regard Catholics as Christian.
One really shouldn't take the Gruniad at all seriously!
Grauniad...check your spelling..
Alan Træske You are obviously very young! Many years ago, the Guardian misspelled is own name on the title page of the rag - they called themselves the Gruniad. Oldies like me, who read their columns and try to unspin their spin to ascertain the realities of that which they are commenting, refer to them, tongue in cheek, as the Gruniad. No offence taken!
@@rahbourelas6457 neejjj The Eyes have it.
I believe Sadiq Khan's father was a conductor of sorts. They are remarkable people.
Yes, a bus conductor.
@@gerardshort531 thanks you just ruined my joke
Marx never killed or imprisoned anybody. Marx wrote a book which spoke about dialectic materialism. I was a Marxist : to me it was an altruistic attempt. You cannot equate Marx with the syndicalism political revolutionaries who hid their hate behind Marxist philosophy. How can a man confuse joining the young communist party with an evil and then say that Marxism was evil and he regrets his former affiliation . He even goes on to say he regrets any succour he gave Marxism. He obviously was only on the fringes and anyway had no influence in Marxism. He sounds wholly ignorant in politics. He seems to have got some celebrity points from having once be a junior communist. I really find farts like him boring.
Did you adopt Marxs anti semitism too?
Jesus never killed anyone either! Any ideas on the body count for him?
Sibole Staline you're pushing the No True Scotsman fallacy, on a Scotsman.
If it hadn't been for that dictatorial lefty block of the art world I would probably never have bothered taking much notice of Wagner so I guess they are good for something after all.
I cannot get my head round why this great now non-leftie Catholic man got himself into a lather when he composed and then commented on Betty Battenburgs death.
Any clues puleez?🤷🏻♂️