Book contents
- James MacMillan Studies
- James MacMillan Studies
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Music Examples
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Struggle with Conviction: A Trio of String Quartets
- 2 Conflicting Modernities and a Modernity of Conflict in James MacMillan’s The World’s Ransoming
- 3 In Memoriam: James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto as Modernist Lament
- 4 Reincarnating The Tryst: The Endurance of a Simple Love Song
- 5 Exquisite Violence: Imagery, Embodiment and Transformation in MacMillan
- 6 Making the Familiar Unfamiliar: MacMillan’s St Luke Passion
- 7 MacMillan’s ‘Mission’ and the Passion Settings
- 8 A Cluster of Gathering Shadows: Exposition and Exegesis in Seven Last Words from the Cross
- 9 James MacMillan’s The Sun Danced: Mary, Miracle and Mysticism
- 10 ‘Shrouded in Doubts and Fears’: The Liturgical Music of James MacMillan
- 11 Containing Chaos? Aspects of Medieval Liturgy in James MacMillan’s Visitatio Sepulchri
- Bibliography
- Index
11 - Containing Chaos? Aspects of Medieval Liturgy in James MacMillan’s Visitatio Sepulchri
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 August 2020
- James MacMillan Studies
- James MacMillan Studies
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Music Examples
- Tables
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1 The Struggle with Conviction: A Trio of String Quartets
- 2 Conflicting Modernities and a Modernity of Conflict in James MacMillan’s The World’s Ransoming
- 3 In Memoriam: James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto as Modernist Lament
- 4 Reincarnating The Tryst: The Endurance of a Simple Love Song
- 5 Exquisite Violence: Imagery, Embodiment and Transformation in MacMillan
- 6 Making the Familiar Unfamiliar: MacMillan’s St Luke Passion
- 7 MacMillan’s ‘Mission’ and the Passion Settings
- 8 A Cluster of Gathering Shadows: Exposition and Exegesis in Seven Last Words from the Cross
- 9 James MacMillan’s The Sun Danced: Mary, Miracle and Mysticism
- 10 ‘Shrouded in Doubts and Fears’: The Liturgical Music of James MacMillan
- 11 Containing Chaos? Aspects of Medieval Liturgy in James MacMillan’s Visitatio Sepulchri
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
From at least the tenth century, key parts of the Christian liturgy were performed with particularly dramatic rituals, especially on high-ranking feast days in the Church calendar. One of the most ubiquitous texts of this type was the Quem quaeritis dialogue, so-named on account of its text, which sets the Angels’ question ‘Whom do you seek?’ and the Three Marys’s answer ‘Jesus of Nazareth’. This liturgical scenario embodies many aspects that modern audiences would associate with theatrical display. Visitatio Sepulchri, MacMillan’s chamber-scale opera (1992–1993) takes the Quem quaeritis narrative and places it within a larger structure that connects it to the Crucifixion and to the Resurrection. The composer uses several medieval chants (the fourteenth-century Parisian liturgy for Easter Day, the Easter sequence Victimae Paschali laudes, and the Te Deum) as well as drawing inspiration from broader aspects of medievalism. This chapter examines the placement, function, and effect of pre-existent chant and other material in Visitatio Sepulchri. It assesses the way in which both musical borrowing and the idea of medieval drama impact upon the creation of the work, on its performance, and on its expressive potential as sacred opera.
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- James MacMillan Studies , pp. 200 - 216Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020