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AT MASS WITH SIR JAMES: MACMILLAN'S SYMPHONY NO. 4 AND LITURGICAL TIME

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 September 2018

Matthew Ward
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Abstract

Sir James MacMillan's Symphony No. 4 is claimed by the composer as an abstract work, but a clear programme is discernible through the use of references to the Roman Catholic Mass. MacMillan uses Gregorian chant, quotations from Robert Carver's Missa Dum sacrum mysterium (c. 1523) and his own St Luke Passion (2015) to create a liturgical form for the symphony. These allusions and their presentation in the symphony can be fruitfully understood in relation to Catholic theologies of time and the Eucharist. When allusions to sonata form are also taken into consideration, the result is a complex interaction between different experiences of time in the symphony's span.

Type
RESEARCH ARTICLES
Information
Tempo , Volume 72 , Issue 286 , October 2018 , pp. 31 - 41
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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References

1 MacMillan, James, Symphony No. 4 (London: Boosey & Hawkes, 2015)Google Scholar, p. iv.

2 MacMillan, Symphony No. 4, p. iv.

3 See Figures 2–4 in the symphony (presented in exact retrograde between Figures 34 and 36), for a heterophonic texture based on a modally inflected melody that suggests Gregorian chant without actually quoting it.

4 All chant references are to the Graduale Triplex (n.p.: Solesmes Abbey, 1979), abbreviated henceforward to GT with the page number following. ‘Os iusti’ is found at GT494. The selection of this chant was not for any profound reason; in private correspondence with the author, the composer indicated that once he knew the date of the premiere of the symphony, he looked up the Introit for that day's Mass. There being no particular celebration on 3 August 3, MacMillan settled on that for 4 August, St John Vianney, whose Introit is ‘Os iusti’.

5 This texture has prototypes elsewhere in MacMillan: see Seven Last Words from the Cross, movements ii, iii, and vi in particular.

6 In light of the other quotations and its position, one would expect this passage to quote a Kyrie eleison melody, but I have been unable to identify any such quotation. The repetition of the violin melody (augmented the third and fourth times) is formally suggestive of a Kyrie eleison, but being fourfold (rather than six or nine) and exactly repeated gives one pause in venturing exact identification of this passage with that part of the Mass. It is more an association of function (‘petition’) and character (‘pleading’), as well as its position in the symphony which is suggestive.

7 Ending the quotation from Carver's Gloria here shows sensitivity to the form of the Gloria text. ‘Deus Pater omnipotens’ is the final line in the Gloria concerned with praise of God the Father. The following line, left out by MacMillan, redirects the focus to God the Son: ‘Domine fili unigenite, etc.’.

8 The time reference is to the premiere recording of the symphony: track 4, MacMillan Violin Concerto. Symphony No. 4, Vadim Repin, Donald Runnicles, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra; ONYX 4157, 2016.

9 From ‘Deum de Deo’ to ‘descendit de caelis’ in the first excerpt, and from ‘et expecto’ to ‘amen’ in the second. The excerpt at Figure 20 is the only quotation from the Carver not to be presented in the back desk of the strings, but rather is found in the brass, muted.

10 See bar 57ff. (vc 1); bar 110ff. (vc solo); bar 194ff. (fl. 1, ob. 1, vln 1, vln 2); bar 258ff. (tpt 1).

11 After its first appearance at bar 82, see 157ff (brass) and bar 350ff. (fl. and vln).

12 Catechism of the Catholic Church (1994), article 1409. Italics in the original. That MacMillan is interested in and alive to Eucharistic theology is evident in his use of the term ‘transubstantiation’ to describe aspects of his composition. See for example the discussion of this term in MacMillan, James and McGregor, Richard, ‘James MacMillan: A Conversation and commentary’, The Musical Times 151 (2010), 69–100Google Scholar, at 75–7.

13 Pope St John Paul II, Ecclesia de Eucharistia (2003), no. 5. Available at http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/special_features/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_20030417_ecclesia_eucharistia_en.html (accessed 2 July 2018). See also the entirety of Chapter One, §11–20. Emphasis mine.

14 Ratzinger, Josef, ‘The Eucharist – Heart of the Church’, in Collected Works, vol. XI: Theology of the Liturgy (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2014), pp. 249–98Google Scholar, at 268. Emphasis in the original.

15 MacMillan, Symphony No. 4, p. iv.

16 Jones', David epic poem The Anathemata (London: Faber and Faber, 1952)Google Scholar is a similar complex meditation on the experience of being at a Catholic Mass, with liturgical actions and texts triggering long, digressive explorations of time, history, geography, and so forth.

17 This counterpoint suggests a supplement to the ‘psychological’ readings of sonata form that emerged in and after Beethoven's ‘Eroica’ two hundred years ago. See for example Burnham, Scott, Beethoven Hero (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1995)Google Scholar.