Soli Deo Gloria

Jeremy Begbie

(Q) WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO?

(A) “I’m listening to James MacMillan, Seven Last Words from the Cross (1993).

“Composers that dare to probe the event of the crucifixion take many risks. There’s the ever-present hazard of sentimentality, beautifying the cross by allowing music’s formal patterns to hide or soften its repulsive angularity. There’s the danger of a superficial realism: exposing the cross’s deep and abysmal cruelty without revealing anything of the even deeper love of God it embodies. There’s the temptation to produce a work of such suffocating intensity that the listener is given no room, no space to make his or her own particular response. James MacMillan’s Seven Last Words from the Cross avoids these and other pitfalls, and in ways that, I think, are unparalleled in contemporary music.

“Written for choir and string orchestra, and out of a passionate Roman Catholic conviction, the work consists of the last words of Jesus interspersed with texts from the Good Friday liturgy. The range of expression reflects the range of the crucifixion drama—from the visceral to the ethereal, the violent to the exquisitely gentle. We are introduced to multiple layers of meaning superimposed on each other, not least the conjunction of pitiless murder and divine victory. Perhaps most memorable of all are the multiple silences, long pauses of utter stillness written into the music that are never empty but always invite the hearer deeper into the drama. Towards the end, these silences become extended in an almost unbearable way, evoking Jesus’ last moments on earth.

“It is hardly surprising that this has become one of MacMillan’s most performed works. Indeed, he once revealed that the third movement (“Today you will be with me…”) has provoked more messages of appreciation than anything else he has written. Listen to it and find out why.”

—Jeremy Begbie, October 2010

For more information on this work, visit MacMillan’s publisher, Boosey & Hawkes.

For a review of this work (with CD recommendations), visit BBC Music Magazine.