Soli Deo Gloria

Soli Deo Gloria Commissions New Work from James MacMillan

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Soli Deo Gloria is pleased to announce a new commission project with renowned composer James MacMillan. In this second SDG project with Mr. MacMillan, the composer is creating a six-minute choral setting of Revelation 21:1-6a for premiere performance at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel (5850 S. Woodlawn, Chicago) on the campus of the University of Chicago, under the direction of James Kallembach. The performance of Alpha and Omega will take place on Saturday, June 4, 2011, at 4:30 p.m., and will feature the Rockefeller Chapel Choir and the University of Chicago Motet Choir, with the composer in attendance.

James MacMillan
(Photo: Philip Gatward)

Regarded by many as Scotland’s greatest living composer, James MacMillan is an artist whose work is programmed around the world by such noted ensembles as the London Symphony Orchestra, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Boston Symphony and the Cleveland Orchestra. His interpreters include soloists Evelyn Glennie, Wayne Marshall and Colin Currie; and conductors John Nelson, Leonard Slatkin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Sir Colin Davis, Sir Andrew Davis and Osmo Vänskä. Through worldwide performances and an extensive discography, MacMillan’s music, which is celebrated for its spiritual and emotional power, has achieved a broad following rare among modern composers. His percussion concerto, Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, has received over 400 performances. James MacMillan is also a member of Soli Deo Gloria’s Advisory Board of Directors.

Soli Deo Gloria’s work on the Revelation commission project is made possible through generous sponsorship from Crossway and from the University of Chicago. The vision for the project was inspired by Dr. Lane Dennis, President and Publisher at Crossway, whose idea it was to foster a great musical work in celebration of the 400th anniversary of the creation of the King James Bible in 2011.

In this commission project, James MacMillan will set the Revelation text as it appears in the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible, published by Crossway. Dr. Dennis notes a fitting connection between the historical grounding of the ESV Bible and the musical language of James MacMillan. “One reason that James MacMillan’s work is so powerful is due to his high respect for the historic stream of Christian (and non-Christian) music, which he integrates into his work to create a brilliant, completely original, new contemporary work,” writes Dr. Dennis. “The English Standard Version stands in the historic Christian stream of Bible translations going back to the King James Version (1611); and before the KJV, to the Bishops’ Bible (1568), the Great Bible (1539), and the Tyndale New Testament (1526). It is a tremendous thing to see this historic stream carried forward in a new work by James MacMillan setting this ESV text” (as follows):

1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.
2 And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.
4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away."
5 And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I am making all things new." Also he said, "Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true."
6 And he said to me, "It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.”

Revelation 21:1-6a
English Standard Version

Rockefeller Memorial Chapel, University of Chicago

Conductor James Kallembach, Director of Choral Activities at the University of Chicago and an avid proponent of contemporary choral music, welcomes the opportunity to partner with James MacMillan, as he has done previously with such composers as William Bolcom, Marta Ptaszynska, Sven-David Sandström and Shulamit Ran. Kallembach writes, “I remember our composition seminar class at Indiana University, listening with excitement to the new, post-atonal trends in contemporary music. James MacMillan's The Berserking, a piano concerto, and Kiss on Wood, for violin and piano, were two of the pieces that I recall distinctly. Later, upon hearing the Seven Last Words from the Cross, I became acquainted with his Tenebrae Responsories and other choral works. There is both a brutal realness and tenderness which I think make MacMillan's works so unique.”

In addition to James MacMillan's Alpha and Omega, the June 4, 2011, program at Rockefeller Memorial Chapel will also feature MacMillan's Changed, based on a poem by Wallace Stevens, and his Heyoka Te Deum, which uses a Lakota text. Additional works on the program include Benjamin Britten’s Antiphon, as well as other works for organ and carillon.

Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible,
English Standard Version® (ESV®),
copyright © 2001 by Crossway,
a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.
Used by permission. All rights reserved.