SUBTLE CELEBRATION

JAMES MACMILLAN talks to RODERIC DUNNETT
about composing sacred and liturgical music

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'I like composing in both Latin and English. At Westminster Cathedral they regularly sing a lot of Latin; but on this occasion they wanted English. I wrote the Mass specifically for the Westminster choir, in the light of both the way the liturgy has developed in that particular building and also of developments since Vatican II. I knew the sound the Westminster boys made, especially as my recent work Quickening, premièred at the BBC Proms last year, was composed for them : I hope I've managed to write appropriately to their strengths and quality of sound.

'The texts of the Mass have to engage with the world in a conscious way : they're not just poetry, but an up-front, conscious vehicle for prayer, for both the choir and the congregation. Strictly speaking, mine is a setting for choir, not a congregational setting as my others were; but there are moments where the congregation have short passages to sing.

'The way the liturgy of the Mass has developed recently means the focus of a choral setting has tended to shift to certain movements. As with the old Missa Brevis, so too nowadays it's not strictly necessary to set the Credo to fresh music. It's one of the sections of the Ordinary of the Mass which the congregation needs to join in : often in the Catholic church they sing it to traditional plainsong. So I've omitted the Credo, and set the other four of the five traditionally set movements.

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