Composer says religion is music’s most radical force

The Scottish composer James MacMillan has released the text of a speech he is giving next week, recasting organised religion as a radical element in art rather than, as widely seen, a conservative one.

He says: ‘From Elgar to Messiaen, from Stravinsky to Schnittke, from Schoenberg to Jonathan Harvey one constantly hears talk of transcendence, mystery and vision.’

Macmillan, a devout Catholic, argues that ‘despite the retreat of faith in our society, composers over the last century or so have never given up on their search for the sacred…’

He adds: ‘Perhaps that search now, as it is for any artist who stands out against transient fashions of the cultural bien pensant, is the bravest, most radical and counter-cultural vision a creative person can have, in the attempt to re-sacralise the world around us.’

Discuss.