Sir James MacMillan on Creativity and Sacred Music: From the Ashes of Modernism to Cultural Renewal

Two video interviews and an article about his philosophy of sacred music, recently published in the National Catholic Register

I’m delighted to share with you two hours of interviews with Sir James MacMillan, master composer and conductor, about how creating beautiful music can save culture from the ashes of modernism.

My reflections on music and silence from these interviews were published, August 5, 2024, in The National Catholic Register!

In June 2024, David and I each sat down with MacMillan in the studios of Princeton Theological Seminary. Scala’s mission is to make authentic beauty accessible to wide audiences, a cause that MacMillan shares. 

Here is my interview:

In addition to the two full-length interviews, we are delighted to share clips from each of the interviews on these topics:

• The umbilical link between music and silence

• Gregorian chant as the DNA of sacred music

• To breach with the past is destruction

• Tradition is a flowing river

• Christian artists redeem the abyss

• Analogies between music and prayer

• The umbilical link between music and silence

MacMillan’s statement that  “the war against silence is a war against ourselves and against our interior life” rang true because I see so many turning to thoughtless activism to fill their interior void.

Finally, here is some music from the workshop. Tim McDonnell of the Catholic Sacred Music Project conducts Give Me Justice, composed by Sir James in the chapel of the Princeton Theological Seminary. The composer (as well as David and myself) were present in the audience.