The Strathclyde Motets

James MacMillan’s Strathclyde Motets were written over a five-year period from 2005-10, and confirmed his reputation as one of the leading choral composers of the 21st century. There are 14 motets in total, ranging from two to eight minutes in duration, and all but two are sung without instrumental accompaniment. Written for the Strathclyde University Chamber Choir in Glasgow, Scotland, the motets use religious texts (mostly in Latin), and vary widely in style and complexity. “Os mutorum” (“Mouth of the dumb”), for instance, shows MacMillan at his most delicately poetic, a pair of pure-toned soprano lines duetting with an evocative medieval harp. The intricately woven “Qui meditabitur” (“He who meditates”), by contrast, divides the choir into seven voice parts, with decorative curlicues adorning the different parts. The eight-minute “In splendoribus sanctorum” (“Amidst the splendours of the heavenly sanctuary”) also paints on a broader canvas, the serene chanted sections juxtaposed with a dramatically declaiming solo trumpet. Undoubtedly the best known of the Strathclyde Motets is “O Radiant Dawn”, whose text likens the rising of the morning sun to the spiritual light Christ has brought to humanity. MacMillan’s luminous setting pivots on the gradual crescendos he makes on two six-fold repetitions of the word “come”, both of which betoken the ardent Christian belief infusing virtually all of the Scottish composer’s choral output.