Abstract
The title of James MacMillan's Symphony No. 3, Silence, could easily mislead. An avowedly religious work from a devotedly Catholic composer, the symphony does not stand back in contemplative reverence before God. On the contrary, in choosing as his inspiration Shusaku Endo's 1966 novel of the same name, MacMillan has drawn upon a text that admirably meets and mirrors the fundamentals of his own musical personality. Endo's novel deals with Western attempts to convert the inhabitants of 17th-century Japan to Catholicism and their bloody failure. The agents of the Lord are defeated by the violent resistance of the Japanese and the inhospitable terrain. Struggle, hope, grace, martyrdom, defeat. MacMillan's devotees will recognize his trademarks in a dramatic new piece, albeit one whose narrative is rather more oblique than Isabel Gowdie or Veni, Veni Emmanuel.
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