Quas ego non terras

'Quæ ego non terras' - Arthur Johnston (1587-1641) Quoted in Lives of Scotish Writers [sic], vol II, by David Irving (Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black, 1839)

Choral level of difficulty: 2 (5 greatest)

This short work for choir and organ sets a poem in Latin by the 16th century Scottish poet Arthur Johnston. It was written for the Ayr Choral Union as a gift – a touching salute to this choir with a 145 year history and with which MacMillan has been involved in recent years. The text is an extraordinary choice taken from the second volume of Lives of Scottish Writers by David Irving but shows perhaps MacMillan’s breadth of vision in the telling of this tale of far-flung travel, of family, birth and loss of children and the final, almost hurled out statement that ‘My name is Arthur Johnston’.

The setting is essentially straightforward and the choral parts are more often than not directly supported by the organ which joins the vocal phrases either by heavily punctuated chords, flowing pedals under sustained chords, or staccato repeated chords. There is no contrapuntal writing here and the story is told (in Latin) with absolute clarity with everything leading to that final statement, three times, of Johnston’s name fortissimo, after which the organ finishes with a soft, cluster chord. It is all very effective and there is a kind of primitive energy to the piece which goes with the raw-edged emotion of the text. This is emphasized further by the use of 5/8 and 7/8 bars amongst the regular 2/4 and 4/4 etc. The feeling of raw energy is palpable and many choirs will enjoy this heady journey which hovers between mf and ff with the only pp being that final organ chord.

Repertoire Note by Paul Spicer