0:00:04 > 0:00:08'The whale, marine mammal of the order Cetacea.
0:00:08 > 0:00:11'They comprise three groups, one Archaeoceti,
0:00:11 > 0:00:14'believed to have been derived from the Creodonta,
0:00:14 > 0:00:17'the primitive fossil members of the Carnivora.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19'Their teeth consist of three incisors....'
0:00:19 > 0:00:21Sir John Tavener was unique.
0:00:23 > 0:00:27A composer who found wide acclaim both within
0:00:27 > 0:00:30and way beyond the classical world.
0:00:32 > 0:00:36He had a message, somehow, for the whole world in music.
0:00:36 > 0:00:40In a way, his music opens the door to the spiritual.
0:00:40 > 0:00:42He just had a sense of drama, he knew how to speak to people.
0:00:45 > 0:00:50In this programme, we trace his musical and spiritual odyssey,
0:00:50 > 0:00:53through 40 years of BBC archive.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55From his early experimental music...
0:01:00 > 0:01:03..and highly individual music theatre works....
0:01:08 > 0:01:13..to pieces that have become icons of contemporary British culture.
0:01:13 > 0:01:18MUSIC: "Song For Athene" by John Tavener
0:01:23 > 0:01:28John Tavener believed that his music was dictated directly to him by God.
0:01:28 > 0:01:32It's not music that comes from the human intellect.
0:01:32 > 0:01:38Not music that comes from the human heart because both are very limited.
0:01:38 > 0:01:43But rather something that is revealed to me.
0:01:44 > 0:01:47'It has come, literally, from the breath of God.'
0:01:55 > 0:02:00Sir John Tavener died on the 12th of November 2013. He was 69 years old.
0:02:00 > 0:02:03Tavener wrote music, much of it suffused with
0:02:03 > 0:02:07the spirituality of the Orthodox Church and above all choral music,
0:02:07 > 0:02:12that many listeners experience as a simple, haunting and consoling gift.
0:02:13 > 0:02:21# Gave thee such a tender voice,
0:02:21 > 0:02:29# making all the vales rejoice?
0:02:29 > 0:02:34# Little lamb,
0:02:34 > 0:02:39# who made thee? #
0:02:43 > 0:02:46John Kenneth Tavener was born in 1944,
0:02:46 > 0:02:51in Wembley Park in suburban north London, the son of a builder.
0:02:51 > 0:02:54In 1957, he won a scholarship to Highgate School,
0:02:54 > 0:02:58where a fellow pupil was choral composer John Rutter.
0:02:58 > 0:03:03I think I first remember meeting John Tavener when he was 13
0:03:03 > 0:03:04and I was 12.
0:03:04 > 0:03:08He was a year ahead of me at Highgate School, in North London.
0:03:08 > 0:03:11He stood out from the crowd because even then
0:03:11 > 0:03:16he was well on the way to the six foot six, that he later attained.
0:03:16 > 0:03:19Always had a music case in his hand
0:03:19 > 0:03:24and seemed somehow to belong to another world.
0:03:24 > 0:03:27There was something about him that looked a bit mystical
0:03:27 > 0:03:31and intriguing and interesting, even then.
0:03:32 > 0:03:37He grew up in a Scottish Presbyterian household,
0:03:37 > 0:03:39where faith was fairly austere.
0:03:41 > 0:03:45And I think he never wanted to abandon that faith,
0:03:45 > 0:03:49but he wanted to find outlets for it, which would have more
0:03:49 > 0:03:56sense of theatre and of history and not be so severe and reined in.
0:04:06 > 0:04:10My father used to play the organ and my early memories of him
0:04:10 > 0:04:14playing those soupy hymn tunes influenced me
0:04:14 > 0:04:17in a piece like In Alium, where the
0:04:17 > 0:04:21series or matrix of notes is derived from hymn-like material.
0:04:38 > 0:04:39John Tavener's music takes us
0:04:39 > 0:04:43on a journey far away from his Scottish Presbyterian upbringing.
0:04:44 > 0:04:47CHORAL SINGING
0:04:52 > 0:04:56His musical and spiritual odyssey started in the contemporary,
0:04:56 > 0:04:59modernist, avant-garde style but his love of tradition
0:04:59 > 0:05:03and religious ritual was there from the start.
0:05:03 > 0:05:05SINGING CONTINUES
0:05:08 > 0:05:13In his earliest TV appearances John is gloriously eccentric.
0:05:13 > 0:05:15It's a fascinating glimpse into a composer
0:05:15 > 0:05:18beginning to find his distinctive voice.
0:05:18 > 0:05:22I go for months and months without composing a note.
0:05:22 > 0:05:24I feel totally useless at such times.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31I cannot reconcile the idea of a profession than that of a composer.
0:05:31 > 0:05:33I have no sympathy with the puritanical concept of work
0:05:33 > 0:05:38for its own sake, which perhaps portrays a slightly hippy bias.
0:05:49 > 0:05:54I started my latest piece, Nomine Jesu, after a four month gap.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17It uses five European languages and in the middle
0:06:17 > 0:06:23and most complicated section, I bring in Negro and Asiatic languages.
0:06:26 > 0:06:30And now, a new piece by John Tavener.
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Among the English composers under 30, I think
0:06:33 > 0:06:35his music is like a breath of fresh air.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38It's not doctrinaire, it's emotional
0:06:38 > 0:06:41and it doesn't sound like what I call "the broken biscuit school".
0:06:41 > 0:06:45The piece we're going to hear today is Nomine Jesu.
0:06:45 > 0:06:47John, why is it called that?
0:06:47 > 0:06:52It's based on the word Jesus, the name Jesus.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57Erm, which is sung in different languages, many different languages.
0:06:57 > 0:07:01It's based on a single musical idea, a single chord.
0:07:21 > 0:07:25The instruction I give on the score is "still and sacred"
0:07:25 > 0:07:30and I mean sacred, not in a sanctimonious way,
0:07:30 > 0:07:35because I believe that the word Jesus spoken in these different
0:07:35 > 0:07:38languages does have a magic, sacred significance.
0:07:38 > 0:07:41SINGING CONTINUES
0:08:19 > 0:08:22In 1970, having been signed up to the Beatle's Apple label,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25thanks to his brother, Roger, doing some building work
0:08:25 > 0:08:30for Ringo Starr, Tavener was at the height of classical music cool.
0:08:30 > 0:08:34Apple records released his chaotic cantata, The Whale.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39'The whale, marine mammal of the order Cetacea.
0:08:39 > 0:08:42'They comprise three groups, one Archaeoceti...'
0:08:42 > 0:08:46The very model of happening, even hippyish British modernism.
0:08:56 > 0:09:00I remember the idea of beginning it with a long, boring
0:09:00 > 0:09:04commentary on whales from an encyclopaedia came to me in the bath.
0:09:04 > 0:09:09I got out of the bath, went down to where my books were and pulled
0:09:09 > 0:09:13out the most boring encyclopaedia I could find and looked up the whales.
0:09:13 > 0:09:15That's how it started.
0:09:19 > 0:09:21I decided I wanted to become a composer
0:09:21 > 0:09:23when still a student at the Royal Academy.
0:09:23 > 0:09:27The Whale has been more played than any of my music so far.
0:09:28 > 0:09:32It's a half hour biblical fantasy based on the story of Jonah.
0:09:32 > 0:09:34I finished it here in Tythe Barn,
0:09:34 > 0:09:37in the middle of a heat wave, I remember.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51I had suddenly had been introduced to modernism and I listened to
0:09:51 > 0:09:53Boulez, I listened to Stockhausen,
0:09:53 > 0:09:56I listened to Cage and I was very excited by it.
0:10:03 > 0:10:06I think I've always associated a certain kind of a sound
0:10:06 > 0:10:10with...erm...an element, you know?
0:10:10 > 0:10:13Maybe whether it be rain whether it be a thunder storm.
0:10:13 > 0:10:17It is not something now, towards the end of my life,
0:10:17 > 0:10:20that I can see was an important...
0:10:20 > 0:10:23I mean, the style of The Whale was not a direction
0:10:23 > 0:10:26that I found eventually my music would go in.
0:10:26 > 0:10:32But I loved the experience of writing it and it was a very exciting time.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35Over the coming decades his highly individual life
0:10:35 > 0:10:38and music would be catalogued and even catalysed by the BBC.
0:10:38 > 0:10:39and music would be catalogued and even catalysed by the BBC.
0:10:39 > 0:10:42The number of artists who record for the Apple company is small
0:10:42 > 0:10:44but successful.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48John Lennon, Yoko Ono, Paul McCartney, George Harrison,
0:10:48 > 0:10:53Ringo Starr and a composer whose music is unique and quite
0:10:53 > 0:10:57unlike the sounds of his fellow recording artists, John Tavener.
0:10:57 > 0:11:00We feature a week in the life of John Tavener, his music
0:11:00 > 0:11:01and his friends.
0:11:08 > 0:11:10CHILDREN CHANT
0:11:17 > 0:11:23A great deal of my summer is spent lying on my back in the garden.
0:11:25 > 0:11:29I find that I need
0:11:29 > 0:11:32a great deal of time to sit,
0:11:32 > 0:11:34not necessarily to think
0:11:34 > 0:11:39but things tend to grow at subconscious
0:11:39 > 0:11:44and I work only in very short spurts
0:11:44 > 0:11:46for very short periods of time.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51Very intense periods of time but a great deal of the year is spent,
0:11:51 > 0:11:57in the summer months anyway, lying on my back in this garden.
0:11:57 > 0:11:59Which perhaps my puritanical forefathers
0:11:59 > 0:12:01might have disapproved of.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10I doubt whether they would have approved of my taste in cars.
0:12:10 > 0:12:13I've driven this one for nine months.
0:12:13 > 0:12:16And I use it often as a place to think about my work,
0:12:16 > 0:12:18driving up and down the motorway.
0:12:18 > 0:12:22There's something about the largesse of the car which allows my mind
0:12:22 > 0:12:26to expand more freely than it would in a Mini.
0:12:26 > 0:12:29I've no time for the romantic attitude that the artist has
0:12:29 > 0:12:31to go out and starve.
0:12:31 > 0:12:33This week I've been travelling backwards
0:12:33 > 0:12:37and forwards to the Little Missenden Festival in Buckinghamshire.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41I first became involved with the cultural life of the village
0:12:41 > 0:12:45four years ago when I used the local school children in a performance
0:12:45 > 0:12:50of my Celtic Requiem, commissioned by the London Sinfonietta.
0:12:50 > 0:12:51Which has, incidentally,
0:12:51 > 0:12:55given first performances of almost all my works to date.
0:13:00 > 0:13:02This week, I'm conducting some of the players
0:13:02 > 0:13:06from the London Sinfonietta in a concert for the festival.
0:13:06 > 0:13:10I've written a piece for it, In Memoriam Stravinsky.
0:13:10 > 0:13:14However, the requiem is the composition
0:13:14 > 0:13:16I always associate with the village
0:13:16 > 0:13:19and I often think of it when I come here.
0:13:26 > 0:13:30Celtic Requiem is based on a liturgical mass and is
0:13:30 > 0:13:34played against these children's games, which deal with death.
0:13:36 > 0:13:40CHILDREN CHANT
0:13:48 > 0:13:52CHURCH BELL RINGS
0:14:10 > 0:14:13CHILDREN SING
0:15:36 > 0:15:42I'm often surprised by reactions to my music
0:15:42 > 0:15:44and by the kind of people who like it too.
0:15:44 > 0:15:47I'm very pleased to find...
0:15:47 > 0:15:50I usually find a considerable
0:15:50 > 0:15:55cross-section of the public seem to appreciate what I'm doing.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58A lot of people who like pop music seem to like it.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00SOMBRE MUSIC PLAYS
0:16:50 > 0:16:52LAUGHTER
0:17:04 > 0:17:08The performance ultimately was more accurate than the rehearsal and the
0:17:08 > 0:17:12only minor tension of day was with the hand bell ringer who was
0:17:12 > 0:17:14reluctant to remove his hat.
0:17:17 > 0:17:21The young Tavener was enthralled by the wildness of modernism.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23Two, three...
0:17:31 > 0:17:34This in turn thrilled TV producers.
0:17:34 > 0:17:36This 1973 work was commissioned
0:17:36 > 0:17:38especially for television performance.
0:18:35 > 0:18:40Do you think composers can be free to call upon their inspiration
0:18:40 > 0:18:42under these circumstances?
0:18:42 > 0:18:47I wouldn't have done it unless in some degree,
0:18:47 > 0:18:50whatever you call it, the angel flapped her wings, as it were.
0:19:47 > 0:19:50In 1977, after a profound spiritual crisis,
0:19:50 > 0:19:54Tavener turned to the Greek Orthodox Christian Church,
0:19:54 > 0:19:59with its ancient traditions of icons, mysticism and sung liturgy.
0:20:00 > 0:20:03And that embrace of orthodoxy was a way of letting the voice
0:20:03 > 0:20:07of God speak directly through his music, as Tavener put it.
0:20:07 > 0:20:11And that musical and spiritual ideal created the radical
0:20:11 > 0:20:13and courageous simplicity
0:20:13 > 0:20:17and directness that audiences have found so enchanting ever since.
0:20:17 > 0:20:19But it was also controversial.
0:20:19 > 0:20:22For Tavener's critics, he was reducing his music to
0:20:22 > 0:20:24an accompaniment to candles and icons,
0:20:24 > 0:20:28a commodified spiritual background music.
0:20:28 > 0:20:30But that completely underestimates
0:20:30 > 0:20:35and misrepresents the discipline and austerity and objectivity
0:20:35 > 0:20:38of the music that Tavener would produce in the coming decades.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41SHE SINGS
0:21:02 > 0:21:05By the 1980s, his most important spiritual influence was
0:21:05 > 0:21:08Mother Thekla, a Greek Orthodox abbess,
0:21:08 > 0:21:12who inspired Tavener's work and who lived in monastery in Yorkshire.
0:21:15 > 0:21:20It's strange to think that right in the middle of Yorkshire Moors
0:21:20 > 0:21:24is situated a Greek Orthodox monastery.
0:21:24 > 0:21:28The least expected place that you would imagine to find one.
0:21:32 > 0:21:36I'm an Orthodox Christian and I come
0:21:36 > 0:21:38to Yorkshire, to the monastery,
0:21:38 > 0:21:40as often as I can.
0:21:40 > 0:21:42In a way, it's a kind of spiritual home.
0:21:45 > 0:21:47The monastery's divided into two parts.
0:21:47 > 0:21:51Father Ephraim lives in one part.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56He is the priest and he says the Daily Offices, beginning with Matins
0:21:56 > 0:22:01at 5 o'clock in the morning, usually said alone for the glory of God.
0:22:01 > 0:22:05Not very many Orthodox Christians live in North Yorkshire.
0:22:05 > 0:22:09Erm, and then there's the abbess, Mother Thekla, who now lives alone.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Originally there were three.
0:22:12 > 0:22:16She really has become a kind of spiritual mother to me.
0:22:17 > 0:22:23I mean, we work on texts together, which I set to music.
0:22:23 > 0:22:27So, it's one of those very lucky coincidences in life,
0:22:27 > 0:22:31not only am I able to unburden my soul to her,
0:22:31 > 0:22:36but also we have this artistic collaboration.
0:22:42 > 0:22:47For your librettist you need someone who's totally selfless
0:22:47 > 0:22:51and she would describe herself as dead to the world.
0:23:02 > 0:23:04In 1989, the BBC commissioned him
0:23:04 > 0:23:07to write his cello concerto The Protecting Veil.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10The soloist was Steven Isserlis
0:23:10 > 0:23:12and the piece was a huge popular success.
0:23:15 > 0:23:19Here was a richly, yet austerely meditative music that
0:23:19 > 0:23:23answered a deep cathartic need in its audience.
0:23:23 > 0:23:24I'll try and play it now.
0:23:36 > 0:23:41In complete contrast, the middle section is solo cello without
0:23:41 > 0:23:44the orchestra at all and right at the bottom and muted.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48A mute to make it sound even softer.
0:24:01 > 0:24:03The Mother of God lamenting
0:24:03 > 0:24:06and then he brings in the middle of this a hymn.
0:24:14 > 0:24:16It is this very romantic piece.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18It is a hymn to the Mother of God,
0:24:18 > 0:24:20but it's like a love song, in a way.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28John really was writing from the heart,
0:24:28 > 0:24:31and so it was a genuinely touching piece.
0:24:31 > 0:24:34I remember somebody wrote to me that her friend was dying of cancer
0:24:34 > 0:24:37and the only thing that would comfort her was The Protecting Vale.
0:24:37 > 0:24:38I was so touched by that letter.
0:24:43 > 0:24:47But also, and he would always be very pleased if I mentioned this,
0:24:47 > 0:24:50just from a musical, compositional point of view,
0:24:50 > 0:24:53it's the most incredibly original writing for the cello.
0:26:25 > 0:26:29I imagine this cello filling the Cathedral of Saint Sophia
0:26:29 > 0:26:31in Constantinople.
0:26:37 > 0:26:41That slowly breathing space.
0:27:39 > 0:27:44One of John's frequent collaborators was the soprano Patricia Rozario.
0:27:44 > 0:27:46They met when she sang the title role
0:27:46 > 0:27:49in John's music theatre work, Mary Of Egypt.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00He always sang his parts.
0:28:00 > 0:28:03He had a curious falsetto, which went amazingly high and then
0:28:03 > 0:28:07he had this robust lower part to his voice, which was quite terrifying.
0:28:10 > 0:28:12HE SINGS
0:28:16 > 0:28:19He always talked about the idea of the voice being primordial,
0:28:19 > 0:28:23you know, to connect with that emotion and space.
0:28:26 > 0:28:30He often wanted the performer to be slightly removed.
0:28:36 > 0:28:41So, it didn't allow you to be over-indulgent, he didn't like that.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47He would often pick you up and say, you know, "Cut it out.
0:28:47 > 0:28:51"Don't try and interpret my music, let it come through you".
0:28:53 > 0:28:57You had to get to that level when it just flowed out of you and it was
0:28:57 > 0:28:59almost like you were standing back
0:28:59 > 0:29:03and letting that mixture of balanced emotion
0:29:03 > 0:29:05and sound come through you.
0:29:38 > 0:29:42It's about an orthodox saint, Mary of Egypt.
0:29:42 > 0:29:46She went into the desert to shed herself
0:29:46 > 0:29:49of all the physical experiences
0:29:49 > 0:29:52that she had lived in her youth as a prostitute.
0:29:52 > 0:29:55And she meets the priest, Zossima.
0:30:01 > 0:30:04Although he was a priest and you'd expect him to be very close to God,
0:30:04 > 0:30:07I think he was arid inside him.
0:30:07 > 0:30:11His spiritual life had reached a very low, dry ebb.
0:30:16 > 0:30:22He finds himself in the desert, searching for renewed life.
0:30:22 > 0:30:26I think when he meets her, she actually is able
0:30:26 > 0:30:27to spark that in him.
0:30:27 > 0:30:28to spark that in him.
0:30:33 > 0:30:39He is drawn to her as a person, but she sort of rejects him
0:30:39 > 0:30:43and makes him aware that it's the spiritual that brings them together,
0:30:43 > 0:30:45not the physical.
0:30:53 > 0:30:57The music is ecstatic, but it's also quite wild.
0:31:00 > 0:31:05There are many layers that you have to go through within yourself
0:31:05 > 0:31:09to be released and to be able to sing it the way that he wanted to hear it.
0:31:31 > 0:31:37These orthodox-inspired works embody the paradox of Tavener's music.
0:31:37 > 0:31:40It's through its rigorous simplicity that it achieves
0:31:40 > 0:31:46a genuine sense of ecstasy, of otherworldly being and feeling.
0:31:46 > 0:31:49I tried to make an icon of light.
0:31:51 > 0:31:58And I framed it with Greek words like phos, which means light.
0:32:00 > 0:32:05# Phos... #
0:32:20 > 0:32:26I used the string trio to represent the human soul, yearning for God.
0:32:36 > 0:32:41# Phos
0:33:11 > 0:33:17# Phos
0:33:47 > 0:33:54# Phos
0:34:21 > 0:34:28# Phos
0:34:57 > 0:35:05# Phos. #
0:35:07 > 0:35:10In 1997, Tavener's music was nominated for that year's
0:35:10 > 0:35:15Mercury Music Prize, including a work called Svyati for solo cello -
0:35:15 > 0:35:17Steven Isserlis again - and choir,
0:35:17 > 0:35:20singing the words of the Orthodox funeral service.
0:36:17 > 0:36:19THEY SING
0:37:16 > 0:37:19APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:37:19 > 0:37:25It was also in 1997 that John's music achieved its most iconic moment in global culture
0:37:25 > 0:37:28when his Song For Athene was performed at the end of the funeral
0:37:28 > 0:37:31of Diana, Princess of Wales.
0:37:31 > 0:37:33Good evening. It's been a day like no other.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37A day for the people stunned by the news of Diana's death.
0:37:37 > 0:37:39And a day that rewrote the rules
0:37:39 > 0:37:41about how a grieving nation should react.
0:37:44 > 0:37:47More than a million lined the streets of the capital.
0:37:47 > 0:37:50A heartfelt and emotional goodbye from her family
0:37:50 > 0:37:52and the British people.
0:37:57 > 0:38:01John's music voiced with uncanny, empathetic power
0:38:01 > 0:38:05the feelings of grief of millions watching the service.
0:38:09 > 0:38:14'As the coffin is raised and slowly carried to the Great West Door,
0:38:14 > 0:38:19'preceded by the Dean's verger, the Dean and the ivory cross,
0:38:19 > 0:38:23'we hear John Tavener's haunting setting of words
0:38:23 > 0:38:28'from William Shakespeare's Hamlet with the Orthodox funeral service.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32' "Alleluia. May flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36' "Remember me, O Lord, when you come into your kingdom". '
0:38:36 > 0:38:51# Alleluia
0:38:52 > 0:38:52# Alleluia
0:38:54 > 0:39:03# Remember me
0:39:03 > 0:39:06# O Lord
0:39:09 > 0:39:17# When you come
0:39:17 > 0:39:27# into your kingdom
0:39:30 > 0:39:38# Alleluia
0:39:39 > 0:39:47# Alleluia
0:39:49 > 0:39:53# Give rest
0:39:53 > 0:39:58# O Lord
0:39:58 > 0:40:03# To your handmaid
0:40:03 > 0:40:09# Who has fallen asleep
0:40:11 > 0:40:29# Alleluia
0:40:31 > 0:40:37# The choir of saints
0:40:37 > 0:40:44# Have found the well spring of life
0:40:44 > 0:40:56# And door of paradise
0:40:58 > 0:41:15# Alleluia
0:41:18 > 0:41:22# Life
0:41:22 > 0:41:37# A shadow
0:41:37 > 0:41:51# And a dream
0:41:53 > 0:42:11# Alleluia
0:42:16 > 0:42:23# Weeping at the grave
0:42:23 > 0:42:30# Creates the song
0:42:30 > 0:42:43# Alleluia
0:42:47 > 0:42:50# Come
0:42:50 > 0:42:54# Enjoy rewards
0:42:54 > 0:42:58# Enjoy rewards
0:42:58 > 0:43:02# And crowns
0:43:02 > 0:43:07# I have
0:43:07 > 0:43:17# Prepared
0:43:19 > 0:43:31# For you. #
0:43:36 > 0:43:38It moves me that that music, which is very simple
0:43:39 > 0:43:40It moves me that that music, which is very simple
0:43:40 > 0:43:44and very transparent, can have an effect on so many people.
0:43:44 > 0:43:47It came about when a friend of my family's -
0:43:47 > 0:43:51I didn't know her very well - Athene Hariades,
0:43:51 > 0:43:54was killed in a cycling accident.
0:43:54 > 0:43:57And I went to her funeral in the Russian Orthodox Church.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00And I felt somehow that,
0:44:00 > 0:44:02as I've felt often before,
0:44:02 > 0:44:06a person, when they die, leaves some kind of gift.
0:44:06 > 0:44:10You said something very striking in one of the media interviews you did.
0:44:10 > 0:44:14You referred to the one for whom it was originally written - the Princess of Wales -
0:44:14 > 0:44:20and you said, "A song written for two women who died prematurely."
0:44:20 > 0:44:25Then you paused and said, "Apparently prematurely." What did you mean that that?
0:44:25 > 0:44:29I think because I don't believe anything happens by accident,
0:44:29 > 0:44:33I think that our death is known already by God.
0:44:33 > 0:44:38We don't know this master plan.
0:44:38 > 0:44:40It's not for us to know either.
0:44:40 > 0:44:43But I don't think death is an accident.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46This raises a particularly stark question in terms of your own life,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50because you've several times...faced the possibility of death. Yes.
0:44:50 > 0:44:52So when you faced, for example, the heart surgery,
0:44:52 > 0:44:54you say that you accept that
0:44:54 > 0:44:57the time of our death is decided by God. Yes.
0:44:57 > 0:45:00Were you totally accepting or were you frightened?
0:45:00 > 0:45:02No, I wasn't frightened. Erm...
0:45:04 > 0:45:07I mean, I thought I was probably... as Mother Thekla put it,
0:45:07 > 0:45:10"You're far too evil to die, darling."
0:45:11 > 0:45:16I felt in a sense I'd been given another chance.
0:45:16 > 0:45:21Mark Lawson, interviewing the composer in 1998.
0:45:21 > 0:45:24Choral music was something intimate, personal,
0:45:24 > 0:45:27and above all, accessible for John Tavener.
0:45:27 > 0:45:29He wanted his music to be sung by amateur choirs
0:45:29 > 0:45:31and to be enjoyed by everybody.
0:45:32 > 0:45:38# Many years
0:45:41 > 0:45:48# Many
0:45:48 > 0:45:53# Years. #
0:45:53 > 0:45:57I do feel that as a litmus test for a composer,
0:45:57 > 0:46:03if he's a true composer, then he should be able to write music
0:46:03 > 0:46:06that amateur choirs should be able to sing.
0:46:08 > 0:46:13THEY SING
0:46:18 > 0:46:23I think whenever he wrote for choir, he probably felt that he was in
0:46:23 > 0:46:26a sense returning home to his early roots,
0:46:26 > 0:46:30where he'd been a keen member of the Highgate School Choir.
0:46:32 > 0:46:35There's a sense of the voices becoming a family
0:46:35 > 0:46:39and becoming spiritual, really.
0:46:49 > 0:46:55There's a kind of simplicity that taps into the depth of plain chant
0:46:55 > 0:46:59and Russian and Greek Orthodox music.
0:47:03 > 0:47:09John had the gift to be simple, which is why his music has always
0:47:09 > 0:47:13reached out to such a large public,
0:47:13 > 0:47:15of what you might call "ordinary music lovers".
0:47:15 > 0:47:18APPLAUSE
0:47:18 > 0:47:22Another important moment came with the performance of a new work
0:47:22 > 0:47:25in the celebrations in the Millennium Dome,
0:47:25 > 0:47:28right on the threshold of the year 2000.
0:47:33 > 0:47:41# Let there be respect
0:47:41 > 0:47:47# For the Earth
0:47:47 > 0:47:53# O, Lord
0:47:53 > 0:48:01# Peace for Your people
0:48:01 > 0:48:07# O, Lord
0:48:07 > 0:48:14# Love in our lives
0:48:14 > 0:48:17# Delight in the good
0:48:17 > 0:48:23# O, Lord
0:48:23 > 0:48:31# Forgiveness for past wrongs
0:48:31 > 0:48:37# O, Lord. #
0:48:37 > 0:48:40So Tavener's music became the last to be heard
0:48:40 > 0:48:43and televised in the old millennium,
0:48:43 > 0:48:48but it was also among the first to consecrate the next 1,000 years.
0:48:48 > 0:48:51His epic cantata, Fall And Resurrection, was
0:48:51 > 0:48:55premiered at St Paul's cathedral on the 4th of January in the year 2000.
0:48:55 > 0:48:56It was an attempt,
0:48:56 > 0:48:59as the newly knighted Sir John Tavener explained,
0:48:59 > 0:49:03to encompass in brief glimpses the events that had taken place
0:49:03 > 0:49:07since the beginning of time and before time.
0:49:07 > 0:49:10A typically universal ambition.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30The music is quite challenging.
0:49:30 > 0:49:35It really is difficult and it was one of those pieces where the
0:49:35 > 0:49:39soprano part, he really uses the whole range of my voice.
0:49:39 > 0:49:42He uses elements of Indian music,
0:49:42 > 0:49:46as well as taking it up into the stratosphere in a Western way.
0:50:18 > 0:50:22In fact, in the score, there were sections which went unbelievably
0:50:22 > 0:50:26low and in rehearsal, he changed his mind, and I was so relieved!
0:50:26 > 0:50:29CHURCH BELLS RING
0:50:29 > 0:50:32APPLAUSE
0:50:32 > 0:50:36'The bells of St Paul's Cathedral ringing out
0:50:36 > 0:50:40'and will continue for several hours and in a sense, the music goes on.'
0:50:40 > 0:50:43That was quite an amazing experience,
0:50:43 > 0:50:48especially being at St Paul's, in the presence of the Prince of Wales.
0:50:48 > 0:50:53I think John really believed that his composition was a gift from God.
0:50:53 > 0:50:59In 2010, in BBC Four's Sacred Music series, Simon Russell Beale
0:50:59 > 0:51:03and the virtuoso choir The Sixteen undertook a major
0:51:03 > 0:51:05exploration of Sir John's music.
0:51:05 > 0:51:10# In You
0:51:10 > 0:51:18# O Woman full of Grace
0:51:18 > 0:51:26# The angelic choirs
0:51:26 > 0:51:32# And the human race
0:51:32 > 0:51:38# All creation rejoices! #
0:51:38 > 0:51:41John, can we start with the word "tradition" -
0:51:41 > 0:51:45because everything I've read about your music, the word
0:51:45 > 0:51:49"tradition" comes up, but I think you mean something quite specific.
0:51:49 > 0:51:55I do mean it in a broader sense, in so far as I think the reason
0:51:55 > 0:52:03sacred music continues is because people have a thirst for tradition.
0:52:03 > 0:52:08They want to see some continuity and I had to become
0:52:08 > 0:52:13so soaked in tradition, in Orthodox tradition, I learned a bit about
0:52:13 > 0:52:18Indian music, I learned a bit about Arabic music, and various traditions,
0:52:18 > 0:52:23to understand how they worked, and then tried to create a style.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29Every time we perform John's music,
0:52:29 > 0:52:33we have to enter almost into his soul, into his way of thinking.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36His music is very still, it's very difficult to sing, actually.
0:52:36 > 0:52:38He stretches the limits of each voice,
0:52:38 > 0:52:40he takes the basses incredibly low
0:52:40 > 0:52:45and the top voice is taken very high, in a very celestial...
0:52:45 > 0:52:50Everything is mirroring, basically, the world and heaven and hell.
0:52:50 > 0:52:56# And praise be
0:52:56 > 0:53:02# To You. #
0:53:05 > 0:53:10That leads me on to what this music is for. Who is it for?
0:53:10 > 0:53:16Is it for the performers themselves, as an act of worship? Is it for God?
0:53:16 > 0:53:19I wouldn't actually be able to go through the act of composing
0:53:19 > 0:53:23if I didn't think it was finally for God
0:53:23 > 0:53:27that I was doing it, although probably now, sitting
0:53:27 > 0:53:32here on the sofa, I think that's probably rather quite naive of me.
0:53:32 > 0:53:36THEY SING
0:53:45 > 0:53:49Ritual has always been important to me, ever since my father,
0:53:49 > 0:53:56when I was three, I remember, brought home pamphlets of cars and as
0:53:56 > 0:53:59a three-year-old, I stamped on them,
0:53:59 > 0:54:03"Big car, little car, big car, little car, big car, little car, big car,
0:54:03 > 0:54:06"little car, big car, little car,"
0:54:06 > 0:54:09and I did a ritual dance.
0:54:09 > 0:54:12The importance of sacred, was already important to me at three.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24# Kyrie eleison
0:54:24 > 0:54:26# Kyrie eleison... #
0:54:29 > 0:54:32In the mid-1990s,
0:54:32 > 0:54:36John's spiritual journey reached out beyond Orthodox Christianity
0:54:36 > 0:54:37and he began to explore through his music ideas drawn from Islam,
0:54:37 > 0:54:40and he began to explore through his music ideas drawn from Islam,
0:54:40 > 0:54:42from Hinduism and from Buddhism.
0:54:47 > 0:54:51I think the Orthodox Church points towards the East
0:54:51 > 0:54:56and I was born more drawn towards the East and I thought there was
0:54:56 > 0:55:00a possibility through music to bring about some kind of unity.
0:55:00 > 0:55:11# Shunya
0:55:11 > 0:55:15# Shunya
0:55:15 > 0:55:21# Shunya. #
0:55:21 > 0:55:26Shunya was composed in 2004.
0:55:26 > 0:55:28John has said that his intention was to express
0:55:28 > 0:55:32a little of the inexpressible and the Sanskrit word "Shunya",
0:55:32 > 0:55:36which means void or nothingness, is repeatedly intoned as the piece
0:55:36 > 0:55:40unfolds, like a Buddhist ritual over the course of 20 minutes.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45# Shunya
0:55:45 > 0:55:48# Shunya. #
0:55:48 > 0:55:52That really was an idea, to try, in music, rather than in silence,
0:55:52 > 0:55:54to represent the idea of nothingness
0:55:54 > 0:55:57cos it doesn't go anywhere, Shunya. No, no.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01It stands still. That's about the Buddhist concept, really, of nirvana.
0:56:01 > 0:56:04So I think I was always journeying towards this.
0:56:04 > 0:56:08I don't see any point in writing a silent piece of music,
0:56:08 > 0:56:11but I do see a point in the journey towards it.
0:56:11 > 0:56:17SINGING CONTINUES
0:56:44 > 0:56:48One of the most powerful influences in my life,
0:56:48 > 0:56:50and I've not spoken about this before,
0:56:50 > 0:56:53was a Presbyterian minister and he told me,
0:56:53 > 0:56:57"Life is a creeping tragedy - that's why I must be cheerful," and I
0:56:57 > 0:57:02only now at the end of my life begin to understand what he meant by it.
0:57:02 > 0:57:07You know, that life is tragic, but there is the other dimension.
0:57:16 > 0:57:20The brilliance of Tavener's music is that for so many listeners,
0:57:20 > 0:57:24it seems to leave the world permanently, unforgettably altered.
0:57:24 > 0:57:28There was a sense in which he was always
0:57:28 > 0:57:33searching for a spiritual realm, which he would find through music.
0:57:33 > 0:57:37One of the things that we're all hardwired to want is
0:57:37 > 0:57:40something spiritual.
0:57:40 > 0:57:46And he realised that, I think, at an early age and the spirituality
0:57:46 > 0:57:51that has always lain at the heart of his work is profound.
0:57:54 > 0:57:58I think his music has a meditative element to it and yet,
0:57:58 > 0:58:02he has the ability to make it relevant.
0:58:02 > 0:58:06In fact, he said to me, "My music is being played by young
0:58:06 > 0:58:09"people at rave parties." He found that quite amusing.
0:58:12 > 0:58:16As a composer and as a man, he had an extraordinary effect.
0:58:16 > 0:58:17I knew him from the late '80s.
0:58:17 > 0:58:21We had our ups and downs, in friendship, definitely.
0:58:21 > 0:58:23But then, God, when he died...
0:58:23 > 0:58:29You just realise how much he meant to everybody who knew him, really.
0:58:29 > 0:58:32You couldn't know him and not care about him.