Chant Claire performs "Who Shall Separate Us?" by Sir James MacMillan on December 17, 2022 at St. Marcus Lutheran Church in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

From program notes | Several years before Queen Elizabeth’s death, James MacMillan was commissioned in secret to prepare music for the Queen’s Funeral using one of her favorite texts, Who Shall Separate Us. The piece was first performed for the commendation at Queen Elizabeth’s funeral, September 19, 2022. As the music opens, the tenor and soprano’s Lydian harmonies express beautiful hope with a slight twinge of pain over the unwavering bass and alto; then tumultuous dissonances wrestle with the afflictions “neither death, nor life…”, until all trials give way to ecstatic “Alleluias” and finally come to rest with a tranquil “Amen.”

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
Neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature,
shall be able to separate us from the love of God,
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Alleluia!
Amen.


— Romans 8:35a, 38b–end