Even though an extra performance of Joby Talbot’s extraordinary Path Of Miracles has now been added, getting tickets to hear this Lammermuir Festival event at the National Museum Of Flight’s Concorde Hangar may be harder than getting that supersonic icon back in the air again. Heard at the festival in 2017, this highly unusual commission for vocal ensemble Tenebrae returns, with a reputation for moving East Lothian audiences to wild cheers and standing ovations. 

‘The piece is based on the historical pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain, and was composed for us in 2005,’ explains Nigel Short, founder and artistic director of Tenebrae. ‘It’s in four movements and hugely complex, with 17 different vocal parts. Each movement tells a different story.’ An ancient route of pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago runs from the French Pyrenees along the north of Spain, taking in Burgos and Leon with their magnificent cathedrals, all the way to Galicia’s most sacred site, the shrine to St James, the disciple whose remains were brought from Jerusalem. 

‘The first movement is about St James and how his body ended up in Europe. I asked Joby Talbot to give us an opening like nothing else. You hear the pilgrims getting lost in the Pyrenees. The clouds come down quickly and, as soon as this happens, the monks ring bells which resonate over great distances.’ Entitled ‘Roncesvalles’, the name of the place where the walk starts, the music is akin to the chanting of the growling Taiwanese farmers who, says Short, ‘take a deep breath, then go higher, then another breath and higher again, keeping going until they faint. If all the farmers faint, it means it’s going to be a good harvest.’ Crotales, the percussive brass mini-cymbals, represent the bells, with the female voices joining to sing hail to St James. ‘It’s a wacky opening,’ says Short. 

For anyone taking on the pilgrimage, there is no underestimating the tough demands it places on even the most fit. The second movement, ‘Burgos’, represents the physical hardship of the pilgrims. ‘It has harmonic dissonances, like an ache or a blister, but you have to keep going,’ says Short. ‘It’s very intense, especially after the euphoria of the opening.’ The stained glass of Leon Cathedral is breathtakingly beautiful and inspires the third movement, ‘Leon’. ‘When Joby visited there, he saw the sunlight pouring through the windows. We hear cascading sopranos, shifting from one side of the building to the other.’ The final movement, ‘Santiago’, is even more complex than the first. Syncopated rhythms, different pitches, multiple parts, dance-like motifs, all building and fracturing until the final arrival in the city, with a jubilation that brings the pilgrimage to its close.

Path Of Miracles, Concorde Hangar, National Museum Of Flight, East Fortune, Sunday 8 September, 8pm and 10pm; part of Lammermuir Festival.