A Winter's Night: Christmas Cantata

ISBN-13: 9780193403680 / Angielski

Cecilia McDowall

Opis

for SATB choir, brass quintet, organ and percussion This engaging 15-minute carol sequence combines several popular carols to create a festive performance full of Christmas spirit. Through creative re-harmonization, rhythmic variation, and imaginative linking passages, McDowall conjures up a joyful atmosphere, delighting with familiar and surprising material in equal measure. A rousing finale weaves together several of the tunes to bring the piece to a jubilant close.

Recenzje

Organ accompaniment is the cheaper option, but the addition of traditional brass quintet and percussion adds further sparkle to this carol banquet . . . But McDowall has surely created something rather fetching here. The choice of carols is fabulous, and McDowallâs evident fondness for all five allows her to offer an individual take on each one . . . Itâs difficult to write carol medleys that stand up to todayâs frequently cynical reception of Christmas merchandise, but McDowall blends a pragmatic compositional technique and palpable respect for these old chestnuts with the aural insights of a true composers. But, as in so much of McDowallâs choral writing, it is her rhythmic craft that is so enviably adept but never showy.

O autorze

Cecilia McDowall has been described by the International Record Review as having a 'communicative gift that is very rare in modern music. An award-winning composer, McDowall is often inspired by extra-musical influences, and her choral writing combines rhythmic vitality with expressive lyricism. Her music has been commissioned, performed, and recorded by leading choirs, among them the BBC Singers, The Sixteen, and Oxford and Cambridge choirs and is regularly programmed at prestigious festivals in Britain and abroad. In 2017 McDowall was selected for an Honorary Fellow award by the Royal School of Church Music.