On 3 February Seventy degrees below zero, for tenor and chamber orchestra receives its premiere at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham given by Robert Murray, tenor, and the City of London Sinfonia, conducted by Stephen Layton. Hugh Bonneville narrates. The tour continues to the Corn Exchange, Cambridge (4 February), St David's Hall, Cardiff (7 February), Cheltenham Town Hall (8 February) and the Cadogan Hall (3 March)
This landmark concert tour retraces the steps of Captain Scott’s expedition to the South Pole in music, images and words. There will be a performance of Vaughan Williams, Sinfonia Antarctica and excerpts from Vaughan Williams’s film score, Scott of the Antarctic, interwoven with readings from Scott’s diary, along with the world premiere of Cecilia McDowall’s new work, Seventy degrees below zero, setting words from Scott’s poignant final letter, ‘To my widow’ as well as words by poet Seán Street, who uses as his inspiration extracts from the Scott journals.
'In 2009 Heather Lane, Librarian and Keeper of the Scott Polar Research Institute, invited me to the institute and museum to view the diaries and the letters written by Scott in the last months of his life, including his acutely poignant letter addressed To my widow. We discussed how this letter and Scott’s Journals could be the focus of a new work, commissioned to mark the centenary of Scott and the ‘conquering of the Antarctic’, a rich resource on which to draw. I felt it would also be interesting to present Scott’s words in a contemporary poetic context and so asked the poet, Seán Street, if he would write two poems especially for the occasion which could throw a new emphasis on the past. The delicate imagery of Seán’s poem, The Ice Tree, casts a glacial light over the passage of time, as if looking at the past down through the telescope of the ice core. I found the restrained, personal writings of Scott, set against a backdrop of human endeavour and resilience in such inhospitable terrain, deeply affecting. For the title I took a phrase from Scott’s letter to his wife; ‘Dear, it is not easy to write because of the cold – 70 degrees below zero.’' Cecilia McDowall
On 26 January (the Anvil, Basingstoke), 27 January (St John's, Smith Square, London) and 28 January (Fairfield Halls, Croydon) Jeremy Huw Williams, baritone, and the London Mozart Players will be giving the English performances of the PRS Beyond Borders commission of Theatre of Tango. It was first performed by Jeremy Huw Williams, David Juritz, violin solo, and the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, conductor Anthony Hose, under the title, Tales from South America, at the Beaumaris Festival, Anglesey, Wales. Due to a copyright issue this orchestral song cycle has now been re-set, using poems by the poet, Seán Street, all set in an exciting tango idiom.
'A project involving community choirs, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, poet Alan Spence and composer Cecilia McDowall has been nominated for an Arts & Business Scotland's community award. Sponsored by oil company TOTAL, the project led to the composition of a 15-minute cantata, Northlight, which was given its premiere by the RSNO, RSNO Chorus and the six community choirs which took part at Aberdeen Music Hall on 6 October.' Classical Music Magazine
A 60th Birthday Celebration for Cecilia McDowall presented by Nova Music. A concert to include works by Bach, Purcell, Byrd and Mozart as well as Radnor Songs for soprano and orchestra, Dancing Fish for soprano sax and orchestra, Joy and Woe are woven fine (an Epithalmion, a premiere), Ave maris stella, the piano trio, Cavatina at Midnight and a selection of shorter choral works.
The cantata, Northlight, was commissioned by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and will open the RSNO concert season in the Aberdeen Music Hall on Thursday, 6 October, 2011, performed by a combined North Eastern Community Chorus comprising people involved in the Northlight Community Composition project, members of the RSNO Chorus and the RSNO, conducted by Christian Kluxen. Northlight is based on the idea of ‘renewal’, an opportunity for both regeneration and looking to the future and is a setting of words by the Scottish poet, Alan Spence. At the centre of the work sits After the rain, which is a setting of a poem by Christie Dickason which evokes the beauty of the Scottish landscape. Susan Nickalls writes, in Classical Music Magazine, 'in the spirit of Northlight's theme of renewal, McDowall has written a version for piano accompaniment and optional perciussion so that choirs without the luxury of a chamber orchestra to hand are able to give future performances'.
Ave Maria for SSA is broadcast on Radio 3 at 5pm from the Presteigne Festival and can be found on iplayer and is available until 9 October.
The programme includes work by Michael Tippett, Gabriel Jackson, Eric Whitacre, Joe Duddell, Miskinis and Joseph Phibbs and other choirs include, Conspirare and San Fransisco Girls' Chorus
On 15 June, the BBC gave extensive coverage to a new work by Cecilia McDowall, Shipping Forecast, which was commissioned by the Portsmouth Festival Choir (conductor, Andrew Cleary) to celebrate its 40 Anniversary. It received its first performance on Saturday, 18 June, at the Portsmouth Anglican Cathedral, Old Portsmouth at 7.30. The work is inspired by the rhythm and the beauty of the Shipping Forecast, the well-loved general synopsis of sea-area forecasts and coastal stations, described by the poet, Seán Street, as the 'cold poetry of information'. BBC Radio 4, BBC Breakfast, BBC News 24, Radio 2 have given information about the commission and background to the work and more can be found at this link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-13773797 .
The choral work, Shipping Forecast is a setting of two evocative poems by Seán Street: Donegal and Naming and another movement is a setting of the Psalm 107: 23-26 | 28-29: They that go down to the sea in ships, the text often read to those about to set sail. This movement can be sung separately and liturgically as an anthem.
Date of publication for Shipping Forecast: Oxford University Press will be publishing Shipping Forecast at the start of August, this year. More details to follow,
Looking for ideas for your choir this Christmas? Do take a look at Cecilia McDowall's Christmas works list.
In 2007 OUP published the fifteen minute Christmas Cantata, Christus natus est.
Reviews: 'The Christmas cantata, Christus natus est is a hit: an absolute delight from start to finish scored for solo soprano, mixed chorus, children’s choir and small orchestra (other possibilties, too). . . try to find the time to hear this disc; I am sure you will not be disappointed'. International Record Review
Also - 'This is a piece which, if I were king, would be done in musical schools every year!' Music & Vision Web Review
Scored for SATB, solo soprano, children's choir (optional), this delightful cantata exists in three accompanying versions:
a) chamber orchestra
b) brass quintet, organ and percussion (1 player)
c) organ
OUP published Now may we singen in a collection of contemporary carols in the New Horizons series, The Ivy and the Holly, issue date 20 August 2008.
Cradle Song for SA and piano is also published by OUP in For Him All Stars.
Talking Turkeys!! (published by Gemini Publications) is a lighthearted setting of the Benjamin Zephaniah poem. A Christmas carol with a difference, it is scored for SATB, piano, double bass and glock.
Of a Rose is published by Novello in the Christmas carol collection, Noël 2.
Other carols for SATB include the a cappella Annunciation, Cantate Astra - published by Gemini Publications.
View a full list of Cecilia McDowall's Christmas music.
On 26 May Jeremy Huw Williams, David Juritz and the Welsh Chamber Orchestra, conductor Anthony Hose, gave the first performance of Tales from South America at the Beaumaris Festival, Anglesey, Wales. This orchestral song cycle is a setting of poems by Borges and Neruda set in an exciting tango idiom. As part of this Beyond Borders joint commission there will be four subsequent performances of Tales from South America; in Wrexham, 6 October (WCO), Dolgellau, 7 October (WCO) and Basingstoke, 26 January (LMP) and Croydon, 28 January (LMP).
On 8 May two songs from the cycle, Radnor Songs (a setting of poems by Simon Munday, soprano soloist, Rachel Nicholls with Orchestra Nova, conductor George Vass) were broadcast on the Radio 3 programme, Sunday Morning, 10.00am - Midday.
On 11 May the Choir of the London Festival of Contemporary Church Music, conducted by the artistic director, Christopher Batchelor, sang Preces and Responses as part of the service of Choral Evensong on Radio 3 at 4.00pm. It was broadcast again on 15 May, 4pm.
On Thursday, 12 May, Christopher Batchelor and the Festival Choir performed Alma Redemptoris Mater, the introit, I have done, and Psallite Domino, an a cappella Ascensiontide anthem, on In Tune with Sean Rafferty.
The following day, 13 May the choir sang at the opening concert of the South Bank Centre festival, Chorus, at a lunctime concert in the Purcell Room of Cecilia McDowall's a cappella choral music.
Cecilia went over to Chicago with OUP and with British choral agent, Choral Connections, to the impressive American Choral Directors Association National Conference. The ACDA Choral Journal wrote of her newly published A Fancy of Folksongs;
‘Cecilia McDowall has garnered increased recent attention thanks to her rich and colourful compositions. It seems that every text she touches turns to a golden composition full of warm dissonances and unexpected harmonic progressions. Her skill in creating a wide spectrum of shifting colours using only unaccompanied voices is a fascinating accomplishment. Now McDowall has turned away from her recent tradition of Latin and other sacred texts to provide a set of charming gems – a fancy, as she calls it – of English folk songs. McDowall shows the art of arranging at its best. Each arrangement is imbued with McDowall’s imaginative surprises and exciting harmonic structure, but is done in such a way that the arrangement is accessible by choirs with varied skill levels. Any choir would find these folk songs challenging yet accessible.’
Choral Journal 2011
The Orgelbüchlein Project is a long running project to complete Bach's unfinished work, curated by the renowned organist, William Whitehead. In Bach's mini-manuscript, about the size of a paperback bestseller, he inscribed the title of 164 Chorales, but only composed 46 of them. The blank pages, 'ghost' chorales, will be fleshed out one by one over the next few years by composers using the given melody. The variety of styles in the eventual 'Complete Orgelbüchlein' will be enormous; everything from recreations of what Bach might have written to contemporary, creative responses to the melodies. Cecilia McDowall is one of the composers who has written a chorale prelude based on Chorale 119 (336) BWV 258. The first performance was given by Ian Tindale at Selwyn College Chapel, 23 January 2011. Future phases of the project will take place in Glasgow, Manchester, Wimbledon and York. Site-specific composers and players will come together in the creation of the new works. Educational workshops will involve school-age students in working on the project- the beauty of Orgelbüchlein is that the compositional techniques, at base, are very simple; the setting of a melody to an accompaniment. Needless to say Bach's '46' provide an endless feast of inspiration for melodic setting. More information about the project as it unfolds is available on the Orgelbüchlein Project Facebook page.
Cecilia McDowall was again shortlisted for the British Composer Awards. Her anthem Deus, Portus Pacis (commissioned for the 2009 Festival of St Cecilia by the Musicians Benevolent Fund) was shortlisted for the Liturgical award.
Oxford University Press has announced the signing of Cecilia McDowall as an Oxford composer. The OUP press release states that 'McDowall's music is praised for its originality, directness and integrity, and has won her widespread acclaim. Her music is as at home in the concert hall as it is in the cathedral, and she writes effectively for professional musicians, amateurs, and children.'
Cecilia McDowall's Tango Oscuro is featured on Dancing in the Dark - a new Chaconne Brass CD from Deux Elles (catalogue number DXL1141).
The CD is available from Deux Elles Classical Recordings
A new CD of Cecilia McDowall choral music, CDLX 7230, has been released on the Dutton Epoch label.
Works included are Laudate (2008), Radnor Songs (2005, revised 2009) to words by Simon Mundy, A Canterbury Mass (2007), the anthem I have done what is mine to do (2006), the Christmas carol Now may we singen (2007) and the cantata Five Seasons (2006) to words by Christie Dickason.
The CD is available from Dutton Vocalion.
GRAMOPHONE REVIEW (2010) (See CDs)
With consistently top-notch sonics and helpful presentation, this well-filled and most enterprising collection earns a strong recommendation.
Cecilia McDowall was commissioned by the Musicians Benevolent Fund to write an anthem, Deus, portus pacis, for the Festival of St Cecilia, which took place at St Paul's Cathedral in London at 11am on 18 November 2009. The preacher was the Revd Dr Cally Hammond from Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and the readers were Richard Suart and Ruthie Henshall.
Further information is available from the Musicians Benevolent Fund
Deus portus pacis is published by OUP (November 2009)
Cecilia McDowall's The Moon Dances are featured on a new CD of British music, out of the cool, from flautist Susan Milan and pianist Andrew Ball, on the Metier label (Divine Art). There's also music by Richard Rodney Bennett, Robert Saxton, Arthur Butterworth, David Heath and Brian Lock.
Further information from Divine Art Ltd
The Moon Dances . . . this versatile and enjoyable piece opens with bright energy, and takes in a carnivalesque element. The slow movement establishes a darkening mien. It is crepuscular and insinuating and the flute's 'lost in the forest' tone, plaintive and regretful, is eventually displaced by the firefly glitter of the finale. Classic Online 2010
Cecilia McDowall's song If there are angels is on the 2009 ABRSM Grade 8 Singing syllabus. The song is published in Boosey and Hawkes Song Collection Volume 2, and a recording is available here, for study purposes.
[This] volume saves the best till last. Cecilia McDowall's If there are angels, genuinely of today both in music and in the poem by Caroline Natzler, deserves to be in every singer's repertoire.
David Owen Norris, Sheet Music Review September 2006
Cecilia McDowall has once again been short-listed for the British Composer Awards.
A Canterbury Mass, composed for the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir and its conductor George Vass, has been short-listed in the 'Making Music' category of the awards. Three years ago, for the 2005 awards, McDowall was shortlisted in two categories, the motet Regina Caeli in the Liturgical music section, and her large-scale Stabat Mater for the Making Music Award.
A Canterbury Mass is a setting of the missa brevis for unaccompanied SATB choir, and was premièred in Kent in June 2007. On that occasion it was performed as a concert work. Cecilia McDowall has enjoyed a long and happy association with the City of Canterbury Chamber Choir, which has commissioned and premièred many of her choral titles, including the Three Latin Motets, recently released on Chandos CHSA 5066 by the outstanding American chamber choir, the Phoenix Chorale conducted by Charles Bruffy, and broadcast on BBC Radio 3's The Choir last month.
The British Composer Awards ceremony takes place on Tuesday 2 December 2008 at The Law Society in London, and the ceremony will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3 at 7pm the following evening.
Four new CDs containing music by Cecilia McDowall released in autumn 2008 and spring 2009:
Fire Island - Music for flute and piano, played by Anna Noakes and Caroline Palmer on Dutton CDLX7210. Includes Cecilia McDowall's The Moon Dances and Martin Yates' Sonata for flute and piano
Spotless Rose - Hymns to the Virgin Mary, sung by the Phoenix Chorale, conducted by Charles Bruffy on Chandos CHSA 5066. Features Cecilia McDowall's Ave Regina, Ave Maria and Regina Caeli plus music by Britten and Howells.
A Song More Silent: new works for Remembrance, performed by the Portsmouth Grammar School Chamber Choir and the London Mozart Players, conducted by Nicolae Moldoveanu on Avie AV 2147. Cecilia McDowall's Ave maris stella is featured alongside music by Lynne Plowman, Tarik O'Regan and Sally Beamish.
Susan Milan - works for flute and piano, with Andrew Ball, on Metier msv 28510. Susan plays Cecilia McDowall's The Moon Dances and music by Richard Rodney Bennett, Robert Saxton and Dave Heath. The CD will be released early in 2009.
Looking for ideas for your choir this Christmas? Then do have a look at Cecilia McDowall's Christmas works list.
In 2007 OUP published the fifteen minute Christmas Cantata, Christus natus est, which has been a great success!
Scored for SATB, solo soprano, children's choir (optional), this delightful cantata exists in three accompanying versions:
a) chamber orchestra
b) brass quintet, organ and percussion (1 player)
c) organ
OUP publish Now may we singen in a new collection of contemporary carols in the New Horizons series, The Ivy and the Holly, issue date 20 August 2008.
Cradle Song for SA and piano is also published by OUP in For Him All Stars.
Talking Turkeys (published by Gemini Publications) is a lighthearted setting of the Benjamin Zephaniah poem. A Christmas carol with a difference, it is scored for SATB, piano, double bass and glock.
Other carols for SATB include the a cappella Annunciation, Of a Rose, Cantate Astra - all published by Gemini Publications.
View a full list of Cecilia McDowall's Christmas music