Description
for SATB choir, brass quintet, organ and percussion This engaging 15-minute cantata combines several popular carols to create a 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. Instrumental material is available on hire/rental.
About the Author
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.
Reviews
Cecilia McDowall's Christmas cantata A Winter's Night is an erudite pastoral romp through some beautiful traditional European carols. Her writing is tip-top as always: tonal, beautifully proportioned and very, very singable. She knows how to keep her audience happy, and the work begins with 'In Dulci Jubilo' and ends by introducing the Sussex Carol into a mash-up of everything we've heard so far. . . You'll need to be able to sustain a good balance between your parts, but the material is not too difficult and has been carefully written to be learnable. If you choir is lower-intermediate, you'll be fine if you get a head start on it. * Thomas Lydon, Music Teacher, September 15 *
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 McDowallas evident fondness for all five allows her to offer an individual take on each one . . . Itas difficult to write carol medleys that stand up to todayas 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 McDowallas choral writing, it is her rhythmic craft that is so enviably adept but never showy. * Jeremy Summerly, Choir & Organ September 2015 *
Book Information
ISBN 9780193403680
Author Cecilia McDowall
Page Count 40
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 80g
Dimensions(mm) 250mm * 184mm * 2mm
About the Author
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.
Reviews
Cecilia McDowall's Christmas cantata A Winter's Night is an erudite pastoral romp through some beautiful traditional European carols. Her writing is tip-top as always: tonal, beautifully proportioned and very, very singable. She knows how to keep her audience happy, and the work begins with 'In Dulci Jubilo' and ends by introducing the Sussex Carol into a mash-up of everything we've heard so far. . . You'll need to be able to sustain a good balance between your parts, but the material is not too difficult and has been carefully written to be learnable. If you choir is lower-intermediate, you'll be fine if you get a head start on it. * Thomas Lydon, Music Teacher, September 15 *
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 McDowallas evident fondness for all five allows her to offer an individual take on each one . . . Itas difficult to write carol medleys that stand up to todayas 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 McDowallas choral writing, it is her rhythmic craft that is so enviably adept but never showy. * Jeremy Summerly, Choir & Organ September 2015 *
Book Information
ISBN 9780193403680
Author Cecilia McDowall
Page Count 40
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Weight(grams) 80g
Dimensions(mm) 250mm * 184mm * 2mm
