A year after the University of Portsmouth awarded Cecilia McDowall an honorary doctorate they commissioned an organ work from her, to be performed at each of the graduation ceremonies in 2014. Celebration was written especially to accompany the academic procession and was performed on the mighty Guildhall organ by David Price (University Organist). 'I've tried to capture some of that sense of excitement and joy that fills Portsmouth's Guildhall on these occasions and I have woven into the fabric of the piece a quotation from "To Portsmouth", a cheerful round about the city written by Thomas Ravenscroft at the turn of the seventeenth century.'

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
McDowall's piece is vivid and joyful in character and includes several unexpected shifts and turns as it unfurls. The overarching mood is one of unforced conviviality, a gesture of friendship whose spirit of undaunted optimism reaches out far beyond the specific occasion for which the work was created. * Paul Conway, Musical Opinion, July-Sept ember 2021 *



Book Information
ISBN 9780193406131
Author Cecilia McDowall
Page Count 12
Imprint Oxford University Press
Publisher Oxford University Press
Dimensions(mm) 297mm * 210mm * 1mm