Cecilia McDowall

[Bella Kemp]

A name new to me, but have just heard her 'Everyday Wonders' on Essential Classics and was much moved. I see that there is another piece of hers, 'Rain, Steam and Speed' in this afternoon's concert. Has anyone else here encountered her work?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Well known to those learning the flute. Her Six Pastiches have been on the Associated Board exam list.

Her pieces crop up from time to time on Radio 3.

[DracoM]

erm......wAll, I think?

[Bella Kemp]

And I thought I was so clever not confusing my Mcs with my Macs!

[Padraig]

And I thought I was so clever not confusing my Mcs with my Macs!

Be pleased you are not a Macknowall, Bella.

[oddoneout]

Her music crops up on Choral Evensong from time to time, most recently I think the Contemporary Church Music one in May from St Pancras.

[edashtav]

And I thought I was so clever not confusing my Mcs with my Macs!

I’m going to quote from a Gramophone review of the recent Hyperion CD of what a sub-editor termed ‘Cecilia McDowell’ anthems.
Ms Alexandra Coghlan wrote in a general comment about a wide group of composers that includes CMcD:

“But is functionality and choral kerb-appeal enough? There’s an increasing homogeneity to the music on offer here, an anonymous quality to works that are attractive, uncontroversial and often all but interchangeable, each using what Andrew Mellor has previously described in these pages as the same ‘toolkit’ of techniques. The gulf between new music in the concert hall and church has never felt wider.”

I’m afraid that’s how I feel about CMcD’s choral music: beautifully formed pieces that are a gentle challenge but a delight to sing. However, they are unquirky, lacking in character, and break no moulds.

[cat]

Similar has been said about the choral works of Adrian Batten, but not all church music need be novel and quirky to be appropriate for its context.