Ave Maria (New Horizons)

ISBN 10: 0193355566 ISBN 13: 9780193355569

Publisher: Oxford University Press Music, 2006

Ave Maria, for SSA unaccompaniedThis is the second and most intimate of the composers Three Latin Motets. Scored for upper voices, this gentle supplication to the Virgin is built on a plainchant openi

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About the Author:

Educated at Edinburgh and London Universities, 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 Phoenix Chorale and the Choir of New College, Oxford, and is regularly programmed at prestigious festivals in Britain and abroad.

Review:

Writing for SSA only, McDowall makes a virtue of carefully placed repetitions. In the Ave Regina it is the appoggiaturas that recur; here it is a pair of laddering motifs, the one rising in close harmony quavers, the other cascading down in chains of suspensions. Once again, sensitivity to the words - their passion, their dignity, and their metrical quantities - is faultless. * Choir & Organ 2006 * Cecilia McDowall may not be a familiar name to everyone, but several of her quietly accomplished choral works have now appeared in print, including here a SATB Ave Regina and a SSA Ave Maria, both from 2004, each made with the same clarity of structure and judicious, expressive use of dissonance. * Matthew Greenall, The Singer Oct 06 * In her Ave Maria Cecilia McDowall reminds us that the text is that of The Angelic Salutation, but the note is rendered unnecessary by the beautiful and haunting three- part writing . . . The overall effect is magical, though - a good, echoing stone venue is required. * Music Teacher November 06 *

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