Sheet Music by Female Composers: A Rich and Diverse Selection

Weep you no more, sad fountains is a modern take on the Elizabethan lute-song, integrating the characteristic alternations of minor and major, fondness for cross-relations, and vivid word-painting. Th...

Music, when soft voices die combines aspects of nineteenth-century English pastoral style with some of the tonal adventurousness of Vaughan Williams's Shakespeare settings. This is an exceptionally be...

Commissioned by King's College, Cambridge, for the 2021 Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols, Cecilia McDowall's setting of this well-known fifteenth-century macaronic text is expressive and ethereal....

Characteristically sung on Christmas Day, this Catholic chant depicts mystery and wonder at the birth of Jesus, as witnessed by the animals. The second half of the text relates to words spoken by Eliz...

The O nata lux text is taken from a 10th-century anonymous hymn that uses the concept of light to symbolise hope, a particularly pertinent theme for Advent. Throughout this setting the sopranos intert...

A reflection on the plainchant antiphon 'Pulchra es et decora', this hauntingly beautiful piece was commissioned by ORA100 for Suzi Digby and ORA Singers. The original antiphon has been transcribed an...

On the Air (Dear Vaccine) discusses the optimism for a post-COVID world and, particularly, the desire to sing together again. For the text, poet Seán Street drew inspiration from 'Dear Vaccine', which...

A Gaelic Blessing was commissioned by the University of Edinburgh, McDowall's alma mater, for performance by the Edinburgh University Singers conducted by Calum Robertson. This meditative, folk-style...

A powerfully emotive setting that contrasts moments of reflection with declamatory exultation, Psalm 57 uses passages from the eponymous psalm in the King James translation. Written in 1972, it is ded...

Becky McGlade has set this well-known Christmas hymn with textures both rich and restrained. The original English language hymn was based on a 19th-century English translation of Prudentius's 4th-cent...

Written in an a cappella style with scat accompaniment, "A Tree is a Song" is a joyful celebration of the connections and affinity found in nature and how wisdom and knowledge can be passed on 'as a m...

This glorious, heartfelt, and at times agonizing work sets a prescient text by Nicholas Andreas Vrenios, a victim of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. McDowall employs vocal embellishments, harmonic diss...

This glorious, heartfelt, and at times agonizing work sets a prescient text by Nicholas Andreas Vrenios, a victim of the Lockerbie bombing in 1988. McDowall creates a haunting sound-world through voca...

Setting a collect from the Book of Common Prayer, this introit plays on McDowall's characteristic use of dissonance and modal inflections to create a hypnotic and slightly unsettled soundworld that re...

Setting a collect from the Book of Common Prayer, this introit plays on McDowall's characteristic use of dissonance and modal inflections to create a hypnotic and slightly unsettled soundworld that re...

Lucy Walker's thoughtful setting of There is no rose flows between swells of emotion and warm chromatic inflections in the Latin refrains. This piece captures the natural emphases of the text, seamles...

echo is musical celebration of human connectivity. It is singable, powerful, rhythmic, and contemplative. Wong reflects in her music and text the idea that 'the coming-together of many singers to a si...

McDowall's poignant Angel of the Battlefield, originally commissioned by the Glasgow School of Art Choir as part of the Composeher project, is both an exposition on the horrors of war and a celebratio...

McDowall's moving and poignant setting of this three-movement work is both an exposition on the horrors of war and a celebration of healers. Inspired by renowned nurse Clara Barton, the text is drawn...

Keep me as the apple of the eye is a tranquil and meditative sacred work, suitable for performance throughout the liturgical year. Drawn from Psalm 17, the text is a plea for shelter and protection in...

With a text by Thomas H. Troeger, this deeply expressive piece explores the notion of companionship and resilience through difficult times. The comforting, lyrical melody is set over a bed of rich har...

Based on the well-known poem by William Blake, this Christmas piece transports listeners with sounds of heavenly angels beckoning the little Lamb in layered melodic fragments that cascade through the...

Written to celebrate the 950th anniversary of St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford, this compelling double-choir setting of the Missa brevis is suitable for both liturgical and concert settings. The work o...

Written to celebrate the 950th anniversary of St Mary Magdalen Church, Oxford, this compelling double-choir Missa brevis setting is suitable for liturgical and concert settings. The music is beautiful...

Written in response to Gibbons' famous setting of the same text from Psalm 47, this piece uses syncopated rhythms, imitative polyphonic textures, and declarative homophonic moments to create a piece f...