Sheet Music by Female Composers: A Rich and Diverse Selection

Composed for International Women's Day, this mesmerizing piece celebrates the centennary of Rosalind Franklin and sets her own words with additional text by the poet Seán Street. . . .

The composer has combined a single line of Latin, 'O virgo splendens', with an earthy, late 13th-century Marian text in Middle English to create a work which reflects both the divine and the human qua...

The Island Itself is a setting of the poem Homage to Omey by Irish poet, Joan McBreen. The imagery of the sea conveyed in the text is reflected through lilting, syncopated rhythms. The melody is suppo...

Scored especially for ATB to meet social distancing requirements, this piece has both special resonance and practical application in these uncertain times. McGlade's characteristic unaccompanied style...

This setting of Edward Caswall's well-known text shows all the hallmarks of McGlade's characteristic style, with changing time signatures, beguiling chromaticisms, and a beautiful, fluid melody. Chang...

This is an upbeat original setting of the well-known Latin text. Rambunctious, hearty, and in a sophisticated modal style, it is suitable for both church and concert performance byexperienced choirs.

This is an upbeat original setting of the well-known Latin text. Rambunctious, hearty, and in a sophisticated modal style, it is suitable for both church and concert performance by experienced choirs.

Commissioned by Sonoro for the second instalment of their Choral Inspirations project, McDowall has composed Crucifixus Reimagined as a response to Lotti's Crucifixus from Credo in F. Use of suspensio...

Setting words by the composer, One of these days is an affirmatory piece with pop-inspired rhythms and harmonies. The scat syllables and repeating patterns of the lower parts provide a rich cushion fo...

One of McGlade's longer settings, As the hart begins simply, before expanding into a more complex central section with fluctuating time signatures and shifting tonalities. Ideal for advanced mixed-voi...

Setting Revelation 21: 1-5, this short anthem is in McGlade's typically fluid style, with harmonic twists, changing metres, and tempo fluctuations. With some divisi in the upper parts, it will be part...

Taken at a slow processional tempo this work has a predominantly canonic texture. The syncopated passages are at once sombre and sensual, and the balancing homphonic phrases achieve real power. A shor...

This is one of Clarke's many pieces on love, and one of the best. It combines the English modality of earlier times with foretastes of the adventurous chromaticism of her later work. It is a lovely pi...

This is a lilting take on the Elizabethan lute-song full of smooth Stanford-like nineteenth-century harmonies, exquisitely tempered with modal effects.

Immerse yourself in the devotional soundscape of traditional English Christmas music with 'There Is No Rose', published by Oxford University Press. This evocative arrangement breathes new life into th...

This is an appropriately aching setting of Sir Philip Sidney's poem of unending desire and longing. There are gorgeous chromatics and enharmonics and a masterful use of a triplet pattern which becomes...

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....

The three movements of A Winter Breviary are entitled: 'We look for you', 'The year's midnight', and 'The unexpected early hour'. The movements are each based on an Indian classical Raag: Raag Hamsadh...

This imaginative setting of the well-loved text O little town of Bethleham, by Phillips Brooks, displays McGlade's characteristic rich and expressive harmonies, with their jazz inflections. Opening wi...

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...