Author Description

for soprano solo and SSATB unaccompanied Setting a text spoken by Nurse Edith Cavell on the eve of her execution in 1915 and re-fashioned by the poet Seán Street, McDowall has created a work of haunting beauty full of gently lamenting harmonies.The sombre subject matter makes the piece equally suitable for funerals and Remembrance Day celebrations. Standing as I do before God is featured on the CD A Multitude of Voices by the choir Sospiri on Convivium Records.About the AuthorEducated 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.