Margaret Woodley

Biography

I have no formal musical education, although I have sung in large and small choirs for most of my adult life, and I am a member of RSCM Voices West group who provide choral evensongs in various locations around the West Couintry. I am also self taught in piano/keyboard organ which I play occasionally purely for personal relaxation. 

I believe I started scribbling a few musical notes in a manuscript book when a teenager; however, as my experience of choral singing increased, I became more interested in trying to create modern but accessible (and singable!) sound pictures for any poem or words which had a resonance with me. To date (2019) my largest (SATB divisi & organ) and, to me, most meaningful work is my Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis - a piece which I never thought myself capable of completing (and almost didn't!); sadly this has not yet been given an 'outing' by any large choir. Several of my other songs and Christmas pieces have been premiered by my local choirs/singers. 

I would describe myself as more a sporadic than a prolific music writer - and I hesitate to call myself a composer, a term which I feel is so much more deserved by the many new writers who today produce such wonderful works of note,