Merry Christmas 2008

Season's greetings to all on Christmas Eve.

Here is some music that I've prepared for a show we didn't manage to stage this year, but hope to next year.

It's called "The Christmas Mysteries" and it's based on the English, 14th century Wakefield Cycle of mystery plays. A Cycle play was a set of religious dramas that were played outside, on pageant wagons, in many towns throughout Europe in medieval times. They told the story of the Bible through many small play-lets. They were often comic, spectacular, and very entertaining.

I've adapted the four Christmas plays from the Wakefield cycle into one 1-hour play that we intend to produce outdoors (at Christmas-time, in Canada!). Basically it's a highly glorified Sunday school pageant, with the Nativity, the Shepherds, the Kings, Herod, the Flight Into Egypt and more. Oh yes, and a donkey.

We will be lucky enough to have the Anglican church choir participating in the show, so the music will be glorious.

Here are some of the "numbers" we will use.

Have a safe and merry Christmas.

David

Howdy David,

Keep bringing 'em on! I'm loving it!

ttfn,
Sherry

Hello David,

The concept of this play is quite compelling. Time-wise, it takes us more than a quarter of the way back to the original Christmas day, enacted by the medieval players.

These songs are all beautiful. I hope that next year you'll be able to record the choir singing them, so we can hear the voices.

<blockquote><hr size=0><!-quote-!><font size=1>quote:</font>

...we intend to produce outdoors (at Christmas-time, in Canada!)<!-/quote-!><hr size=0></blockquote>
I imagine that these songs will be sung with much vibrato if they are sung out doors at Christmas time in Canada.

Cheers
-- Mark