Michael Butterworth

Song of Christmas
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Michael Butterworth

Hi

I'm Mike Butterworth. Way back in 1976 I wrote a rock-style musical based on the Christmas Nativity Story. It has choir parts and solo songs for the characters: Mary, Joseph, Shepherds, Angels, Wise Men and King Herod. A group of friends and good singers, many just teenagers got together and performed it at our local Church that Christmas. That was St Andrew's Methodist Church, Mirfield, West Yorkshire. Following that successful performance which lasted just 20 minutes, I considerably enhanced it and over subsequent years it was presented at numerous local venues by an ever increasing cast of young people. Wherever the musical was performed it was always well received. The final presentation of that period was in 1985 at St John’s Hill Methodist Church, Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Song of Christmas remained unpublished for the next thirty years as I concentrated on my day job and raising a family. 

However, in 2015 I digitised a tape recording made by the original cast. Around the same time, I received a few enquiries from people who remembered the original performances, asking if it would be possible for them to present Song of Christmas at the schools where they were now teachers.  So I dug out the manuscripts and took another look at the work. There was quite a bit to do: some bits had only been fully scored in pencil; the second half only existed in top line and chords. Nevertheless with the help of music notation software and a few minor alterations, I brought Song of Christmas into the twenty-first century. It still sounds fresh and contemporary and I am now making it available to you.

The musical was performed again in 2017 after a gap of 32 years, in Pannal, Harrogate.

Song of Christmas runs in an entirely sung-through dialogue-free format of original songs and lasts 42 minutes. It takes the bible story and brings the characters to life in a fun, yet reverent way with tunes that will stay with you, along with the real message of Christmas: the song that “all the world must hear!”

I'd love you to give it a try and let me know how you get on.

 

Mike

 

A rock-style musical for soloists and choir telling the story of the Nativity in original songs and in an entirely sung-through, dialogue-free format. Duration: 42 minutes