April 16, 2010
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Today is the DAY!!! (Back to the Manger)
EDIT ADD: (Nov 17, 2010)
Here is a link to a youtube video of the opening song of the musical, Back to the Manger, featuring the Ocean View Kids Choir.
EDIT ADD: (Sept 9, 2010)
It turns out this page pops up pretty high on the google list when people are looking for Back to the Manger or Christy and I…
If you are visiting and have a Back to the Manger related question/comment, etc…you can peruse the comments below this entry, or find my wife and myself on facebook.
my facebook page is www.facebook.com/danielsemsen
and I also have a website www.danielsemsen.com
OR you can email Christy directly at csemsen@gmail.com
We’d love to hear from you!
Daniel
I don’t even know what to say…it’s just crazy talk…and still feels a bit surreal…so I’ll just SAY IT.
A kids musical written by my genius wife, and arranged by me releases TODAY worldwide from choral music publisher Word Music.
We took all of my wife’s talent and all of my nerdiness and combined them to create the work BACK TO THE MANGER: A Caroling Adventure Through Time.
To check it out, click on the link above or just head on over to www.wordmusic.com and search for it–or it might even be on the front page of the website if you look around. You can listen to samples of each of the songs and order a CD or other materials there.
We performed it this past Christmas at our church and the kids had a blast singing the songs! We really tried to keep things fresh and fun…and I think it NO mistake that Nathaniel (my firstborn) was cast as the NERD in the show…not the bad boy…but the NERD. And he played it quite well, if I say so myself (good role models in the home, in terms of nerdiness, that is).
Did I mention I was a nerd?We are really proud of this thing…and I hope that you get a chance to hear it. We did everything with live musicians at Ocean Way Studios in Nashville, and the players just KILLED it during the sessions. They just were more awesome than I could have imagined.
If you HAPPEN to be a kids choir director and you’re stopping by…feel free to drop us a line. We’re more than happy to answer questions (even ones pertaining to the space-time continuum) and help out in any way that we can.
And if you’re a friend/family member…thanks for your support…you all are much loved by us
(side note: an anthem I arranged/orchestrated for Word Music ALSO releases today. It is Brooke Fraser’s Hosanna…a great song! Check it out!)
Comments (26)
Yay! Congrats guys!
Woohoo! This is soooo amazing! It must feel a little odd to be seeing your names on things like that. But in a good way.
For His glory and names sake! YES Lord!
@steveboschen - for sure, dude!
Yay! How fun to see your name in TYPE on both of those! Congrats –
@klappyanne - thanks!!! Just got asked to do two more songs…for next Winter/Easter. Very exciting!
Dan – congratulations! Someday I’d love to be where you are! Just picked up my copy of the Word Choral Club and your pieces were in there – great job! A quick question, since I’ve been dying to know – do Word and Brentwood use live orchestras for their anthem recordings? As a fellow composer/orchestrator, just curious about that all and how it works.
Congratulations again!
Matt
@mattcmusic - Hi Matt–nice to meet you on here…
YES–for the vast majority of choral print projects a live group is used on the recording. I did some production on my tracks (loops and aux. perc) but it’s 95% live guys…wahoo!
I also just got back from the recording sessions for two new anthems that will come in the next packet…it was awesome.
I’m facebook…look me up there!
I was looking for a musical for our church to do for Christmas this fall. I found your page and I love the music. My question is how many parts are in the musical. I cannot find this information anywhere.
Thanks!
Angie
@whatever2408 - There are 2 older kids (or adults), 4 main kid roles, and 4-6 smaller parts. You can add non speaking parts (as many as you want) as you add decade costumes. It is really flexible and can be really big or small just depending on how many people you have. Feel free to look us both up (Christy and Daniel Semsen) on facebook if you want and keep asking questions if you like! We’re happy to help in any way possible.
Thanks!!
Daniel
Hi Daniel,
I bought your musical “Back to the Manger” this summer and have listened to it a couple times already. I plan to use it with my choir this Christmas but I am a little confused about the Henry Olson character. I would appreciate if you and/or Christy can explain him/them. When he is first introduce in scene two he’s the church custodian who created the time machine but at the end he’s the pastor of the church who is retiring after 45 years.
Gillian
@Gillian Bethel - Hi Gillian:
Thanks for doing Back to the Manger!
Well, Christy and I made a couple of nods to one of our all-time favorite movie trilogies–Back to the Future.
I know…HA…stay with me here…
At
the end of Back to the Future–once Marty gets back to his family in
1985–and his dad, George McFly punched out Biff instead of being
bullied by Biff forever–EVERYTHING WAS DIFFERENT. George McFly was a
successful author, Marty’s mom and dad seemed happier, and Marty’s
brother and sister were better educated and stuff like that…implying
that if you change something in the past it alters the future (my inner
sci-fi nerd is coming out here) and in Marty’s case-it was altered for
the better.
SO–in Back to the MANGER, we took an unhappy, greedy
janitor-grabbed him as the YOUNG Hank Olson in the 40s–and took him
back in time to see the birth of Jesus and then back to his time period
in the 40s before going back to present day. In Hank’s case, his life
was altered like Marty’s. So we get back to present day and instead of
the greedy janitor, Hank has dedicated his life to serving Christ as a
pastor.
The implied meaning here (and I apologize if it’s not all that clear in the play) is this:
Once you see the face of Christ, you’re never the same. So Hank’s witnessing of the birth of Christ changed his life…
So
Hank IS the pastor, and has been for (35? 45? years? I can’t remember
off hand) and we celebrate his retirement upon our return–in an ALTERED
FUTURE!!!!
I hope this helps!
Thanks for choosing Back to the Manger this year–we hope it ministers to you and your church!
Daniel
Hi Daniel & Christy!
I just stumbled across Back To The Manger after doing a google search for children’s Christmas musicals and ending up on a Word Music page – I must say, I sampled everything on the page and yours really stood out to me! I love the modern style and the way the music is put together! I wanted to know more about the musicial so I googled it and ended up on this page! haha!
Anyway, I had a couple of questions for you guys…first of all, I am searching for a musical that can be used for a school…do you feel that it would work to include as young as 3 up to 6th grade? (obviously with different involvement levels but still including everyone) Also, do you think that it can be done if I’m not able to rehearse with everyone at the same time for the majority of the practice time? We would definitely have some rehearsals together as an entire group but I would have to do a lot of the practicing during each class individually. (possibly assigning certain songs to different age groups?) I’m also hoping to keep most of the speaking parts to a minimum and wasn’t sure about how much speaking is involved….
On a seperate note, I am so excited about this musical because I too am a complete sci-fi nerd (I actually brought my husband’s light saber to class today for an illustration!) and when I saw your reference to Back To The Future I was 100% sure I wanted to do this musicial if I can make it work for a school setting! :)
Thanks!
Crystal
@Crystal - Hey Crystal–I hope you are able to check back for your reply…
Christy and I both concur that this musical would work excellently in the situation you describe above. The school in which I grew up (a K-12 private school) is doing the musical this Christmas with their grades K-6, and I’m sure their situation is similar to yours, especially in regards to rehearsals.
Christy will answer more here soon…she is excited to talk to you. You can also find us each on Facebook (sometimes a more easy forum for things like this).
http://www.facebook.com/danielsemsen
I don’t remember Christy’s facebook url, but she is listed on my profile. I also have a website of my own, http://www.danielsemsen.com ORRRRRRR you can just straight-up email Christy at csemsen@gmail.com
We’d love to discuss this further!
Daniel
Hey Crystal-
I think this musical is PERFECT for school!!! I would totally do this at a school and let me tell you why: Because almost every song is from a different time period, you could assign each grade level a song (and the corresponding time period costumes), and it would be easy to have each class focus on that style of music. You could even accompany the teaching with some lesson plans on that decade too, if time permitted.
So one option….if you decided the K-1stgraders were going to be the 1950s, the 2-3rd graders would be the 1980s, the 4th graders would be 1990s boy band etc, 5th graders disco, 6th grade is 1940s etc. In THAT case, ALL grades would do 1. the opening two songs2. their featured time period song, 3. the manger song finale or something
Another way to divide it, would be to give the bulk of the songs to the older kids, having them learn Older kids:1. the opening two songs, 2. the 70s, 90s, 40s and B.C,
little ones: come out for their ONE featured song (Pre-K, K, 1st on 1980s song and 2-3rd grade on the 1950s song). Then everyone could sing the finale. If you decide to let kids do more than one decade, the production pack gives you a way for the whole choir to put “decade accessories” in their pockets, and then just put them on in a blackout each time the machine goes through time. Our K-7 choir stood on risers the whole time, and changed necklaces, sunglasses etc. for each time period, while designated “costume decade people” came out in full costume for each time, just for fun.
Oh, in response to your question about rehearsal- I think you could do these approaches without EVER getting everyone together, since they would be learning different songs. You could corral them all for a dress rehearsal or two, and to coordinate walking on and off, very easily.
You really can divide it any way you want, and each “time machine travel” blackout would give you the chance to file the kids on and off stage etc.
Now, about the drama:There ARE about a 2 pages of drama in each time period, which serves to talk about the time period (jokes about pay phones, computers, 70s clothes etc) and set up a fun story about a time machine that malfunctions and takes them to different time periods all on Christmas eve at the same Outreach event. If I were you, I would pick 4 older kids to do the main characters, and rehearse them separately with the 2 adult characters. Then you could insert their dialougue in between the scenes. If for some reason you want to not do ANY drama- I think you could do a pretty convincing “music only” show just doing the songs back to back, perhaps announcing the time period before hand. But the story line is really fun, and “back to the future-ish”, with an altered timeline in the future, after the main characters life is changed in the past, changing his future- so I highly recommend doing the drama. Like I said, some outside rehearsal with 4 motivated 5th graders would do the trick- I think you’ll like it when you read it.
Hope this helps- let me know if I can help more.
Christy Semsencsemsen@gmail.com
Hey Christy & Daniel,
Thank you both sooooo much for getting back to me with so much great information! After hearing what you both had to say, I think this would be PERFECT!!
I’m reaaaally excited about it! We are going to be doing the school production at the church where my husband and I are the music directors, so I will have our lighting system to work with…..and when I first heard the song Back to the Manger, I could already see the light show going in my head! haha
Anyway, thanks again for all the help! I’ll look for you guys on Facebook!
Thanks!
Crystal
Hi,
I was wondering if there may be a place with lyrics only printed for Back to the Manger? Our homeschool co-op begins rehearsal tomorrow and this is a common request with parents!
Thanks so much,
Julie Pittman
@julie pittman - Hey Julie
I’m checking into this–I believe the lyrics are included in a running script of the entire show that is a part of the Digital Teacher’s Resource Kit that you can purchase from word music. (www.wordmusic.com)
But I’m not sure! I’ll get back to you as soon as I know…
THANKS!!!!!
Daniel
Hi Dan, I have been asked to build a time machine for “Back To The Manger”. Do you know of any pics of any that have been built for the musical or is it up to my wild imagination? I saw the one on the cover but our director says she wants 4-5 kids to actually get into it. I’d appreciate any ideas! Thanks
Dan Toews
@djtoews - Dan–did my wife get back to you? She would love to hear from you via email–csemsen@gmail.com
Hi Daniel & Christy,
My church is performing Back to the Manger this Christmas and I’m so excited to be helping with the musical end of things. I absolutely loved the music, and how you connected it with each era. I believe that this the first ever Christmas play that parents and grandparents alike will enjoy the actual program, and not just their cute little kiddo’s on display. I know they will love looking back on the music and attire from their “time”.
I, like Julie, would love to have the lyrics to the songs for the children to be able to take home and read. I googled it tonight to see if I could print some, and found this website. I don’t think my church purchased the resource CD, but before I get into the long job of typing them out myself, I wanted to make sure that someone else hadn’t done the work already.
thank you also for the clarification on Mr. Olson’s character (above). I was a bit perplexed about that myself, but now I see it makes perfect sense!
Thanks for all your hard work, and fyi: your son is totally adorable in the movie
Jamie
@TOJL77 - Hi Jamie, thanks for contacting us! I don’t believe that WE have a document that contains the lyrics typed out–but one of the other folks that commented here might have already done it, (like Julie??), and you might be able to bum it off of someone else in your exact predicament.
Anyone have lyrics typed up?
(PS–I believe that Word is going to include this in the future when publishing Teacher Resource Kits that accompany musicals).
I teach Music at a small Christian school in NH and we are preparing to do Back to the Manger for Grades 2-8. I can’t tell you how much all the kids love this. I adapted the drama a little bit to celebrate the retirement of our school custodian as well as to highlight our school’s role in our community over the last 32 years. The kids are so excited and can’t wait to perform this. It is amazing how each song sounds so authentic to the era it is representing. Thanks for making my job so much easier. If you have any ideas on props and costumes, I’d love to hear them. my email is ydsaler@hotmail.com. Blessings! Beth
Anyone have any videos of the play they have put on, I would love to see them to get ideas. Our Church is putting on this play this Christmas.
@larryb1974 - Hi Larry,
There is a resource DVD available for purchase from http://www.wordmusic.com
Also, there might be ONE video of ONE song up on youtube soon…but this is the first season the musical is out, so no one has performed it yet except our church (which is the one on the DVD).
Hope this helps!
@julie pittman - @TOJL77 - Hi Julie and Jamie, did either of you type up lyrics to Back to the Manger? I have other people asking, and I thought if one of you already typed them up, we could save another poor soul the time…HAHA
Please let me know!
Daniel Semsen