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This is a Simple but Attractive Take on the Traditional Nativity Review by Sarah Shaw - Music Teacher Magazine
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Alison Carver is an experienced children’s composer. Nearly No Nativity, billed as a ‘Christmas Musical for Key Stage 1 to 2’, is cleverly constructed as a play within a play. A witty, fast-moving script steers us skilfully through a nativity dress rehearsal, where the teacher is searching for the ‘star of the show’, and hence the real meaning of Christmas. The music is varied and appealing, using simple rhythmic variations and devices such as syncopated clapping and hemiolas to good effect. Melodic lines, appropriately simplistic for this age group, are often lifted by imaginative harmonic progressions. Rudimentary singing in two parts is tackled well. The inclusion of some percussion parts is useful but not essential. This is a simple but attractive take on the traditional nativity. (Posted on 11/04/2011)
