David Keeble wrote "Doubtful Winter" in 1979, and was performed by the Philip Jones Brass Ensemble. Here is the part of the Eb Trumpet.
Can you follow the tunes?
How do people think it works as musical metaphor?

Reference: PJBE/14/Keeble

Need a cantata for Christmas? Roy Heaton Smith can give you one! Smith was an alumnus of the Royal Manchester College of Music and his manuscript music collection is held now at the Royal Northern College of Music.

Reference: RHS/57

A gorgeous little Christmas caricature of Robert Jaffrey Forbes, principal of the Royal Manchester College of Music. This seems to be a reprint from an original 1936 design given to Nina Papadopoulos when she studied piano at the RMCM in the 1930s.

Reference: NP/3/3

Roy Heaton Smith, alumnus of the Royal Manchester College of Music, wrote this lovely little nativity piece in 1959, Anyone remember performing school nativities as kiddies?

Reference: RHS/32

One of the most striking images in the RNCM Archives collection is the Christmas card/poster design by Thomas Pitfield. Although undated, it has a bit of the 1920s Fitz Lang "Metropolis" vibe to it.

...Merry Christmas?

Reference: TP/4/1/51
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Thomas Baron Pitfield scripted this gorgeous calligraphy score in 1951 for Christmas performances. His writing is so distinctive and the style is beautiful. Pitfield was a Bolton-born Royal Manchester College of Music alumnus and teacher.

Reference: TP/2/1/9
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Anyone every wanted an eerie Gothic Christmas card? Thomas Pitfield thought the same.

Reference: TP/4/1/45
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

The Cherry Tree Carol is a medieval carol, here fashioned into a beautiful Christmas card design by Thomas Pitfield.

Reference: TP/4/1/50
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

"The Holly and the Ivy" arranged by the fabulously talented Thomas Baron Pitfield (baron in name only, not in title). I love the sketchiness of this score, it's very archive-y. And yet even as a rough composition, the elegant handwriting adds so much character!

Reference: TP/2/1/11
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

A gorgeous holly and ivy design on a Thomas Pitfield Christmas card artwork.

Reference: TP/4/1/54
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Can't decide if Thomas Pitfield's little cottage in the woods design says "merry Christmas" or "no one will every find you".

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Nice and simple. Classy calligraphy. Thomas Pitfield design for a Christmas card from 1967.

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Some of the most beautiful stave design I've ever seen! Thomas Pitfield showing us all up again via Christmas cards and even the original print block!

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

I really like this Polish carol set to a design by Thomas Pitfield for one of his many Christmas cards. Want to expand your seasonal repertoire? Give it a go!

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

A pen and wash sketch of the back garden of Thomas and Alice Pitfeild's home makes for a rather bleak Christmas greeting. Sorry guys.

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

One of the best things about the Thomas Pitfield collection is that not only do we have the designs, music, sculptures of this Bolton-born polymath and autodidact, but we also have a selection of the tools he used to create them as well!
Here is his striking choir of angels design for a Christmas Card as well as the engraving plate he created to print them!

Reference: TP/4/4 and TP/5/1/1/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

"The Holly and the Ivy" carol Christmas card design by Thomas Pitfield with his signature calligraphic style.

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Double whammy Christmas card design of holly and ivy and calligraphy, by Thomas Pitfield.

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Not sure who George Davies & Co. are but they are very smart to have commissioned Thomas Pitfield to design their beautiful Christmas cards!

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Another carol set to a beautiful Christmas design by Thomas Pitfield, this time a Russian hymn. Alice, Thomas' wife, spent much of her childhood in Russia, leaving in 1917 due to the Revolution.

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

A fabulous little stave design by Thomas Pitfield for his Christmas cards. What do you think?

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Greetings! Christmas greetings of a rather quirky "Holly & Ivy" design by Thomas Pitfield.

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

One of the most interesting things about Thomas Pitfield's collection is the varied ways of creating art. Here is one of his woodcut/lino prints for a Christmas card design.

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust

Something new to sing as you go a' carolling! Thomas Pitfield on true form with his beautiful signature calligraphy. He then reissued it as a tailored Royal Manchester College of Music design.

Reference: TP/4/4
Collection owned by the Thomas Pitfield Trust