Monthly Archives: March 2023

Boat on Lake Tai – Handbells

Boat on Lake Tai (Tàihú Chuán 太湖船) is a traditional Chinese pentatonic song, about Lake Taihu; the third-largest freshwater lake in China. It’s a beautiful, peaceful melody, arranged her for 3-5 octaves of handbells:

More information about Boat on Lake Tai

Boat on Lake Tai is a Level 4- arrangement for 3-5 octaves of handbells, with 2 octaves of handchimes. It’s a peaceful melody, with legato running lines to create a tranquil mood, and it ends with a chord on suspended mallets.

If you’re planning a performance for Lunar New Year, or a concert of handbell music from around the world, you might also like to consider other recent arrangements of Chinese melodies:

Jasmine Flower (Mo Li Hua)

Flower Drum Song (Fengyang Flower Drum)

Sheet music for Boat on Lake Tai is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. You can either purchase an individual copy (useful for massed ringing events, or for preview), or purchase the full choir license. Purchase of the full choir license gives you our no-fuss permission to print up to 15 copies for your group.

Your purchase of the full-choir license allows you to perform, broadcast and live-stream this piece as part of a concert or worship service. There’s no need for any additional license or fee. We ask that you credit the arranger (Larry Sue) and publisher (Choraegus) in any printed media such as concert programs, and online (in video descriptions). Please see our licensing agreement for full details. 

We appreciate your help in spreading the word about Choraegus handbell music. If you record a video of your group playing any of our pieces, we’d love to see it. You’re welcome to share it with us by email or on our Facebook page!

Please note that Choraegus handbell music is designed to come to you as a downloadable PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If someone has asked us a question even once, it will be there, along with the answer. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help.

Boat on Lake Tai handbells
There are days when it takes two hands to pick up those bass bells!

Happy Birthday – for Handbells

Today is Larry’s birthday! Thank you to everyone who took the time to wish him a happy day on our Facebook page today. We decided to celebrate with a new arrangement of Happy Birthday – for handbells!

More about Happy Birthday – for handbells

Happy Birthday is our gift to you, completely free of charge. You’ll find it in the Freebies section of our music site. There’s also free music for an 8-bell version of Happy Birthday, arrangements of the Doxology, Dona Nobis Pacem, Auld Lang Syne and several other pieces.

There’s no obligation to make any other purchase from Choraegus to get the free handbell music. Of course, we hope you’ll take a look at other titles we have to offer, but if you want to grab the free music and go, we don’t mind at all. It’s a good way to try our music without having to spend any money! We’re hoping this music will prove to be a useful addition to your group’s repertoire.

Instructions for downloading the free handbell music

To get your free sheet music, add it to your cart on the Choraegus site, and click on the yellow “Check out with PayPal” button. Enter your details, and click “Confirm Order” (there’s no need to click on the PayPal button a second time). Then check your email inbox. If the download link doesn’t arrive, check your spam folder, and it might be there.

As always, we recommend that you read the licensing agreement before buying music from us (or claiming your free music), especially if this is your first time downloading music from Choraegus. You won’t receive anything in the mail, and will be responsible for printing your own music.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll do what we can to help!

Happy Birthday, Larry Sue!
Larry – celebrating having made it through another year!

2-Octave Handbell Music – Lift High the Cross

In recent weeks, Larry’s been working on some new 2-octave handbell music. These hymn arrangements were written with the handbell choir at Third Reformed Church of Holland, Michigan in mind; a choir that’s small in number, but high in enthusiasm! The hymn arrangements are designed to be fairly straightforward to play, but still interesting enough for ringers and congregations to enjoy.

Lift High the Cross (CRUCIFER) is a popular Easter hymn:

Be Thou My Vision a beautiful hymn based on an Irish folk tune – SLANE – first published in 1909. It’s also used as the setting for Lord of All Hopefulness. Here’s our 2-octave arrangement:

More information about this 2-octave handbell music

Sheet music for these arrangements is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. Click on the links below!

Lift High the Cross

Be Thou My Vision

You can either purchase an individual copy (useful for massed ringing events, or for preview), or purchase the full choir license. Purchase of the full choir license gives you our no-fuss permission to print up to 15 copies for your group.

Your purchase of the full-choir license allows you to perform, broadcast and live-stream this piece as part of a concert or worship service. There’s no need for any additional license or fee. We ask that you credit the arranger (Larry Sue) and publisher (Choraegus) in any printed media such as concert programs, and online (in video descriptions). Please see our licensing agreement for full details. 

We appreciate your help in spreading the word about Choraegus handbell music. If you record a video of your group playing any of our pieces, we’d love to see it. You’re welcome to share it with us by email or on our Facebook page!

Please note that Choraegus handbell music is designed to come to you as a downloadable PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If someone has asked us a question even once, it will be there, along with the answer. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help.

2-octave handbell music - Larry and Carla

Flower Drum Song (Feng Yang Flower Drum) for Handbells

The Flower Drum Song (also known as Feng Yang Flower Drum) is our newest handbell arrangement, following on from Larry’s recent arrangement of Jasmine Flower (Mo Li Hua). Feng Yang Flower Drum (鳳陽花鼓) is a traditional Chinese folk song, dating from the late Ming Dynasty (1368-1644AD).

Here’s our demonstration video!

More information about Flower Drum Song (Feng Yang Flower Drum)

Feng Yang Flower Drum is a Level 4 arrangement for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells. It uses mallets and thumb-damping for to achieve some percussive effects, and is fun to play. This would be a great arrangement for a Chinese New Year celebration!

Sheet music for this arrangement is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. You can either purchase an individual copy (useful for massed ringing events, or for preview), or purchase the full choir license. Purchase of the full choir license gives you our no-fuss permission to print up to 15 copies for your group.

Your purchase of the full-choir license allows you to perform, broadcast and live-stream this piece as part of a concert or worship service. There’s no need for any additional license or fee. We ask that you credit the arranger (Larry Sue) and publisher (Choraegus) in any printed media such as concert programs, and online (in video descriptions). Please see our licensing agreement for full details. 

We appreciate your help in spreading the word about Choraegus handbell music. If you record a video of your group playing any of our pieces, we’d love to see it. You’re welcome to share it with us by email or on our Facebook page!

Please note that Choraegus handbell music is designed to come to you as a downloadable PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If someone has asked us a question even once, it will be there, along with the answer. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help.

Feng Yang Flower Drum Song handbells