Monthly Archives: August 2025

Holy Manna – Surprisingly Easy Handbell Music

Holy Manna was one of the very first 8-bell arrangements we performed, when we started our life together in the San Francisco Bay Area, way back in 2012. We were asked to play in a worship service, and when we asked how many pieces they’d like us to play, the answer was “Could you play three”. Our reply was “We have three!” Yes, we played our entire repertoire for the congregation of LAUMC in Los Altos, CA (which happened to be the church where we got married!).

Fast forward to 2025, and we’re still playing the exact same arrangement of Holy Manna. It’s so much fun to play, and it still comes out at a lot of our concert performances and worship services. However, we had a request for an easier version; one that would be more straightforward for a quartet group to play. This is the new version:

More information about this 8-bell arrangement

Sheet music for Holy Manna is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. You’ll notice that the page gives two options for purchase. The standard version is the one we’ve been playing for years, and the Surprisingly Easy version is the new one. We recommend this one for quartet groups. It’s always suitable for anyone needing a straightforward arrangement that can be put together in a short space of time.

Purchasing an 8-bell arrangement from Choraegus gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need to! Purchase also gives you permission to use this piece in online and live-streamed worship services. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title (Holy Manna) and arranger (Larry Sue) on video-sharing sites and social media.

Please note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. 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, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this with pictures, to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a stress-free way.

Click here to see Holy Manna on the Choraegus website

Other arrangements of Holy Manna

As well as the two 8-bell arrangements (Standard and Surprisingly Easy), we also have a 6-bell arrangement of Holy Manna. This one has a piano accompaniment. The handbell score and piano accompaniment are available as a package, to download from Choraegus. Our 6-bell arrangements are perfect for 2-3 ringers, and are designed to show that handbell music can still be interesting, even with a very small number of bells!

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, we recommend reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!

Holy Manna easy 8 bell music

(They Long to Be) Close to You – for handbells!

(They Long to Be) Close to You is a popular song, written by Hal David and Burt Bacharach. It was first recorded by Richard Chamberlain in 1963, but was a huge success for The Carpenters in 1970, and their version is now the best-known.

“Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time you are near?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

Why do stars fall down from the sky
Every time you walk by?
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you

On the day that you were born, the angels got together
And decided to create a dream come true
So they sprinkled moondust in your hair of gold
And starlight in your eyes of blue.

That is why all the girls in town (girls in town)
Follow you (follow you) all around (all around).
Just like me, they long to be
Close to you.”

(They Long to Be) Close to You is now available for handbells! Here’s our demonstration video:

More information about (They Long to Be) Close to You

You can find out more about this arrangement on Choraegus, but if you want to play it, you’ll need to go to Sheet Music Plus to purchase the downloadable score. This site has been a huge help with publishing arrangements of music that’s still under copyright, especially when communicating directly with copyright holders proved to be less than successful.

Click here to read about Close to You on the Choraegus website

Other music available on Sheet Music Plus/Sheet Music Direct

We have more arrangements available from Sheet Music Plus, and we hope you’ll enjoy browsing there!

Winter Wonderland – a 5-octave, Level 5 arrangement.

Silver Bells – a 3-7 octave, Level 4 arrangement of this holiday classic.

I Wonder as I Wander – an 8-bell arrangement of this beautiful Christmas song.

Carol of the Drum – often known as The Little Drummer Boy, this is one of our most popular 8-bell Christmas arrangements.

Bring Me Sunshine – This is a fun Level 3 arrangement for 3 octaves, of a song that was used as the theme for the UK series Morecambe & Wise.

Cavatina – This beautiful classical guitar piece was written by Stanley Myers. Larry’s arrangement is for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells.

Click here to see Choraegus music on Sheet Music Plus

Any questions?

We hope you’ll enjoy browsing our selection of handbell music on Sheet Music Plus. You’ll find more of Larry’s arrangements there soon! If there are any popular songs you’d like to see an arrangement for, you’re always welcome to contact us to suggest it. As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!

Close to You - handbells

Winter Dance, at the Bay View Week of Handbells

A note of gratitude from Larry Sue, to participants at the 2025 Bay View Week of Handbells

Last night 107 handbell musicians at the 2025 Bay View Week of Handbells performed my arrangement of Seiichi Kyoda’s Winter Dance. Maestro Fred Gramann led us in an amazing program, and it was a tremendous honor that he included this piece in the repertoire.

Winter Dance for handbells

My gratitude goes to all of you who made this performance more than just a technical reality. There was an inescapable growing intensity throughout the music that you made. During our penultimate rehearsal, I made a video of part of Winter Dance. It was everything I could have imagined. The Thursday night concert performance was even better than that!

I put lots of dots and squiggles on the pages, and I hope they were true to Kyoda-san’s heart. You turned those dots and squiggles into a unified sound that drew our audience into the dance we were trying to imagine. I could envision the people from that small village in far northern Japan, their bonfire, and their celebration in its warmth. Thanks, from the bottom of my heart, to each of you for being part of this musical endeavor. I thank you for granting me the privilege of joining you in it. Thank you for giving our audience an experience that they can remember. Thank you for dancing (in 5/4, no less). Most of all, thank you for having fun! You all created magnificence, and I’m indebted to you all for the gift you’ve given me.

Winter Dance, arr. Larry Sue - Bay View Week of Handbells

Click here to look at Winter Dance on the Choraegus website

The Oriole Tea Room in Bay View, Michigan

The Oriole Tea Room was one of the tea rooms at Bay View, many years ago. We’ve owned this Victorian cottage since the end of 2019, and it’s no longer a tea room, although we do drink a fair amount of tea there!

Note: not a real representation of how to drink tea

Desperately seeking a photo or postcard of The Oriole Tea Room!

We don’t know when our cottage started being a tea room, but know that it was a tea room in the 1920s. We’ve found references to it in the Petoskey Evening News of the time. Thanks to the Bellaire Record, we also know that it was a tea room in the 1930s. It was still a tea room in the summer of 1941 too! Here’s a photo taken from Charles E. Schloff’s excellent book A Pictorial History of Bay View : Post Cards & Photographs of the Past:

The Oriole Tea Room, Bay View Michigan in 1941

Is that postcard still in existence?

We’d love to own a photo or postcard of our cottage when it was a tea room. We didn’t purchase the cottage until late 2019, so we don’t have the historical records that many of the families at Bay View have. We still hold onto the hope that we’ll find an old photo someday! We’d love to have a photo of the cottage “in the olden days”, so that we can frame it and hang it on the wall, for us and future owners to appreciate.

In the meantime, there are lots of photos of our cottage in more modern times on our Facebook page, as well as pictures of other beautiful cottages, and Bay View in general. If you have a collection of northern Michigan vintage postcards, and you recognize our cottage among your photos, please let us know!