We used to live in California before we moved to Michigan. We were excited to receive an invitation to teach and/or perform at the recent Handbell Musicians of America Area 12 online conference! We’re officially in Area 5 now, but our Area 12 friends will always hold a special place in our heart.
At the time the invitation arrived, Larry had only just had his shoulder surgery. For that reason, we didn’t feel ready to offer an online class. Instead, we prepared two brand-new 6-bell pieces for the virtual concert at the end of the conference. Hyfrydol is the first of those that we’d like to share with you.
A versatile secular and hymn tune!
Hyfrydol is a much-loved Welsh song, often used as a setting for the hymns Alleluia, Sing to Jesus, Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus, and Love Divine, All Loves Excelling. Our 6-bell arrangement could be played as a duet, or by a trio of three ringers if you prefer just two bells each. People have said that our six-bell music has been useful for handbell duos where one ringer is more experienced with 4-in-hand technique than the other, but you could just as easily have three bells each. Of course, if one of the ringers is wearing a sling, you have fewer options!
If you’d like to play Hyfrydol, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus, our music site. You can also purchase an mp3 accompaniment track. This could be useful if you don’t have a willing accompanist, or want to rehearse at home.
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. Purchasing a 6-bell arrangement allows you to print and maintain up to three copies for your handbell group (plus the accompaniment score). Purchase also gives permission for recording, broadcasting, live-streaming and sharing on video-sharing sites, church websites and social media. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites and social media, and in any printed materials such as church service bulletins.
If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide, designed 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 you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll do what we can to help!
These are challenging times for musicians, as we practise social distancing to help slow down the spread of COVID-19. As members of Kalamazoo Ringers, we were disappointed when the decision was made to stop rehearsing for the season. We were all sorry to have to cancel our spring concerts and mini-tour to Ohio. Yes, it was the right decision, but wow, we’d worked hard on all that concert repertoire. We’d really been looking forward to sharing it!
Painful times indeed. However, we still have to do the responsible thing and take care of the health of our family, friends and wider community. So, social distancing it is. Add to that – plenty of hand-washing, catching up with our to-do list, and a bit of rest and relaxation!
Keeping busy as a handbell duo
As a handbell duo, we’re in the fortunate position of being able to continue our own handbell rehearsals as usual. We have bells in our home, and many hours’ worth of 8-bell music. We definitely don’t expect to be bored! We’re working on more 8- and 12-bell music, and will continue making new arrangements available from Choraegus.
We’re happy to find that many people are finding our 8- and 12-bell music useful, at a time when many groups can’t get together to rehearse and perform. Churches are increasingly holding services online. Live-streaming is becoming the new way for people to gather in worship together. For handbell choirs that can’t get together to rehearse, 8-bell music could be the answer! We have an extensive selection of hymns, in both standard and surprisingly-easy versions. There’s still time to purchase and download music to share online for Holy Week, Easter, or during the summer months. This could also be a great opportunity to work on 4-in-hand skills!
An example of an 8-bell hymn arrangement – Just As I Am (standard version)
The answers to some of your questions
People have been asking us additional questions about playing our music during this time of social distancing, so we’ll answer some of them here:
YES — If you purchased music from Choraegus, you have permission to play the music as part of an online worship service or online performance. Please see the licensing agreement for a few exceptions where additional permission may be necessary.
YES — We give permission for you to live-stream music purchased from Choraegus during a worship service, or to record it as part of the service, for sharing on church websites and/or social media.
YES – If you can’t get together with other musicians to play our music, and you’d like to play all the parts yourself and edit them together, you have permission to do this.
YES – You are allowed to upload any video you make to YouTube or another video-sharing site for the purposes of sharing with others online (see requirement below about crediting the source of the music).
YES — If you can’t get together with a fellow musician to rehearse music, and need to use pre-existing recordings, you are welcome to use our own YouTube videos as part of your worship service, or share our videos on social media or by email.
Things you need to do
Please give the title of the piece, and credit the arranger in your church bulletin or online recording, under the terms of our published licensing agreement. If you post/share a video on YouTube or other video-sharing/social media site, please include a link to www.choraegus.com in the video description.
Questions for us?
If you have any other questions, check our our list of frequently-asked questions. If you don’t find the answer you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help.
We hope you enjoy playing our music, and we thank you all for your support at this time. Take care, and stay healthy!
At Los Altos Lutheran Church, CA (Photo: Carl S. Gutekunst) – May 2018
Some 8-bell pieces are very easy to play, requiring little rehearsal time. Gwerzy is not one of those pieces. Colm O’Snodaigh and Dee Armstrong, of the Irish band Kíla, kindly gave us permission to arrange Gwerzy for handbells. It’s fun to play, for anyone who enjoys a bit of a challenge.
We first performed this arrangement in California at the 2019 Bay Area Spring Ring. We announced it to the audience as a work-in-progress. To be honest, it will probably always be a work-in-progress for us! We had originally planned to record a 100%-accurate and polished performance of this piece before offering it for purchase. We’ve now decided to let others join in the fun, without waiting for something that might never happen!
Gwerzy – at the 2019 Bay Area Spring Ring in CaliforniaGwerzy – excerpt
If you’re feeling insane courageous enough to try this arrangement, you’ll find the sheet music to download from Choraegus.
Things to know about Choraegus handbell music
As always, we strongly recommend that you read the licensing agreement before buying music from us. Please also 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. Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group.
If you’re new to Choraegus, you might appreciate our step-by-step guide. We designed this to help our customers buy and download music in a (we hope!) stress-free way.
We’re happy to answer questions!
If you have any questions about purchasing or playing 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. We hope you’ll enjoy playing our music!
We’re thrilled to be able to share this video of Larry’s original compositionA Minor Crash, recorded at the 2019 Bay View Week of Handbells concert. This piece is fun to play! You can even see some of the musicians dancing along, which is exciting to see at a handbell performance!
Rocking out to A Minor Crash!
A Minor Crash is written for 5-8 octaves of handbells and optional handchimes. An additional cajón part is available. The cajón part is written by Alex Guebert, who also plays it in the concert video. It’s a Level 4 piece, with some interesting challenges for bass handbell enthusiasts. There’s also an alternative simplified section for less-adventurous performers!
Sheet music for A Minor Crash
If you’d like to play this piece, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from our music site, Choraegus.
Many thanks to Pierpont Productions
Our thanks go to Pierpont Productions, who graciously allowed us to share the video from the 2019 Bay View Week of Handbells concert. They make a wonderful recording of the Bay View handbell concert each year. CDs and videos of previous concerts are available. If you’d like one, contact us, and we’ll put you in touch!
In the weeks since we came back from the Bay View Week of Handbells, we’ve appreciated the opportunity to focus on our handbell ministry. We’ve very much enjoyed being a part of worship services at several West Michigan churches. Now we’re wrapping up the summer, and reflecting on the last few months’ activities.
Just after we returned from Bay View, we made our first visit to Muskegon Central United Methodist Church. We played prelude, offertory and special music in their traditional Sunday morning service.
Our handbells in the beautiful sanctuary at Muskegon Central UMC
This summer we also played in the morning service at Christ Memorial Church, here in Holland. We’ve previously played Christmas music there, so it was fun to go back and be part of a summer worship service! We also enjoyed the opportunity to attend a rehearsal and work with their handbell choir on bass and treble handbell techniques, as they prepare for the upcoming season.
At Christ Memorial Church, Holland
We also played duets in the morning service at our home church, Third Reformed, here in Holland. Larry had the chance to do something different too — and he enjoyed playing the cajón with the praise chorus!
Larry played the cajón at Third Reformed Church!
We’ve also been part of the Downtown Holland Street Performer Series; our third summer at this popular event.
Now that we’re wrapping up the summer, what’s next for us? We’re looking forward to giving a program of handbell duets at a senior community party in a few days’ time. After that, we’ll be preparing for a Sunday afternoon concert in Gregory, Michigan at the end of October.
The holiday season is always our favorite time of year. Is it too early to mention Christmas? We’re still taking bookings, so let us know if you need us!
It’s been over a week since we came back from our trip to the Petoskey area for our 10th year at the Bay View Week of Handbells. Life is getting back to normal, and we have lots of great memories from our tenth year at the event!
Bay View Week of Handbells is part of our history!
Taking part in the Bay View Week of Handbells has become a highlight of our year. We attended the event for the first time in August 2010, when we were still in our long-distance relationship. Carla flew to Chicago from England, Larry flew in from California. We met in person for the very first time, before taking the short flight to Traverse City together. Having only previously communicated in Facebook messages, it was exciting for us to spend time together in person, and to discover that we actually did like each other in “real life”, as well as online!
After another year apart, we met again at the 2011 Week of Handbells. We celebrated our engagement in Evelyn Hall at the Monday evening reception. The following year was a busy one for us as we dealt with the challenges of the U.S. fiancée visa process. Finally, we were able to close the distance in August 2012. We timed everything carefully, to coincide with that year’s Week of Handbells! Larry flew to England, then we flew back together from London to Chicago. Next, we flew to Traverse City, then drove to Bay View for the week of rehearsals and concert. After the event was over, we were able to take a flight to California and begin our life together.
With Maestro Carl Wiltse at Bay View Week of Handbells 2014
Since then, we’ve participated in the Week of Handbells every August. The event is very special to us for many reasons. For a start, the standard of musicianship is very high. Participants are required to arrive at the event fully prepared. That means we can use the rehearsal time not to learn notes, but to work on expression, playing as a single ensemble, and the finer points of preparing for a concert to a high professional standard. It’s a lot of fun to work on challenging music under the baton of an experienced and highly-skilled director. It’s also good to know that the Thursday evening’s public concert will be enjoyed by so many people! Bay View has also given us the opportunity to meet with friends, and to make new ones, as handbell musicians arrive from many different cities to take part each year.
With Bay View Director Fred Gramann at the 2019 Week of Handbells
The years have gone quickly since our first experience of the Bay View Week of Handbells! We’ve been able to learn so much from participating in the event. Larry has played the aluminum bass handbells every year since 2010. He’s appreciated being part of the “Deep Pit” team; a group of five musicians who are highly skilled at playing these bells. Carla had another opportunity to be a Position Captain this year. She was responsible for supporting a team of ringers and starting early with preparing for the event. Together they worked out solutions and strategies for tricky passages in the music.
Larry in the “Deep Pit” at Bay View
It’s been several years since we made our Big Move from California to Michigan. Now that we live in Holland, it takes us less than five hours to drive to Bay View. That’s been an advantage to us, because we’ve been able to make a few day-trips to Bay View outside of the Week of Handbells, just for the sheer joy of being there! We love being by the lake, and even going in the lake, as we hunt for Petoskey stones to bring home and polish. The Petoskey stone is the official Michigan State Stone. It’s a fossilised coral – Hexagonaria percarinata – that lived in the warm Michigan waters around 350 million years ago. Polishing Petoskey stones (using wet sandpaper) is the perfect activity for cold winter evenings at home in Holland!
Hunting for Petoskey stones!
We stayed in one of the pretty cottages on the Bay View campus again this year, and it’s wonderful to be close to the rehearsal venue. It’s fun to feel part of the Bay View community, even if it’s just for a short while. Bay View has some of the best sunsets we’ve ever seen. Besides, what other handbell event gives you the opportunity to finish a tiring day of rehearsals, and see scenes like these?
Historic Bay View cottagesThe Bay View Inn, seen from the Memorial GardenAnother beautiful Bay View sunset
The concert on Thursday evening was exciting for us this year, particularly as we were performing one of Larry’s original compositions – A Minor Crash. Pierpont Video Productions made a professional recording of the concert, so we hope to have a video to share at some point in the near future! We chatted with one of the Bay View Association members on the day after the concert. He referred to Larry as “the Crash Guy”, which made us laugh! Other highlights of the concert repertoire were: Drive, an original composition by Alex Guebert, Beach Boys Medley, arranged by Linda Boatright, and Hart Morris’s challenging arrangement of I Got Rhythm.
Saying goodbye is easier these days
We’re always sorry to have to leave Bay View when the Week of Handbells is over. However, now that we live in Michigan, the goodbyes are slightly easier. We know that we’re only a few hours away, so there’s no longer any reason for us to wait a whole year to return!
As we put away this year’s Bay View music and start focusing on our duet performances for the upcoming season, we’ll be setting our hopes on being able to return to the Week of Handbells in August 2020!
Today is the first day of the 2019 Bay View Week of Handbells! We’ll be spending the next four days playing some beautiful, exciting and challenging music at the John M. Hall Auditorium in Bay View, Petoskey. More than a hundred handbell musicians will rehearse there together this week, under the direction of Fred Gramann.
You can find out more about this event, and why it will always hold a special place in our hearts, by reading our article about the Bay View Week of Handbells and taking a look at our gallery of photos. This year will be our 10th year at the Week of Handbells!
Treble sectional rehearsal at the 2018 Bay View Week of Handbells
At the end of this week’s rehearsals, there will be a concert. It’s open to the public and free to attend. The concert will be held on Thursday, August 15th, 2019 at 7:30pm in the John M. Hall Auditorium, 1715 Encampment Ave., Petoskey, Michigan. An offering will be taken to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund.
We’re excited to be performing one of Larry’s original compositions this year!
This year’s concert repertoire:
Acclamation in G Minor by Karen Thompson
Through the Walk of Life by Matthew Compton
Songs in the Night by Sondra Tucker
A Glorious Everlasting Hallelujah Raise by Fred Gramann
Where have the last few weeks gone? We’re only just getting around to writing about our trip to California for the Bay Area Spring Ring!
We visited the San Francisco Bay Area to take part in the Bay Area Spring Ring, an annual event that takes place in Cupertino. In the days before we moved from California to Michigan, Spring Ring was an annual event for us, so we appreciated the opportunity to go back there this year.
This year’s Spring Ring
We flew out of Grand Rapids on the morning of Friday, May 3rd, and arrived in San Jose mid-afternoon. We picked up our rental car there, and drove to Mountain View. This is where we lived until the summer of 2016! We were excited to drive and walk around the city and see the change in the scenery since that time. There’s now a huge apartment complex that towers over the small apartment where we used to live! We had lunch in Mountain View, and marvelled at the sunshine and the lack of humidity in the air. It had clearly been too long since we’d been in the Bay Area!
We arrived in Cupertino and checked into our hotel before rushing off to the first rehearsal at Spring Ring. It was a three-hour Intense Ring rehearsal, directed by guest clinician Nick Hansen. The rehearsal finished at 10:00pm, and our brains and bodies were still convinced it was 1:00am. However, lots of work had been done, and the music was really taking shape.
After a good sleep at the hotel, we returned to Valley Church the following morning for Saturday’s Spring Ring event. It was so much fun to catch up with some of our friends we hadn’t seen for several years! We taught classes on bass handbells and British-style four-in-hand ringing. We also performed a short lunchtime concert of 8-bell duets for the event participants.
Gwerzy – still (and perhaps forever) a work-in-progress!
Spring Ring ended with a public concert, where we played our 8-bell arrangement of To God Be the Glory. We also enjoyed performances from Velocity, Bay Bells and Tintabulations, as well as the massed choirs. The Intense Ring choir played H. Dean Wagner’s arrangement Fantasy on Kingsfold and Nick Hansen’s fun arrangement of And All That Jazz. After a fun and exhausting day, this photo pretty much sums up how we felt:
Larry took a nap during the rehearsal for the final concert!
Sunday morning’s adventures
We started our Sunday with a return visit to Los Altos Lutheran Church, where we played some duets in the morning service. This church (and the Rejoicing Ringers) are very close to our hearts. We played there when we lived in the Bay Area and had the opportunity to work with their handbell choir on several occasions. It was wonderful to return to this church to see our friends there again, and we appreciated the warm welcome we received.
At Los Altos Lutheran Church (Photos: Carl S. Gutekunst)
Our handbell duet concert – All the Way from Holland
Our duet concert was scheduled for 3:00pm at Los Altos Lutheran. We spent so much time chatting with friends after the morning service that we didn’t actually go anywhere else before the concert. Jet-lag was beginning to set in, so we took a quick nap before the audience started to arrive!
It was exciting to see more of our Bay Area friends, and we appreciated that so many people made the effort to come along and listen to our musical offering. The annual Tulip Time festival was taking place in Holland at the time, so we decided to introduce the Bay Area audience to a few traditional Dutch tunes in our afternoon program. We also played some of our favorite hymns and traditional melodies. Here’s Calliope House, our soon-to-be-published eight-bell arrangement of a catchy jig written by Dave Richardson:
Vacation time!
After our handbell events were over, we were able to spend the next couple of days enjoying some vacation time! We visited some of the places we’d always enjoyed when we lived in the Bay Area, including the ruggedly-beautiful coastline at Point Lobos State Park.
Point Lobos State Natural ReserveSibling rivalry? Goslings at Point Lobos
Not surprisingly, there is a distinct shortage of sea lions on the shores of Lake Michigan. We were determined to make time to go to Santa Cruz, walk along the wharf, and get close to some of the sea lions there. It was always one of our favourite things to do when we lived in the Bay Area.
If Larry were a sea lion
During our two days doing tourist stuff in California, we also found time to visit Monterey, Carmel (briefly), Pigeon Point, and Half Moon Bay. Poplar Beach is a great place for a nice walk on a windy day, and a chance to search for sea glass too! We enjoyed reminiscing about our years together in California. We have no regrets about moving away, but sincerely hope it won’t be another three years before we can return for another visit. The Bay Area was where Larry was born, of course. It’s also where we started our life together as a married couple, so it will always have a special place in our hearts.
Together at Poplar Beach, Half Moon Bay
So many thanks to give!
Our heartfelt thanks go to everyone who helped make this trip possible for us. Thanks to Handbell Ventures for their generous support – inviting us to be part of this year’s Bay Area Spring Ring, arranging for our travel and accommodation, and finding a location for our Sunday concert. Handbell Ventures is dedicated to promoting the education and enjoyment of handbells in the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond, and you can find out more by visiting their website.
Our love and thanks also go to all at Los Altos Lutheran Church, especially to the Rejoicing Ringers and their director Lynda Alexander, for all their help in hosting our Sunday afternoon concert and providing a wonderful reception afterwards. We’re grateful to Carl and Randy for taking photos and videos of our performances, and to our friends Carol and Bill for welcoming us into their home. Thanks to everyone who came to our concert and helped to support and encourage us. We hope to be back in the Bay Area again soon!
We’re finally getting back to handbell duet performances – in California! After Larry’s surgery in January, we had to take a break from playing handbell duets for a while. We’d had a busy run-up to Christmas, so we cleared our schedule for a few months to give Larry the opportunity to relax for a while and make a good recovery. Larry’s not the kind of person to sit around and be idle, so he made good use of his time, and wrote lots of new handbell music. However, now the “relaxation” is over, and we’re excited to be preparing for some spring handbell performances!
We’re excited to be going back to the Bay Area Spring Ring!
Our first performance weekend is almost upon us. We’ll be heading to the San Francisco Bay Area, for the Bay Area Spring Ring. We’ll be teaching classes on bass handbells and British-style four-in-hand ringing, and presenting the lunchtime concert on Saturday. We’re looking forward to going back to the Bay Area and seeing some of our California friends again!
Returning to the San Francisco Bay Area for a concert!
While we’re in California this weekend, our home city of Holland will be holding its annual Tulip Time Festival. There will be parades, Dutch dancing, five million tulips… and a lot of visitors in town! On Sunday afternoon, we’ll be joining the celebrations by presenting a concert of handbell duets at Los Altos Lutheran Church. Our program, All the Way from Holland, will include a selection of our favourite hymns and traditional melodies, with a few Dutch tunes too!
After Sunday’s concert, we’ll have just two days before we fly back to Michigan. We’ll be trying our best to visit a few of our favourite California locations while we have the chance. We’re hoping to return to Point Lobos and Half Moon Bay, and, if time allows, to go to Santa Cruz in search of sea lions! We’ll enjoy being tourists in the Bay Area for a couple of days, then we’ll be heading back to Holland to enjoy the last few days of Tulip Time!
Tulips in Holland, Michigan – bright and beautiful!
We’re excited to have joined the Kalamazoo Ringers for their spring concert season. Concerts with the Kalamazoo Ringers are always exciting!
The Kalamazoo Ringers (KR) is one of the oldest continuously-operating community choirs in the country. Janet Van Valey founded the group in 1981, and Martha Matthews recently took over as director. We first connected with Martha in 2015, when we travelled to Pennsylvania to perform with Philadelphia Bronze. We were delighted when she invited us to be part of the Kalamazoo Ringers for the spring 2019 season!
As we usually play duets, it’s an exciting adventure to be performing as part of a bigger group. In particular, Larry’s happy to have the opportunity to get back to playing those aluminum bass bells again!
The first concert of the spring season
We enjoyed the first concert of the spring season on Sunday. This took place at First Congregational Church of Battle Creek, Michigan. The Kalamazoo Ringers performed as part of the Sunday Afternoon Live concert series.
The theme of the concert was The Versatility of Handbells, and the varied program included Cathy Moklebust’s beautiful arrangement of Greensleeves, Arnold Sherman’s Misty, a lively In the Mood arranged by Hart Morris, and the cherry blossom-inspired Moon Over the Ruined Castle arranged by Kazuko Okamoto.
We appreciated the considerable talents of Gary Matthews, who played organ and trumpet, and Rose Wiersma, who played the clarinet. Rose is a dear friend of ours who directs the Zeeland Community Band. We’ve been taking a break from collaborating with the band while Larry’s been recovering from surgery, but we’re hoping to get back to performing with them soon!
The next concert is in Holland!
If you missed Sunday’s concert, there are still several more opportunities to see the Kalamazoo Ringers this season. The next concert is on Sunday, March 24th at 5:00pm in Holland!
Further information about the Kalamazoo Ringers and their upcoming concerts can be found on their website. We’re looking forward to making more beautiful music with the group in the next couple of months!
