Category Archives: Christmas and Holiday Music

Free Handbell Music – I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day,
Their old familiar carols play”

Thank you to everyone who’s bought and downloaded handbell music from Choraegus this year. We appreciate you so much! Now it’s our turn to give something to you – with free handbell music! Did you catch our giveaway of Silent Night (12-bell) on Facebook yesterday? If you missed it, you can still get today’s free gift. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is arranged for 8 handbells and piano accompaniment – and it can be yours, free of charge, for one day only! You can also get the accompaniment track mp3, to help with rehearsing or for those times when you don’t have a pianist available.

To get your free sheet music, add I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (and the accompaniment track if you need it) to your cart on the Choraegus site, and click on the yellow “Check out with PayPal” button (don’t worry; PayPal won’t ask you to make any payment). Enter your details, and click “Confirm Order” (there’s no need to click on the PayPal button a second time). You’ll receive a confirmation screen, with a link to download your music. We recommend saving it to your computer, so that you’ll have it ready for next year! If anything goes wrong, please let us know, and we’ll find another way to get your music to you.

More information (the small print)

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!

We wish you a very happy holiday season, and a healthy and music-filled year ahead!

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day handbells

The 2021 Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert

The 2021 Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert is tomorrow!

Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert

We’re excited about this concert! On a Winter’s Night will be streamed on the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Facebook page at 4pm EST. We were all disappointed not to be able to rehearse and prepare our usual Christmas concert at Grace Harbor. Instead, we cautiously decided to gather only in small groups for this Christmas season – and it turned out to be a lot of fun! The concert is an interesting mixture of handbell solos, duets and small ensembles – with a lot of Choraegus music!

Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas

We’re particularly excited to share our 5-octave arrangement of Of the Father’s Love Begotten. This is a new piece that we haven’t published yet. It will be available to download from Choraegus in May next year. There’s also an exciting arrangement of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, where we’re joined by Martha and Gary Matthews on flute and piano. There’s a nice mixture of small ensemble pieces, from Jason Krug’s beautiful Coventry, played on bell tree, to the pure fun of Valerie Stephenson’s Caroler’s Hoedown… and if you stay tuned until the end, we’ll even show you some outtakes!

The Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert will be live on the Kalamazoo Ringers Facebook page at 4:00pm on Sunday, December 19. The video will be available to watch on Facebook and YouTube afterwards.

We have high hopes of presenting an in-person concert next spring!

Need a Handbell Performance for Christmas? Book Soon!

If you need a handbell performance for Christmas 2021, it might be a good idea to book soon! After last year’s very quiet holiday season, it’s encouraging to see Christmas events and worship services being planned. Our calendar is filling up fast!

Our holiday performance season will start on November 26, at the Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland. We always look forward to this festive outdoor event, where we’ll be braving the chilly weather to play Christmas carols outdoors. It’s a great way to start the holiday season, and a wonderful place to shop for locally-made gifts, crafts and food.

Handbell performance for Christmas - Kerstmarkt

Handbells are perfect for the holidays!

We’ll be back at the Kerstmarkt on December 10th. This year we’re also looking forward to performing with the Zeeland Community Band at their Christmas concert, as well as giving another handbell duet program at Hudsonville Library, and some private events throughout December. We’ll share more details about our public performances soon.

Handbell music can bring a magical and festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. We can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music. We can provide background music to add that special welcoming touch to your corporate event, community group celebration, winter wedding, or holiday gathering. Nothing says Christmas quite as well as the traditional sound of English handbells. Our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to community events, hotel lobbies, department stores, airports, shopping boutiques, social groups and private house parties alike.

Thinking of booking a handbell performance for Christmas?

As a handbell duo, we take up far less room than a traditional bell choir would. That makes us ideal for venues where space is limited, or where social distancing is still being observed. We still have a few dates available for 2021 (including some Sundays during Advent), so if you need handbells for your Christmas event or worship service, you’re welcome to get in touch with us. If we can fit your event into our schedule, we will.

Contact us with some details about your event, and we’ll check our availability and provide a quote for you. Handbells are the perfect way to celebrate the holiday season!

Handbell performance for Christmas - Larry and Carla

Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken – for 8 Handbells

Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken is our most recent 8-bell arrangement. It’s an 18th-century English hymn, written by John Newton, who also wrote Amazing Grace. The tune used for this arrangement is Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser, written by Joseph Haydn – most often referred to in hymnals as AUSTRIA.

More information about this arrangement

Our 8-bell arrangement of Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken is suitable for 2-4 ringers. We demonstrate it as a 4-in-hand duet, but there’s no requirement to use 4-in-hand. There’s no bell-sharing, and no accidentals to pick up mid-piece, so if you have a small ensemble, this piece can be played with no need for tables or foam pads. Perfect for social distancing!

How to purchase the sheet music

Sheet Music for Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken (standard version) is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. There’s also a Surprisingly Easy™ arrangement of this hymn – so you have a choice! Purchasing either of these arrangements gives you permission to print up to four copies for your handbell group – so don’t pay for more copies than you need! Your purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials. We appreciate your help in spreading the word about Choraegus handbell music!

Choraegus handbell music is designed to come to you as a PDF file, which you’ll need to download. 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.

PS If you missed the outtake video of Still, Still, Still that we shared on our Facebook page, now might be a good time to watch it! We apologise for the advertising on our YouTube videos. We didn’t ask for it, and don’t make any money from it. It’s one of the reasons for our gradual switch to Vimeo!

Glorious Things of Thee handbells

Away in a Manger – for 6 Handbells and Piano

“Away in a manger, no crib for a bed,
the little Lord Jesus laid down His sweet head;
the stars in the heavens looked down where He lay,
the little Lord Jesus asleep on the hay.“

We’ve enjoyed putting together some handbell music that needs only 6 bells, a piano and an optional sling! Here’s an arrangement of the gentle Away in a Manger carol. It’s the CRADLE SONG melody, which is the standard tune used in the UK, rather than the MURRAY tune more familiar to people in the USA.

Please be reassured that Larry put the sling on especially for this video. He’s recovered well from his shoulder surgery, and doesn’t need the sling any more. Whenever we post a 6-bell video, we always receive concerned messages asking what injury Larry has suffered… but honestly, the sling is just to keep his right arm occupied while there aren’t enough bells to need both hands. We refer to it these days as a “concert sling”.

Of course, the alternative would be for Carla to give up one of her bells, so that we’d have three each. But have you ever tried asking anyone to give up a bell?

More information about Away in a Manger

This piece is arranged for just 6 handbells, with piano accompaniment. It’s suitable for 2-3 ringers to play, with no requirement to divide the bells in the same way we did. You can play it with just two bells each, or split between two ringers with three bells each. It’s a gentle melody, and one of our more straightforward 6-bell arrangements.

If you’d like to play Away in a Manger, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus, our music site. An mp3 accompaniment track is also available to purchase separately, for anyone who doesn’t have a pianist available or wants to practise at home.

Another arrangement of this carol

We also have an 8-bell (unaccompanied) arrangement of this carol, available to download from Choraegus.

Things to know about Choraegus sheet music

Please note that sheet music from Choraegus 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. Purchase of 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 online video-sharing. 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, as well as in any printed materials.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this 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. Just about every question anyone has ever asked us is there, along with lots of answers. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help!

Away in a Manger 6-bell
Our Victorian cottage in Northern Michigan, where we recorded our demonstration video

Gesu Bambino – for Handbells and Piano

Gesù Bambino is an Italian Christmas carol, written by Pietro Yon in 1917. Frederick H. Martens translated it into English for his carol When Blossoms Flowered ‘mid the Snow.

“When blossoms flowered ‘mid the snows
Upon a winter night,
Was born the Child, the Christmas Rose,
The King of Love and Light.“

We’re pleased to bring you our demonstration video of this new arrangement from Choraegus.

More information about Gesu Bambino

This arrangement is for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells, with piano accompaniment. It’s a Level 3 arrangement, with a lilting mood – perfect for Christmas worship. There are no shared accidentals, so if your handbell choir is still observing social distancing, the ringers could play from spaced-apart tables. If you’d like to play our arrangement of Gesu Bambino, you can purchase and download the sheet music from Choraegus.

Buying Choraegus handbell music

When you buy handbell music from Choraegus, the music score will come to you as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. When you’ve downloaded your music, your one-time payment (for the full-choir copy) entitles you to print up to 15 copies for your group. Please read our licensing agreement for full information about this. If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to take you through the process in a (we hope) stress-free way!

Purchasing this arrangement gives you no-fuss permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and online video-sharing. Please take some time to read about what you’re allowed to do with Choraegus handbell music. In these times of live-streaming and online worship services, it’s particularly important that we all understand and follow the laws concerning performance licensing and copyright.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus handbell music, please look at our Frequently-Asked Questions. Just about any question anyone has ever asked us is there – with answers. If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Gesu Bambino handbells

Ding Dong, Merrily on High – for Handbells, Piano and Flute

Our lively arrangement of Ding Dong, Merrily on High was part of last year’s Kalamazoo Ringers online Christmas concert. We had a great time collaborating with Gary Matthews on piano, with the super-talented Martha Matthews playing a brand-new flute part. We promised that the flute part would be available to purchase in time for Christmas 2021 – and here it is!

More information about this arrangement

Ding Dong, Merrily on High is an 8-bell arrangement, available with either an organ or piano accompaniment, and now an additional optional part for flute. The flute really adds some extra sparkle! The organ accompaniment was created by T. Paul Rosas from California. Sheet music is available to purchase and download from Choraegus.

Buying handbell music from Choraegus

Your Choraegus music score will come to you in a download link, as a PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. You can order the music, download and print it on the same day, and be ready to rehearse!

Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group, plus the accompaniment score/s – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. You can find full details in our licensing agreement, and in our instructions about what you’re allowed to do with Choraegus music. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs. If you enjoy playing our music, please share our website link with other musicians, and help us to get the word out!

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this 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. Just about every question anyone’s ever asked us is there, along with answers. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help.

Ding Dong Merrily on High handbells

Jesus, Good Above All Other – for Handbells, 2-3 Octaves

“Jesus, good above all other,
gentle child of gentle mother,
in a stable born our brother,
give us grace to persevere.

Jesus, cradled in a manger,
for us facing every danger,
living as a homeless stranger,
make we thee our King most dear.”

We were recently going through some old memory cards from our video camera, and we found a forgotten-about recording we’d made of this gentle hymn. The tune is QUEM PASTORES – a 15th century tune, sometimes shortened to Quempas, also used for Christmas to describe the shepherds and their journey to Bethlehem. In more recent years, the melody has also been used for the hymn Like a Mighty River Flowing – so it’s a very versatile tune!

Here’s the recording we made, many months ago. It’s a little unpolished, since it was one of our first attempts at playing full-choir music with just the two of us. Still, you should get a reasonable idea of how the piece sounds:

More information about this arrangement

Jesus, Good Above All Other is for 2-3 octaves of handbells. The handchimes add something extra, but if you don’t have handchimes, the notes can all be played on handbells with no problem. It’s a Level 2+ arrangement, in 6/8 – and it’s one of our most straightforward full-choir arrangements. If you’d like to play it, you’ll find the sheet music available to download from Choraegus – available either as an individual score or as a full-choir score.

Buying Choraegus handbell music

When you purchase handbell music from Choraegus, the music score will come to you as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. When you’ve downloaded your music, your one-time payment (for the full-choir copy) entitles you to print up to 15 copies for your group. Please note that this only applies to the full-choir licence. If you buy an individual copy as a preview score, you’ll need to come back and purchase the full-choir version in order for your group to play it. Please read our licensing agreement for full information about this. If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide, designed to take you through the process in a (we hope) stress-free way!

Purchasing this arrangement gives you no-fuss permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and online video-sharing. Please take some time to read about what you’re allowed to do with Choraegus handbell music. In these times of live-streaming, and online worship services, it’s particularly important that we all understand and follow the laws concerning performance licensing and copyright.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus handbell music, please look at our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

Jesus Good Above All Other, handbells

Love Came Down at Christmas – 8 Handbells with Piano Accompaniment

“Love came down at Christmas,
Love all lovely, Love divine;“

This gentle accompanied carol arrangement is the latest addition to the Choraegus handbell catalog. We played it last year at the end of our online Christmas duet concert, recorded in our Victorian cottage in northern Michigan. Christina Rossetti’s lyrics are most often sung to this traditional Irish melody (GARTAN). Here’s our demonstration video:

More information about this arrangement

Love Came Down at Christmas is an accompanied 8-bell arrangement that’s straightforward to play. We demonstrate it as a 4-in-hand duet, but you don’t need any special techniques to play it. This piece is suitable for 2-4 ringers, and sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus.

Buying handbell music from Choraegus

Your Choraegus music score will come to you in a download link, as a PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. You can order the music, download and print it on the same day, and be ready to rehearse!

Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. You can find full details in our licensing agreement, and in our instructions about what you’re allowed to do with Choraegus music. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs. If you enjoy playing our music, please share our website link with other handbell musicians, and help us to get the word out!

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this 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. Just about every question anyone’s ever asked us is there, along with answers. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help.

Love Came Down at Christmas

The Angel Gabriel – for 6 Handbells and Piano

“The angel Gabriel from heaven came,
His wings as drifted snow, his eyes as flame;
“All hail”, said he, “thou lowly maiden Mary,
most highly favoured lady.”
Gloria!”

The Angel Gabriel is a traditional Basque carol, set to the tune Gabriel’s Message. In modern times, it’s been sung and recorded by artists such as Sting, Charlotte Church and the English band Marillion. Our arrangement is a lively one, proving once again that just because a piece doesn’t use many bells, there’s no reason why it has to be boring! We recorded our demonstration last October, in our chilly northern Michigan cottage. It’s not a perfect rendition, but we were too cold to want to have many attempts at it!

This video features another appearance by Larry’s CONCERT SLING. His shoulder was recovering nicely from surgery at this point, but the sling gives his right arm something to do while Carla hogs four of the six bells.

More information about The Angel Gabriel

The Angel Gabriel is arranged for just 6 handbells, with piano accompaniment. It’s suitable for 2-3 ringers to play, with no requirement to divide the bells in the same way we did. You can play it with just two bells each, or split between two ringers with three bells each. Either way, it’s a fun challenge!

If you’d like to play The Angel Gabriel, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus, our music site. An mp3 accompaniment track is also available to purchase separately, for anyone who doesn’t have a pianist available or wants to practise at home.

Other arrangements of this carol

We also have two 8-bell (unaccompanied) arrangements of this carol, one more challenging than the other. Both arrangements are available to download from Choraegus.

Things to know about Choraegus sheet music

Please note that sheet music from Choraegus 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. Purchase of 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 online video-sharing. 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, as well as in any printed materials.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this 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. Just about every question anyone has ever asked us is there, along with lots of answers. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help!

Angel Gabriel handbells