Category Archives: Church Music

FREE Handbell Music – Dona Nobis Pacem, for 8 Bells

Yay! Free handbell music! After our busy holiday season, we were happy to be able to start the new year by working on some brand-new eight-bell music to be published on Choraegus. The first of these new pieces is Dona Nobis Pacem.

The scene outside our window would look so much prettier with some snow!

We’re pleased to offer the sheet music for this piece to you for free, as a thank-you to everyone who has encouraged and supported us in our musical endeavours since we started playing handbells together in 2012. You can find it in the Freebies section of our music site, where there’s also free music for Happy Birthday and Auld Lang Syne. You’ll also find printable covers for anyone who’s storing their 8-bell music in binders.

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 eight-bell music without having to spend any money! Dona Nobis Pacem would also be very suitable for playing as a quartet; useful for those times when you’re working with less than a full handbell choir.

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!

free handbell music Dona Nobis Pacem

New Handbell Music – De Drie Koningen

Looking for something a bit unusual for your Christmas handbell performance or worship service? Here’s our latest eight-bell arrangement! It’s a sixteenth-century Flemish carol called De Drie Koningen (The Three Kings). This carol is suitable either for Epiphany or Christmas. We recorded the video last January, before we took down our Christmas tree!

“De Drie Koningen” – recorded in front of our Christmas tree!

Would you like to play this 8-bell piece?

If you’d like to play this arrangement, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus.

If you’re new to buying our music online, we strongly recommend that you read the licensing agreement first. Please note in particular that music from Choraegus is designed to be downloaded and printed by the customer. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.

If you’re new to Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide! We designed this to help you navigate the purchasing process in a stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please look at our Frequently-Asked Questions for more assistance. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.

We hope you’ll enjoy playing our music!

De Drie Koningen - handbells

New 12-Bell Music – All Things Bright and Beautiful

Spring has arrived! Here in Holland, Michigan we must admit that we’re sorry to say goodbye to those snowy winter days. However, we’re looking forward to our city’s annual Tulip Time festival in May!

To put us in the mood for spring, our latest 12-bell arrangement is the popular hymn All Things Bright and Beautiful. This hymn is sung to several different tunes, and the one in our arrangement is the seventeenth-century English melody ROYAL OAK.

Sight-reading on video!

Our thanks go to J.C. for being willing to help us play through some of our recent 12-bell titles during his recent visit to Michigan. We recorded this video on our first read-through, so absolutely no rehearsal went into this, but you’ll get the idea.

Playing this arrangement

As with all our 12-bell pieces, this arrangement is available in two versions. We played C5 to G6 in our video, but there’s also a version for F5 to C7.

If you’d like to play All Things Bright and Beautiful, you can purchase, download and print the sheet music from Choraegus. You need only pay once, and print out up to 6 copies of this 12-bell piece for your handbell choir.

If you haven’t bought music from us before, we’d recommend that you take a look at the licensing agreement and our step-by-step guide. We designed the guide to help you purchase and download our music in a stress-free way!

Looking for music for a full handbell choir?

If you look on the Choraegus site, you’ll also find our arrangement of All Things Bright and Beautiful for 3-5 octave handbell choir.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please check our frequently-asked questions first. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help!

All Things Bright and Beautiful - 12-bell handbells
Tulips in Holland, Michigan – bright and beautiful!

New 12-Bell Music – Country Gardens

Country Gardens is a traditional English folk melody and a popular Morris Dance tune. It was first published in 1728. Cecil Sharp collected it and passed it on to Percy Grainger. Grainger then arranged it for piano in 1918. It became one of Grainger’s best-known works and brought him great success.

The song was given the title English Country Garden by Jimmie Rodgers, who sung it in 1962 with the lyrics shown below:

“How many kinds of sweet flowers grow in an English country garden?
We’ll tell you now of some that we know; those we miss you’ll surely pardon
Daffodils, heart’s ease and flox, meadowsweet and lady smocks
Gentain, lupine and tall hollyhocks,
Roses, foxgloves, snowdrops, blue forget-me-nots
In an English country garden”

There are alternative, less flowery, words too. As children in England, Carla and her friends used to sing:

“What do you do if you can’t find a loo, in an English country garden?
Pull down your pants and exterminate the ants, in an English country garden”

Our third attempt – not perfect, but improving!

We had fun playing through this new arrangement for 12 handbells. Our thanks go to J.C. for helping us out during his short visit to Michigan. The video was only our third attempt at the piece, and we hadn’t quite mastered the middle section. However, with a bit more rehearsal time, this piece shouldn’t be too challenging.

Would you like to play Country Gardens?

If you’d like to play Country Gardens, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus.

If you haven’t bought music from us before, we recommend that you read the licensing agreement and our step-by-step guide.

Do you have questions?

If you have any questions, check out the Frequently-Asked Questions first. If you don’t find the answers you seek, please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help!

Thanks to everyone who’s bought music from us in recent months. We hope you’ll enjoy this piece!

New 12-Bell Music – Give Me Jesus

Larry’s been writing a lot of new music in recent weeks, as he continues his recovery from surgery. His son J.C. recently came to visit (currently studying in Alabama). We enjoyed an opportunity to play through a few of the new 12-bell titles. The first to be available from Choraegus is the African-American spiritual Give Me Jesus.

New 12-bell music – Give Me Jesus

This piece proved not to be too difficult for the three of us to play, and would also work for six people with two bells each, of course. The video was recorded on only our third attempt at playing the piece – so it’s not perfect, but you’ll get a good idea of how it sounds. We’re playing the C5 to G6 version, but (as with all our 12-bell pieces) it’s also available for F5 to C7.

Would you like to play Give Me Jesus?

If you’d like to play this piece, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. If you’re new to buying Choraegus handbell music, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to keep the buying process as stress-free as possible!

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please get in touch with us and we’ll do our best to help. We also have a list of Frequently-Asked Questions!

We hope you’ll enjoy playing this piece. More 12-bell arrangements will be coming soon!

Give Me Jesus - 12-bell music

Larry’s Been Writing More Handbell Music!

In the last few weeks since his prostate cancer surgery, Larry hasn’t been sitting around idly doing nothing; well, not all the time, anyway. He’s been writing more handbell music!

He managed to sprain his ankle during a brief walk outside on an icy day, which didn’t do much to speed up his recovery. For that reason, we’ve been been getting through more seasons of Netflix shows than at any time in our history. Still, Larry has also been attending physical therapy sessions and doing as much exercise as his ankle will allow. In a few days’ time he’ll be going to his six-week post-surgery appointment. We hope the current restrictions on lifting (as in, certain handbells) will be removed. That would mean we could get back to some kind of a rehearsal schedule for our duets!

Writing more handbell music - Larry Sue

What’s Larry been writing?

Anyway, Larry’s not the kind of person who wants to spend lots of time in front of the TV, so he’s also been working on some new handbell music. There are a couple of new eight-bell arrangements, which we’ll be hoping to record and publish in the coming weeks, as well as several original compositions for full handbell choir. Click on any of the titles below for more information, as well as previews of the scores, and mp3s.

Handbell arrangements from the Living Water Project

Between 1989 and 2003, Larry directed a choir in California, and from there came the Living Water Composition Project. Larry’s recent exciting project has been to look back at some of these original choral songs and find some that might be reworked as handbell pieces! So far, we have the following new titles:

Home at Last
The first of the LWCP pieces to be arranged for handbells, this is a Level 4+ piece for 5-8 octaves.

Emmaus
This is the handbell/handchime version of the Living Water song about Jesus meeting two disciples on the Emmaus road. It’s a Level 4 arrangement for 5-7 octaves of bells and 3 octaves of handchimes.

You Must Trust
This is a minor-key jazz piece that’s going to be fun to play! It’s Level 4, arranged for 5-7 octaves of handbells with percussion.

New hymn arrangements for handbells

Several hymn arrangements have been published in the last couple of weeks, with more to follow soon:

Jesus Shall Reign
This new arrangement of the popular hymn has some different touches that will challenge your ringers. It’s Level 4, for 5-7 octaves of handbells.

Come Down, O Love Divine
This beautiful hymn tune (DOWN AMPNEY) was written by Ralph Vaughan Williams. This new arrangement is Level 3-, scored for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells and 3 octaves of handchimes.

The Lord is My Shepherd
This is an arrangement of the hymn tune POLAND. It was commissioned by our friend Caroline Harnly in honor of her mother. Caroline directs the San Francisco State University Handbell Choir.  It’s a Level 3 arrangement for 4-5 octaves of handbells and 2 octaves of handchimes.

Give Me Jesus
This new 12-bell arrangement is available in two versions; one for bells from C5 to G6 and the other for F5 to C7.

And now for something completely different…

Yes, We Have No Bananas
For the adventurous bucket-slingers among you, this is a Low Ding Zone arrangement of the popular song by Frank Silver and Irving Cohn. It’s arranged for 7 less-than-sane bass ringers. This piece was originally written in 1923, so it entered the public domain this year, and we can now offer it for sale! You’ll need bells from G2 to D5, and chimes from Bb2 to C5, plus a shaker or other rhythm toy.

All of these new titles are available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. If you’re buying our music online for the first time, we’d recommend that you read the Licensing Agreement and our step-by-step guide before making your purchase.

Any questions?

If you have any questions, try looking at the Frequently Asked Questions first. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help.

Finally… thank you!

Thank you to everyone who’s been buying music from us. There’s so much great handbell music available these days, from so many places, so we truly appreciate your support!

Kelvingrove – 2-3 Octave Handbell Music

Larry’s latest 2-3 octave handbell arrangement is the traditional Scottish tune Kelvingrove. This popular traditional melody was first published in The Harp of Kenfrewshire, a collection of songs published in Scotland around 1820. The author’s name is given as John Sim.

“Let us haste to Kelvin Grove, bonnie lassie, O,
Through its mazes let us rove, bonnie lassie, O:
Where the rose in all her pride,
Paints the hollow dingle side,
Where the midnight fairies glide, bonnie lassie, O.”

Kelvingrove as church music

In recent years, the Kelvingrove tune has become popular in churches, with the title Will You Come and Follow Me? (The Summons) and lyrics written in 1987 by John L. Bell and Graham A. Maule. Here’s a video by the Carillon Choir at Third Reformed Church of Holland, Michigan:

Would you like to play Kelvingrove?

This arrangement of Kelvingrove is for 2-3 octaves of handbells. If you’d like to play it, the sheet music is available to purchase from Choraegus.

If you haven’t purchased music from Choraegus before, we recommend reading our step-by-step guide. We designed this in an attempt to make the purchasing process as stress-free as possible!

Please note that Choraegus handbell music will come to you as a digital download; a PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own sheet music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. The advantage of having downloadable sheet music is not having to wait to receive it. You can make your purchase, print out the music, and be ready to start rehearsing with your handbell choir! For 2-3 octave handbell music, your purchase (pay once only) entitles you to print and maintain up to 15 copies for your group.

Any questions?

Please let us know if you have any questions, and we’ll be happy to help!

2-3 octave handbell music - Kelvingrove

A Look Back at the 21st Annual Rietberg Concert

We were honored to be invited to present the 21st Annual Rietberg Concert at Third Reformed Church of Holland, Michigan. This annual concert is a tribute to the 45 years of service of Roger and Evelyn Rietberg to the music program of Third Reformed Church. This year’s concert was given in memory of Evelyn Rietberg, who changed the lives of so many children at the church.

Normally at this time of year, we’d have started rehearsing our Christmas music. However, this year we had two fall concert performances. That gave us a good reason to postpone practising most of the Christmas music and focus on other music instead. We did include just a handful of Christmas pieces in the repertoire, because handbells and Christmas go together so well. After all, Christmas is only a few weeks away!

Here’s the concert program:

Handbells, organ and flute together!

We’re grateful to Linda Strouf and Mary Van Voorst for sharing their musical talents with us at this concert. We’d made plans to play our duet arrangement of Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee with organ accompaniment. That created a small challenge, because the organ at Third Reformed is located at the rear of the sanctuary, upstairs in the balcony. Before the concert, we set up duplicate bells in the balcony. When the time came, Linda played a J.S. Bach piece to give us time to get from the front of the church, up the stairs and onto the balcony, ready to play Joyful, Joyful. The plan worked perfectly! Linda played another organ piece while we made our way back down the stairs, and to the front of the church again.

21st Annual Rietberg Concert

A highlight of the concert, for us, was the opportunity to play our arrangement of Ding Dong, Merrily on High, complete with piano and flute accompaniment. This was only the third time the piece has been performed, and the flute accompaniment part is so new that we haven’t published it yet! Mary Van Voorst joined us to play the flute, and Linda made her way down from the balcony to play the piano part. We also enjoyed playing a couple of recent additions to our repertoire – Go, Tell It on the Mountain and Lucerna Laudoniae. Lucerna is one of our early arrangements that we brought back after not having played it for several years!

Roger Rietberg was at the concert!

We were surprised and pleased to be introduced to Roger Rietberg, who attended the concert with his son. Afterwards, we enjoyed a reception, where we had the opportunity to chat with members of the audience. It’s always fun to talk about our bells and music! Al and Jane Osman gave us flowers (look out for Osman’s Flowers and Firs at the Downtown Holland Farmers’ Market). These were perfect for a festive-looking photo with our bells!

Annual Rietberg Concert, Holland

Thank you!

Our thanks go to everyone who helped to make this concert possible – from planning the event, all the way to staying to clean up after the reception.

What’s next?

What’s next for us? Straight into Christmas and holiday music! We’ll be Ringing in the Season at Ditto Upscale Resale on Friday, November 16th, and playing outdoors at the Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland on November 23rd and 30th.

Rietberg Concert handbell duo
Relaxing at home after the concert!

New 8-Bell Music for Advent and Christmas

The summer is ending (at least here in Michigan, anyway) and autumn is in the air. It’s the time of year when we start thinking about Christmas and holiday music – and we’re excited to be able to present some new eight-bell titles for this year!

Creator of the Stars of Night

This Advent hymn made it into our concert repertoire this year. We didn’t want to wait for Advent, so we performed it for the first time at the opening concert for the Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 spring festival on Mackinac Island. This hymn was originally written somewhere between the 7th and 9th centuries, and it works really well on handbells!

The Friendly Beasts

This melody first appeared in France in the 12th century, and was a very late addition to our Christmas performance repertoire last year; so late that we only had the opportunity to perform it once – at the Kerstmarkt (European-style Christmas market) in Downtown Holland. We’re looking forward to playing it more this holiday season!

The Cherry Tree Carol

If you’re looking for an unusual Christmas carol, this is a good one. It’s from Cornwall, England, from way back in Medieval times. It’s not difficult to play, and could also work well as a quartet piece.

Hoe lei dit Kendeke/Cold is this Little Child

Since we moved to Holland, Michigan, we’ve been having fun finding traditional Dutch melodies that can be played using just eight bells. This is a children’s carol that’s also sung in Belgium. It’s not difficult to play, and would also be particularly suitable for a quartet.

De Zak van Sinterklaas / Santa’s Bag

This is a cheery traditional Dutch Christmas song that’s been sung by many generations of children in The Netherlands. We found it during our search for Dutch music after moving from California to Holland!

Pat-a-Pan

This French carol was first published in 1720. It’s about the birth of Jesus, and the shepherds celebrating by playing flutes and drums. We don’t play either of those instruments, so here’s our handbell version:

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

We published the US version of It Came Upon the Midnight Clear a while ago, but this version is the one more often heard/sung in the UK.

How Great Our Joy

This traditional German carol was unknown to us until we heard it for the first time in church last year. Our version for eight handbells is great for practising dynamics!

Go, Tell It on the Mountain

This popular spiritual is fun to play, particularly if you’re a fan of syncopation!

From Starry Skies Descending

This Italian carol, Tu Scendi Dalle Stelle, is fast becoming one of our favorite carols to play!

This year’s eight-bell Christmas music definitely seems to have quite an international flavour. Remember to check out the other Christmas and holiday titles for eight bells on our music site. There are also some 12-bell Christmas pieces and some new titles for full handbell choir too. We hope you’ll find something you’ll enjoy playing!

8-bell music for Advent and Christmas

New Music for Handbells – I Vow To Thee, My Country

“I vow to thee my country, all earthly things above,
Entire and whole and perfect, the service of my love.
The love that asks no question, the love that stands the test,
That lays upon the altar the dearest and the best.
The love that never falters, the love that pays the price,
The love that makes undaunted the final sacrifice.

And there’s another country I’ve heard of long ago,
Most dear to them that love her, most great to them that know.
We may not count her armies, we may not see her king,
Her fortress is a faithful heart, her pride is suffering.
And soul by soul and silently her shining bounds increase,
And her ways are ways of gentleness and all her paths are peace.”

I Vow to Thee, My Country is a much-loved British patriotic hymn. Sir Cecil Spring Rice wrote the lyrics, and Gustav Holst set them to music. The melody is adapted from a section of Jupiter from Holst’s orchestral suite The Planets. Nowadays, you might recognise it as the hymn tune THAXTED.

A much-loved patriotic hymn

I Vow to Thee, My Country has strong associations with Remembrance Sunday. Its patriotic text has ensured that it remains popular today. It was sung at the funeral of Sir Winston Churchill in 1965, and at the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1981. It was also sung at the funeral of the Princess of Wales in 1997, and at the memorial service ten years later. In 1982, Michael Perry wrote an alternative text for the THAXTED melody; O God Beyond All Praising.

We first performed our arrangement of I Vow to Thee, My Country on our last Sunday at Los Altos United Methodist Church, before we moved from California to Michigan. We played it in concert for the first time in Warner Robins, Georgia and again in concert at the Handbell Musicians of America Area 5 Festival on Mackinac Island, and at the recent Area 8 Festival in Omaha, Nebraska. It’s not the easiest of our 8-bell arrangements! The middle section took us a while to learn, and still has the ability to surprise us sometimes. Still, it’s been a fun challenge.

Would you like to play this piece?

If you’d like to play I Vow To Thee, My Country, the sheet music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus. If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. Please also note that our music is designed to be downloaded for you to print at home. You won’t receive anything in the mail. Purchasing this 8-bell arrangement gives you permission to print up to 4 copies for your group; you only need to pay once.

Any questions?

If you have any questions, please check our Frequently-Asked Questions! If you don’t find the answer you’re looking for, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!

I Vow to Thee My Country - handbells