Category Archives: Church Music

New Handbell Music – our Third “Surprisingly Easy” 8-Bell Hymn Collection

Following on from our first Surprisingly Easy™ 8-Bell Hymn Collection and our second Surprisingly Easy™ 8-Bell Hymn Collection, here is the third Surprisingly Easy collection!

Once again, it’s all the music, but without the twiddly bits. If you’re looking for some new handbell pieces to enhance your worship service, but you don’t want them to take too long to learn, this collection could be the answer. If you’re part of a duet, trio or quartet, or your handbell choir is enthusiastic but small in number, these hymns could be what you’re looking for!

What’s included in the third collection?

The hymns included in this third collection are:

  • Praise to the Lord, the Almighty
  • Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above
  • All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name (Coronation)
  • At the Cross
  • Great is Thy Faithfulness
  • Jesus Shall Reign
  • He Keeps Me Singing

How to get the sheet music

If you’d like to purchase and download this hymn collection for your group to play, it’s available from Choraegus. Each of these hymns is also available separately.

When you buy Choraegus handbell music, you’ll receive a link to a digital download (PDF) file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, so you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase of the Third Surprisingly Easy Hymn Collection entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group.

Any questions?

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

Third Surprisingly Easy Hymn Collection - 8-bell music

New Music for Handbells – Praise Him! Praise Him!

We interrupt our preparations for the Bay View Week of Handbells… to bring you a new 8-bell piece. Here’s Praise Him! Praise Him! This one is fun to play! We recorded it on a beautiful, sunny day in Los Altos.

Would you like to play this arrangement?

If you’d like to play this piece, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus. We play it as a duet, since there are only two of us, but it’s suitable for 2-4 ringers.

Please note that Choraegus handbell music will come to you as a PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own copies of the score, and won’t receive anything in the mail. If you’re new to buying our music, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this with pictures, to help make the purchasing process as stress-free as possible!

Your purchase of this piece entitles you to print up to 4 copies of the music for your handbell group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need!

Any questions?

If you have questions, you’re welcome to check our Frequently-Asked Questions, and you might find the answer there. If not, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!

Praise Him Praise Him - handbells

New Music for Handbells – Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing is our latest 8-bell arrangement. The hymn tune is the pretty Nettleton, which was originally an American folk tune. We played this piece for the first time during our visit to Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church a couple of weeks ago.

We think this arrangement is fun to play, and it’s suitable for 2-4 ringers. The music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

More information about Choraegus handbell music

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. 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.

Please also note that our music is designed as downloadable 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, 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. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll do what we can to help!

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing for handbells

New Music for Handbells – Come Christians, Join to Sing

While we were in Soledad for our #Pinnacles15 adventure, we played through some of our brand new, unpublished pieces. Come Christians, Join to Sing is one of these new pieces.

We didn’t want to annoy other hotel guests by playing handbells in our room. So we decided to find another practice location instead. We chose the pretty church of Our Lady of Solitude in Soledad. We played outside the church, as the sun went down and the light became poorer and poorer. Yes, it was pretty, and fairly quiet. No, it was not easy to see our music!

Here’s Come, Christians, which actually isn’t completely new to us. We’ve played it a couple of times recently in church services. For some unknown reason, we completely forgot to record or publish it until now. It’s a fun and lively arrangement of the Spanish hymn tune Madrid.

Would you like to play this arrangement?

If you’d like to play Come Christians, Join to Sing, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, we recommend reading our step-by-step guide. Your purchase (pay once) entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your group. Please read our licensing agreement for full details.

Any questions?

If you have any questions, please get in touch, and we’ll be happy to help!

More Music for Twelve Bells!

We’ve had lots of fun with our eight-bell music. Sometimes it’s also fun to branch out and expand a little. Here’s some new music for twelve bells!

Of course, we can only play four bells each at one time. It’s a problem when we suddenly have 12-bell music, and don’t have a hope of playing it on our own! That’s when we turn to J.C for help. J.C. doesn’t do this stuff on a regular basis, but he has plenty of musical talent, and very little fear of scary handbell music situations. After all, he used to play in Low Ding Zone!

On this occasion we didn’t have a lot of time to spend together. We decided to read through the music, and record as many pieces as we could in as short a time as possible.

Here are the resulting videos from our recent sight-reading sessions. They’re all from either the first or second attempt at playing them. For that reason, the following demonstrations are far from polished. However, they should give you an idea of how the new pieces could sound with a bit more rehearsal!

Although we’re playing these pieces as a four-in-hand trio, they could also be played with up to 6 people, with just 2 bells each. Click on the titles if you’d like to find out more about each piece.

Farandole

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

Morning Has Broken

My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

(with apologies to the rather surprised-looking lady who appears in the background at around 1:20!)

O Worship the King

Shenandoah

There is a Fountain

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus handbell music, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!

Music for twelve bells - Choraegus
Choraegus – Bringing Music to the People

Handbell Duets at the Chapel of the Chimes, Hayward

What do you do when it’s the Fourth of July, and you’ve finished eating party food and having fun with family and friends? The answer is… play handbell duets, of course!

handbell duets at the Chapel of the Chimes

An impromptu handbell duet performance

We were in Hayward, California for a family gathering, and we decided we needed to burn off some of the calories we’d consumed at lunch time. We were driving in the direction of home, and noticed the Chapel of the Chimes. Suddenly looked like a great location for a Concert With No Audience! 

The Chapel of the Chimes is a 61-acre cemetery, crematorium and funeral home complex. It didn’t appear that we’d be disturbing anyone with our music, so we set up our table and bells. We played duets for around forty minutes! It was a great opportunity to play through some of the music for our visit to Los Altos Lutheran Church the following day. We also brought out some of the older pieces we hadn’t played for a very long time!

We had the usual interesting challenges that go with outdoor performances – a strong breeze, traffic noise, and even some festive firecrackers! The location and the sunshine also made it a very stripy-looking performance, as you can see from the video!

The following pieces are on the video:

  • America, the Beautiful
  • Come, Christians, Join to Sing
  • Drink to Me Only
  • Beautiful Dreamer
  • A Mighty Fortress
  • Moreton Bay
  • Great is Thy Faithfulness
  • Danny Boy
  • Botany Bay
  • Earth and All Stars
  • I Need Thee Every Hour
  • The King of Love My Shepherd Is
  • Allegro

We hope you enjoyed our handbell duets at the Chapel of the Chimes. All the pieces we played are available (or coming soon!) from Choraegus. If you’d like to book us for a performance with an audience, please let us know!

New Music for Handbells – our Second “Surprisingly Easy” Hymn Collection

Following on from our first Surprisingly Easy™ Eight-Bell Hymn Collection – here is a new collection! Once again, it’s all the music, but without the twiddly bits.

If you’re looking for some new handbell pieces to enhance your worship service, but you don’t want them to take too long to learn, this collection could be the answer. If you’re part of a duet, trio or quartet, or your handbell choir is enthusiastic but small in number, these hymns could be what you’re looking for!

The hymns included in this second collection are:

  • All Creatures of Our God and King
  • Just As I Am
  • All the Way My Savior Leads Me
  • It is Well with My Soul
  • Amazing Grace
  • Jesus Walked this Lonesome Valley
  • Glorious Things of Thee Are Spoken
  • Praise Him! Praise Him!

Would you like to play these arrangements?

If you’d like to purchase and download this hymn collection for your group to play, it’s available from Choraegus. Each of the hymns is also available separately.  

Please note that Choraegus handbell music is designed to be downloaded as PDF files. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything by mail. Please read our licensing agreement for full details. If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we also recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to make the purchase process stress-free for you!

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to check our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the information you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help!

Hymn Collection - 2nd surprisingly easy handbell music
Choraegus – Bringing Music to the People

New Music for Handbells – A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

The weekend is here, and it’s time for some more new handbell music!  Here’s our 8-bell arrangement of A Mighty Fortress Is Our God; one of the best loved hymns of the Lutheran and Protestant traditions. Martin Luther wrote the melody and words around 1529.

If you’d like to play A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, the music is available for purchase and download from our music site.

This arrangement has no bell-sharing, no picking-up of accidentals during the piece, and no need for tables. It’s suitable for 2-4 ringers.

Information about buying Choraegus handbell music

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. 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.

Please also note that our music is designed as downloadable 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, 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. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll do what we can to help!

Our Concert with Philadelphia Bronze

Larry and Carla concert with Philadelphia Bronze

We were so excited to make our first trip to Philadelphia to perform in a concert as guests of Philadelphia Bronze, a group of talented handbell musicians dedicated to excellence in the art and joy of handbell ringing.

We arrived in Philadelphia in the evening of Thursday, May 28th, and had the opportunity to do some sightseeing on Friday, including a fascinating tour of the Malmark factory where our handbells were made, and a visit to the Liberty Bell. On Saturday we visited Valley Forge Park, and then spent the rest of the day meeting and rehearsing with members of Philadelphia Bronze, before the evening’s concert.

The concert took place on May 30th at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in King of Prussia, and the program was as follows, with our pieces shown in purple, and Philadelphia Bronze’s in… well, bronze-ish, perhaps:

Allegro, from Concerto in A Minor …………………. Antonio Vivaldi, arr. Larry Sue

Fear a’ Bhàta (The Boatman) ………………………… Sìne NicFhionnlaigh, arr. Larry Sue

The Butterfly ……………………………………………….. Irish slip jig, arr. Larry Sue

Fantasy on Kingsfold ……………………………………. KINGSFOLD, arr. Dean Wagner

Jazz Pizzicato ……………………………………………… Leroy Anderson, arr. Martha Lynn Thompson

Great is Thy Faithfulness ………………………………. William Runyan, arr. Larry Sue

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee ……………………….. Ludwig von Beethoven, arr. Larry Sue
(with additional organ score arr. T. Paul Rosas, performed by Ross Boerner)

Silver and Bronze …………………………………………. Larry Sue
(with Martha Alford, flute)

Elegie …………………………………………………………. Jules Massenet, arr. Karen Roth

Fountains of Light, from the “St. Francis Suite” .. Kevin McChesney
(Martha Alford, flute)

Grizzly’s Peak …………………………………………….. “Traditional” Irish-American jig, arr. Larry Sue

Greensleeves ………………………………………………. Traditional English melody, arr. Larry Sue

America, the Beautiful ………………………………….. Samuel A. Ward, arr. Larry Sue

Good Christian Men, Rejoice ………………………….Traditional, arr. Kimberlee F. Strepka

Spiritual Boogie! ………………………………………….. American spirituals, arr. Larry Sue

Glorious Things of Thee are Spoken ………………. F. J. Haydn, arr. Linda McKechnie
(Ross Boerner, organ)

Here is a video of some of the highlights of the evening:

Our sincere thanks go to all the members of Philadelphia Bronze, who made us so welcome – with particular thanks to Martha, their director. We’re also thankful to Risë and Sarah for acting as our tour guides during our trip. We enjoyed every moment of our time in PA, and hope to go back there someday!

We’re always interested in collaborating with other groups – so if you’d like to book us to perform in a concert with your musical group, contact us and let’s find out if we can make it happen!

New Music for Handbells – America, the Beautiful

It’s Memorial Day – a day to honor the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the US Armed Forces. Here’s our latest 8-bell piece – an arrangement of America, the Beautiful.

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Would you like to play this arrangement?

If you’d like to play America, the Beautiful, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. 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. 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 such as concert programs.

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 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. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll do what we can to help!