“Rescue does not occur only through great violence and clamor; sometimes it is a candle seen from the midst of terrible darkness”.
Here’s a new video of an original handbell composition that’s particularly special to us. Larry wrote this piece in 2018, and dedicated it to Carla. Rescue was performed for the first time in that same year, by the BronzeFest Choir at the Handbell Musicians of America Area 8 Conference. We didn’t manage to get a video of the final concert performance, so we recently decided to make a recording of our own.
More information about Rescue
Rescue is for 3-7 octaves of handbells, with optional 3 octaves of handchimes. It’s a Level 3 piece, and it could be made more straightforward by playing the whole piece with bells only.
Would you like to play this piece?
Sheet music for this original composition for handbells is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. You can either purchase an individual copy (useful for massed ringing events, or for preview), or purchase the full choir license. Purchase of the full choir license gives you our no-fuss permission to print up to 15 copies for your group.
Your purchase of the full-choir license also gives permission for you to perform, broadcast and live-stream this piece as part of a concert or worship service without the need for any additional license or fee, although we ask you to credit the arranger (Larry Sue) and publisher (Choraegus) in any printed media such as concert programs, and online (in video descriptions). See our licensing agreement for full details. We appreciate your help in spreading the word about Choraegus handbell music. If you record a video of your group playing any of our pieces, we’d love to see it. You’re welcome to share it with us on our Facebook page too!
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.
“God be with you till we meet again, By His counsels guide, uphold you, With His sheep securely fold you, God be with you till we meet again.”
God Be With You Till We Meet Again is our latest arrangement for 16 handbells. We were reminded of this hymn recently, when we drove up north to Bay View and walked in the Memorial Gardens there. Bay View (near Petoskey) is where the annual Week of Handbells takes place, and where we spend a week each year gathering with friends old and new, to rehearse and perform handbell music in a beautiful lakeside setting. Our recent visit was a particularly poignant one, as we’d just heard about the passing of Maestro Carl Wiltse, who directed the Bay View Week of Handbells for many years.
Last year’s Week of Handbells was cancelled because of the pandemic — and, sadly, the 2021 event has been cancelled too. We now have to wait until 2022 to see many of our Bay View friends again. Given the amount of preparation time that goes into this annual event, it was the wisest decision, but we’re looking forward to a joyful reunion next year.
God Be With You Till We Meet Again was written by Jeremiah Rankin in 1882. He composed it so his church choir could have something to sing as they said their goodbyes each week. It has become a popular hymn to sing at gatherings, and it’s traditionally sung at the final Sunday Vespers at Bay View every August, as the music season draws to a close and visitors bid their farewells until the next year.
Suitable for socially-distant handbell ensembles
If your handbell ensemble is observing social distancing, our 16-bell arrangements could be useful. God Be With You Till We Meet Again has no bell changes, and needs no bell-sharing. It’s suitable for up to 8 ringers to play, and doesn’t require any techniques that need tables or foam.
If you’d like to play this arrangement, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus.
More information about Choraegus handbell music
Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to eight copies for your handbell group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need! Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. In addition, please 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 sheet 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, 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 information you need, and we’ll be happy 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
Can you help us find this wedding ring, lost in Holland, Michigan?
It’s now been several months since Larry’s wedding ring went missing. He lost the two-tone gold band in September 2019, just days before our 7th wedding anniversary.
It was a busy day for Larry. He made trips to both the north side and south side of Holland – grocery shopping at Meijer and Family Fare, going to the gym (Anytime Fitness), 5/3 Bank (on Butternut), Sam’s Club, Walmart, D&W Fresh Market, and Third Reformed Church. He also walked to and from Family Fare and Creek Edge (on Timberline Acres). At some point in the evening, he realised that he no longer had his wedding ring.
We retraced Larry’s steps as much as possible, and searched around our house and garage… but there’s been no sign of the missing wedding band, and we are heartbroken. We reported the loss to local police, and on Facebook, but the ring hasn’t been found or returned to us. It might have been found, sold, taken to a pawn shop… and it might be on someone else’s finger by now. Whatever happened, we’d love to know.
Please help us find the missing ring!
Even though it seems unlikely that the ring will find its way back to us at this point, we still can’t bring ourselves to give up hope. If you see this wedding ring anywhere, please let us know, and we will be forever grateful for your help!
It’s been an interesting couple of weeks since this website unexpectedly disappeared into a black hole between two web hosting companies. We’ve been working hard (with a new web hosting company) to get the site up and running again. Fingers crossed, we think that today both websites are working again. May they stay that way!
We apologise to anyone who noticed the website’s absence and missed it while it was gone. We’re hoping there won’t be any “teething problems” with the site in the next few days. However, sometimes things happen – so do let us know if you get any surprise error messages or problems,. We’ll do our best to fix them quickly. Our Choraegus music site has had its fair share of problems too. Thankfully, that’s been up and running for a few days now, and is now working reliably again.
If you notice any problems with the website – anything missing or still not working properly, please contact us and let us know. Thank you for your patience, and for still being here!
Today we took an exciting look back at one of our adventures from last summer. We had an opportunity to collaborate with internationally acclaimed Natalia Paruz. the Saw Lady! Natalia is New York City musician who specialises in playing the musical saw. She’s well-known for her NY subway performances!
We were all in New York City to participate in a concert given by Campanelli Handbell Ensemble, who were visiting the USA on tour from their home country of Estonia. Natalia was playing her musical saw for the solo part in Susan T. Nelson’s beautiful “Elegy”. We were playing the handbell duet part in a brand new composition “Mu Süda Ärka Üles“. After rehearsing with Campanelli and their director Inna Lai, we still had some time before the concert. We decided to read through our eight-bell arrangement of “Amazing Grace” together. This is the result:
Somewhere in our archives, we have recordings of a couple more pieces we played that afternoon, and we’ll share those soon! We very much enjoyed our musical collaboration with Natalia, and hope that someday we’ll have the opportunity to do it again!
With composer Susan T. Nelson and Natalia "Saw Lady" Paruz in NYC – July 2017
Just a few months ago, we made the life-changing decision to move out of the San Francisco Bay Area… and we found a house in Holland, Michigan! Rather than fly to Michigan (which we’ve been doing every August since 2010 for the Bay View Week of Handbells), we decided it would be more of an adventure to take a road trip from California, and see some interesting places along the way.
We left our apartment in California on July 1st. This meant saying goodbye to Mountain View, where Larry had lived since 1980. We also had to leave the home we’d shared since Carla moved from England in 2012.
Leaving our apartment in Mountain View
Our first destination was Yosemite National Park, where we spent the Fourth of July weekend. We hadn’t wanted to leave California without seeing that breathtaking scenery just one more time! From there we headed to Redding, to meet up with a friend for dinner before leaving the state.
Some unexpected surprises along the way
One of the unexpected things about our road trip was the joy we’d find in stopping the car to appreciate an area of beauty right by the side of the road. Even though we’d plotted our entire journey in detail before we started, and we’d booked accommodation in carefully-chosen cities along the way, there were still some wonderful surprises to be found. For example, the pretty, tumbling waters of Hat Creek, in the Lassen National Forest. We noticed this when we stopped to take a photo of a mountain, and ended up wandering along a grassy trail at the side of the road.
Hat Creek, Lassen National Forest
So many bugs!
Another unexpected delight (haha) we discovered along the way… was the number of huge insects that splattered against our car. As we made our way to Reno, Nevada, massive grasshoppers and other insects rained down onto the car. This is a close-up of the front of the car when we arrived in Reno:
Insects on the front of our car!
The beautiful Angel Lake
A far more pleasant surprise came as we drove through northern Nevada and decided to take a break for lunch. A sign at the side of the road said “Angel Lake”, which sounded like a great place to stop and eat some sandwiches. However, we didn’t notice the “12 miles” sign until it was too late to turn back. After a short while, the road became very narrow and winding! After a rather nervous drive, we arrived at our destination, at an elevation of 8,400 feet!
The pretty, but slightly scary, road to Angel Lake.The beautiful Angel Lake – well worth the drive!
The Great Salt Lake
Driving from Nevada to Utah was a fascinating experience, as the landscape changed so dramatically. We had never seen salt flats before! We drove to the Great Salt Lake, parked the car, and walked across the beach to the lake, without actually going into the water. There were three surprises there: one was the swarms of tiny flies, which wafted like dust storms around our feet as we walked. Another was the smell, which grew stronger as we approached the water and made us glad we hadn’t planned to make this a lunchtime picnic spot! Another was the dead and decomposing birds which were scattered across the ground as we walked. They appeared to have been drying out in the salty air and harsh sunlight. It was actually quite fascinating to see the remnants of wings as they dried up and became part of the salty landscape. We had to be a bit careful where we walked, though!
The Great Salt Lake
Our stay in Utah was all too short. However, another highlight was our visit to Temple Square. This is the international headquarters of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints. The grounds and buildings here are impressive and beautifully maintained. We’re not members of the Mormon Church. Still, we thoroughly enjoyed our tour of several of the buildings and the opportunity to hear about the history of the church from knowledgeable and friendly tour guides.
Temple Square
Mount Rushmore
Another major highlight of our road trip was our visit to Mount Rushmore. Nearly three million people visit this national monument every year. They come to see the gigantic sculptures of the faces of U.S. Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt. These are all carved into the granite face of Mount Rushmore in South Dakota.
We went there shortly before sunset, and followed the Presidential Trail (be warned – there are a lot of stairs!) to get a great view of the sculpture and surrounding scenery. We stayed for the evening Lighting Ceremony. It was informative and very moving as military personnel and veterans were called to the front to participate in the flag-lowering ceremony and be honored for their service.
Mount Rushmore at sunset
Little House on the Prairie!
Another highlight of our road trip was our stay in Minnesota. We visited the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum in the little town of Walnut Grove. This museum offered an informative look back at life in the area for pioneering families in the late 1800s. We thought it achieved a good balance between exhibits about the real-life story of the Ingalls family, the series of books, and the TV show. The museum is small, in keeping with the town it’s located in – and we were pleased that it hadn’t been made into a huge tourist attraction. We drove just a short way down the road from the museum, to a place where there were some reconstructions of prairie sod houses – and this was a very interesting and fun place to visit!
One of the prairie sod houses
After we left Minnesota, we headed to Wisconsin to meet up with family members there. It was the first opportunity we’d had to get together at their home since our wedding in 2012. We also went for a walk in the Owen Conservation Park in Madison, which turned out to be surprisingly peaceful and uncrowded. It was a lovely place to see flowers and nature, and even this tiny frog, which was about the size of a fingernail!
Such a tiny frog!
Finally at our new home in Holland, Michigan
We enjoyed our road trip so much! We were glad we’d chosen to drive east and see some of the sights along the way, instead of making the journey by plane. It was a trip with a purpose, but it felt like a much-needed vacation. We even managed to finalize the purchase of a house while we were en route to our destination.
Of course, the biggest highlight of our road trip was when we arrived in Michigan and drove to Holland. After eighteen days on the road, we were so glad to be home!
Our first day in our new home in Holland, Michigan!
We’re nearly at the end of another interesting year, so it’s time for a look back at 2015. We always remember how slowly the time seemed to pass when we were separated by thousands of miles and waiting to see each other. Things are very different now we’re together in the same place, and the months seem to fly by! Here’s a look back at some of the moments that made us smile this year.
Supporting the Alzheimer’s Association
In 2015 we continued in our efforts to support the Alzheimer’s Association. A concert in Menlo Park at the beginning of the year also featured music from talented organist Angela Kraft Cross. We joined with Bay Area musicians T. Paul Rosas, Dylan Damonte and Brian Holmes for another concert in October. There, we had our first-ever opportunity to hear Alphorn music! We also participated in a Walk to End Alzheimer’s in San Francisco in September. That was a first for us, but something we’ll hope to do again!
We enjoyed a fun trip down to Riverside, California in March. Larry was invited to be the guest clinician at the Southeastern California Conference Advanced Handbell Festival. He spent the day helping high school students prepare for an evening concert. We also played our eight-bell arrangement of Great Is Thy Faithfulness. You can find a video of the SECC Advanced Festival rehearsal and concert excerpts on YouTube.
We also had the opportunity for a quick tour of Riverside, and a very nice lunch, before flying back to the San Francisco Bay Area.
A trip to the Siskiyou Summit Handbell Festival
At the beginning of May, we took a long road-trip to Ashland, Oregon, for the Siskiyou Summit Handbell Festival. Larry was the clinician for the event, and Carla taught a class on British-style four-in-hand ringing. We had a fun weekend, making some great music with other handbell musicians from Oregon and California, and performing in a well-attended public concert.
Our first visit to Philadelphia
The end of May brought us a really exciting opportunity to travel to Philadelphia for the first time ever. We performed in a shared concert with Philadelphia Bronze, an advanced auditioned handbell ensemble.
We had so much fun in Philadelphia! Our trip started with a guided tour of the city from one of the Philadelphia Bronze members, and a visit to the Liberty Bell.
It was exciting to visit Malmark Bellcraftsmen, the manufacturers of the handbells we use to play our duets. The factory tour was absolutely fascinating – and if you’re a fan of shiny bronze stuff, you should definitely put it on your “things to do/places to go” list!
Another member of Philadelphia Bronze took us to Valley Forge Park – the site of the third winter encampment of the Continental Army during the American Revolutionary War. It’s a very scenic and peaceful place. We drove through and stopped at various historical buildings and monuments along the way.
Special thanks go to all at Philadelphia Bronze for making us so welcome – especially to Sarah, Martha and Rise for being great tour guides! You can read more about our trip in an earlier website post, and see a video from the concert on YouTube.
Carla received her 10-year Green Card
An important milestone happened for us in July this year. Carla received her 10-year Green Card, and became a permanent resident of the USA. It marks a welcome end to our immigration process, and means that we no longer have to be obsessive about keeping evidence of our relationship, to be able to prove to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services that our marriage is genuine. It is, of course, but still, it’s nice not to hear ourselves saying, “Oh! We’d better keep that for the immigration people” while we go about our daily lives.
Back to the Bay View Week of Handbells!
August is always a highlight of our year – because it’s when we go to Michigan to take part in the Bay View Week of Handbells. We’ve been to this annual event together since 2010. It’s the place where we first spent time together in real life! It’s also the place where we celebrated our engagement in 2011, and where we closed the distance in 2012. This event is always such a special week of music and friendship, and this year was no exception.
One disappointment for us this year was that we didn’t manage to make our planned trip back to England to visit family and friends there. Travelling overseas is always expensive, and our handbell trips seemed to use up all our budget and vacation time. But all is not lost, because we’re hoping to make the trip in 2016. Instead, a couple of our English friends and family visited us this year. We had the chance to do “tourist things” around San Francisco and take that long-awaited trip to Alcatraz Island in October!
(Don’t worry; they did let him out eventually!)
A busy holiday season
The 2015 holiday season was our busiest yet. It’s always a crazy time of year for handbell musicians. People think of Christmas, and they think of bells! We enjoyed sharing our holiday music with enthusiastic audiences at events across the Bay Area. Two beautiful candlelight services of remembrance – one for Kara in Palo Alto and one at the Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland – gave people from the local community an opportunity to honor and remember loved ones who have died.
We played duets at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts before the Pacific Ballet Academy Nutcracker performances. The German Holiday Market in Mountain View was another fun event! We also enjoyed the Sundar Shadi Holiday Display in El Cerrito.
One of the highlights of our holiday season was our shared concert with VoiceWorks in Redwood City. We played duets, and also arranged 8-bell accompaniments to the pieces being sung by the choir. We’re grateful to all who braved the rain to come and enjoy the music! We ended our holiday season by welcoming in Christmas Day at the candlelight services at Los Altos United Methodist Church.
Thank you so much to everyone who’s helped to make this year special for us. We’re grateful to family and friends, and anyone who came to one of our handbell performances or played our music. We hope 2015 was a good year for you too, and wish you all much love and happiness for 2016.
O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go is such a beautiful hymn! Today’s our third wedding anniversary. It’s hard to believe that we’ve already been married for three years! Maybe we’re still experiencing that thing long-distance couples complain about – how slowly time goes when two lovers are apart, and how quickly it flies by when they’re together in the same place!
Anyway, it’s time to celebrate our anniversary – and what better way to do that than by publishing a new eight-bell arrangement? This one is the beautiful hymn O Love That Wilt Not Let Me Go. The tune is ST. MARGARET, written in 1884 by Albert L. Peace.
“O love that wilt not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow may richer, fuller be.
If you’d like to play this piece, the music is available for purchase and download from our music site. We hope you’ll enjoy it as much as we do.
More information about buying music 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.
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!
“When life feels like a struggle, and things keep going wrong, Know that better days are coming, and let love keep you strong.”
Here’s a little encouragement for anyone who’s been having a difficult time lately. We’ve been receiving lots of messages on our Facebook page, from long-distance couples. Many people are struggling with the distance, and all the uncertainties that come from being far away from someone you love. We don’t have the answers to all the problems, but we do understand how it feels!
If you’d like to read more about long-distance relationships, you’ll find lots of information on our website. We’ve written about how to cope with feelings of jealousy and insecurity. There’s also an article about arguments; a common problem in long-distance relationships! And if you reach the stage where everything feels too much, read some words of encouragement. You can contact us on our Facebook page, or share your own story there. There will be other people who understand what you’re going through. Perhaps your post will also help to encourage other long-distance couples!
We survived our long-distance relationship, and we hope you can too. The distance may try to break you, but let love keep you strong!
