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!
Tulips in Holland, Michigan – bright and beautiful!
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.
We’re excited to have joined the Kalamazoo Ringers for their spring concert season. Concerts with the Kalamazoo Ringers are always exciting!
The Kalamazoo Ringers (KR) is one of the oldest continuously-operating community choirs in the country. Janet Van Valey founded the group in 1981, and Martha Matthews recently took over as director. We first connected with Martha in 2015, when we travelled to Pennsylvania to perform with Philadelphia Bronze. We were delighted when she invited us to be part of the Kalamazoo Ringers for the spring 2019 season!
As we usually play duets, it’s an exciting adventure to be performing as part of a bigger group. In particular, Larry’s happy to have the opportunity to get back to playing those aluminum bass bells again!
The first concert of the spring season
We enjoyed the first concert of the spring season on Sunday. This took place at First Congregational Church of Battle Creek, Michigan. The Kalamazoo Ringers performed as part of the Sunday Afternoon Live concert series.
The theme of the concert was The Versatility of Handbells, and the varied program included Cathy Moklebust’s beautiful arrangement of Greensleeves, Arnold Sherman’s Misty, a lively In the Mood arranged by Hart Morris, and the cherry blossom-inspired Moon Over the Ruined Castle arranged by Kazuko Okamoto.
We appreciated the considerable talents of Gary Matthews, who played organ and trumpet, and Rose Wiersma, who played the clarinet. Rose is a dear friend of ours who directs the Zeeland Community Band. We’ve been taking a break from collaborating with the band while Larry’s been recovering from surgery, but we’re hoping to get back to performing with them soon!
The next concert is in Holland!
If you missed Sunday’s concert, there are still several more opportunities to see the Kalamazoo Ringers this season. The next concert is on Sunday, March 24th at 5:00pm in Holland!
Further information about the Kalamazoo Ringers and their upcoming concerts can be found on their website. We’re looking forward to making more beautiful music with the group in the next couple of months!
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!
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!
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!
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!
We enjoyed an amazing Christmas season, with lots of handbell duet performances. We also a chance to catch up with some of our family members from England. Sadly, the Michigan December was (dare we say it?) a little disappointing for our guests. They’d been expecting snow storms and a lake covered with ice. Instead, they were treated to temperatures only slightly colder than their home town in Cambridgeshire, and very little snow. Still, we all had a lovely Christmas together, and our house felt very quiet after they’d gone!
Something we didn’t talk about openly before Christmas was Larry’s diagnosis of prostate cancer, which came just before the start of the season. It was a medium-aggressive cancer, diagnosed by a PSA test followed by an MRI and a biopsy. It was definitely not the type of cancer that could be left alone or handled with “active surveillance”. Thankfully though, it was slow-growing enough that we could afford to take a few weeks to make a decision about treatment. We talked to medical professionals and read through lots of information. Finally we decided on a robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy at Holland Hospital, not far from where we live.
As it turned out, we were thankful for all the Christmas performances that gave us something else to focus on during December. There’s a lot to consider after a cancer diagnosis. We didn’t have time for too much sadness or downheartedness, because we had performances to give! We stayed focused, and were glad to have good doctors nearby to help us make the best decisions we could.
Recovering from surgery
We cleared our performance schedule for a while after Christmas, and Larry went into hospital for his surgery on January 10th. It was a tense day, but we knew he was in good hands. The surgery went well, and the all-important nerves were left intact, giving better prospects for full recovery afterwards. Larry was stable enough to be discharged from hospital the following day, and returned home with a catheter to deal with for a while.
Recovering from surgery is always an adventure. Larry has six incisions and is looking a bit bashed and bruised. Apart from that, his recovery has been going well. He’s now able to walk around and do many of his usual activities, but he’s not allowed to drive for a couple of weeks, and needs more naps than usual. We’ve been staying indoors, because it’s just easier with the catheter, and Larry has even managed to write some new handbell music!
Sadly, it’s too early for Larry to be able to play handbells. We’ve had to put all thoughts of rehearsing aside for a while until he’s stronger. With incisions, bruising, and that catheter, it’s better to wait a while than risk doing more damage!
Hopeful news
We had some happy news a few days ago. The lab results came back, and the lymph nodes showed no sign of cancer. This means that the cancer appears not to have spread outside the prostate gland. This is a huge relief to us, as it means Larry won’t need follow-up chemotherapy or any other treatment. There will be regular testing in the future, of course. However, for the time being he can focus on his recovery, and on regaining his strength. Then we can get back to rehearsing handbell duets!
Taking a break from performances for a while
The awkward thing about prostate cancer, and recovery, is that every case is different. It’s hard to predict how long Larry’s going to take to regain enough strength to start preparing for handbell performances again. For that reason, we’re taking a break for the first part of the year. Our next scheduled handbell performance will be at the Bay Area Spring Ring in Cupertino, California, the first weekend in May.
Cautious plans for the future
If Larry recovers well in the coming weeks, it’s possible that we’ll be able to open our calendar up for bookings in April – but we’d rather err on the side of caution and see how he progresses before we make too many plans, since we need to allow some time for rehearsing before we venture out to public performances again! If you’re interested in booking us for a handbell performance in the summer or later in the year, please contact us, and let us know what you have in mind.
In the meantime, thank you so much to everyone who has sent us good wishes for Larry’s recovery. It means a lot, and has helped to keep him in good spirits in the early days at home after surgery.
We’re coming to the end of our exciting holiday season of Christmas handbell performances. This was our busiest season yet, and we’d like to thank everyone who helped to make the last few weeks so much fun!
Our Christmas started early this year, with a Holiday Open House event. We enjoyed playing handbell duets at Ditto Upscale Resale, here in Holland. It was a great way to welcome the season. It was also good to check that we still had the stamina to play for three hours at a time without collapsing. It’s a useful skill when we play our duets at the Salvation Army Red Kettle!
Christmas handbell duets at the Ditto Upscale Resale Holiday Open House
We continued our season with performances at several church events. These included a Christmas By Candlelight event in Kalamazoo, Michigan, and our first visit to Cultivate Community Church in Hamilton.
We’ve very much enjoyed being part of the arts community here in Holland. It’s been fun to share our music at community events such as the Kerstmarkt. This is an annual European-style Christmas market in downtown Holland. When Carla lived in England, a highlight of Christmas was being able to visit traditional markets in London, Bath and Lincoln. Even though the market here in Holland is on a much smaller scale, the atmosphere is the same. The chilly weather also makes it extra festive! Our bells survived the cold, and we managed to play for several hours on a Saturday morning and Friday evening. Here’s a video of one of the pieces we played there:
If you’d like to play this piece, the sheet music is available from Choraegus!
Back to the Van Andel Institute
This year we played Christmas music for residents and their guests at several senior living communities and care home Christmas parties. It’s always fun to share our Christmas music with appreciative audiences of all ages. We were excited to make another visit to the Van Andel Institute, to welcome guests to their employees’ holiday party. The Van Andel Institute definitely gets the prize for the most-impressive Christmas tree!
Larry at the 2018 Van Andel Institute Employees’ Holiday Party
We were happy to continue our collaboration with the Zeeland Community Band, joining with them for their popular annual Christmas concert.
The Zeeland Community Band, directed by Rose Wiersma – Christmas Concert Carla at the Zeeland Community Band Christmas Concert
Special thanks go to:
Ditto Upscale Resale, Holland, MI The Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland, MI Friendship Christian Reformed Church, Byron Center, MI Century Club of Holland, MI Hope College Academy of Senior Professionals (HASP) P.E.O. Sisterhood of Holland, MI Spring Valley Church, Kalamazoo, MI Van Andel Institute, Grand Rapids, MI First Presbyterian Church of Holland, MI Cultivate Community Church, Hamilton, MI D&W Fresh Market, Holland, MI The Salvation Army of Holland, MI The Village of Heather Hills, Grand Rapids, MI Zeeland Community Band Freedom Village of Holland, MI Resthaven Care Center, Holland, MI Friends of the Gary Byker Library, Hudsonville, MI Resthaven Maple Woods, Holland, MI Grandville Ladies’ Literary Club, Grandville, MI Kentwood Women’s Club, Kentwood, MI Third Reformed Church of Holland, MI
Thanks to everyone who helped to make this such an exciting holiday season for us. If you’d like to book us for your event in the coming year, please let us know!
Christmas by Candlelight at Spring Valley Church, Kalamazoo
Silent night, holy night, All is calm, all is bright Round yon virgin mother and child. Holy infant, so tender and mild, Sleep in heavenly peace, Sleep in heavenly peace.
After more than six years of arranging and performing eight-bell Christmas music, we finally managed to publish an arrangement of the popular Austrian carol Silent Night.
We recorded our video at the Kerstmarkt. This is a European-style Christmas market that takes place annually in downtown Holland, Michigan. It was a cold, breezy and rainy Saturday morning, but it’s still one of our favorite events of the holiday season.
Would you like to play this arrangement?
If you’re still looking for Christmas music for handbells, Silent Night is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. For Christmas 2018, you can get it for the special price of just $3, with permission to print up to 4 copies for your group.
If you haven’t bought music from us before, please read the licensing agreement before making your purchase. We also recommend our step-by-step guide to buying music from Choraegus. As with all our music for handbells, Silent Night comes to you as a digital download. You’ll be responsible for printing the music yourself, and you won’t receive anything in the mail.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about our music for handbells, Silent Night in particular, or anything else on our website, please ask! You can look at our Frequently-Asked Questions, but if you don’t find the information you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
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.
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!
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.
