February 18, 2019

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!

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!

February 17, 2019

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!

January 17, 2019

Larry’s Recovering from Prostate Surgery

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.

Larry after prostate surgery — Larry’s recovering well!

December 22, 2018

Thanks for an Exciting Holiday Season!

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!

An exciting holiday season for Larry and Carla — 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 Sue, handbell musician — 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.

Carla Sue, handbell musician — 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!

December 17, 2018

New Music for Handbells – Silent Night

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.

November 8, 2018

Need Handbells for a Christmas Event?

Are you looking for handbells for a Christmas event? West Michigan’s smallest handbell choir is here to help. We don’t have a lot of availability left for December, but we’re still open to last-minute bookings!

Handbells are perfect for the holidays!

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

The 2018 holiday season is fast approaching, and we’re looking forward to some festive performances around West Michigan. We’ll be playing our handbell duets at “Christmas by Candlelight” events, corporate holiday parties, Christmas luncheons, and worship services, as well as performing with the Zeeland Community Band in their Christmas concert on December 10th. We’ll be welcoming in the season at the Holiday Open House event at Ditto Upscale Resale on November 16th, and we’ll be celebrating the return of the annual Kerstmarkt (Christmas Market) in Downtown Holland on Friday, November 23rd and Friday, November 30th.

Book a handbell duo for your holiday event!

As a handbell duo, we take up far less room than a traditional bell choir would. That makes us ideal for venues where space is limited! Our holiday schedule is busy this year, but we still have a few dates available, so if you’ need handbells for your Christmas event, you’re welcome to get in touch with us. If we can fit your event into our schedule, we will. If we can’t, let’s plan early for next year!

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

handbells for a Christmas event - Michigan handbell duo

November 7, 2018

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.

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.

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!

October 25, 2018

The 21st Annual Rietberg Concert – with Handbells!

The 21st Annual Rietberg Concert will feature handbells for the very first time ever! Over the years, these concerts have featured many accomplished organists, and we’re excited to bring our handbell music to this year’s event. We’ll be playing a variety of 8-bell duets in this informal Sunday afternoon concert. There will be well-known hymn arrangements, and some more-unusual traditional pieces from different countries. We might even squeeze in a couple of Christmas carols! Organist Linda Strouf and flutist Mary Van Voorst will also make an appearance. We’d love to see you there too!

Here’s all the information you need:

Can’t make it to the Rietberg Concert?

If you can’t make it to the Rietberg Concert, but you’d like to book a handbell performance at your own event, please get in touch with us. We can provide handbell music for private or church concerts, as well as for wedding ceremonies and Christmas events. We can also play our duets for worship services. We’re based in Holland, Michigan, but happy to travel.

If you’d like to see and listen to some of our handbell duets in your own home, you might enjoy our YouTube channel!

October 17, 2018

New Handbell Music – Mu Süda Ärka Üles, arranged by Susan T. Nelson

We’re excited to announce that an arrangement of the Estonian folk song Mu Süda, Ärka Üles is now available from Choraegus! This arrangement is by Susan T. Nelson. We commissioned it to celebrate our 5th wedding anniversary and Campanelli Handbell Ensemble’s visit to the USA from Estonia in July 2017.

The title of the piece translates as Awake, my Heart. This interesting and beautiful arrangement is scored for handbells (4-7 octaves). There are optional handchimes, a handbell duet part, alternate bells, and bar or wind chimes. Campanelli performed the piece for the first time at Estonian House, in New York City.

An opportunity to use your “alternate bells”!

In one of the performances during the Campanelli tour, a variety of “alternate bells” were also used: Petit & Fritsen and William Dunn handbells, Deagan Pear Bells and Whitechapel Cup Bells. These were all from Susan T. Nelson’s personal collection. However, the piece works perfectly well without the alternate bells, as demonstrated in the video recorded at the Estonian House concert.

In the video, we’re playing an augmented 8-bell duet part. Larry created this to give us slightly more of a challenge than Sue’s original duet part that accompanies the full-choir score. This augmented duet part is not essential to the piece, but you can purchase it as a separate add-on if you’d like to play it. Please note that the 8-bell duet part is not a stand-alone arrangement. We’ll be publishing an eight-bell duet version at some later date!

Would you like to play this piece?

If you’d like to play Mu Süda, Ärka Üles, you can download the handbell score from Choraegus. You’ll also find more music from Susan T. Nelson there!

The Campanelli tour was one of the highlights of 2017 for us, and this piece is a wonderful reminder of the happy times we shared with the group from Estonia. We hope other handbell ensembles will enjoy playing this piece as much as we all did!

Mu Süda, Ärka Üles, for handbells — With Campanelli Handbell Ensemble and composer Susan T. Nelson – at the Malmark factory

October 15, 2018

Handbells at the 2018 Rietberg Concert in Holland, Michigan

The 2018 Rietberg Concert will feature handbells for the very first time! We’ll be the guest musicians for the 21st annual performance, which will take place here in Holland.

This informal Sunday afternoon program will feature some of our favorite hymns and traditional melodies, all played using just eight bells. We’ll talk about the history of our instrument and some of the techniques we use. We’ll also give you some information about our music, and share how handbells brought us together across thousands of miles. Did you know that we first met online on a website for handbell musicians? Handbells brought us together, when we were living thousands of miles apart!

Organist Linda Strouf will join us for a couple of pieces. There will be a reception afterwards. We’ll be happy to talk more, and answer any questions you might have. Ask us about handbells, music in general, or what brought us from California and England, all the way to Holland!

2018 Rietberg Concert in Holland - handbell duo

The 2018 Rietberg Concert will take place at Third Reformed Church, 111 W 13th St, Holland, MI 49423 on Sunday, November 4th, 2018 at 3:00pm. The concert is a tribute to the 45 years of service of Roger and Evelyn Rietberg to the music program of Third Reformed Church.