August 23, 2016

Back from the 2016 Bay View Week of Handbells

This week we’re back home in Holland, Michigan, concentrating on getting back to “normal life” after our trip to Petoskey for the 2016 Bay View Week of Handbells.

“What is normal life?”, you may ask. For us, it means unpacking more boxes and finding places to put everything in our new home. It means cutting the grass that grew taller while we were away. Sadly, it also means filing away the music we rehearsed for the Week of Handbells concert. We need to get back into practising our duet music instead!

More about the Week of Handbells

This event takes place every year, in August, at the John M. Hall Auditorium in Bay View, Michigan. The event was first held in 1978. Donald E. Allured (1922-2011) was the founding director, and the event started with around 30 particpants. Since then, the Week of Handbells has grown! Over a hundred handbell musicians now take part every year.

The current director is Carl Wiltse, who has a long history with the event, going as far back as the very first Bay View Handbell Workshop. Don Allured passed the baton to Carl in 2002.

Carl Wiltse and Pamela Bayes at Bay View — Maestro Carl Wiltse with his wife Pamela at the 2014 Week of Handbells

As with last year’s event, Fred Gramann assisted Carl in directing. He conducted four pieces in this years concert.

2016 Week of Handbells - Fred Gramann, Larry and Carla — With Fred Gramann at the 2016 Week of Handbells

The Week of Handbells is always a demanding event, both physically and mentally, but the rewards are worth it. We started rehearsals at midday on Monday, and rehearsals continued at 9:00am on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There was an extra 8:00am session each morning. These were for the super-enthusiastic or anyone who wanted to do additional work on those tricky sections in some of the music.

Some very challenging pieces!

The most-challenging pieces in this year’s repertoire were Michael Mazzatenta’s Allegretto – an entirely malleted piece, with fiendish chromatic passages and unexpected accidentals to catch us out at times, Alex Guebert’s All Creatures of our God and King, which Fred renamed All Meters… for obvious reasons, and Fred’s own Nollirac Carillon, with its many 7/8 passages and the occasional 4/4 or 9/8 thrown in. “Accent, accent… STRONG weak, STRONG weak, STRONG weak weak” quickly became a mantra for many of us during the week!

We were excited to hear Larry’s arrangement of Tico Tico performed in this year’s concert. Even though it’s a challenging piece, rehearsals went pretty smoothly from the very start of the week. A lot of preparation goes on before the event, of course. Participants are meant to come to the event “performance-ready”, having learned their music thoroughly in the weeks and months beforehand. Even though it takes a while to get more than a hundred musicians all playing together as one instrument, that advance preparation really makes all the difference!

The John M Hall Auditorium – a wonderful venue for the Week of Handbells

Our history with the Week of Handbells

We’ve been attending the Bay View Week of Handbells together since 2010. It was the first place where we spent time together “in real life” after meeting online on a website for handbell musicians. We celebrated our engagement there in 2011, and it was also the place we went to after flying from England when Carla’s visa finally came through and we were able to close the distance and start our life together as a couple in the same continent. The exciting difference about this year’s Week of Handbells was that, for the first time, we were able to drive to the event instead of having to fly all the way from California! It was a scenic journey, but it rained heavily for almost the entire trip there, and part of the way back too. Knowing that we now live in Michigan made such a difference to us at the end of this year’s event; the goodbyes at the “farewell breakfast” were less painful when we weren’t facing a long flight and a change of time zone afterwards!

Our favorite handbell event

The Bay View Week of Handbells is by far our favorite handbell event ever, for so many reasons. We get the opportunity to play some great music under the baton of a dedicated and talented director. There’s all the beautiful scenery too. The auditorium is surrounded by pretty cottages, and the lake is just a few moments’ walk away. The event is full of memories for us, and carries great meaning because of the part it played in our relationship journey.

Above all, the Bay View Week of Handbells is a wonderful event because of the people there. Every year we’re reunited with old friends and we meet new ones. We feel as though we’re all part of a big, supportive and happy family. Each individual is welcomed, appreciated and supported. We all encourage each other as we share in the experience of working together to prepare for the Thursday night concert. We’re encouraged to work hard – not only to become the best musicians we can be, but the best people we can be – and we’re already looking forward to doing it all over again in August 2017!

August 15, 2016

The 2016 Bay View Week of Handbells Starts Today!

Today is the first day of the 2016 Bay View Week of Handbells! We’ll be spending the next four days playing some great music at the John M. Hall Auditorium in Bay View, Petoskey, as more than a hundred handbell musicians rehearse together under the direction of Carl Wiltse.

You can find out more about this event, and why it will always hold a special place in our hearts, by reading our article about the Bay View Week of Handbells and taking a look at our gallery of photos. This year is the first time we’ve been able to drive to the event – from our new home in Holland, Michigan!

At the end of this week’s rehearsals, there will be a concert, open to the public and free to attend. The concert will be held on Thursday, August 18, 2016 at 8:00pm in the John M. Hall Auditorium, 1715 Encampment Ave., Petoskey, Michigan. An offering will be taken to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund.

This year’s concert repertoire:

Processional by Arnold Sherman

Allegretto arr. Michael Mazzatenta

All Creatures of our God and King arr. Alex Guebert

Oblivion by Douglas Anderson

Sonata in Baroque Style by Michael Helman

Give Me Jesus arr. John Behnke

Toccata on King’s Weston arr. Matthew Compton

The Drunken Sailor arr. Carl Wiltse

Tico Tico no Fuba arr. Larry Sue

Autumn Leaves arr. Andrea Handley

Nollirac Carillon by Fred Gramann

Give Us Peace in Our Time arr. Donald E. Allured

Concerto for Handbells and Organ in Baroque Style by Michael Helman

The Lord Bless you and Keep You by Peter Lutkin (sung; not played)

The performance will be professionally recorded by Pierpont Productions, so if you can’t make it to the concert, you can order a DVD or CD by calling Pierpont Productions on 231-347-4488.

We’ll be posting updates and photos on our Facebook page as the week goes by. We’d love to see you at the concert!

August 9, 2016

New Music for Handbells – Barney Brannigan

“Twas on a windy night, at two o’clock in the morning,
An Irish Lad set out, all wind and weather scorning;
Twas on a windy night, at two o’clock in the morning,
An Irish Lad set out, all wind and weather scorning;
At Judy Callaghan’s door, sitting upon the railing,
His love tale he did pour, and this was part of his wailing;
Only say, you’ll have Barney Brannigan,
Dont say nay, Charming Judy Callaghan.
Only say, you’ll have Barney Brannigan,
Dont say nay, charming Judy Callaghan.”

Here’s our latest eight-bell piece – it’s a traditional Irish slip jig called Barney Brannigan – also known by several other titles, including Barney Brallaghan, Blewitt’s Jig and Twas on a Windy Night.

This piece is a nice challenge for four-in-hand duet. It is actually fun to play – not that you can tell from our faces in the video!

Would you like to play this arrangement?

If you’d like to play Barney Brannigan, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

When you purchase music from Choraegus, please note the music will come to you as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Purchase of this 8-bell arrangement entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.

If you’re unfamiliar with buying music from Choraegus, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide!

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing our handbell music, please get in touch, and we’ll be happy to help!

August 7, 2016

Playing Handbell Duets in Holland, Michigan!

We celebrated our recent arrival in Holland, Michigan by spending a couple of hours playing our handbell duets on 8th Street. Thank you to everyone who stopped to listen to our music!

Playing handbell duets in Holland - Larry and Carla — We had fun being street musicians in Holland today!

Downtown Holland is a great place to play music. We arrived armed with a street performers’ permit, and a map of approved locations. After that, it’s just a question of finding a spot along the street where you won’t be in anyone’s way. Then you have to park the car in a location not too far from your chosen performance spot. After that, you simply hope that people will enjoy the music you have to offer. We enjoyed playing our handbell duets in Holland today!

8th Street, where we played handbell duets

You can book us to play handbells at your event!

We had some enquiries about our availability to play our duets at other events. The answer is yes, you can book us to play handbells at your wedding, church service, party, Christmas event, wine-tasting… well, the list goes on. We’re new to West Michigan, so we have lots of dates available in the coming months!

Check out our YouTube channel to see some more of our duets. If you’d like to book us for your event, request a copy of our current fee schedule, or have any questions, please get in touch!

July 26, 2016

Our Road Trip from California to Holland, Michigan

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.

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.

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:

Road trip from California - insects! — 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!

Road trip from California - Angel Lake — 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!

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 - Larry and Carla — 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.

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!

Prairie sod house — 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!

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!

Larry and Carla - Holland, Michigan — Our first day in our new home in Holland, Michigan!

July 21, 2016

New Music for Handbells – This is My Father’s World

Here’s our latest hymn arrangement for 8 handbells – it’s This is My Father’s World.

We were quite surprised to find out that the tune Terra Beata (Latin for beautiful world) is originally an English folk tune.

How to get the sheet music for this arrangement

This arrangement is fairly straightforward to play, and suitable for 2-4 ringers. If you’d like to play This Is My Father’s World, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

When you buy music from Choraegus, please note that the music will come to you in digital (PDF) format. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase of this 8-bell arrangement will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.

If you haven’t purchased music from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this (with pictures) to help make the process stress-free!

Any questions?

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

July 4, 2016

The Start of our Long Road Trip – Yosemite National Park

At the start of the Fourth of July weekend, we drove out of the San Francisco Bay Area, and headed for the first stop on an exciting and long road trip!

We spent the first couple of nights in Oakhurst, 14 miles south of the entrance to Yosemite National Park. On Saturday, we drove into the park to spend the day there.

Long Road Trip - Sentinel Beach — Sentinel Beach

Yosemite National Park has 1,200 square miles of mountains, waterfalls, meadows and ancient sequoias The views are breathtaking, and there are endless opportunities for walking. If you’re not into hiking in the heat of the summer, you can also to tour the park by car. When you see something interesting, you can get out of the car and follow one of the short trails. These are very accessible, even for families with young children.

We took the opportunity to play a few handbell duets while we were at Yosemite. It was the Fourth of July weekend, so the park was quite busy. That made it a challenge to find a place that wasn’t too crowded with people. We’ve read that four million people visit the park annually – and we became convinced that most of them were there this weekend!

Eventually we found somewhere quiet, and played our handbells for a while. Here’s a recording of “America, the Beautiful”, which seemed appropriate for the holiday weekend:

This was our second trip to Yosemite since Carla moved to California in 2012. It’s a place that Carla spent years wanting to visit, when she lived in England – and we’re happy to have been able to go there together. It’s truly a breathtaking experience!

For more photos from our weekend at Yosemite, check out our Facebook page!

July 3, 2016

New Music for Handbells – Children of the Heavenly Father

Children of the Heavenly Father is our latest 8-bell piece. It’s an arrangement of a tune that is thought to have originally been a Swedish folk melody.

We played this hymn for the first time at Burlingame United Methodist Church, California, at their Father’s Day service last month.

Our 8-bell arrangement is straightforward to play, and would also be suitable for a trio or quartet.

Would you like to play this arrangement?

If you’d like to play Children of the Heavenly Father, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

When you purchase Choraegus music, the music score will come to you as a digital download. That means you’ll be responsible for printing it yourself, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase of this 8-bell arrangement will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell choir. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need!

If you’re not familiar with buying our music online, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to make the process as stress-free as possible!

Any questions?

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

June 29, 2016

New Music for Handbells – Chloe’s Passion – for 8 Bells

Until recently, we thought Chloe’s Passion was one of our favorite traditional Irish jigs. Then we suddenly discovered that it isn’t a traditional Irish jig at all. Chloe’s Passion was in fact written by Dr. Angus MacDonald, a piper and folk musician from Scotland. Now it’s one of our favorite Scottish pieces instead!

Dr. MacDonald was kind enough to give us permission to arrange the piece for 8 handbells – and here it is!

Larry gets the opportunity to play the D5 bell, and we love the richness it adds to the sound of the piece.

More about the sheet music for this arrangement

If you’d like to play Chloe’s Passion, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

When you purchase music from Choraegus, please note that it will come to you as a digital (PDF) file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase of this 8-bell piece will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.

If you’re buying Choraegus handbell music for the first time, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed the guide to make the purchasing process stress-free!

Any questions for us?

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

June 15, 2016

An Alzheimer’s Benefit Concert on Saturday, June 18th!

It’s time for another Alzheimer’s Benefit Concert! Once again we’ve teamed up with T. Paul Rosas, Senior Organist at Los Altos United Methodist Church, to offer an evening of music and entertainment for a very good cause.

This concert will be fun! We’ll be playing some of our eight-bell duets, including two that are brand-new and unpublished – Linstead Market and I Vow to Thee My Country. We’ll also be presenting two “world premiere” performances of handbell and organ collaborations!

About T. Paul Rosas

T. Paul Rosas is the founder and organizer of Alzheimer’s Benefit Concerts in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is an accomplished organist and composer. Paul loves to combine many different styles of music and different performers to create unique and exciting musical events. He uses his talents to benefit research into Alzheimer’s Disease.

Paul is the Senior Organist for Los Altos United Methodist Church. He also works with such notable local groups as Master Sinfonia and Schola Cantorum. On Saturday evening, Paul will be playing some great pieces on the organ and piano. If you were disappointed not to hear Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” at LAUMC a couple of Sundays ago, you’ll be able to hear it on Saturday instead!

Alzheimer's Benefit Concert with Paul Rosas — T. Paul Rosas at the piano

About Anna Bekker

We’re excited that talented mezzo-soprano Anna Bekker will also be joining us for the evening. Anna is a graduate of the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. She has performed as both a vocalist and a pianist in various settings throughout the United States and abroad. She has given concerts in the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic and Italy. Anna has spent a great deal of her musical career as a choral singer, performing extensively, including performances at Davies Symphony Hall and Carnegie Hall. She will be performing three art songs at the concert on Saturday evening.

The evening will finish with an ice cream reception. Admission is free, and an offering will be taken to benefit the Alzheimer’s Association. We hope you’ll be able to come along to what promises to be a fun and entertaining concert!