Thanks to the Zeeland Community Band and their director Rose Wiersma! We were happy to be invited to be part of another of their community concerts. We enjoyed performing for residents and guests at Freedom Village, a senior living community here in Holland, Michigan. It’s exciting to find out how much the sound of handbells can add to a band performance! The band had put in many hours of rehearsal for this concert, and their hard work paid off. It was an interesting and varied performance, with many positive comments from the audience afterwards.
The Zeeland Community band is a community ensemble in every sense. Its mission is to encourage adults to pick up their band instruments and make music! Even people who haven’t played in many years can find a place in this welcoming ensemble. The band rehearses on Monday evenings in Zeeland. You can find out more on their website, and get in touch if you have questions.
Playing handbells with the Zeeland Community Band
As you can see from the smiling faces, the band members enjoyed this performance too. We look forward to working with this talented group again!
Here’s another one from the archives – recorded during a rehearsal in California in the summer of 2016, before we moved to Michigan. It’s a traditional hornpipe – The Boys of Bluehill.
This tune has an uncertain history. No one seems to be entirely sure if the music is originally Irish or Scottish. Alternatively, it could even be an old American tune that made its way to Ireland and was claimed by musicians there. Either way, it’s fun to play, and not as challenging as some of our traditional Irish jigs. St. Patrick’s Day is fast approaching, and this could work well!
Would you like to play this hornpipe?
If you’d like to play The Boys of Bluehill, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you buy music from Choraegus, please note that you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your music will come to you as a PDF file, and you’ll be responsible for printing it yourself. 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’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we highly recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to take you through the purchase process in a stress-free way.
Any questions for us?
We’re always happy to answer any questions about buying or playing our music. Please get in touch if there’s anything you need help with!
Our latest 8-bell arrangement is the hymn tune Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed. It’s interesting to note that the tune (MARTYRDOM) is an eighteenth-century Scottish folk melody, originally used for the ballad “Helen of Kirkconnel”, which is now more commonly sung to a completely different tune.
“Alas, and did my Savior bleed, and did my Sovereign die? Would he devote that sacred head for sinners such as I?”
Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed is particularly suitable for worship services during Lent and Holy Week. This arrangement is straightforward to play, and could also work well as a quartet piece.
Where to find the sheet music
If you’d like to play this arrangement, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you buy music from Choraegus, it will come to you as a PDF file. This means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need!
If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to take you through the process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might find our Frequently-Asked Questions useful. If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
We recently unearthed some long-forgotten rehearsal videos from the summer of 2016, when we were still in California. Our latest 8-bell piece is an Irish Jig Nead Na Lachan. It’s most often referred to in English as The Foxhunter’s Jig.
We haven’t (yet) managed to play this one with 100% accuracy. In fact, Larry has declared it to be “not the most cooperative of pieces”. But one of us still thinks it’s fun to play! You could make it less exhausting shorter by cutting out some of the repeated sections. We performed it a few times during our street performing sessions here in Holland, Michigan last summer. It was very popular with our audience, as most Irish jigs seem to be.
Feeling insane enough to play this piece?
Honestly, Larry’s really not a fan of The Foxhunter’s Jig. He arranged it, so he only has himself to blame, of course. If you’d like to give it a try, the music is available to download from Choraegus.
When you buy music from Choraegus, please note that the music will come to you in digital (PDF) format. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Please see our licensing agreement for full details. Your purchase of this 8-bell arrangement entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group.
If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. It will take you through the process, with pictures!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our handbell music, you might like to check some Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the information you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Larry and Carla – The 2017 Downtown Holland Street Performer Series
“The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended The darkness falls at thy behest; To thee our morning hymns ascended Thy praise shall sanctify our rest.
We thank thee that thy Church unsleeping, While earth rolls onward into light, Through all the world her watch is keeping, And rests not now by day or night.”
One of Carla’s all-time favorites, The Day Thou Gavest, is an English hymn. A Cheshire vicar, John Ellerton, wrote it in 1870. The hymn tune is ST CLEMENT. has remained popular in the UK since then.
Here’s our 8-bell arrangement, recorded in Los Altos, California in May 2016, before we moved to Holland, Michigan:
Would you like to play this arrangement?
If you’d like to play The Day Thou Gavest, 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 PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
If you haven’t bought Choraegus handbell music before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed the guide to take you through the process and make it stress-free!
Any questions?
If you have any questions, you might like to look at our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you seek, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
The Kesh is a popular traditional Irish jig. It’s usually a fiddle tune, but it turns out to be a fun tune to play on handbells. That’s a good thing, since we have no idea how to play the fiddle!
We recently found this recording in a batch of long-forgotten rehearsal videos from before we moved from California to Michigan:
This arrangement is suitable for 2-4 ringers, and could be useful for St Patrick’s Day!
Information about the sheet music
If you’d like to play The Kesh, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you buy handbell music from Choraegus, it comes 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. Your purchase will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need! See our licensing agreement for full details.
If this is your first time buying music from Choraegus, you might find our step-by-step guide helpful. We designed it with pictures, to take you through the process in a stress-free way.
Any questions for us?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to check our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
We’re starting 2017 with a new arrangement for eight handbells. This is the German hymn O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright.
“O Morning Star, how fair and bright thou beamest forth in truth and light, O Sovereign meek and lowly! Thou Root of Jesse, David’s Son, my Lord and Master, thou hast won my heart to serve thee solely! Thou art holy, fair and glorious, rich in blessing, rule and might o’er all possessing.”
Over the years, this hymn has been popular for weddings and funerals in Germany. However, in the USA it’s now more often sang at Epiphany.
More information about this arrangement
This arrangement isn’t too challenging to play, and would be also be very suitable as a quartet piece. If you’d like to play it, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you purchase music from Choraegus, it 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. Your purchase of this 8-bell arrangement entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell choir.
If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed the guide to take you through the purchase process in a stress-free way.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to look at our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you seek, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
We’re almost at the end of our first Christmas and holiday performances in Michigan. We say “almost” because we still have one Christmas in January performance to give! After next week, we’ll be putting away our Christmas carol music, and working on other things.
Our first holiday season was a fairly quiet one, performance-wise. We deliberately kept it that way because we had family visiting in the second half of December and wanted to make that our priority. Still, we managed to fit in some fun performances first.
Ringing at the Salvation Army Red Kettle
We continued our support of the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign this year. We volunteered to play 12 hours of Christmas music at D&W Fresh Market here in Holland. Thankfully, we were able to play indoors! We now have great respect for the volunteers here in Michigan who ring that tiny bell in various outdoor locations in cold weather! We had a fun surprise when Tracy Hinson from local news channel FOX 17 arrived one morning to interview us. She filmed some of our playing, and even joined in to play one bell at the end of Jingle Bells! Like us, Tracy moved to this area from California, and has enjoyed the challenge of dealing with Michigan winter weather!
Playing handbells for the Salvation Army at D&W Fresh Market in Holland
On December 3rd, we gave a performance at a breakfast fundraiser for local non-profit Grandville Friendship Homes. This turned out to be a very successful event and an enjoyable start to our holiday performances. We had the opportunity to see a presentation by a local chalk artist too!
Holiday handbells in Grandville!
On December 6th, we made our first long drive across Michigan in cold weather. It felt like quite an adventure to load our bells and equipment into the car and drive through the cold and rain. We drove to Ypsilanti, where we gave a concert for residents of a senior living community.
Getting ready for a performance at a senior living community in Ypsilanti
A performance with the Zeeland Community Band
On December 12th, we performed in concert with the Zeeland Community Band. We played a selection of 8-bell pieces for an enthusiastic audience. We also added our bells to whole-band pieces such as I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day and the Hallelujah Chorus. We’d attended several rehearsals before the event, and very much enjoyed working with this skilled group of musicians. We hope to have the opportunity to perform with them again in the future!
With band director Rose Wiersma after the concert
A couple of days later, we presented an hour-long program of Christmas handbell duets at a luncheon party here in Holland, Michigan. We enjoyed sharing our music with this friendly local group, who asked lots of interesting questions about our history and playing techniques!
Playing handbells at a Christmas luncheon party in Holland, Michigan
Christmas Eve at Ridge Point Community Church
Our last-but-one performance of the 2016 Christmas season was at Ridge Point Community Church, here in Holland. We were missing our usual Christmas Eve services at Los Altos United Methodist Church in California, so we very much appreciated being invited to play at Ridge Point. We played a 15-minute duet prelude before each of the services, and a postlude afterwards. Most exciting was the opportunity to add our bells to a wonderful performance of Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24.
Christmas Eve at Ridgepoint Community Church, Holland
Just one more performance left!
Now we have just one more holiday performance to give. After that, we’ll be saying a sad farewell to our Christmas music. We’ll have to find out what we can remember about playing our non-Christmas pieces!
We’ll be leading a workshop with a church handbell choir in a couple of weeks’ time. After that, we’ll be starting to prepare for a duet concert in Warner Robins, Georgia at the beginning of April. In the meantime, we’ll be enjoying our first Michigan winter, and finding out more about SNOW!
We’ve been rehearsing Christmas and holiday handbell duets for a couple of months now. Still, it’s hard to believe how quickly the holiday season has arrived. We probably say that every year… but for handbell musicians, it’s the truth!
Starting the holiday season here in Holland
The Salvation Army Red Kettle
In the last few weeks, we’ve been having fun playing festive handbell music at the Salvation Army Red Kettle here in Holland, at D&W Fresh Market. We had an exciting time being interviewed and filmed by Tracy Hinson from Fox 17, and we’ve been enjoying sharing our music with shoppers. We still have a few more sessions planned. You can see us between 10:00am and midday on the following dates:
Monday, December 5
Thursday, December 15
Tuesday, December 20
Salvation Army Bell Ringers at D&W, Holland. Photo courtesy of Fox 17
In the next few weeks, we’re looking forward to providing holiday entertainment at events and parties in Grandville and Holland, driving to Ypsilanti for a Christmas party at a Senior Living Community, and performing in concert with the Zeeland Community Band (more information coming soon!)
Our Carol a Day project
Our other project for this December has been to make new video recordings of some of our Advent and Christmas carols. We’re calling it A Carol A Day, and you can find our new videos on our YouTube channel or on our Facebook page, or by searching on Facebook for the hashtag #ACarolADay.
It’s not too late to book us for your holiday event
We still have a limited amount of availability for this holiday season. If you’re looking for last minute holiday music for your event, it’s worth contacting us to see if we have a space in our calendar!
Since 2012, we’ve supported the Salvation Army in the San Francisco Bay Area by playing our handbell duets during their annual Red Kettle campaign. Now that we’re no longer living in California, we’re pleased to be able to help with the fundraising at the Red Kettle here in Holland, Michigan instead.
At the Salvation Army Red Kettle in Mountain View, California last year
This holiday season, we’ll be playing Christmas carols and holiday music at D&W Fresh Market. The store is located at 50 Douglas Ave, Holland, MI 49424. We’ll be there between 10:00am and 12:00pm on the following dates:
Friday, November 18
Saturday, November 26
Wednesday, November 30
Monday, December 5
Thursday, December 15
Tuesday, December 20
Do you ever get fed up with the sound of the Salvation Army bell ringers? We’ll be playing real Christmas music – carols and traditional tunes from all over the world. It’s a little different from the usual sound you hear in stores at this time of year!
We hope you’ll drop by if you’re shopping for groceries at that time. Please help the Salvation Army provide food, shelter and social services to those in need throughout the year. Contact us here or on our Facebook page if you have any questions!
