September 29, 2022

Handbells at the Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland

November 19 at 10:00 am – 12:00 pm EST

Handbells are coming back to the Kerstmarkt in Downtown Holland! Local handbell duo Larry and Carla will again be playing traditional Christmas handbell music at the event in 2022. Saturday, November 19 marks the start of the 2022 event!

The Kerstmarkt is an annual open-air European-style Christmas market located at the 8th Street Marketplace in Downtown Holland. Come and listen to beautiful festive music as you shop for unique handcrafted gifts, and locally-made holiday treats. Coffee and hot cider will be available to help you stay warm!

We’ve been fortunate that the weather has been kind to us every time we’ve played at this annual event. Thankfully, we haven’t had to cope with the kind of extreme cold that would make what we do impossible. Handbells generally don’t appreciate cold temperatures. We notice the change in the sound of the bells when we play outdoors in winter, but the worst of the weather generally seems to wait until after Christmas! Most of the Kerstmarkt is under cover, so you can shop for gifts comfortably there. The market is located in Downtown Holland, so there are plenty of shops and restaurants close by. Here’s a video of one of our performances from the 2021 Kerstmarkt:

If you miss seeing us on the opening day of the Kerstmarkt, we’ll also be there on the evenings of Friday, December 2 and Friday, December 9.

Kerstmarkt – Holland

150 W 8th St
Holland, MI 49423 United States + Google Map

Free The event is free to attend, but tips for the musicians are always appreciated!

June 29, 2022

Doxology for Handbells (3-5 Octaves)

We recently offered a free 8-bell arrangement of the Doxology (OLD HUNDREDTH) – the setting for the hymns Praise God from Whom All Blessings Flow and All People That on Earth Do Dwell.

We had a request for an arrangement for full handbell choir… so here’s the 3-5 octave version!

More information about this arrangement

Doxology is for 3-5 octaves of handbells. It’s a Level 1 arrangement; very straightforward to play. The downloadable score gives two versions, so that you can choose the one that works for your worship service. Sheet music is available to purchase and download from Choraegus, for the low price of just $3 for 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 grants permission for you to perform, broadcast and live-stream this piece as part of a worship service without the need for any additional license or fee, although we do ask you to credit the arranger (Larry Sue) and publisher (Choraegus) in any printed media and online (in video descriptions) where possible. 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 by email or on our Facebook page!

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.

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!