Tag Archives: Choraegus

Choraegus Handbell Music in a Time of Social Distancing

These are challenging times for musicians, as we practise social distancing to help slow down the spread of COVID-19. As members of Kalamazoo Ringers, we were disappointed when the decision was made to stop rehearsing for the season. We were all sorry to have to cancel our spring concerts and mini-tour to Ohio. Yes, it was the right decision, but wow, we’d worked hard on all that concert repertoire. We’d really been looking forward to sharing it!

Painful times indeed. However, we still have to do the responsible thing and take care of the health of our family, friends and wider community. So, social distancing it is. Add to that – plenty of hand-washing, catching up with our to-do list, and a bit of rest and relaxation!

Keeping busy as a handbell duo

As a handbell duo, we’re in the fortunate position of being able to continue our own handbell rehearsals as usual. We have bells in our home, and many hours’ worth of 8-bell music. We definitely don’t expect to be bored! We’re working on more 8- and 12-bell music, and will continue making new arrangements available from Choraegus.

Handbell music for social distancing

We’re happy to find that many people are finding our 8- and 12-bell music useful, at a time when many groups can’t get together to rehearse and perform. Churches are increasingly holding services online. Live-streaming is becoming the new way for people to gather in worship together. For handbell choirs that can’t get together to rehearse, 8-bell music could be the answer! We have an extensive selection of hymns, in both standard and surprisingly-easy versions. There’s still time to purchase and download music to share online for Holy Week, Easter, or during the summer months. This could also be a great opportunity to work on 4-in-hand skills!

Music in a time of social distancing
An example of an 8-bell hymn arrangement – Just As I Am (standard version)

The answers to some of your questions

People have been asking us additional questions about playing our music during this time of social distancing, so we’ll answer some of them here:

YES — If you purchased music from Choraegus, you have permission to play the music as part of an online worship service or online performance. Please see the licensing agreement for a few exceptions where additional permission may be necessary.

YES — We give permission for you to live-stream music purchased from Choraegus during a worship service, or to record it as part of the service, for sharing on church websites and/or social media.

YES – If you can’t get together with other musicians to play our music, and you’d like to play all the parts yourself and edit them together, you have permission to do this.

YES – You are allowed to upload any video you make to YouTube or another video-sharing site for the purposes of sharing with others online (see requirement below about crediting the source of the music).

YES — If you can’t get together with a fellow musician to rehearse music, and need to use pre-existing recordings, you are welcome to use our own YouTube videos as part of your worship service, or share our videos on social media or by email.

Things you need to do

Please give the title of the piece, and credit the arranger in your church bulletin or online recording, under the terms of our published licensing agreement. If you post/share a video on YouTube or other video-sharing/social media site, please include a link to www.choraegus.com in the video description.

Questions for us?

If you have any other questions, check our our list of frequently-asked questions. If you don’t find the answer you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help.

We hope you enjoy playing our music, and we thank you all for your support at this time. Take care, and stay healthy!

handbell music in COVID-19 times
At Los Altos Lutheran Church, CA (Photo: Carl S. Gutekunst) – May 2018

New Handbell Music – Song of Hope (Canto de Esperanza)

Here’s our latest arrangement for 8 handbells – the popular hymn Song of Hope. The lyrics to this hymn were written by Alvin L. Schutmaat, a Michigan-born missionary to Latin America, and the melody (hymn tune ARGENTINA) is a traditional folk tune.

Song of Hope – recorded when we still had snow on the ground!

“¡Dios de la esperanza, danos gozo y paz!
May the God of hope go with us every day,
Al mundo en crisis, habla tu verdad.
Filling all our lives with love and joy and peace.
Dios de la justicia, mándanos tu luz,
May the God of justice speed us on our way,
Luz y esperanza en la oscuridad.
Bringing light and hope to every land and race.”

Larry wrote this 8-bell arrangement for the TRC Ringers at Third Reformed Church here in Holland.

Would you like to play this piece?

If you’d like to play this arrangement, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus.

As always, we recommend that you read the licensing agreement before buying music from us, especially if this is your first time downloading music from Choraegus. If you’re new to Choraegus handbell music, we recommend our step-by-step guide!

Please also note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group.

Any questions for us?

If you have any questions about purchasing or playing our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll do what we can to help. We hope you’ll enjoy playing our music!

Song of Hope - 8-bell arrangement

Our 4th Surprisingly-Easy 8-Bell Hymn Collection

Some of our most popular 8-bell titles are the Surprisingly-Easy hymn arrangements. We’re pleased to announce the arrival of our 4th Surprisingly-Easy 8-Bell Hymn Collection!

We refer to our Surprisingly-Easy arrangements as “All of the music, but without the twiddly bits” If you’re looking for some new handbell pieces to enhance your worship service, but you don’t want them to take too long to learn, this collection could be the answer. When you’re part of a duo, trio or quartet, or your handbell choir is enthusiastic but small in number, these hymns could be what you’re looking for. If your handbell ensemble takes a break during the summer, but there are people who say that they wish they could keep going – these arrangements will help to keep even the most overenthusiastic musicians occupied!

What’s included in this 8-bell hymn collection?

The hymns included in this fourth collection are:

  • Abide with Me
  • Come, Christians, Join to Sing
  • I Sing the Mighty Power of God
  • In the Garden
  • My Faith Looks Up to Thee
  • We Gather Together
  • What a Friend We Have in Jesus

If you’d like to play any of these arrangements, sheet music for the collection and each individual title is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus, our music site.

More information about Choraegus downloadable handbell music

As always, we strongly recommend that you read the licensing agreement before buying music from us. Please also note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Purchasing an eight-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group. If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide!

There are more Surprisingly-Easy 8-Bell Collections available from Choraegus, as well as our standard eight-bell arrangements – some more challenging than others.

Do you have questions for us?

If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please check our Frequently-Asked Questions first. If you don’t find the answer you’re looking for, please get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to help.

8-bell hymn collection
Also available from Choraegus – binder covers for our eight-bell music!

New Handbell Music – Nearer, My God, to Thee

Here’s the latest addition to our 8-bell repertoire; the beautiful 19-century hymn Nearer, My God, to Thee (hymn tune BETHANY).

This arrangement is suitable for 2-4 ringers. We demonstrate it as a 4-in-hand duet, but four ringers could also play it holding two bells each.

Where to find the sheet music

If you’d like to play Nearer, My God, to Thee, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus, our music site.

As always, we recommend that you read the licensing agreement before buying music from us. If this is your first time making a purchase from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide! We designed this guide with pictures, to make the purchase and download process (we hope) a stress-free experience.

Choraegus music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about purchasing or playing our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help. We hope you’ll enjoy playing our music!

Nearer My God to Thee - handbells

New 8-Bell Music – Mfurahini, Haleluya

Mfurahini, Haleluya is the traditional Swahili title for the popular hymn most commonly sung as Christ Has Arisen, Alleluia. This lively tune is from Tanzania, and is particularly suitable for Easter! We recorded the video a couple of weeks ago, before the snow arrived here in West Michigan.

For extra entertainment value, watch the video carefully. You might notice a black squirrel running across the garden behind us. It’s not the first time one of our rehearsal videos has featured a squirrel!

How to get the sheet music for Mfurahini, Haleluya

If you’d like to play this arrangement, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus.

As always, we recommend that you read the licensing agreement before buying music from us. If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed the guide in an attempt to make the purchasing process stress-free!

Please note that our music is designed to be downloaded as PDFs. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. A single purchase of this 8-bell title gives you permission to print up to 4 copies for your group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need!

If you’re interested in other 8-bell music suitable for Lent, Easter and Holy Week, we have a list of other hymn suggestions. Many of these titles are available from Choraegus.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll do what we can to help!

Mfurahini, Haleluya - Easter handbell music

FREE Handbell Music – Dona Nobis Pacem, for 8 Bells

Yay! Free handbell music! After our busy holiday season, we were happy to be able to start the new year by working on some brand-new eight-bell music to be published on Choraegus. The first of these new pieces is Dona Nobis Pacem.

The scene outside our window would look so much prettier with some snow!

We’re pleased to offer the sheet music for this piece to you for free, as a thank-you to everyone who has encouraged and supported us in our musical endeavours since we started playing handbells together in 2012. You can find it in the Freebies section of our music site, where there’s also free music for Happy Birthday and Auld Lang Syne. You’ll also find printable covers for anyone who’s storing their 8-bell music in binders.

There’s no obligation to make any other purchase from Choraegus to get the free handbell music. Of course, we hope you’ll take a look at other titles we have to offer, but if you want to grab the free music and go, we don’t mind at all. It’s a good way to try our eight-bell music without having to spend any money! Dona Nobis Pacem would also be very suitable for playing as a quartet; useful for those times when you’re working with less than a full handbell choir.

Instructions for downloading the free handbell music

To get your free sheet music, add it to your cart on the Choraegus site, and click on the yellow “Check out with PayPal” button. Enter your details, and click “Confirm Order” (there’s no need to click on the PayPal button a second time). Then check your email inbox! If the download link doesn’t arrive, check your spam folder, and it might be there.

As always, we recommend that you read the licensing agreement before buying music from us (or claiming your free music), especially if this is your first time downloading music from Choraegus. You won’t receive anything in the mail, and will be responsible for printing your own music.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll do what we can to help!

free handbell music Dona Nobis Pacem

New 12-Bell Music – All Things Bright and Beautiful

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!

All Things Bright and Beautiful - 12-bell handbells
Tulips in Holland, Michigan – bright and beautiful!

New 12-Bell Music – Country Gardens

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.

If you haven’t bought music from us before, we recommend that you read the licensing agreement and our step-by-step guide.

Do you have questions?

If you have any questions, check out the Frequently-Asked Questions first. If you don’t find the answers you seek, please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help!

Thanks to everyone who’s bought music from us in recent months. We hope you’ll enjoy this piece!

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!

Writing more handbell music - Larry Sue

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!

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!

2-3 octave handbell music - Kelvingrove