December 27, 2021

The Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert is on YouTube!

You can now watch the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Christmas concert On a Winter’s Night on YouTube! If you missed the live-stream on Facebook, you can now catch up at your leisure. The whole concert is available to watch on the Kalamazoo Ringers’ official YouTube channel:

There are also individual videos of each of the concert performances, so you can catch up with your favorites, and share the videos with your friends and on social media.

We were honored that the concert contained several Choraegus handbell arrangements:

O Come, O Come, Emmanuel

We enjoyed playing this 16-bell piece with Rhonda and Martha – in our house in Holland, Michigan! The beauty of a small-ensemble concert is being able to rehearse and record in smaller venues, and it’s fun to invite the audience into our homes for a short while.

Of the Father’s Love Begotten

This is a very recent arrangement – so new that we haven’t even published it yet. It’s an interesting twist on the Divinum Mysterium plainchant melody, familiar to many handbell ringers because of Fred Gramann’s famous arrangement. This is a quirky and fun arrangement, with the addition of a cajón part. We decided that a Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas concert was a good reason/excuse to put a recording together. If all goes to plan, the sheet music will be available to purchase from Choraegus in May 2022.

Wexford Carol

Wexford Carol is another of our 16-bell arrangements. It’s a traditional Irish carol that’s full of dissonance and rich chords. This arrangement has been popular with Choraegus customers this year! Rhonda and Martha joined us for this performance.

‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime

This 8-bell arrangement of the Huron Carol lends itself well to bass handbells! We met with Rhonda and John to rehearse and perform Matthew Prins’s arrangement of Fum, Fum, Fum. At the last minute, we decided it could be fun to drop this one a couple of octaves and see how it would sound. We think it worked well!

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

We’ve been playing this 8-bell arrangement for several years now, and always enjoy it. It brings back happy memories of a fun Christmas performance in California in 2014! We were thankful for the opportunity to record it again fo this year’s Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas concert.

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

This is another recent arrangement from Choraegus. It’s pure fun to play! It has mixed meters, a lively feel, and a challenging flute addition. Our talented Holland-neighbors Martha and Gary Matthews joined us for this performance. We’ll be publishing this one in spring or summer 2022, along with a 5-octave version!

We hope that the Kalamazoo Ringers will be able to get back to in-person rehearsals and concerts in 2022. In some ways, the group’s time apart has been good for us; we’ve all been able to develop our skills in small-ensemble ringing. Having said that, we’re all very much looking forward to being able to make music together again!

If you have questions about any of the Choraegus music from the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Christmas concert, please get in touch with us, and we’ll be happy to help! We encourage you to share the Christmas concert videos with your friends, and we hope to see many of you at one of the Kalamazoo Ringers’ concerts in 2022!

Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas concert program 2021

December 23, 2021

Free Handbell Music – I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

“I heard the bells on Christmas Day,
Their old familiar carols play”

Thank you to everyone who’s bought and downloaded handbell music from Choraegus this year. We appreciate you so much! Now it’s our turn to give something to you – with free handbell music! Did you catch our giveaway of Silent Night (12-bell) on Facebook yesterday? If you missed it, you can still get today’s free gift. I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is arranged for 8 handbells and piano accompaniment – and it can be yours, free of charge, for one day only! You can also get the accompaniment track mp3, to help with rehearsing or for those times when you don’t have a pianist available.

To get your free sheet music, add I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day (and the accompaniment track if you need it) to your cart on the Choraegus site, and click on the yellow “Check out with PayPal” button (don’t worry; PayPal won’t ask you to make any payment). Enter your details, and click “Confirm Order” (there’s no need to click on the PayPal button a second time). You’ll receive a confirmation screen, with a link to download your music. We recommend saving it to your computer, so that you’ll have it ready for next year! If anything goes wrong, please let us know, and we’ll find another way to get your music to you.

More information (the small print)

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!

We wish you a very happy holiday season, and a healthy and music-filled year ahead!

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day handbells

December 18, 2021

The 2021 Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert

The 2021 Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert is tomorrow!

We’re excited about this concert! On a Winter’s Night will be streamed on the Kalamazoo Ringers’ Facebook page at 4pm EST. We were all disappointed not to be able to rehearse and prepare our usual Christmas concert at Grace Harbor. Instead, we cautiously decided to gather only in small groups for this Christmas season – and it turned out to be a lot of fun! The concert is an interesting mixture of handbell solos, duets and small ensembles – with a lot of Choraegus music!

We’re particularly excited to share our 5-octave arrangement of Of the Father’s Love Begotten. This is a new piece that we haven’t published yet. It will be available to download from Choraegus in May next year. There’s also an exciting arrangement of Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, where we’re joined by Martha and Gary Matthews on flute and piano. There’s a nice mixture of small ensemble pieces, from Jason Krug’s beautiful Coventry, played on bell tree, to the pure fun of Valerie Stephenson’s Caroler’s Hoedown… and if you stay tuned until the end, we’ll even show you some outtakes!

The Kalamazoo Ringers Christmas Concert will be live on the Kalamazoo Ringers Facebook page at 4:00pm on Sunday, December 19. The video will be available to watch on Facebook and YouTube afterwards.

We have high hopes of presenting an in-person concert next spring!

November 29, 2021

Jesus Paid it All – for 8 Handbells

Jesus Paid it All was written in 1855 by Elvina M. Hall, with music by John T. Grape. The tune ALL TO CHRIST is also used for the hymns Fullness in Christ, I Hear the Saviour Say, and All to Christ I Owe.

More information about this arrangement

Our 8-bell arrangement of Jesus Paid it All is suitable for 2-4 ringers. We demonstrate it as a 4-in-hand duet, but there’s no requirement to use 4-in-hand. There’s no bell-sharing, and no accidentals to pick up mid-piece, so if you have a small ensemble, this piece can be played with no need for tables or foam pads. Perfect for social distancing!

How to purchase the sheet music

Sheet music for Jesus Paid it All is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. Purchase of this arrangement gives you permission to print up to four copies for your handbell group – so don’t pay for more copies than you need! Your purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials. 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 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.