Christmas bells!
Larry and Carla will be presenting a program of Christmas music, and talking about the history and techniques involved in playing handbells. This is a private event in Holland, Michigan.
It seems like only a short time ago that we were making plans for the run-up to Christmas. Suddenly, poof! December’s over, and our busy holiday season of performances is behind us.
We had an interesting time! Here are some of the highlights:
Our Advent season started with two Christmas by Candlelight services – one in Marne and the other in Grand Haven. Both these evenings were beautiful; an opportunity for a community to come together and welcome the season with music and fellowship. Handbell music fits so perfectly for such occasions.
We joined with the Zeeland Community Band for another concert this holiday season. It’s fun to add our handbells to some of the band’s festive favorites. We can’t restrict ourselves to playing only 8 bells in each piece, so it’s quite a challenge too, switching bells frequently during pieces.
We played an hour of soothing holiday music at Abrams Planetarium. This was part of the “Rest With Music: Goodnight Series” at Michigan State University. It was a very different kind of performance venue for us – playing in darkness while stars and snowflakes drifted above. The audience was there to relax, maybe even take a nap, and enjoy an hour of continuous music.
The challenges for us were: a) playing in darkness, with only a music-stand light to help us see the music; b) having to remove a sheet of music at the end of each piece and replace it with another one, and c) changing bells between pieces at top speed, so as not to interrupt the flow of music. We managed by taking an additional table with us. Once we’d finished playing a piece, Larry would continue to hold at least two notes, still ringing, while Carla pulled the score off the music stand and onto the extra table, leaving the next score ready to play. After a bit of practice at home, we were able to do this smoothly. We limited our key changes, and played pieces in “blocks” all in the same key, which kept the challenge of changing bells between pieces to a minimum. It was an enjoyable event, and we hope to go back to the Planetarium again in the future!
This season, we enjoyed presenting varied programs of Christmas and holiday music to community, charity and church groups in and around Holland and Grand Rapids. It’s always an interesting experience to talk about our bells and our music – and it’s fun to take questions from audience members, some of whom haven’t heard handbells before, or haven’t seen our 4-in-hand style of ringing.
We also played at a couple of corporate holiday parties in Grand Rapids, where we greeted guests with Christmas carols!
Some of our most rewarding performances of the holiday season took place at senior living communities and nursing homes in our local area. We played carols for small groups of residents, and provided last-minute entertainment at a care home holiday party after the previously-booked entertainer cancelled.
We challenged ourselves, once again, to give twelve hours of our time to play Christmas carols at the Salvation Army Red Kettle. The Salvation Army does a lot of good work here in West Michigan – and we’ve spoken to people who have benefited personally from their help. So we were more than happy to offer our support to their Christmas fundraising campaign. We played four 3-hour sessions at our local D&W Fresh Market, and hope to do the same again next year.
It was fun to play Christmas music in Downtown Holland too! We enjoyed giving two performances in Cherry Republic – one of our favorite stores on 8th Street. We also made our first appearance at the annual Kerstmarkt, on a chilly Friday evening. Playing handbell duets outdoors in cold weather is an interesting challenge. Thankfully, the snow hadn’t yet started to fall. Although we noticed some interesting differences in the pitch and ringing action of the bells, there was no lasting damage. We thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to be part of such a festive local event. We hope to be able to repeat the experience at the 2018 Kerstmarkt!
Our 2017 Christmas performance season ended at Ridge Point Community Church, where we played in their three Christmas Eve services. We also made our first visit to Christ Memorial Church, greeting people with handbell music as they arrived for services.
We’d like to thank everyone who helped to make our 2017 holiday season so memorable (and busy!). To everyone who booked us to provide entertainment, or came to one of our performances, we thank you. If you supported us during one of our Salvation Army sessions, or wrote a review – we appreciate that.
If you missed our holiday season performances this year, check our website and Facebook page for information about future events. Look out for us in Holland and beyond in 2018!
We regret that we’re currently unable to offer gift vouchers for the Choraegus site, because of a technical issue that’s outside our control. Thank you to everyone who purchased them! We do hope to be able to bring them back at some future date.
We’re excited to introduce something new on our music site – gift vouchers! You can now purchase and download a gift voucher for $10, $20, $50 or $100, give it to a friend, and let them choose their own music from the wide selection of pieces available on our site. It could be an ideal Christmas or birthday gift for the handbell musician in your life!
There are so many handbell titles on Choraegus that it’s sometimes difficult to choose. We have solo handbell arrangements, music for just 6 bells and piano, 8-bell music… all the way up to full-choir music for 5-8 octaves. There’s straightforward music for beginning or improving ensembles. You’ll also find pieces that will challenge even the most skilled and experienced handbell ensembles. There’s something for everyone!
Don’t forget The Bass Ringer’s Notebook (Second Edition), which is also a great choice for any bass handbell musician or aspiring bucket-slinger. Unlike the gift vouchers and music scores, the book isn’t a downloadable file; it’s an actual book which we will lovingly package up and send to you – so order a copy soon if you need it delivered in time for Christmas!
If you have any questions about Choraegus gift vouchers, or about our music in general, please get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help.
The 2017 Christmas and holiday season will soon be upon us! Handbells can bring a magical and festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. We can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music, or provide background music to add that special, welcoming touch to your corporate event, community group celebration, winter wedding, or holiday gathering. Nothing says Christmas quite as well as the traditional sound of English handbells – and our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to hotel lobbies, department stores, shopping boutiques, community groups and private house parties alike.
The 2017 holiday season is fast approaching. We’re looking forward to performances in Jenison, South Olive, East Lansing, Grand Rapids, Marne and Holland, Michigan. We’ll be playing our handbell duets at “Christmas by Candlelight” events, corporate holiday parties, Christmas luncheons, and worship services. We’ll also be performing with the Zeeland Community Band in their Christmas concert on December 11th.
We’re probably the smallest community handbell choir in West Michigan. That means we take up far less room than a traditional bell choir would. We’re ideal for venues where space is limited, such as small church sanctuaries, community halls, hotel lobbies, and private homes.
A handbell performance could be exactly what you need for the 2017 Christmas and holiday season! Contact us to request our current fee schedule, ask questions, or book us to enhance your Christmas event with the traditional sound of handbells!
Here are two newly-available arrangements for 12 bells and piano accompaniment. Larry arranged these pieces for a UK group led by Meg Hostler of Finchampstead Handbell Ringers. Their debut performances were in England on Christmas Eve 2015.
The arrangements are less challenging than our other 12-bell pieces. Larry arranged them to be easy for a small group to learn and perform with minimal rehearsal time!
Both these demo recordings were made during an all-too-brief “Christmas in February” rehearsal session when we got together with Meg for an Inspiration International reunion during our most recent visit to England in February 2016. The first piece is In the Bleak Midwinter:
The second is the Austrian carol Still, Still, Still:
The piano accompaniment score for Still, Still, Still is the same as the accompaniment that goes with the solo version of this carol.
If you’d like to play either (or both!) of these pieces for 12 bells and piano, the sheet music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
Choraegus handbell music is designed to be downloaded and printed at home. You’ll be responsible for printing your own scores, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. If you’re new to buying our music, please look at the step-by-step guide. We designed this to help make the process stress-free!
Please read our licensing agreement before making your purchase, and read our guide to how many copies your purchase allows you to print. Don’t pay for more copies than you need!
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please check 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!
As all handbell musicians know, it’s important to start preparing for the holiday season long before it begins. Here’s some new 8-bell music for Christmas!
We added this lively carol to our holiday repertoire last Christmas, and it proved to be an audience-pleaser!
This is possibly our favorite of this year’s new eight-bell Christmas music. It’s an Italian carol. If you’re a fan of sixteenth notes (semiquavers), you’ll enjoy playing this one!
This piece was new to us in December 2016, and it quickly became a favorite!
This is a lively English carol, which we very much enjoyed playing for the first time in December 2016.
Also known as “On Christmas Night All Christians Sing”, this traditional English carol has an optional repeat section, and is a lot of fun to play. We recorded the video as part of our “A Carol A Day” project for December 2016.
This arrangement is a fun one, mostly straightforward, but with a little triplet challenge in the middle! We recorded this video in December 2016, as part of our “A Carol A Day” project.
Also known as “Here We Come A-Wassailing”, this is another traditional carol from England, which we recorded as part of our A Carol A Day project last December.
This is an arrangement based on the “Winchester Old” tune, commonly used in the United Kingdom. It’s rhythmically straightforward to play, and could be a good choice for a quartet.
These new pieces, together with our other Christmas music for 8 bells, are available from Choraegus. We hope you’ll enjoy them!
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music. If you have any questions, 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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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!
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.
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!
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.
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:
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!
Would you like to book a handbell performance for the 2016 Christmas and holiday season?
Handbells can bring a magical and festive atmosphere to any Christmas or holiday event. We can give a seasonal performance of carols and holiday music, or provide background music to add that special, welcoming touch to your corporate event, community group celebration, winter wedding, or holiday gathering. Nothing says Christmas quite as well as the traditional sound of English handbells. Our duet performances can bring the sounds of the season to hotel lobbies, department stores, boutiques, community events and parties. As a handbell duo, we take us less room than a traditional handbell choir. We bring everything we need with us, and you won’t need to worry about how to fit a line of tables into your venue!
The 2016 Christmas and holiday season is approaching, and this year we’re in a new location! Christmas in Michigan is going to be very different from our previous Christmases in California and England. We’re expecting to do some driving through the snow this year!
If you’d like to find out more, please look at our list of Christmas and holiday music and our photos. Contact us to request our current fee schedule, ask questions, and book us for your Christmas event this year!
As we say hello to the month of April, here’s a new 8-bell arrangement – the hymn For the Beauty of the Earth.
The useful thing about this tune is that it also doubles as the Christmas carol As With Gladness, Men of Old. Two titles for the price of one!
If you’d like to play this piece, it’s available from Choraegus.
When you buy handbell music from Choraegus, it will come to you as a digital (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 of this 8-bell arrangement for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
If you haven’t previously purchased music from Choraegus, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this to make the process as stress-free as possible!
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’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
