We were so excited to hear Larry’s arrangement of the Brazilian piece Tico Tico no Fubá being performed for the first time at the Distinctly Bronze West concert last Sunday. Here’s a video from one of Sunday’s rehearsal sessions in Portland.
More information about this arrangement
Tico Tico no Fubá is a truly exciting Brazilian piece written by Zequinha de Abreu. Larry’s arranged it for 5-7 octaves of handbells, with 3 octaves of handchimes. It’s Level 5+, and it’s a fun challenge for advanced handbell choirs. You’ll dance as you ring!
Alex Guebert has also created some great percussion parts for this piece – so you have the option to add guiro, maracas, cabasa, tamborim, and claves. Sheet music for the handbell and percussion parts is available for purchase and download from Choraegus. Please read our licensing agreement for full information.
If you haven’t purchased music from Choraegus before, you might like to read our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to help you navigate the process in a stress-free way!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus handbell music, please read our Frequently-Asked Questions, in case the answer is there. If you don’t find the information you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
The Distinctly Bronze West concert is tomorrow! We’ve been having fun rehearsing some exciting music at the Hilton Hotel, here in Portland, Oregon. It’s been an opportunity to perform on one of the largest sets of handbells available. Bill Payn has been our director for this event.
The concert will take place at the Hilton Portland and Executive Tower, in downtown Portland. Tickets will be $5 at the door.
If you’re a handbell musician and you didn’t get the opportunity to participate in this year’s event, you should come to the concert. You’ll be able to see what you missed, and consider taking part in a future event! If you don’t play handbells, or you’ve never heard a high-level handbell performance, now would be a great opportunity. Some of the music will be traditional pieces; music that you’ll recognise and want to hum along to. Other pieces have been written specifically for this instrument. They aim to demonstrate the beauty and excitement that handbells can convey so well. This year will be your opportunity to hear Larry’s arrangement of the exciting Brazilian piece Tico Tico no Fubá. The handbell musicians will be performing this piece on 7 octaves of handbells and 3 octaves of handchimes!
If you’re in the Portland area, we’d love to see you at the Distinctly Bronze West concert!
Our trip to Portland will be happening in just a few days’ time. We’ll be taking part in Distinctly Bronze West, a fun and challenging event where over a hundred experienced handbell musicians will gather together to rehearse and perform some exciting music, under the direction of Dr. Bill Payn.
This year’s repertoire is as follows:
Carillon on a Ukrainian Bell Carol – Gerald Near, transcr. Sondra Tucker
Consecration – William Payn
Down the River (Riding the Rogue) – Jason Krug
Festive Dance – Georges Bizet, transcr. Kevin McChesney
Gravitas – Michael J. Glasgow
Gwerzy – D. Armstrong/C. O’Snodaigh, arr. Clint Hagen
Hallelujah – Leonard Cohen, arr. Joel Raney
Horizons – William Payn
Light of Peace – Veronica Bigham and Derek Hakes
Passacaglia – G.F. Handel, transcr. William Griffin Beckenhorst
One of the challenges about Distinctly Bronze, and other high-level handbell events, is that it’s essential to know the music very well before you go there. It’s not the kind of handbell event where you can get there, sight-read the music, and hope for the best. You have to be familiar with each piece – and “learning the notes” is just the first part of that. If you think about it, playing handbells in a large group is like being just part of one big instrument; imagine a piano where you have just a handful of notes that are your responsibility (and they’re not necessarily all notes that are next to each other on the keyboard), and other people have control of the other notes around you.
The interesting challenge is to be able to play your notes at the right time, fitting them between other people’s notes, and playing them with the right touch to match what’s happening around you. The goal is to play your bells in such a way that the listener hears the music as a whole, and isn’t distracted by the fact that different bells are being played in different ways by more than a hundred different people. Events like these are not about individuals; they’re about a group of people making music together – and that takes teamwork and practice.
Using graph theory to position bass handbells
So we’ve been preparing for this since Christmas; annotating the scores to make sure we don’t miss a tempo change, or forget to pick up a bell or handchime in time to play it; marking difficult passages to remind us not to miss those accidentals or tricky rhythms. Yes, all those scribbles really do mean something important! And even the scribbles in the picture below mean something – at least, they do to Larry, who uses his knowledge of graph theory to help work out the best way to position the bass bells for each piece.
We’ve also been playing the music on actual bells, over and over – because even when you feel that you’ve stared at the notes on the paper until your eyes are burning, there’s no substitute for picking up some bells (preferably the right ones) and making sure all your ideas are actually possible – or will become possible with a lot more practice!
The upcoming performance of Larry’s arrangement of Tico Tico will be the first one ever! The piece has been the subject of much discussion among DB West participants, as we all get to grips with sharing bells with neighbours, changing bells at high speed, and working out the best ways to deal with fast chromatic passages. It’s going to be exciting to see how this piece sounds in performance next Sunday!
We’re looking forward to this year’s Distinctly Bronze West. Full details of the concert are below. If you’re in the Portland area on Sunday, March 1st, we’d love to see you there!
We don’t always play handbells. Hmm. Maybe we do. It might even be an addiction. What do you think?
Do you play handbells too? Would you like to play more?
If you want to spend more time playing handbells, check our our music site, Choraegus. You’ll find lots of handbell scores to keep you busy! Maybe try something new – a solo piece, or something for bass bells. Alternatively, grab an enthusiastic partner and try a 6- or 8-bell duet! Listen to lots of demonstration videos, and find out more about what’s available from our music site. Improve your bass-ringing skills with The Bass Ringer’s Notebook; the ultimate guide to swinging the buckets.
Do you actually NOT play handbells?
If you don’t play handbells, but you appreciate handbell music, there are still ways to get involved. YouTube is full of handbell videos to watch, from choirs all over the world. Another thing you could consider is booking a handbell choir (or a handbell duo) to play at your event. Host a concert, invite us to your worship service, have handbell music at a wedding ceremony or holiday event – there are so many options! Contact us, and let’s talk more about how we can bring our music to where you are.
