Tag Archives: folk music

How Can I Keep from Singing? – New 12-Bell Music

How Can I Keep from Singing? – sometimes known by the title My Life Flows on in Endless Song – is a traditional hymn, set to music written by Robert Wadsworth Lowry in the 1860s.

“My life flows on in endless song;
Above earth’s lamentation,
I hear the sweet , tho’ far-off hymn
That hails a new creation;
Thro’ all the tumult and the strife
I hear the music ringing;
It finds an echo in my soul—
How can I keep from singing?“

In more recent years, How Can I Keep from Singing? has been popular with folk singers, and a version (with slightly altered lyrics) was sung by Pete Seeger in the 1960s. Irish musician Enya brought the song back to public attention again in 1991 by including it on her Shepherd Moons album.

Our new 12-bell arrangement is fun to play!

More about this 12-bell arrangement

How Can I Keep from Singing? is suitable for 3-6 ringers. We demonstrate it using 4-in-hand, but if you have six ringers, they’ll only need two bells each. Sheet music is available to purchase and download from Choraegus.

Choraegus handbell music is designed to be downloaded as a PDF file. That means 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 six copies for your handbell group – so please don’t pay for more copies than you need! A practice track is also available separately – useful if your ringers need to practise their parts without the full group being available.

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 (How Can I Keep from Singing?) and arranger (Larry Sue) of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs. We appreciate your help in getting the word out about Choraegus handbell music – and if you make a video of your handbell choir playing this piece, we’d love to see it!

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this 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. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll be happy to help!

How Can I Keep from Singing? handbells

New Music for Handbells – Sakura (Cherry Blossoms)

Sakura is our latest 8-bell piece. It’s a Japanese melody, celebrating the season of cherry blossoms.

“Cherry blossoms, cherry blossoms,
In fields, mountains and villages
As far as the eye can see.”

We performed this piece for the first time at our concert in Warner Robins, Georgia a few weeks ago. After the concert, we drove to Macon, for the Cherry Blossom Festival.

We recorded our rehearsal video here at our home in Holland. The music stand was decorated with tulips, because: a) we didn’t have any cherry blossoms; and b) the city’s Tulip Time festival is coming up!

Would you like to play this piece?

If you’d like to play Sakura, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

When you buy music from Choraegus, it will come to you as a digital download; a PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Please see our licensing agreement for full details. Your purchase of this 8-bell piece will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group.

If this is your first time buying music from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide. This guide will take you through the process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing our handbell music, you might find our Frequently-Asked Questions useful. If you don’t find the information you need, you’re welcome to contact us. We’ll be happy to help!

Sakura - Cherry Blossom
Cherry blossom in Macon, GA

New Music for Handbells – The Boys of Bluehill

Here’s another one from the archives – recorded during a rehearsal in California in the summer of 2016, before we moved to Michigan. It’s a traditional hornpipe – The Boys of Bluehill.

This tune has an uncertain history. No one seems to be entirely sure if the music is originally Irish or Scottish. Alternatively, it could even be an old American tune that made its way to Ireland and was claimed by musicians there. Either way, it’s fun to play, and not as challenging as some of our traditional Irish jigs. St. Patrick’s Day is fast approaching, and this could work well!

Would you like to play this hornpipe?

If you’d like to play The Boys of Bluehill, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

When you buy music from Choraegus, please note that you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your music will come to you as a PDF file, and you’ll be responsible for printing it yourself. Your purchase of this 8-bell arrangement will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.

If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we highly recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to take you through the purchase process in a stress-free way.

Any questions for us?

We’re always happy to answer any questions about buying or playing our music. Please get in touch if there’s anything you need help with!

New Music for Handbells – Chloe’s Passion – for 8 Bells

Until recently, we thought Chloe’s Passion was one of our favorite traditional Irish jigs. Then we suddenly discovered that it isn’t a traditional Irish jig at all. Chloe’s Passion was in fact written by Dr. Angus MacDonald, a piper and folk musician from Scotland. Now it’s one of our favorite Scottish pieces instead!

Dr. MacDonald was kind enough to give us permission to arrange the piece for 8 handbells – and here it is!

Larry gets the opportunity to play the D5 bell, and we love the richness it adds to the sound of the piece.

More about the sheet music for this arrangement

If you’d like to play Chloe’s Passion, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.

When you purchase music from Choraegus, please note that it will come to you as a digital (PDF) file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase of this 8-bell piece will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.

If you’re buying Choraegus handbell music for the first time, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed the guide to make the purchasing process stress-free!

Any questions for us?

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 need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help!

New Music for Handbells – Wrong Foot Forward

Wrong Foot Forward is our latest handbell arrangement for 8 bells. If you’re looking for a fun challenge in 7/8, this could be the piece for you!

More information about the music

Wrong Foot Forward was written by Sarah Allen and Brian Finnegan of the Anglo-Irish band Flook. We arranged it with their kind permission. It’s a slip jig with a difference, and we’ve enjoyed learning it!

If you’d like to play this arrangement, the sheet music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus. We also have lots of other Irish jigs, hornpipes and traditional tunes. If you’re looking for music to dance to, you might find it on Choraegus!

Please note that Choraegus handbell music comes to you as a PDF file. This means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. If you haven’t bought music from us before, we recommend our step-by-step guide! We designed this in an attempt to make the purchase process straightforward and stress-free.

Any questions?

We’re always happy to answer any questions about buying or playing our music. We put together a list of Frequently-Asked Questions, so you might like to look there first. If you don’t find the answer you need, please let us know!

Wrong Foot Forward - handbells

More Music for Twelve Bells!

We’ve had lots of fun with our eight-bell music. Sometimes it’s also fun to branch out and expand a little. Here’s some new music for twelve bells!

Of course, we can only play four bells each at one time. It’s a problem when we suddenly have 12-bell music, and don’t have a hope of playing it on our own! That’s when we turn to J.C for help. J.C. doesn’t do this stuff on a regular basis, but he has plenty of musical talent, and very little fear of scary handbell music situations. After all, he used to play in Low Ding Zone!

On this occasion we didn’t have a lot of time to spend together. We decided to read through the music, and record as many pieces as we could in as short a time as possible.

Here are the resulting videos from our recent sight-reading sessions. They’re all from either the first or second attempt at playing them. For that reason, the following demonstrations are far from polished. However, they should give you an idea of how the new pieces could sound with a bit more rehearsal!

Although we’re playing these pieces as a four-in-hand trio, they could also be played with up to 6 people, with just 2 bells each. Click on the titles if you’d like to find out more about each piece.

Farandole

Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee

Morning Has Broken

My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean

(with apologies to the rather surprised-looking lady who appears in the background at around 1:20!)

O Worship the King

Shenandoah

There is a Fountain

Any questions?

If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus handbell music, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!

Music for twelve bells - Choraegus
Choraegus – Bringing Music to the People

New Music for Handbells – Greensleeves (with Squirrel)

Greensleeves is one of our current favorite 8-bell arrangements. We performed it for the first time at the Siskiyou Summit Handbell Conference in May this year, and again at our concert with Philadelphia Bronze.

Greensleeves is a traditional English folk song. The melody is frequently heard in the USA as the popular Christmas carol What Child Is This. If you’d like to play this piece, the music is available for purchase and download from our music site.

This video was recorded during one of our rehearsals in February – and what makes this video special for us is the appearance (just after the first minute) of a squirrel in the background.

That squirrel was a sweet little distraction throughout our rehearsal that day, and made several appearances to pose for photos!

Greensleeves for handbells

How to purchase the sheet music

If you’d like to play Greensleeves, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. 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.

Please also note that our music is designed as downloadable PDFs. 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, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide, designed 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. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll do what we can to help!

Fear a’ Bhàta – A Long-Distance Love Song

Fear a’ Bhàta (also known as The Boatman) is a beautiful Scottish-Gaelic melody. We first saw in an old songbook published in 1927. Directed to be sung “with longing”, it tells the story of a young girl who is in love with a fisherman who has sailed away… and every night she watches the ocean, waiting for his boat to return.

“How often haunting the highest hilltop
I scan the ocean, thy sails to see
Will’t come tonight, love, will’t come tomorrow
Will’t ever come, love, to comfort me?”

A long-distance love story

The words of the song tell how her friends think she’s wrong to wait for this man, and that he’s lied to her and is unlikely to return. She wonders if he’s remembered the promises he made before he left, and sings about the silken gown and gold ring that she’s never likely to own.

We assumed until recently that the story was a heartbreaking work of fiction. But it turns out that the song was written in the late 19th century by Sìne NicFhionnlaigh (Jean Finlayson) about her own life and the struggles she endured while her fiancé was away at sea. Best of all, shortly after the song was written they got married. It’s good to know that the story ended happily, after all.

Here’s a video of our handbell arrangement of this piece, recorded at our concert with Philadelphia Bronze in King of Prussia, PA.

If you’d like to play Fear a’ Bhàta, you can purchase and download the music from Choraegus.

Information about buying handbell music from Choraegus

Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. 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 such as concert programs.

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.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at 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. Please contact us if you don’t find the answers you need, and we’ll do what we can to help!

Fear a Bhata - a long-distance love story

New Music for Handbells – Grizzly’s Peak – for 8 Bells

Here’s a new piece for eight handbells, recorded at the Alzheimer’s Benefit Concert on January 23rd. This new piece has been a lot of fun to learn! Its title is Grizzly’s Peak, but there’s a more familiar tune not-so-well hidden in there.

If you’d like to play Grizzly’s Peak, it’s available for purchase from Choraegus. It’s not essential to wear a bear costume when performing the piece, but it helps. Okay, maybe it doesn’t. But you’ll still enjoy playing this piece, which your audience will surely recognize as The Bear Went Over the Mountain.

Information about buying Choraegus music

Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell ensemble – so you only need to pay once. 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 such as concert programs.

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.

If you haven’t purchased music online from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide, designed to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.

Any questions for us?

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

Grizzly's Peak - for 8 handbells