The Kesh is a popular traditional Irish jig. It’s usually a fiddle tune, but it turns out to be a fun tune to play on handbells. That’s a good thing, since we have no idea how to play the fiddle!
We recently found this recording in a batch of long-forgotten rehearsal videos from before we moved from California to Michigan:
This arrangement is suitable for 2-4 ringers, and could be useful for St Patrick’s Day!
Information about the sheet music
If you’d like to play The Kesh, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you buy handbell music from Choraegus, it comes to you as a 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 for your handbell group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need! See our licensing agreement for full details.
If this is your first time buying music from Choraegus, you might find our step-by-step guide helpful. We designed it with pictures, to take you through the process in a stress-free way.
Any questions for us?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to check our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
We’re starting 2017 with a new arrangement for eight handbells. This is the German hymn O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright.
“O Morning Star, how fair and bright thou beamest forth in truth and light, O Sovereign meek and lowly! Thou Root of Jesse, David’s Son, my Lord and Master, thou hast won my heart to serve thee solely! Thou art holy, fair and glorious, rich in blessing, rule and might o’er all possessing.”
Over the years, this hymn has been popular for weddings and funerals in Germany. However, in the USA it’s now more often sang at Epiphany.
More information about this arrangement
This arrangement isn’t too challenging to play, and would be also be very suitable as a quartet piece. If you’d like to play it, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you purchase music from Choraegus, it will come to you as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase of this 8-bell arrangement entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell choir.
If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed the guide to take you through the purchase process in a stress-free way.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to look at our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you seek, 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.
Ringing at the Salvation Army Red Kettle
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!
Playing handbells for the Salvation Army at D&W Fresh Market in Holland
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!
Holiday handbells in Grandville!
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.
Getting ready for a performance at a senior living community in Ypsilanti
A performance with the Zeeland Community Band
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!
With band director Rose Wiersma after the concert
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!
Playing handbells at a Christmas luncheon party in Holland, Michigan
Christmas Eve at Ridge Point Community Church
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.
Christmas Eve at Ridgepoint Community Church, Holland
Just one more performance left!
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.
At the Salvation Army Red Kettle in Mountain View, California last year
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:
Friday, November 18
Saturday, November 26
Wednesday, November 30
Monday, December 5
Thursday, December 15
Tuesday, December 20
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!
Our latest 8-bell piece is the hymn tune Diademata, written in 1868 by English organist and composer George J Elvey. It’s most often sung as Crown Him with Many Crowns.
We recorded this piece several months ago in Los Altos, California. We brought it out into the open again (quite literally) when we played duets on 8th Street here in Holland last Sunday. It prompted a surprise sing-along from a group of shoppers passing by. It’s always fun when people recognise a tune, especially when it’s one we haven’t played for a while!
Would you like to play this arrangement?
If you’d like to play Crown Him with Many Crowns, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
Please note that Choraegus handbell music comes to you as a digital score to download and print. You’ll be responsible for printing the correct number of copies of the sheet music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase of this 8-bell arrangement entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, you might like to read our step-by-step guide. We designed this to take some of the stress away from the online purchasing process!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus music, please let us know, and we’ll be happy to help!
We’ve recently added some more 8-bell wedding ceremony music to our repertoire. These three are all well-known classical pieces.
The first is Mouret’s Rondeau ( Fanfare-Rondeau). Mouret composed this in 1729, as part of his first Suite de Symphonies. This piece is also well-known as the theme from Masterpiece Theatre.
Handel’s Water Music is a collection of orchestral movements from the late 18th century. Handel originally composed the music for orchestra. However, if you only have a few people and 8 handbells, you can play two of the movements: the Bourée and the Air.
Would you like to play these 8-bell arrangements?
If you’d like to play these pieces, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you purchase music from Choraegus, the scores come to you as PDF files. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Purchase of an 8-bell piece entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
If you’re buying Choraegus music for the first time, we recommend our step-by-step guide!
Would you like to book us to play handbells for your wedding ceremony?
If you’re getting married and you’d like us to play our 8-bell wedding ceremony music for your special day, please contact us and we’ll see if we can make it happen!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, or about booking us to play handbell duets at your event, please contact us!
“Twas on a windy night, at two o’clock in the morning, An Irish Lad set out, all wind and weather scorning; Twas on a windy night, at two o’clock in the morning, An Irish Lad set out, all wind and weather scorning; At Judy Callaghan’s door, sitting upon the railing, His love tale he did pour, and this was part of his wailing; Only say, you’ll have Barney Brannigan, Dont say nay, Charming Judy Callaghan. Only say, you’ll have Barney Brannigan, Dont say nay, charming Judy Callaghan.”
Here’s our latest eight-bell piece – it’s a traditional Irish slip jig called Barney Brannigan – also known by several other titles, including Barney Brallaghan, Blewitt’s Jig and Twas on a Windy Night.
This piece is a nice challenge for four-in-hand duet. It is actually fun to play – not that you can tell from our faces in the video!
Would you like to play this arrangement?
If you’d like to play Barney Brannigan, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you purchase music from Choraegus, please note the music will come to you as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Purchase of this 8-bell arrangement entitles you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
If you’re unfamiliar with buying music from Choraegus, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our handbell music, please get in touch, and we’ll be happy to help!
Here’s our latest hymn arrangement for 8 handbells – it’s This is My Father’s World.
We were quite surprised to find out that the tune Terra Beata (Latin for beautiful world) is originally an English folk tune.
How to get the sheet music for this arrangement
This arrangement is fairly straightforward to play, and suitable for 2-4 ringers. If you’d like to play This Is My Father’s World, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you buy music from Choraegus, please note that the music will come to you in digital (PDF) format. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. 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 haven’t purchased music from Choraegus before, you might like to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this (with pictures) to help make the process stress-free!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please take a look at 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.
Children of the Heavenly Father is our latest 8-bell piece. It’s an arrangement of a tune that is thought to have originally been a Swedish folk melody.
We played this hymn for the first time at Burlingame United Methodist Church, California, at their Father’s Day service last month.
Our 8-bell arrangement is straightforward to play, and would also be suitable for a trio or quartet.
Would you like to play this arrangement?
If you’d like to play Children of the Heavenly Father, the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you purchase Choraegus music, the music score will come to you as a digital download. That means you’ll be responsible for printing it yourself, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. Your purchase of this 8-bell arrangement will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your handbell choir. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need!
If you’re not familiar with buying our music online, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this to make the process as stress-free as possible!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our handbell music, you might like to check our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you seek, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
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!
