Tag Archives: handbell music

New Music for Handbells – The Kesh – for 8 Bells

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.

The Kesh - handbells

New Music for Handbells – O Morning Star, How Fair and Bright

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.

O Morning Star
Christmas handbells!

New Music for Handbells – Crown Him with Many Crowns

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!

Crown Him with Many Crowns - handbells

New 8-Bell Wedding Ceremony Music

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!

The 2016 Bay View Week of Handbells Starts Today!

Today is the first day of the 2016 Bay View Week of Handbells! We’ll be spending the next four days playing some great music at the John M. Hall Auditorium in Bay View, Petoskey, as more than a hundred handbell musicians rehearse together under the direction of Carl Wiltse.

Bay View Week of Handbells

You can find out more about this event, and why it will always hold a special place in our hearts, by reading our article about the Bay View Week of Handbells and taking a look at our gallery of photos. This year is the first time we’ve been able to drive to the event – from our new home in Holland, Michigan!

At the end of this week’s rehearsals, there will be a concert, open to the public and free to attend. The concert will be held on Thursday, August 18, 2016 at 8:00pm in the John M. Hall Auditorium, 1715 Encampment Ave., Petoskey, Michigan. An offering will be taken to benefit the Bay View Association Music Scholarship Fund.

This year’s concert repertoire:

Processional by Arnold Sherman

Allegretto arr. Michael Mazzatenta

All Creatures of our God and King arr. Alex Guebert

Oblivion by Douglas Anderson

Sonata in Baroque Style by Michael Helman

Give Me Jesus arr. John Behnke

Toccata on King’s Weston arr. Matthew Compton

The Drunken Sailor arr. Carl Wiltse

Tico Tico no Fuba arr. Larry Sue

Autumn Leaves arr. Andrea Handley

Nollirac Carillon by Fred Gramann

Give Us Peace in Our Time arr. Donald E. Allured

Concerto for Handbells and Organ in Baroque Style by Michael Helman

The Lord Bless you and Keep You by Peter Lutkin (sung; not played)

The performance will be professionally recorded by Pierpont Productions, so if you can’t make it to the concert, you can order a DVD or CD by calling Pierpont Productions on 231-347-4488.

We’ll be posting updates and photos on our Facebook page as the week goes by. We’d love to see you at the concert!

New Music for Handbells – Barney Brannigan

“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!

Playing Handbell Duets in Holland, Michigan!

We celebrated our recent arrival in Holland, Michigan by spending a couple of hours playing our handbell duets on 8th Street. Thank you to everyone who stopped to listen to our music!

Playing handbell duets in Holland - Larry and Carla
We had fun being street musicians in Holland today!

Downtown Holland is a great place to play music. We arrived armed with a street performers’ permit, and a map of approved locations. After that, it’s just a question of finding a spot along the street where you won’t be in anyone’s way. Then you have to park the car in a location not too far from your chosen performance spot. After that, you simply hope that people will enjoy the music you have to offer. We enjoyed playing our handbell duets in Holland today!

8th Street, where we played handbell duets
8th Street, where we played handbell duets

You can book us to play handbells at your event!

We had some enquiries about our availability to play our duets at other events. The answer is yes, you can book us to play handbells at your wedding, church service, party, Christmas event, wine-tasting… well, the list goes on. We’re new to West Michigan, so we have lots of dates available in the coming months!

Check out our YouTube channel to see some more of our duets. If you’d like to book us for your event, request a copy of our current fee schedule, or have any questions, please get in touch!

The Start of our Long Road Trip – Yosemite National Park

At the start of the Fourth of July weekend, we drove out of the San Francisco Bay Area, and headed for the first stop on an exciting and long road trip!

We spent the first couple of nights in Oakhurst, 14 miles south of the entrance to Yosemite National Park. On Saturday, we drove into the park to spend the day there.

Long Road Trip - Sentinel Beach
Sentinel Beach

Yosemite National Park has 1,200 square miles of mountains, waterfalls, meadows and ancient sequoias The views are breathtaking, and there are endless opportunities for walking. If you’re not into hiking in the heat of the summer, you can also to tour the park by car. When you see something interesting, you can get out of the car and follow one of the short trails. These are very accessible, even for families with young children.

Bridalveil Falls
Bridalveil Falls

We took the opportunity to play a few handbell duets while we were at Yosemite. It was the Fourth of July weekend, so the park was quite busy. That made it a challenge to find a place that wasn’t too crowded with people. We’ve read that four million people visit the park annually – and we became convinced that most of them were there this weekend!

Eventually we found somewhere quiet, and played our handbells for a while. Here’s a recording of “America, the Beautiful”, which seemed appropriate for the holiday weekend:

This was our second trip to Yosemite since Carla moved to California in 2012. It’s a place that Carla spent years wanting to visit, when she lived in England – and we’re happy to have been able to go there together. It’s truly a breathtaking experience!

Half Dome
Half Dome

For more photos from our weekend at Yosemite, check out our Facebook page!

New Music for Handbells – Children of the Heavenly Father

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.

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!