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!
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.
“Take the Name of Jesus with you, Child of sorrow and of woe, It will joy and comfort give you; Take it then, where’er you go. Precious Name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n. Precious Name, O how sweet! Hope of earth and joy of Heav’n.”
Here’s our latest 8-bell arrangement – the hymn Take the Name of Jesus With You (PRECIOUS NAME). We recorded this video during a rehearsal at Los Altos United Methodist Church. It’s a lively and fun arrangement to play!
How to get the sheet music
If you’d like to play this piece, the music is available from Choraegus.
When you purchase sheet music from Choraegus, you’ll need to remember that it comes 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 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 bought music from Choraegus before, you might find our step-by-step guide helpful. We designed this to take you through the purchasing process and make it stress-free!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing Choraegus handbell music, we recommend looking at our Frequently-Asked Questions. It’s possible that someone else has already asked the same question, and received an answer! If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Finlandia is our latest arrangement for 8 handbells.
Some of the history of Finlandia
The Finnish composer Jean Sibelius wrote Finlandia in 1889. It was originally the Finlandia Hymn; part of a symphonic poem. Sibelius then reworked it as a standalone piece, as part of his Masonic Ritual Music. The Finnish poet Veikko Antero Koskenniemi wrote words for it in 1941, and it became popular as a national song for Finland, although not the official national anthem.
In 1752, Katharina Amalia Dorothea von Schlegel had written a hymn in German: Stille meine Wille, dein Jesus hilft siegen. In 1855, Jane Laurie Borthwick translated it into English as Be Still, My Soul.
“Be still, my soul, the Lord is on thy side; Bear patiently the cross of grief or pain. Leave to thy God to order and provide; In every change He, faithful, will remain. Be still, my soul, thy best, thy heavenly friend Through thorny ways leads to a joyful end.”
Another popular hymn sung to the Finlandia tune is We Rest on Thee, written in England by Edith G. Cherry in 1895. This Is My Song is another hymn that uses the same tune, with words written in 1934 by Lloyd Stone. It’s also the tune used for Gweddi dros Gymru (A Prayer for Wales), which is widely considered to be the second Welsh national anthem.
With thanks to Los Altos United Methodist Church for allowing us to rehearse and record this piece in their beautiful sanctuary.
Would you like to play Finlandia?
If you’d like to play this arrangement the music is available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
When you buy music from Choraegus, please remember that it will come to you as a digital file (PDF). 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’re new to buying music from Choraegus, you might find our step-by-step guide helpful!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help!
On Easter Sunday we had the opportunity to be part of the celebrations at Los Altos United Methodist Church. We played a couple of our new hymn accompaniments (coming to our website soon!) as well as specially-arranged handbell parts for two choir anthems.
Easter Sunday at Los Altos United Methodist Church
We also enjoyed collaborating with LAUMC’s talented Senior Organist, T. Paul Rosas. Paul recently wrote an organ accompaniment to Come Christians, Join to Sing. We played the 8-bell arrangement with organ and handbells at the three morning services on Easter Sunday. It was a lot of fun! Here’s a recording from one of the services:
Our thanks go to Los Altos United Methodist Church for making this recording available to us.
Would you like to play this piece?
If you’d like to play this piece, the music is available for purchase and download from our music site.
When you buy music from Choraegus, please remember that the music will come to you as a PDF file. You’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. See our printing guides for more information about this!
If you’re new to buying Choraegus music, you might find it helpful to look at our step-by-step guide. We designed this guide to take you through the process in a (we hope!) stress-free way.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, you might like to look at the Frequently-Asked Questions. It’s possible that someone else has already asked the same question and received an answer! If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Here’s our latest 8-bell arrangement; it’s the popular hymn He Keeps Me Singing.
We know this hymn as a lively and joyful melody. However, we recently read about the circumstances that led Luther Burgess Bridgers to write it – and they were far from happy. He was a pastor and evangelist who wrote the hymn after his wife and three sons had died in a house fire while he was away preaching.
“There’s within my heart a melody Jesus whispers sweet and low, Fear not, I am with thee, peace, be still, In all of life’s ebb and flow.
Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest Name I know, Fills my every longing, Keeps me singing as I go.”
Our thanks to Los Altos United Methodist Church for allowing us to rehearse in their beautiful sanctuary. It’s the place where we had our wedding ceremony in September 2012.
Would you like to play this arrangement?
If you’d like to play this piece, 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. 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 will entitle you to print up to 4 copies for your group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
If you haven’t bought music from Choraegus before, we recommend our step-by-step guide! We designed this in an attempt 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 information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
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!
Would you like to play For the Beauty of the Earth?
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!
Any questions?
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.
During our recent visit to England, we enjoyed the opportunity to rehearse some handbell music with friends. Our trip was mainly for the purpose of meeting our new granddaughter for the first time and catching up with family members we hadn’t seen for far too long. However, we didn’t want to miss the chance to get together with Gay and Alan Cooper, the other half of Pizzazz Handbell Quartet.
More about Pizzazz
Back in the days when Carla lived in England, Pizzazz was a trio, with Gay, Alan and Carla as members. They rehearsed in Wallingford, with coffee, sometimes pizza, and lots of music. The three of them would often keep rehearsing until very late into the night. After all, who needs to sleep when there are handbells to play? The three group members shared a willingness to squash far too many bells, tables, foam pads, table covers, music and people into a car. They’d travel just about any distance to give a performance or take part in a handbell event.
As a group, Pizzazz gave performances and workshops at local and national events. They had success at music festivals and in the Trinity College London intermediate and advanced recital exams. The trio recorded a handbell track on a CD by London-based avant pop duo French for Cartridge. They also performed at parties, weddings, charity events and open-mic nights, and represented the UK at an exciting handbell event in Talinn, Estonia.
Christmas festivities at Heathrow AirportIn concert in Estonia
Carla’s move to California
After all the fun they’d had, the members of the trio were understandably reluctant to break up the group, when Carla moved to California (and got married) in 2012. The best solution was obviously for the trio to become a quartet – an international one – with Gay and Alan on one side of the ocean and Larry and Carla on the other. We had our first opportunity to rehearse together during our visit to England at the beginning of 2014.
Since then, we’ve been more than 5,000 miles apart, communicating on Facebook and by email, but not able to rehearse or perform together as a group. When we knew we’d be visiting England again, it was exciting to be able to make plans to get together with Gay and Alan for another rehearsal!
The Waltz from Sleeping Beauty
As we only had one evening to rehearse, we decided to use our time to try out something new. We played through Larry’s 16-bell arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Waltz. You might recognise the tune as the Once Upon a Dream song from the Disney movie.
This piece was new to all of us. It meant that we weren’t able to get a note-perfect performance in the time available. Still, we hope this video will give you some idea of how the piece should sound. We had a lot of fun with it! We hope to be able to get together again someday, and perhaps try for a more polished performance next time!
Our thanks go to Gay and Alan! We appreciated their continued willingness to play insane handbell stuff at crazy hours of the day (and night).
Would you like to play the Waltz from Sleeping Beauty?
If you’d like to play this piece, the music is now available for purchase and download from Choraegus.
Choraegus handbell music is designed to come to you as a digital download (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 16-bell arrangement allows you to print up to 8 copies for your handbell group. Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
Any questions?
If you have any questions about Pizzazz, or about our music, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help!
Pizzazz Handbell Quartet – reunited in Wallingford!
“Sweet hour of prayer! Sweet hour of prayer! That calls me from a world of care, And bids me at my Father’s throne Make all my wants and wishes known. In seasons of distress and grief, My soul has often found relief, And oft escaped the tempter’s snare By thy return, sweet hour of prayer!”
Our latest 8-bell piece is this peaceful melody, written by William Bradbury in 1861. We recorded the video in the beautiful sanctuary of Los Altos United Methodist Church.
More information about this arrangement
If you’d like to play this piece, 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. 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 allows 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, we recommend our step-by-step guide. We designed this in an attempt to take the stress out of ordering music online.
Any questions?
If you have questions about buying or playing our handbell music, please check our Frequently-Asked Questions. You just might find your answer there! If you don’t find the information you’re looking for, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
