Tag Archives: Handbells

New Music for Handbells – America, the Beautiful

It’s Memorial Day – a day to honor the men and women who gave their lives while serving in the US Armed Forces. Here’s our latest 8-bell piece – an arrangement of America, the Beautiful.

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Would you like to play this arrangement?

If you’d like to play America, the Beautiful, 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 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!

A Handbell Concert with Philadelphia Bronze!

Exciting news!  We’ve been invited to Pennsylvania at the end of this month, to perform in concert with Philadelphia Bronze!

Philadelphia Bronze concert

This will be our first-ever trip to the Philadelphia area, which looks like an interesting place to visit! We’ll only be there for three days, but we’re already busy making plans for the trip. We’ll definitely include a visit to Malmark Bellcraftsmen, the manufacturers of the bells we use for playing our duets.

More information about the concert

The concert with Philadelphia Bronze will take place on Saturday, May 30th, 2015 at 7:00pm. It will be at the Lutheran Church of the Good Shepherd, 132 E. Valley Forge Road, King of Prussia, PA 19406. We’ll perform some brand-new and unpublished duets in this concert. We’ll also share a new piece written by Larry for eight handbells and flute. We’re looking forward to hearing some exciting music from Philadelphia Bronze too!

On Sunday, May 31st, we’ll play some of our duets during the morning worship service at Newtown United Methodist Church. Then we’ll fly back to California later that day.

We’ll be posting more information about our trip on our Facebook page in the coming week. You can find Philadelphia Bronze on Facebook too!

A Concert With No Audience – in Walnut Grove

Last weekend, we saw the opportunity for another Concert with No Audience in Walnut Grove, California. We set up by the side doors of the Presbyterian church there, and played for an hour or so. There was no audience except the passing traffic, the birds, and a couple of passers-by.

We enjoy giving these “concerts” from time to time. In reality, a concert with no audience is probably not much more than another rehearsal. What makes it different is the possibility that an audience might arrive without warning. When we rehearse, we go back and practise passages of the music that need improvement. When we give a concert, whether to an audience or not, we’re selecting pieces that are performance-ready, and playing them to the best of our ability.

Here’s a video with excerpts from some of the pieces we played, all of which are currently available (or soon to be available) from Choraegus.

Would you like to host a concert – with an audience?

If you’d like to book us to perform a concert at your church, or a performance for your event, please contact us. We’ll bring the music, and you can provide the audience!

Concert with No Audience - Choraegus
Choraegus – Bringing Music to the People

New Music for Handbells – In the Garden – for 8 Bells

In the Garden was written in 1912 by C. Austin Miles. We received a request for an eight-bell arrangement of this much-loved hymn – so here it is!

How to purchase the sheet music

If you’d like to play In the Garden, 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 be happy to help!

In the Garden - handbells

New Music for Handbells – When Irish Eyes Are Smiling

We haven’t posted any new music for a while, so it must be time for us to introduce another eight-bell duet!  This one is When Irish Eyes Are Smiling – a lighthearted song first published in 1912 as a tribute to Ireland and its people.

Would you like to play this arrangement?

If you’d like to play When Irish Eyes are Smiling, the music is available for purchase and download from our music site.

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, so 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!

The Siskiyou Summit Handbell Conference 2015

We very much enjoyed our trip to Ashland, Oregon for the Siskiyou Summit Handbell Conference. We love long road-trips, and the drive from Mountain View up to Ashland is always a fun one.

Larry was this year’s guest clinician/director, and Carla taught classes on British-style four-in-hand ringing. We both had a busy weekend! We performed a selection of our 8-bell duets for event participants, at the Friday evening Showcase Concert. Saturday involved a full day of massed-ringing rehearsals and classes, followed by a well-attended public concert.

Here’s a photo from one of Carla’s classes, where participants were enthusiastic about learning to play 4-in-hand the British way! This is a particular challenge for anyone who hasn’t attempted to play two bells in one hand before. It’s also fairly mind-blowing for people who usually use the ring-and-knock style of playing 4-in-hand. Switching to a whole new method is a tricky thing to do!

Siskiyou Summit Handbell Conference - 4-in-hand class

Larry very much enjoyed the opportunity to direct this massed-ringing event. We enjoyed the individual group’s performances too!

Our thanks go to Diane Barnes, the event organiser. We’re also thankful to the musicians who worked so hard to make the Siskiyou Summit Handbell Conference a success. You can find more photos from the weekend are on our Facebook page!

P1080735 page

Did We Manage a Weekend Vacation Without Handbells?

Taking a vacation without handbells is clearly a challenge! We spent a lovely long weekend visiting Yosemite National Park. The plan was to enjoy a few days in beautiful surroundings, without the pressure of rehearsals or concerts. That’s quite unusual for us, because we usually only stay away from home when we’re attending a handbell event.

But did we leave our handbells at home?

Well, no. We still took our handbells with us. After all, there was always the possibility we might decide to rehearse in the hotel! Or we might be driving past a wedding and be called upon to play duets. We might even get a sudden phone call asking us to play at a church service. Oh, who are we kidding? It just didn’t seem right to go away for a long weekend without taking the bells with us. Perhaps it is an addiction after all.

We left the bells in the hotel for three whole days without taking them out of the case. But on Sunday morning, we could ignore them no longer, and we decided to find somewhere to rehearse. Just moments away from our hotel in Oakhurst was the Little Church on the Hill – the perfect location!

Vacation without handbells - Little Church on the Hill

Sadly, it turned out not to be such a perfect location, because we were competing with lots of traffic noise – but still, we spent an hour or so playing through some of the music we haven’t played for a while, and we had a great time. Here are some excerpts of the pieces we played:

The idea of a vacation without handbells was nice while it lasted, but turned out to be an impossible goal for us. We hope to be able to play at the Little Church again someday – maybe on our next trip to Yosemite!

Photos and Videos from the 34th Annual SECC Handbell Festival

The SECC Handbell Festival was a great success. More than a hundred skilled young handbell musicians attended, and worked very hard to prepare for the concert. Larry had the privilege of being their clinician for the event.

We were both so impressed by the skill and dedication of the young musicians at this event. The choirs arrived well-prepared, and stayed focused throughout the rehearsals. Their individual performances were of a very high standard, and they performed the massed ringing pieces very well. If you’d like to see some of the highlights from the SECC Handbell Festival, here’s a video with excerpts from the rehearsals and the evening concert. The concert featured music by Arnold Sherman, Kevin McChesney, William Gross, Jason Krug, Linda McKechnie, Tim Waugh, Michael Glasgow, Catherine McMichael, Matthew Compton and our very own Larry Sue. A snippet from our performance of our eight-bell duet “Great is Thy Faithfulness” appears about 18 minutes into the video.

We also very much enjoyed this performance of Matthew Compton’s arrangement of “Didn’t My Lord Deliver Daniel?”, by Bellissimo, a group from Redlands Advent Academy. Here’s a video from the event:

If you’d like to see more photos from this event, you can find them on our Facebook page!

Handbell duo Larry and Carla Sue at the 34th Annual SECC Handbell Festival, Riverside, CA
34th Annual SECC Handbell Festival, Riverside, CA – 2015

Southeastern Conference Advanced Handbell Festival

We’re excited that Larry has been invited to be the clinician at the SECC Advanced Handbell Festival this year!

We’re looking forward to making a trip to Riverside for this one-day event. Larry will be leading rehearsals with advanced young handbell musicians, and preparing for an evening concert. The handbell choirs will work on massed-ringing pieces to perform as a group, and will also prepare individual performance pieces. We’ll be playing an 8-bell duet or two during the concert too!

We’re looking forward to our visit to Riverside, and hope to do some sightseeing after the Advanced Handbell Festival. We’re also making tentative plans to play handbell duets in a church service on the Sunday morning. We’ll give you more details about this as they become available. Keep an eye on our Facebook page for updates!

If you’re in the area, you might like to join us on Friday, March 13, for the evening concert at La Sierra University’s Alumni Pavilion. There should be some exciting music to listen to, performed by some of the area’s finest young handbell musicians. Find out more information from the SECC Office of information, or contact us if you have any questions we might be able to help with.

Advanced Handbell Festival 2015

Tico Tico no Fubá – at Distinctly Bronze West

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.

TIco Tico no Fuba for handbells