Tag Archives: holiday music

Music for Advent and Christmas, at the Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland

Here’s a little video of our warm-up session at the Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, where we played duets at their Annual Night of Remembrance on December 9th.  Apologies for the background noise (which does improve slightly as the video goes on). We made this recording while people were running around, setting everything up for the evening’s event.

We enjoy playing our handbell duets at the Chapel of the Chimes. It’s a beautiful building, and this annual event is always enjoyable and moving.

Nearly at the end of our holiday performances

We’re coming to the end of our Christmas and holiday performances now. We’ll be performing at a private holiday party on Saturday. Afterwards, we’ll be playing at the Sundar Shadi Holiday Display in El Cerrito, returning for a second performance on December 23rd. The Holiday Display is an outdoor event, and we can’t play our handbells in the rain. Please keep an eye on our Facebook page for any changes, postponements or cancellations in the event of bad weather.

Chapel of the Chimes - handbells

Would you like to book us for a holiday event?

Perhaps it’s too late to book us for a holiday event this year, but it’s never too early to plan for next year! If you’re organising a Christmas event, and you’d like to consider handbell music, please get in touch with us!

The Holiday Season Continues… with More Handbell Duet Performances

It’s been another busy week of handbell duet performances for us! We played at the Salvation Army Kettle here in Mountain View, and at fun holiday events in Palo Alto and Los Altos. We also had another opportunity to play our handbells at the Annual Night of Remembrance at the Chapel of the Chimes in Oakland.

Have we mentioned how much we love playing handbells at the Chapel of the Chimes? The Night of Remembrance is always a very special evening. People gather together to remember loved ones who are no longer with us, and to light candles and celebrate lives. The building itself is a beautiful place. It has Gothic-style architecture and intricate stonework that reminds Carla of much older churches and cathedrals in England.

Chapel of the Chimes 1

There’s also a Christmas tree that looks like this:

Chapel of the Chimes 2

We played two pieces during the service itself: The Water is Wide (also known as The Gift of Love) and Moreton Bay. Then we moved our bells to the area beside the beautiful Christmas tree. There, we played a selection of Christmas carols and holiday music while guests enjoyed refreshments.

Handbell duet performances

Did we mention the spectacular Christmas tree?

Chapel of the Chimes Christmas tree

More holiday performances ahead!

Our weekend will continue with performances at the German Christmas Market in Mountain View. We’re also looking forward to our concert with VoiceWorks in Redwood City tomorrow. And on Monday, we’ll be taking a nap – unless another booking arrives! Yes, we’re still available for last-minute bookings in the run-up to Christmas. Contact us if you’d like to book us for your event!

More Holiday Performances to Come

We’re enjoying the run-up to Christmas, and there are more holiday performances to come!

We spent last weekend at the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts. We played our handbell duets before and after the Pacific Ballet Academy’s performances of The Nutcracker. It was fun to receive such a warm welcome from so many people who recognised us from previous years! For us, this was the perfect opportunity to share some of our 8-bell Nutcracker pieces, easing gently into a selection of Advent, Christmas and holiday music.

More holiday performances with Larry and Carla

On Tuesday afternoon we played our first session at the Salvation Army Red Kettle, here in Mountain View. We played duets for two hours, and people gave generously to help local people at Christmas and throughout the year.

Salvation Army Red Kettle - handbell duo

Don’t miss our concert with VoiceWorks!

On Wednesday we went to Redwood City to rehearse with VoiceWorks for our shared concert on December 13th. It’s going to be a fun concert!

VoiceWorks Larry and Carla poster

On Thursday afternoon we had a delightfully festive time playing Christmas carols at the Christmas meeting of a church group in Campbell. An enthusiastic audience is a very good thing. We had eight willing volunteers for our “have-a-go” session, playing Jingle Bells on handchimes. We very much enjoyed our visit, and appreciated the warm welcome we received.

Holiday event in Campbell 2015

On Thursday evening, we took part in the Kara Candlelight Service of Remembrance in Palo Alto. This is an annual event, and is always an emotional and moving evening.

SAMSUNG CSC

Friday morning started early for us, with a trip to Palo Alto for a performance at a private meeting/holiday celebration there. We arrived early and spent a fun half-hour looking around the shops in chilly downtown Palo Alto.

We had a great time (and lovely, much-needed coffee and breakfast) at this event. Audience members asked us some interesting questions about our bells and music. Handbell music always seems to get people into the holiday spirit, even quite early in the morning at the start of a busy working day!

Palo Alto December 2015 4Palo Alto, December 2015 3

Next week’s events

Next week will bring another session at the Salvation Army Red Kettle. There will also be private holiday events in Palo Alto and Los Altos. We’ll be playing duets at the Chapel of the Chimes, Oakland, and at our concert with VoiceWorks in Redwood City.

Free for a Very Limited time – We Three Kings

We recently gave away a free download of our eight-bell arrangement of Twas in the Moon of Wintertime. Our offer proved to be very popular – so we’ve decided to offer just one more free download this holiday season. Until Friday evening, you can download the score to the newly-updated arrangement of “We Three Kings” completely free of charge!

Here’s a video of us rehearsing the new version of this piece:

This arrangement is a little more challenging than Twas in the Moon of Wintertime, but is still very playable. It’s been one of our favourites since we started playing duets in 2012. If you’ve played our 8-bell arrangement before, you’ll notice that most of the changes are in the first half. If you can already play the previous version, you should have no trouble adding the extra notes in the updated version. You won’t need to learn the whole piece all over again.

And if you’ve never played our 8-bell music before – here’s an opportunity to try it without having to pay! We hope you’ll enjoy it enough to look at other music on Choraegus, and perhaps consider buying music from us in the future. However, there are no strings to this offer. If all you want to do is grab the free music and run, that’s fine. We’ll never pester you with emails or unwanted advertising; but you know where our music is if you ever need it.

How to get the free music

To get the music, just go to the We Three Kings page on our music site. Go to the standard version, enter your name and email address, and click on the download button. Then check your inbox for an email containing a link to download your music in the usual way. Contact us if you have any questions!

Happy ringing!

We Three Kings - handbells

Free Handbell Music – ‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime

Here’s a little holiday gift for anyone who would like to play our eight-bell arrangement of “‘Twas in the Moon of Wintertime”. We’ve updated the “standard version” for 2015, and this week you can download the score completely free of charge!

Here’s a video of us rehearsing the new version of the piece:

If you’ve played our 8-bell arrangement of this piece before, you’ll notice that most of the changes have been made to the first half of the piece. If you can already play the previous version, you should have no trouble adding the extra notes in the updated version. It won’t feel like having to learn a whole new piece. Best of all, those newly-added notes will cost you nothing!

And if you’ve never played our 8-bell music before – here’s an opportunity to try it without having to pay any money. What could be better? Okay, don’t answer that. There probably are better things. But hey… free music is free music, and we hope you’ll enjoy playing this piece.

To get the music, just go to the “Twas in the Moon of Wintertime” page on our music site. There’s no requirement to “like” our Facebook page. We don’t ask you to buy anything, subscribe to anything or jump through any kind of hoops. Just select the standard version, enter your name and email address, and click on the download button. You’ll receive an emailed link to download your music in the usual way.

Happy ringing!

In the Moon of Wintertime handbells
Christmas handbells

New 8-Bell Music for Christmas 2015!

In the handbell world, our thoughts turn to Christmas and holiday music before most people have even started thinking about the end of the summer. The dilemma is whether to risk being annoying by talking about Christmas when there are still several months to go, or whether to go full-tilt into the festive season, release new Christmas music, and give all the handbell musicians out there plenty of time to practise it before the season arrives. The end of September is approaching. It feels like the right time to introduce our new 8-bell muisc for Christmas 2015.

The following pieces are all available for purchase and download from our music site – and if you click on each individual title, you’ll be taken to the page with more information about each piece, the bells required, and how to make your purchase. Each piece can be played by two, three, four or more people – and we hope you’ll enjoy them!

Angels We Have Heard on High

The First Nowell

Good King Wenceslas

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

O Come, All Ye Faithful

O Holy Night

Once in Royal David’s City

While Shepherds Watched their Flocks

We hope you’ll enjoy playing some of our new 8-bell music for the holiday season. If you haven’t already done so, don’t forget to check out our new Christmas music for twelve bells too!

New 8-bell music for Christmas
The most wonderful time of the year!

New 12-Bell Music for Christmas 2015!

We’re excited about our new 12-bell music for Christmas 2015! These recordings once again feature Larry’s son J.C., who plays the four bells we can’t manage to play between us.

We didn’t have very much time with J.C on his recent visit. The videos were all made on our first or second read-through of each piece. As a result, there may be be wrong notes or rhythms that are not entirely accurate. We apologise in advance for all those things, but we hope these slightly dubious recordings will provide enough of an idea of how the pieces could sound, given the opportunity for a bit more rehearsal. We hope to have another opportunity to play these arrangements before too long. Please contact us if you have any questions about any of this music, and we’ll be happy to help.

Angels We Have Heard on High

Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella

Ding Dong, Merrily on High

It Came Upon the Midnight Clear

We Three Kings

All these pieces are available for purchase and download from Choraegus. Purchase comes with permission to perform these pieces as part of a concert or worship service. We hope you enjoy playing this new 12-bell music!

new 12-bell music for Christmas
Christmas handbells!

Handbell Duets at the Chapel of the Chimes, Hayward

What do you do when it’s the Fourth of July, and you’ve finished eating party food and having fun with family and friends? The answer is… play handbell duets, of course!

handbell duets at the Chapel of the Chimes

An impromptu handbell duet performance

We were in Hayward, California for a family gathering, and we decided we needed to burn off some of the calories we’d consumed at lunch time. We were driving in the direction of home, and noticed the Chapel of the Chimes. Suddenly looked like a great location for a Concert With No Audience! 

The Chapel of the Chimes is a 61-acre cemetery, crematorium and funeral home complex. It didn’t appear that we’d be disturbing anyone with our music, so we set up our table and bells. We played duets for around forty minutes! It was a great opportunity to play through some of the music for our visit to Los Altos Lutheran Church the following day. We also brought out some of the older pieces we hadn’t played for a very long time!

We had the usual interesting challenges that go with outdoor performances – a strong breeze, traffic noise, and even some festive firecrackers! The location and the sunshine also made it a very stripy-looking performance, as you can see from the video!

The following pieces are on the video:

  • America, the Beautiful
  • Come, Christians, Join to Sing
  • Drink to Me Only
  • Beautiful Dreamer
  • A Mighty Fortress
  • Moreton Bay
  • Great is Thy Faithfulness
  • Danny Boy
  • Botany Bay
  • Earth and All Stars
  • I Need Thee Every Hour
  • The King of Love My Shepherd Is
  • Allegro

We hope you enjoyed our handbell duets at the Chapel of the Chimes. All the pieces we played are available (or coming soon!) from Choraegus. If you’d like to book us for a performance with an audience, please let us know!

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!

A New Video – Sing We Now of Christmas

Here’s a new recording of Sing We Now of Christmas, previously published as Now the Green Blade Riseth. We’ve been having fun rehearsing and recording some of our Christmas music!

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

Information about buying music from Choraegus

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 Choraegus 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 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!

Sing We Now of Christmas 8-Bell