Forever Autumn was written by Jeff Wayne, Gary Osborne and Paul Vigrass. It was recorded by Justin Hayward, of The Moody Blues, in 1978, for the album Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds. The single reached #5 on the UK Singles Chart in 1978, and peaked at #47 in the USA.
It’s one of the most beautiful, if one of the most melancholy, songs in living memory.
“The summer sun is fading as the year grows old And darker days are drawing near The winter winds will be much colder Now you’re not here.“
Forever Autumn is now available for handbells! Even though the song is a sad one, we enjoyed putting together our demo recording.
More information about Forever Autumn
Forever Autumn is for 5octaves of handbells, with 3 octaves of handchimes.
If you’d like to find out more about this arrangement, and other arrangements and original compositions for handbell choir, visit our Choraegus website. Alternatively, click below to go directly to Sheet Music Plus!
Other 1960s/1970s pop song arrangements from Choraegus
If you’re a fan of 1960s and ’70s pop tunes, you might also enjoy a couple of other arrangements available from Choraegus (and Sheet Music Plus). Click on the titles to find out more!
Close to You: A big hit for The Carpenters in 1970, this Level 4 arrangement for 3-7 octaves of handbells and 3 octaves of handchimes will make your audience want to sing along!
Those Were the Days: This Gene Raskin song was a hit for Mary Hopkin in 1968. This fun Level 3+ arrangement for 5-7 octaves will delight your audience!
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling is a beloved hymn written by Charles Wesley and first published in 1747.
“Love divine, all loves excelling, Joy of heaven to earth come down; Fix in us thy humble dwelling; All thy faithful mercies crown!
Jesus, thou art all compassion, Pure, unbounded love thou art. Visit us with thy salvation; Enter every trembling heart.”
Love Divine, All Loves Excelling is sung to several different hymn tunes, including BEECHER and HYFRYDOL. In the UK, the tunes LOVE DIVINE and BLAENWERN are used most often, and BLAENWERN is the one we use for our arrangement. This tune was written by William Penfro Rowlands in 1905.
More information about Love Divine, All Loves Excelling
Our arrangement is for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells, with an optional 2 octaves of chimes (G4 – F5). It’s a Level 2+ arrangement, and the score is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. You can either purchase an individual copy (useful for massed ringing events, or for preview), or purchase the full choir license. Please note that Choraegus handbell music is designed to come to you as a downloadable PDF file. 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, we recommend 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.
Your purchase of the full-choir license allows you to perform, broadcast and live-stream this piece as part of a concert or worship service. There’s no need for any additional license or fee. We askthat youcredit the composer (Larry Sue) and publisher (Choraegus) in any printed media such as concert programs, and online (in video descriptions). Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
We appreciate your help in spreading the word about Choraegus handbell music. If you record a video of your group playing any of our pieces, we’d love to see it. You’re welcome to share it with us by email or on our Facebook page!
If you have any questions about our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If someone has asked us a question even once, it will be there, along with the answer. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help!
Jesus Loves the Little Children is a popular children’s song that many people remember from their Sunday school days!
“Jesus loves the little children, All the children of the world, Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in His sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.“
Some people have observed that the lyrics, from the late 19th century, are a little old-fashioned for current times. Other alternatives have been suggested, such as:
“Every color, every race, all are covered by His grace.“, and “Stranger, friend, and neighbour too, He loves them as He loves you.“
The useful thing about playing this song on handbells is that you don’t have to worry about the lyrics; you can just enjoy the music, and let the listener choose the words they like. Here’s our demonstration video:
More information about Jesus Loves the Little Children
Sheet music for Jesus Loves the Little Children is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. This lively arrangement is suitable for 2-4 ringers. If you’d like to take a look at the score before you make a purchase, you can do that by clicking on the “score preview” button on our Choraegus site.
Purchasing an 8-bell arrangement from Choraegus gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need to! Purchase also gives you permission to use this piece in online and live-streamed worship services. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title (Jesus Loves the Little Children) and arranger (Larry Sue) on video-sharing sites and social media.
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 with pictures, to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a stress-free way.
If you have any questions about our music, we recommend reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!
LAND OF REST is a hymn tune that’s most often used as the setting for the hymn Jerusalem, My Happy Home. We enjoyed playing this new 8-bell arrangement!
More information about Land of Rest
Sheet music for LAND OF REST is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. It’s suitable for 2-4 ringers. If you’d like to take a look at the score before you make a purchase, you can do that by clicking on the “score preview” button on our Choraegus site.
Purchasing an 8-bell arrangement from Choraegus gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need to! Purchase also gives you permission to use this piece in online and live-streamed worship services. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title (Land of Rest) and arranger (Larry Sue) on video-sharing sites and social media.
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 with pictures, to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a stress-free way.
If you have any questions about our music, we recommend reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!
White Christmas has been a holiday classic for many years! Irving Berlin wrote the song in 1940, and the first performance was by Bing Crosby on Christmas Day, 1941. Since then, the song has been covered by many people, including Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams, Bette Midler, and Lady Gaga!
Larry’s new arrangement of White Christmas will bring joy, and perhaps a touch of nostalgia, to your audience! It’s for handbells, handchimes, and flute. Thanks to Rose Wiersma for joining us to play the flute part on our demonstration video. Rose is a talented musician, who not only plays a variety of instruments professionally, but also directs the Zeeland Community Band. Rose is based in Holland, Michigan, and we’ve been privileged to be friends for some years now. We hope you’ll enjoy our video!
More information about this arrangement
White Christmas is for 5-7 octaves of handbells, with 2 octaves of handchimes, and an optional flute part that really adds something special!
If you’d like to find out more about this arrangement, and other arrangements and original compositions for handbell choir, visit our Choraegus website. Alternatively, click below to go directly to Sheet Music Plus!
Other holiday handbell arrangements from Choraegus
We have lots of Christmas and holiday music available from Choraegus (and Sheet Music Plus). Options include some fun-to-play secular arrangements. Click on the titles to find out more!
“I want a hippopotamus for Christmas Only a hippopotamus will do I don’t want a doll, no dinky Tinkertoy I want a hippopotamus to play with and enjoy.“
I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas is a song from 1950 by John Rox. In 1953, Gayla Peevey, a ten-year old from Oklahoma City, OK, recorded it with Mitch Miller’s orchestra as the supporting cast. It’s been a holiday classic ever since – and now it’s available for 3 octaves of handbells (plus optional D7).
Here’s our demonstration video. We had so much fun recording this!
More information about I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas
You can find out more about this arrangement on our Choraegus music site, but if you want to play it, you’ll need to go to Sheet Music Plus to purchase the downloadable score. This site has been a huge help with publishing arrangements of songs that are still under copyright, especially when communicating directly with copyright holders proved to be less than successful. We hope you’ll want to put I Want a Hippopotamus on your Christmas wishlist!
We hope you’ll enjoy browsing our selection of handbell music on Sheet Music Plus. You’ll find more of Larry’s arrangements there soon! If there are any popular songs you’d like to see an arrangement for, you’re always welcome to contact us to suggest it. As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!
ENGELBERG is a popular hymn tune that’s been used as a setting for hymns such as We Know That Christ is Raised, All Praise to Thee, for Thou, O King Divine, and When in our Music, God is Glorified. That makes it a very versatile hymn for use throughout the church year.
We now have a Surprisingly Easy arrangement for just 8 bells!
More information about this 8-bell arrangement
Sheet music for ENGELBERG is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. Our Surprisingly Easy 8-bell music is a suitable for 2-4 ringers, and is particularly useful for quartets, and small groups in need of music that can be performed with a limited amount of rehearsal time.
Purchasing an 8-bell arrangement from Choraegus gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need to! Purchase also gives you permission to use this piece in online and live-streamed worship services. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title (ENGLEBERG) and arranger (Larry Sue) on video-sharing sites and social media.
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 with pictures, to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a stress-free way.
If you have any questions about our music, we recommend reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!
“Christ, whose glory fills the skies, Christ, the true and only Light, Sun of righteousness, arise, triumph o’er the shade of night; Day-spring from on high, be near; Day-star, in my heart appear.“
Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies is an 18th-century hymn by Charles Wesley. Here’s our new 8-bell arrangement of the RATISBON hymn tune. It’s one of our Surprisingly Easy arrangements!
More information about this 8-bell arrangement of Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies
Sheet music for Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. Our Surprisingly Easy 8-bell music is a great choice for quartets, and small groups in need of music that can be performed with a limited amount of rehearsal time.
Purchasing an 8-bell arrangement from Choraegus gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group. Please don’t pay for more copies than you need to! Purchase also gives you permission to use this piece in online and live-streamed worship services. See our licensing agreement for full details. Please remember to mention the title (Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies) and arranger (Larry Sue) on video-sharing sites and social media.
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 with pictures, to help you navigate the purchase and download process in a stress-free way.
If you have any questions about our music, we recommend reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!
This year has seen an exciting development; after years of publishing handbell music only on our Choraegus website, Larry has branched out, just slightly, and now has several pieces available from Sheet Music Plus. The SMP site has been a huge help when arranging titles that are still under copyright, especially when communicating with copyright holders directly proved to be less than successful.
We’re excited about our recent Christmas arrangements! The first is Larry’s arrangement of Winter Wonderland. Richard Bernhard Smith wrote the lyrics for this song in 1934, and Felix Bernard added the tune. There have now been more than 200 covers of this music!
Sleigh bells ring – are you listenin’? In the lane snow is glist’nin’, A beautiful sight, We’re happy tonight. Walkin’ in a Winter Wonderland!
Our five-octave handbell arrangement is Level 5, which makes it a fun challenge for handbell choirs. We enjoyed making our demonstration video!
“Silver bells, silver bells, It’s Christmas time in the city, Ring-a-ling, hear them ring, Soon it will be Christmas Day.“
This 3-7 octave Level 4 arrangement provides an opportunity to feature handchimes or “alternate bells”. We used Silver Melody Bells in our demonstration, but you could use Whitechapel handbells, or Petit and Fritsens if you have them. Maybe even a bell tree! Alternatively, just use chimes, or stick with all bells. You’ll still be transported back to Christmas time in a city long ago!
Another Christmas arrangement is I Wonder as I Wander. In 1933, John Jacob Niles heard a bit of music from Annie Morgan, a Appalachian girl, and used it as the basis of his song. This medium-difficulty arrangement for just 8 handbells provides ample room to express the interpretation of the carol. Two transpositions, F5-A6 and Eb5-G6, are provided, the latter fitting within the range of a two-octave set of handbells. We enjoyed having a snowy backdrop for our demonstration video, because the snow arrived early in Michigan last winter, and stayed for a while!
Continuing with Christmas music, Carol of the Drum is one of our most popular 8-bell arrangements. Written by Katherine Davis in 1941, the tune is based on a traditional Czech Christmas carol, and most often known as Little Drummer Boy. Our 8-bell arrangement is available in two versions; one more straightforward than the other.
This popular Harry Bollbank song is now available for 8 handbells, with piano accompaniment. Both the handbell part and the piano part are straightforward to play.
Moving away from the holiday season, and towards the sunny summer months, Bring Me Sunshine was written by Arthur Kent and Sylvia Dee in 1966. In the UK, it was used for many years as the theme song for the popular comedy show Morecambe & Wise. Larry’s arrangement is for 3 octaves of handbells, and it’s fun to play. If you need a charming, lighthearted selection for your spring program, this Level 3 arrangement fills the bill!
The beautiful, haunting classical guitar work Cavatina was written by Stanley Myers. It was based on music originally written for the movie The Walking Stick in 1970. Myers expanded the piece, and it was recorded by guitarist John Williams. It’s now most famous as the theme tune for the 1978 film The Deer Hunter. Larry’s arrangement of Cavatina is for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells.
We hope you’ll enjoy browsing our selection of handbell music on Sheet Music Plus. You’ll find more of Larry’s arrangements there soon! If there are any popular songs you’d like to see an arrangement for, you’re always welcome to contact us to suggest it. As always, if you have any questions, please let us know!
O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is one of the most popular hymns for the Advent and Christmas season. We were recently asked for a straightforward 2-3 octave arrangement, designed for beginning and improving handbell choirs.
Here’s our demonstration video of this Level 1+ piece.
More information about this 2-3 octave arrangement
This arrangement of O Come, O Come, Emmanuel is written with beginning/improving handbell choirs in mind. There are lots of chords, and lots of quarter notes; ideal for less-confident ringers. It’s a no-frills arrangement, and you can add as many repeats as you need. This arrangement is also suitable to be played on handchimes if you prefer. Sheet music is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. We offer the full choir license at a bargain price for this “no frills” arrangement. Purchase gives you our no-fuss permission to print up to 15 copies for your group.
Your purchase of the full-choir license allows you to perform, broadcast and live-stream this piece as part of a concert or worship service. There’s no need for any additional license or fee. We ask that youcredit the arranger (Larry Sue) and publisher (Choraegus) in any printed media such as concert programs, and online (in video descriptions). Please see our licensing agreement for full details.
We appreciate your help in spreading the word about Choraegus handbell music. If you record a video of your group playing any of our pieces, we’d love to see it. You’re welcome to share it with us by email or on our Facebook page!
Please note that Choraegus handbell music is designed to come to you as a downloadable PDF file. 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, we recommend 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 O Come, O Come, Emmanuel, or any of our music, please start by reading our Frequently-Asked Questions. If someone has asked us a question even once, it will be there, along with the answer. Please contact us if you don’t find the information you need, and we’ll be happy to help.
