Now that we have more time together at home, we decided to try recording another full-choir piece with just the two of us. We decided on Newness – one of Larry’s original compositions – as our second recording project. We didn’t have 5 octaves of handbells at home, so we played the 3-octave version.
As with All Praise to Thee, for Thou, O King Divine, this was a read-through, rather than a practised performance. It’s pretty much all there, but we didn’t practise beforehand, and didn’t work on expression or dynamics. Still, you should get a reasonable idea of how the piece is meant to sound.
This is another arrangement that needs no bell-sharing between ringers. If your handbell choir is observing social distancing, and playing from spaced-apart tables, this piece could work well!
More information about the music
Newness is an original composition written for 3 or 5 octaves of handbells, with 2 octaves of (optional) chimes. The sheet music is available to download from Choraegus.
Choraegus handbell music is designed to be downloaded as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. When you’ve downloaded your music, your one-time payment entitles you to print out up to 15 copies for your group. Please read our licensing agreement for full information. If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please look at the Frequently-Asked Questions first. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Wonderful Grace of Jesus is our latest arrangement for 16 handbells!
This hymn (with the tune Wonderful Grace) was written in 1918 by Haldor Lillenas. Our 16-bell arrangement is proof that handbell music doesn’t have to use a large range of bells to be interesting… and tricky! Yes, it took us several attempts to get a decent recording of this one. We recommend it for anyone who appreciates an unusual hymn tune, and a ringing challenge.
Suitable for socially-distant handbell ensembles
If your handbell ensemble is observing social distancing, our 16-bell arrangements could be useful. Wonderful Grace of Jesus contains no bell changes, and needs no bell-sharing. It’s suitable for up to 8 ringers to play, and doesn’t need any tables or foam. If your handbell ensemble is playing from music stands, with physical distancing, this would work!
If you’d like to play Wonderful Grace of Jesus, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus.
More information about Choraegus handbell music
Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to eight copies for your handbell group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need! Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. In addition, please 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 sheet 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, 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 information you need, and we’ll be happy to help!
We’re (cautiously) celebrating the end of Larry’s radiation treatment for prostate cancer recurrence! Over the last four weeks, Larry has had 20 sessions of radiation therapy at the University of Michigan Hospital. He drove us to Ann Arbor and back, from our home in Holland, every day, Monday to Friday. It came to a total of 6,552 miles!
The Michigan winter weather certainly made our daily road-trips an interesting experience. We knew it might be risky, driving 3 hours to the hospital, and 3 hours back, in January and February. There were mornings when visibility was very poor!
The amazing thing was how quickly the daily road-trips became routine for us. It didn’t take us long to get used to waking up in the morning, making lunch to take with us, and getting into the car. We looked out for sights along the way; little things to make us smile. Daily road-trips for cancer radiation could so easily become stressful, miserable experiences — so we appreciated the silly things – like graffiti at the rest stop near Ann Arbor…
… and “look, surely an illusionist!” – who, it turns out, is really a dentist:
Yup. Free advertising for Dr West of Battle Creek, who made us smile on our way home every day.
Most days, we stretched our legs with a short walk in Bandemer Park in Ann Arbor, after the radiation session was done. The weather in Ann Arbor was consistently brighter than the weather in Holland – and we were blessed with several days of blue skies, to walk by the river and enjoy the beauty of the snow and ice.
What happens next? Did the radiation treatment work?
Larry’s cancer treatment isn’t over yet. He’ll continue to have monthly injections until June, and more blood tests. There will be appointments with the oncologists in Wyoming (Michigan) and (online) in Ann Arbor. It will be some months before we find out if the combination of radiation and monthly injections have been successful.
If you’ve ever heard prostate cancer described as “the good cancer”, it’s not true. This cancer is sneaky, and has a tendency to return, over and over. We put our faith in God, and in the University of Michigan doctors, and hope for the best. We also hope that our insurance will eventually agree to help with the cost of the radiation therapy. They decided unexpectedly (on Day 13) to deny Larry the treatment, and that came as a shock to us. We’re fast discovering that the cost of having cancer treatment here in the USA can be overwhelming and scary.
Thank you to everyone who’s helped and encouraged us through this!
Our thanks go to the cancer team at the University of Michigan, for taking good care of Larry. We’re also thankful to everyone who’s encouraged us in this latest “adventure”. To the people who have sent us cards, and prayed for us – thank you. We’re grateful to the friends who offered us emergency accommodation if we’d needed it. It helped to know that staying overnight would have been possible if the weather had been too terrible. Thanks also to the Detroit Handbell Ensemble for the gift that paid for one of our road-trips, and to the choir at Third Reformed Church for the huge plant that unexpectedly took up residence in our house this week!
Thanks also to our Kalamazoo Ringers family. We appreciated the generous gift that helped with the last week of our road-trips, and the personal gifts, cards and good wishes that helped us so much. And thanks to our friends on our Facebook page, who commented with kind words, and put up with oh-so-much talk about our daily road-trips. We love and appreciate you all.
It’s time for some 6-bell Easter music! Here’s our new arrangement of Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise, for handbells with piano accompaniment.
It’s been a while since we played any 6-bell music. In recent weeks, we’ve been busy introducing some new 12- and 16-bell music, and putting together a video of our 3-octave arrangement of All Praise to Thee, for Thou, O King Divine. It was fun to dust off Larry’s “performance sling” for this new 6-bell piece!
This arrangement works well as a duet, but a trio could also play it, with social distancing as required. There are no techniques that need tables or foam, and no bell-sharing between ringers. If you’d like to play Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. We also have an mp3 piano accompaniment track available to purchase separately; useful if you don’t have a willing accompanist, or want to rehearse at home.
More information about our music
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. Purchasing the 6-bell arrangement of Hail the Day that Sees Him Rise allows you to print and maintain up to three copies for your handbell group (plus the accompaniment score). Your purchase also gives permission for recording, broadcasting, live-streaming and sharing on video-sharing sites, church websites and social media. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites and social media, and in any printed materials such as church service bulletins.
You might like to look at our step-by-step guide to buying music from Choraegus, especially if you’re new to purchasing music online. 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. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us, and we’ll be happy to help!
All Praise to Thee, For Thou, O King Divine was a new recording adventure for us! In the last couple of weeks, we’ve been making daily road-trips (Monday-Friday) between Holland and Ann Arbor for Larry’s radiation treatment. Spending more than 6 hours a day in the car definitely makes us appreciate our weekends!
Here’s our video. Please be warned; this was very much a read-through. If we’d taken time to rehearse, it would have looked and sounded smoother, but… well, the weekend was too short!
As you can see from the video, this arrangement has no bell-sharing between ringers. If your handbell choir is observing social distancing, and playing from spaced-apart tables, this piece could work well!
Where to find the sheet music
All Praise to Thee, for Thou, O King Divine is written for 3-5 octaves of handbells, with an octave of (optional) chimes. The sheet music is available to download from Choraegus.
Choraegus handbell music is designed to be downloaded as a PDF file. That means you’ll be responsible for printing your own music, and you won’t receive anything in the mail. When you’ve downloaded your music, your one-time payment entitles you to print out up to 15 copies for your group. Please read our licensing agreement for full information. If you’re new to buying music from Choraegus, we recommend our step-by-step guide!
Any questions?
If you have any questions about buying or playing our music, please look at the Frequently-Asked Questions first. If you don’t find the answers you need, please contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
Leaning on the Everlasting Arms is our latest arrangement for 12 handbells. We had lots of fun playing this one! It has a relaxed, jazzy feel, to take all your troubles away. Well, maybe!
As with all Choraegus 12-bell arrangements, this piece has no bell-sharing, and there are no accidentals to pick up mid-piece. There are no techniques that need tables or foam, so the arrangement can be played from music stands. The music is suitable for 3-6 ringers, and two versions are available – either using bells C5-G6 (as in our demo video), or using F5-C7.
Where to get the sheet music
If you’d like to play Leaning on the Everlasting Arms, the sheet music is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to six copies for your handbell group. Choraegus handbell 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.
Your 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.
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?
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!
“To God be the glory, great things He hath done; So loved He the world that He gave us His Son, Who yielded His life an atonement for sin, And opened the life gate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the earth hear His voice! Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, Let the people rejoice! O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, And give Him the glory, great things He hath done.“
To God Be the Glory is one of our favorite pieces to play as an 8-bell duet. We recently decided the time was right for a new 12-bell arrangement! Here’s our “cloned” demonstration video:
As with all Choraegus 12-bell arrangements, this piece has no bell-sharing, and there are no accidentals to pick up mid-piece. There are no techniquest that need tables or foam, so the arrangement can be played from music stands. The music is suitable for 3-6 ringers, and two versions are available – either using bells C5-G6 (as in our demo video), or using F5-C7.
Where to get the sheet music
If you’d like to play To God Be the Glory, the sheet music is available to purchase and download from Choraegus. Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to six copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once.
Your 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.
Another thing to note is 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, 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!
Lead On, O King Eternal is also sung as The Day of Resurrection. With Easter fast approaching, this seems like a good time to introduce our newest arrangement for sixteen handbells.
The “Kinky Turtle” hymn!
This hymn, affectionately known as Lead On, O Kinky Turtle, is sung to the LANCASHIRE hymn tune, written by Ernest Shurtleff in 1887. Our arrangement contains no bell changes, and needs no bell-sharing. It’s suitable for up to 8 ringers to play, and doesn’t need any tables or foam. This makes it perfect for your socially-distanced worship service!
If you’d like to play Lead On, O King Eternal / The Day of Resurrection, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. We’re expanding our catalog of 16-bell music, and you’re always welcome to suggest a piece for Larry to arrange if you don’t see it on our music site. He’s currently having radiation treatment, but still writing music – so let us know what you need!
More information about Choraegus handbell music
Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to eight copies for your handbell group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need! Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. In addition, please 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 sheet 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, 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 information you need, and we’ll be happy to help!
Come, Thou Almighty King is our newest arrangement for sixteen handbells. We received a request for this piece, and recorded the demonstration video after Larry came back from his first radiation treatment. It’s more of a read-through than a performance, but you should get the idea of how the piece could sound with the benefit of more rehearsal time!
Come, Thou Almighty King is sung to the ITALIAN HYMN tune, written in 1769. This arrangement is the most straightforward (so far) of all our 16-bell arrangements. It contains no bell changes, and needs no bell-sharing. There are no techniques that require tables. Up to 8 ringers could play it from music stands, even with social distancing.
If you’d like to play Come, Thou Almighty King, the sheet music is available to purchase, download and print from Choraegus. Other 16-bell music is also available. If you don’t see the title you’re looking for, you’re always welcome to suggest a piece you’d like to play. Larry is writing new music all the time!
More information (the small print)
Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to eight copies for your handbell group. Don’t pay for more copies than you need! Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details. In addition, please 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 sheet 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, 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 information you need, and we’ll be happy to help!
Some of you may remember that Larry had prostate surgery at the beginning of 2019. We originally had high hopes that the surgery would be the end of Larry’s prostate cancer. Towards the end of 2019, we were told that Larry was cancer-free, and we celebrated.
However, things changed in late December 2019, when one of Larry’s routine blood tests came back with a worrying result. Hoping it was just a blip, he did another test, and the result was worse. We were referred to a local radiation oncologist here in Holland, and told that there was a high probability that the cancer had returned.
Prostate cancer can hide for a long time!
The problem with prostate cancer recurrence is that it’s not always easy to know where the cancer is hiding. After a couple more blood tests, the radiation oncologist referred Larry for an Axumin PET scan in Grand Rapids at the beginning of May. However, here in the USA, it often seems that medical treatment is decided not so much by the doctors as by the insurance companies. Our health insurance company refused to approve the PET scan, so the appointment was cancelled. We were very disappointed, but focused on Larry’s shoulder surgery, which had been scheduled for May.
Last summer, as he recovered from shoulder surgery, Larry had more tests. He had a bone scan, an MRI, a kidney ultrasound, and a renal nuclear scan. None of those tests showed us where the cancer was hiding. We continued life as normal, as far as we could – driving up to Bay View for days and weekends by the lake, and driving back to Holland for more doctors’ appointments.
Finally, a PET scan!
When summer was over, we were growing anxious that Larry hadn’t started any treatment for his cancer recurrence. We decided to try again to get the much-needed PET scan. After some online searching, we found out that there was a clinical trial of a PSMA PET scan at the University of Michigan hospital. We took a deep breath, contacted the hospital, and asked if Larry qualified for the scan. Our insurance once again refused to cover it, so we were left with no option but to agree to pay the cost ourselves.
At the start of November, we drove to Ann Arbor, where Larry had the PSMA PET scan. Here he is, at the hospital, before the scan – still smiling behind the mask.
The scan results came back, showing that the cancer had spread to a lymph node. We made an appointment to see an oncologist at the University of Michigan.
Next steps
The next chapter in Larry’s treatment will include radiation at the University of Michigan Hospital. The treatment starts on Tuesday, January 19, and will be Monday-Friday; twenty sessions over four weeks. The hospital is 3 hours away from where we live, and Larry is planning to drive there (and back) every day for as long as it’s possible. We love long road-trips, right?
2020 was not the best of years. You know that already
2020 was a tough year for lots of people, us included. It left us with a ton of stress, a heap of worries, and more medical bills than we know what to do with. However, Larry’s still feeling well. He’s still writing handbell music, singing for online church services, and doing life as normal. We have each other, and friends to cheer us on, and we’re thankful.
Larry will be receiving treatment for the next six months – and by the end of this year, we should know if the treatment has been successful. We appreciate all love, prayers and positive thoughts as we go through this next chapter in our story.
