This weekend was my annual trip to North Carolina for the Capital Area Handbell Festival. This year, just over 500 ringers got together to ring under Fred Gramann’s baton. If you don’t know about Fred, he’s been Music Director at the American Church in Paris for nearly 35 years, and over that time has become one of the most-sought-after bell clinicians in the world. Not only that, he writes incredible music!
I flew in on Thursday, November 3 – it’s much easier to arrive the day before if I’m being picked up, because the west-to-east cross-country flight takes a full day plus a three-hour time change, which means any delay on a Friday flight will make you late for the opening Special Session with the CAHF conductor. Barbara picks me up at the airport, and lets me stay at her place while I’m there.
Friday night is the opening session with the conductor. There’s an instructional component that varies according to whoever is leading the event. Fred gave us some excellent thoughts about ringing correctly and expressively, and then had us apply that knowledge to some of the festival repertoire. During the last hour (of three…), we read through some additional music – the Friday night session always includes some sight reading for us all to get a look at some music we may not have seen before.
Saturday’s all day thing; we rehearse for about five hours total, and then put on a public concert in the afternoon. The concert included five massed-ring pieces (for those of you who are handbell initiates, those are pieces that everyone – all 500+ of us – ring together as one huge ensemble), one “bronze” (advanced) piece, and half a dozen solos played by individual groups. Result: A marvelous time was had by all.
The CAHF is sponsored by the Raleigh Ringers, one of the best handbell ensembles in the world. It’s fitting that it’s a top-notch event, and that people keep coming back for more. There are two huge bonuses over and above the ringing. One of them is a wonderful Suth’n lunch of pulled pork, beans, slaw, potato salad, and hush puppies (well, not to mention the near-infinite supply of Krispy Kremes). The big treat, however, is a free concert by the Raleigh Ringers – with fantastic music, of course!
Sunday was the Advanced Read & Ring – we get to play through lots of music for the fun of playing it and hearing it. Some pieces were familiar, like William Payn’s “Prisms” and Fred Gramann’s “O Sons and Daughters”; others were new to us, like Jason Krug’s piece-that-had-been-rejected-nine-times. Oh! Fred dropped in to direct the first bunch of pieces! And I had the privilege of having the participants take a run through my “Rhapsody in C Minor” and arrangement of “Chopsticks”.
Dinner was at McAllister’s… huge baked potatoes with tons of stuff on them. They were each worth about two meals. Barbara’s daughter Katie joined us, too. And then Monday was the flight home!
