Small (handbell) ensembles are much more the order of the day after mid-May, at least in the Northern hemisphere. Pretty much everyone in the United States syncs their calendar to the end of the school year, and so family vacations and summer programs ramp up, resulting in a local population decrease as people get out …
Category: Eight-Bell
May 15
Here’s the “Surprisingly Easy”™ eight-bell “O Worship the King” (LYONS)!
We started writing “Surprisingly Easy”™ variants of many of our eight-bell arrangements years and years ago. That was to provide a faster-to-worship learning time, especially for duets, trios, and quartets who are newer to four-in-hand and ensemble ringing. If you aren’t already familiar with our easier eight-bell scores, they’re generally equivalent to a Level 2 …
Apr 29
Free sheet music is fun!
We love to give people a chance to see what we do at Choraegus. Like everyone else, we provide contact information so that you can ask questions or make suggestions. That’s all normal; you’re supposed to be available to deal with what happens. However, we also want you to be able to try out a …
Mar 01
Update to “Dona Nobis Pacem”!
We’ve learned that there are some folks might not be able to play our G5- and F5-based scores of Dona Nobis Pacem. For instance, there are sets in England that have white keys C5-G6, and maybe F#s and Bbs, and therefore won’t have all the needed notes. To help work with this, we’ve added C5- …
SUNRISE [OMNI DIE] – Eight handbells
The SUNRISE hymn tune (also titled OMNI DIE) from the eighteenth century is paired with with several different texts: At Thy Feet, O Christ We Lay Spirit Working in Creation Daily, Daily, Sing to Mary At thy feet, O Christ, we lay thine own gift of this new day; doubt of what it holds in …
Dec 19
Merry Christmas 2023!
As usual, our December has been our busy performance season. People associate handbells with Christmas, so that’s when they book us. We’ve been at some fun places: Holland Kerstmarkt. Between Thanksgiving and mid-December, we were the ambience for our city’s Dutch Christmas market. It’s an outdoor event, so we pre-chill our bells, bundle up, and …
Nov 27
Ding Dong, Merrily on High – for eight handbells
The sixteenth-century English tune Ding Dong, Merrily on High is quite popular at Christmas. It reflects the joy of the season, and invites us to share in the joy of heaven at the birth of the Son of God. Here’s our eight-bell arrangement – enjoy! Ding dong merrily on high, In heav’n the bells are …
Nov 13
And now, a second eight-bell version of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”!
We’ve had an eight-bell version of It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (hymn tune CAROL – the one most frequently heard in the USA) for over ten years. It’s one of my personal favorites; however, it does provide a bit of a challenge to the ringers. So… we’ve just published a second, somewhat less difficult, …
Nov 08
O Come, O Come Emmanuel for eight handbells – now in E minor!
Our eight-bell arrangements are generally written for the note ranges G5-G6 and F5-F6 and sold as “Dual-Range” score packages. However, these don’t always work smoothly if you want to sing with them, because the melody notes might fall out of a comfortable congregational range. This is true of our eight-bell O Come, O Come Emmanuel, …
Nov 01
O Come, All Ye Faithful – eight handbells, and free!
The celebration of Christmas centers on the promise that God is always working toward His ultimate triumph. O Come, All Ye Faithful draws us not just to the manger, but to the everlasting future of Christ’s kingdom. There are three transpositions included in this free score package: G5-based, F5-based, and a D5-based version that matches …
