The Friendly Beasts is sung to the medieval French melody ORIENTIS PARTIBUS. It’s a story about how the animals in Bethlehem were willing to sacrifice to make the beginning of Jesus’ life on earth easier. Jesus, our brother, strong and good, / was humbly born in a stable rude, and the friendly beasts around Him …
Category: Eight-Bell
Pat-a-Pan – Eight handbells
Pat-a-Pan‘s title is onomatapoeic (“sounding like”) in nature, mimicking the sound of a drum. Later on, the lyric “tu-re-lu-re-lu” imitates the sound of a flute. The story is a bit like that of Carol of the Drum, where percussion is part of the worship of the Christ-child. Guillaume, prends ton tambourin, Toi, prends ta flûte, …
Hoe leit dit Kindeke (Cold is this little Child) – Eight handbells
The title of this Dutch Christmas song translates “cold is this little Child’, referring to the tradition that the Christ Child was born during the Bethlehem winter. Hoe leit dit Kindeke hier in de kou ziet eens hoe alle zijn ledekens beven ziet eens hoe dat Het weent en krijt van rouw. Na na na …
Aug 31
Los Peces en el Rio (for eight handbells)
This Spanish Christmas carol was part of our “A Carol a Day” postings a couple of years ago, but somehow it escaped official publication! It’s a lively song about how the fish in the river – “los peces en el rio” – rejoiced at the birth of Christ. Here’s where you can find our eight-bell …
Los Peces en el Rio – Eight handbells
This traditional Spanish Christmas carol has an interesting story in the lyrics: The baby Jesus has been born, and because life has its demands, Mary is described as going about her normal doings in the same say you and I would (well, except for being a parent of the Child who is the Son of …
Aug 28
New Freebies
We have new free stuff for those of you who’ve been buying our eight-handbell music – binder cover pages! It occurred to us that having all of our scores in “one neat pile” wouldn’t be as good as having a way to divide them into several binders. So if you have binders with front covers …
Binder Cover pages
If you’ve started gathering lots of our music for six to sixteen bells, you might be keeping it in binders. Here are some free cover pages that you can use to organize your music!. Six-Bell Pieces: $ US “Standard” Eight-Bell Pieces: $ US “Standard” Eight-Bell Christmas Pieces: $ US “Surprisingly Easy” Eight-Bell Pieces: $ US …
Happy Birthday
Here’s our eight-handbell version of the universal party favorite, Happy Birthday. After much history and (legal!) discussion between forces outside our control, the courts declared some years ago that the famous tune by the Hill sisters was indeed in the public domain. It’s our pleasure to provide this as a gift to you! Bells used: …
Freebies
We have free stuff! That, of course, is so you can get a taste of what we have here at Choraegus. We do hope that you’ll be back to check out the rest of our store, but we’d like to give you a chance to see what’s here first. A large, large portion of our …
Jul 16
I Vow to Thee (THAXTED) for Eight Handbells
I Vow to Thee, My Country is based on the THAXTED theme from the “Jupiter” movement of Gustav Holst’s suite The Planets. In the United Kingdom, it’s sung to words written by Cecil Spring-Rice about dedication to God and country. In some US hymnals, this melody is matched to O God, Beyond All Praising. This …
