The story behind this hymn by Horatio Spafford and Philip Bliss – look it up – testifies of the incredible peace God gives through our faith in Him, and how He continues to give that comfort to believers today. It’s amazing how one man’s experience and faith can touch the hearts and lives of so …
Category: Handbell Choir
Jan 20
It Is Well With My Soul (VILLE DU HAVRE)(Handbells, 3-5 octaves, plus handchimes, 1 octave, Level 3)
Trusting God for everything – and knowing that God can be trusted in every circumstance – is a linchpin of the Christian faith. And because our salvation is guaranteed through faith in Jesus Christ, the storms of life become a training ground to make our faith stronger. Here is our new arrangement of It Is …
What if you have nine (or ten, or eleven…) ringers?
Are you considering our eight-, twelve-, or sixteen-bell music, but appear to have more ringers than are needed to play? That’s a good problem to have, because it means you’re on the way to enjoying even more music! But if you have, say, nine ringers, that would appear to be too many for sixteen bells, …
Jan 16
Squirrels
Now and then I’m hit with a flight of whimsy, and often that manifests itself on music paper (or my screen). We have lots of wildlife in our neighborhood, and squirrels are one of the liveliest. They’re completely carefree as well as being random. So I wrote a piece, Squirrels, for three or five octaves …
Jan 15
How Can I Keep from Singing?
It’s Sunday today, and lots of people are headed to church. We sing a lot at church, whether it’s from the hymnal to words on a projection screen. Some of us know all the lyrics by heart, and that’s a great thing for those days when you need the song but don’t have the hardcopy …
Jan 12
Sleeping Beauty Waltz
We’ve arranged a number of classical works for handbells. Some are relatively straightforward, while others present a fun challenge. One of the latter is our arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Waltz for sixteen handbells. Your four-in-hand quartet will have a great time with this nineteenth-century piece… but if you might also give it a go …
Jan 11
Day by Day
The hymn Day by Day has been a source of comfort and peace to many believers as they go through their lives. Phrases such as “grace I find to meet my trials here” and “I’ve no cause for worry or for fear” bring the reassurance that no matter what happens, God is still in control …
Jan 05
Merry Twelfth Day of Christmas!
For the twelfth day of Christmas, I’ve decided to take a slightly different tack in this post. In 1892, Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write a series of twelve pieces for a music magazine. The collection is called The Seasons. Sometime ago, I arranged The Seasons for two octaves of handbells. When Carla and I recorded …
Jan 03
Merry Tenth Day of Christmas!
Today is the tenth day of Christmas (as opposed to the commercial interests who would have us just get it over with and move on to Mother’s Day… possibly with a short stop at Valentine’s Day as we head there!). We’ve had loads of fun with our eight-bells-plus-piano-plus-optional-flute arrangement of Hark! the Herald Angels Sing. …
Dec 31
Merry Seventh Day of Christmas!
We’ve had a great time writing music for small handbell ensembles, and were so very pleased to note that a number of ringers were using our six-, eight-, and twelve-bell scores and sharing their videos with us (well, and the world!). We’ve been writing music for sixteen handbells as well; these arrangements are perfect for …
