At the end of this month, the Handbell Musicians of America is holding their annual Distinctly Bronze East in New Bern, North Carolina. It’s an event for advanced handbell musicians, and celebrates our art by preparing and presenting a concert of exciting and techically challenging works for handbells. We’re honored that for the 2023 event, …
Category: Handbell Ensemble
Oh, How I Love Jesus – Six handbells and piano
The tune OH, HOW I LOVE JESUS is a simple one; its composer is unknown. It’s been sung for quite a long time as a gentle expression of faith in Christ for young children and mature adults. There is a name I love to hear, I love to sing its worth; it sounds like music …
Jan 23
Hyfrydol for six accompanied handbells
Our very first arrangement for six handbells and piano was Hyfrydol. True to form, it starts easily enough, but becomes more and more involved. If you like roller coasters, this piece is for you! Purchasing this 6-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to three copies for your handbell group (plus the …
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 17
Dance of the Sugar Plum Sumo Fairy (bass handbell trio)
From 2005 to 2013, I founded and led Low Ding Zone, the World’s First Bass-Only Handbell Ensemble. Well, at any rate we think we had a solid claim to the title, since it was never contested. The name itself sparked a lot of fun; once I had the strange joy of watching a friend explain …
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 10
“Dual-range” scores
Almost all of our eight-bell scores are sold as “dual-range”™ packages. Carla and I work from the octave of bells from G5 to G6, partly because those all fit in the case of equipment we take to gigs. There’s an extra pocket in our case, so we put a few other bells – Ab6, A6, …
