Category: Handbells
Twelve-Bell Classical
Classical music is interesting and fun on handbells! Sometimes it’s worshipful, such as Holy is the Lord; other times it’s thoughtful and nostalgic, like Barcarolle; and other times it’s just plain wild, such as Farandole. Regardless, it requires careful concentration, and getting to the point when you present it to others is a reward in …
Twelve-Bell Music
Twelve-bell music has been around for quite a while. The usual convention has been to compose for twelve white key bells from C5 to G6 (so, C5, D5, E5, F5, G5, A5, B5, C6, D6, E6, F6, G6). More than a few sets of bells, particularly in the United Kingdom, consist of those notes, possibly …
Mar 17
Sixteen Bells!
We’ve just released a couple of new small ensemble arrangements. They’re larger-scale than our eight-bell arrangements, requiring twice as many notes. You can play them as four-in-hand quartets, or with eight ringers with two bells apiece, or anything in between. We think they’ll be great fun for whoever plays them, so please take a look!
Feb 20
Here’s some new music!
We’ve just released our newest “Surprisingly Easy”™ collection of eight-bell pieces. This time it’s a set of hymn arrangements that you’ll find suitable when you need to prepare something for church but have only a few people to ring. Or you might have been thinking about getting into playing eight-handbell duets – these are a …
Kelvingrove (Handbells, 2-3 octaves, Level 2)
KELVINGROVE is an old Scottish tune. Where it appears in hymnals, it usually is under the title “The Summons”. Historically, though, it’s a love song sung by a soldier to his love as he strolls with her one last time before he heads to battle. Here are the first and last verses of the folk …
Islamey (Handbells, 5 octaves plus handchimes, 5 octaves, Level 7*)
Mily Balakirev was the senior member of the “Big Five”, a cadre of Russian nationalist composers (in case you’re wondering, the other four were Modest Mussorgsky, Nikolai Rimsky-Koraskov, Aleksandr Borodin, and Cesar Cui). Balakirev spent some time exploring the Caucasus region in southern Russia, and came across the “islamey”, a cultural dance that featured lots …
Beautiful Savior / Fairest Lord Jesus (ST. ELIZABETH) – Eight handbells
This song goes back more than a few years, dating to the Crusades. While we’re not into the militaristic part of that bit of history now, Jesus Christ is still just as wonderful and lovely as ever. Fairest Lord Jesus, ruler of all nature, O thou of God and man the Son, Thee will I …
Feb 09
More new music is on the way!
We truly appreciate the response we’ve had to our music over the past couple of years. That’s especially true for the new generation of eight-bell music that we’ve had the privilege of publishing. Well, okay… we wrote it, so we publish it. Anyway, it’s been great fun to find out that so, so many hymns, …
Jan 28
2015 seems to have started, finally!
It’s nearly the end of January… and it feels as if the year is trying to run away without us! We finally are getting around to releasing a brand new piece! We debuted it in our Alzheimer’s benefit concert on January 23rd. We call it “Grizzly’s Peak”, but you might know it by another title. …
