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 Well with My Soul, for three to five octaves of handbells plus three octaves of handchimes. It was commissioned by the First United Methodist Church of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania in honor of the music ministry of their handbell director.

Purchasing the handbell choir version of this arrangement grants permission to print and maintain up to fifteen copies for your handbell ensemble; purchasing the single copy version grants permission to print and maintain one copy. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

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 our group name to someone else… in Finnish. And we were honored to be in Overtones with a cover photo and an article entitled Low Ding Zone: How Low Can You Go?

Our purpose was to create and perform handbell music for bass ringers. I like to think that our actual mission was to create a new kind of strange chaos in the handbell world, especially because we had the not-completely-tongue-in-check motto “impossible is only the beginning”. So that meant that some significant proportion of our scores poked a bit of fun at the establishment, just because it could be done.

One of those pieces came from Tchaikovsky’s “Nutcraker Suite”. The ballet dancers do so many agile and delightfully airborne moves; what if we created a bit of satire just by adding one word to the title, and went with the implications? Thus, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Sumo Fairy.

Purchasing this arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain the number of copies needed your handbell ensemble (plus the accompaniment score) – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

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 of handbells, which illustrates life as a squirrel. The time signatures vary quite often, and make it fun to play and hear.

Purchasing the handbell choir version of this arrangement grants permission to print and maintain up to fifteen copies for your handbell ensemble; purchasing the single copy version grants permission to print and maintain one copy. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

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 in front of you.

There are days when the urge to sing is irresistible, and that’s when How Can I Keep from Singing? is so incredibly relevant. Here’s our twelve-bell arrangement, shared as one of our “clone” videos. A blessed Sunday to you!

My life flows on in endless song above earth’s lamentation,
I catch the sweet, though far off hymn that hails a new creation.

No storm can shake my inmost calm
while to that Rock I’m clinging.
Since Christ is Lord of heaven and earth,
how can I keep from singing?

Purchasing this 12-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to six copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

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 with a larger ensemble, up to an octet!

Purchasing this 16-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to eight copies for your handbell group – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

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 and has a reason for what He allows.

Here’s our arrangement of Day by Day for three to five octaves of handbells. As with all of our scores, you get to shop online and conduct safe transactions via PayPal, and then you get download links so you can print your music and start practicing immediately.

Also, we’ve often arranged a piece for more than one type of ensemble, and so links to other versions are provided near the bottom of each page where this is the case. For instance, the page for Day by Day has a link to our sixteen-bell score for your convenience,

Purchasing the handbell choir version of this arrangement grants permission to print and maintain up to fifteen copies for your handbell ensemble; purchasing the single copy version grants permission to print and maintain one copy. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

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, Bb6, and C7 – to use for some pieces that go above our normal range.

Because so many people have been playing our eight-bell music as quartets, we add the second range (usually F5-F6) to the PDF score set so that a quartet can use “normal” assignments (FG5, ASB5, CDE6, EF6); some ringers find this easier to deal with.

We have a more thoroughgoing article about our dual-range scores that you can read if you wish. Meanwhile, here’s a video of our eight-bell arrangement of “The Water is Wide”.

Purchasing this 8-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group (plus the accompaniment/instrumental score(s), if part of the purchase) – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

Jan 08

“Surprisingly Easy”™ Eight-Bell pieces

As we continued to venture into the world of eight-handbell arrangements, we noticed that there was a need for some more accessible works in the genre. So we started adding our “Surprisingly Easy”™ arrangements. In general, our guideline is that a “Surprisingly Easy”™ score a) is easier than the “standard” score, if it exists, and b) usually doesn’t divide the beat into more than two halves (for instance, an eighth note in 4/4). The essential idea is that a solid ensemble won’t have to spend too many rehearsals before one of these arrangements is ready to go.

Here’s a comparison of our two eight-bell arrangements of Amazing Grace. If you’re shopping for eight-bell music, we put both versions on the same webpage so you can compare them and more easily decide which one is right for you.

Standard version:

 “Surprisingly Easy”™ version:

Purchasing this 8-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group (plus the accompaniment/instrumental score(s), if part of the purchase) – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

Jan 07

One of our very first eight-bell pieces!

Today’s arrangement is our Holy Manna for eight handbells. It was one of the first four-in-hand duets written when we (finally!) were together in California, and it still is one of our favorite concert pieces.

A story: Carla moved to the US in 2012, and just after we arrived home in California, the organist at church called to ask if we might play for our church’s services. Okay – no problem! And then “Can you play three pieces?” As our repertoire was still in its infancy, we were just barely able to reply, “Well… we HAVE three pieces.” So that Sunday, we played literally everything we had, and this was one of those three pieces.

Purchasing this 8-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group (plus the accompaniment/instrumental score(s), if part of the purchase) – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.

Jan 06

Epiphany!

For epiphany, here’s one of our newest eight-bell arrangements. It’s of the Swiss Christmas carol Es ist für uns eine Zeit angekommen (“For unto us a time is come”). It’s a lively song of rejoicing at the Christ Child’s birth.

Purchasing this 8-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to four copies for your handbell group (plus the accompaniment score, if part of the purchase) – so you only need to pay once. Purchase also gives permission for performance, broadcasting, live-streaming and video-sharing online. See our licensing agreement for full details, and please remember to mention the title and arranger of the piece on video-sharing sites, social media and any printed materials such as concert programs.