Jan 31

All Things Bright and Beautiful (ROYAL OAK) – for sixteen handbells

Cecil Frances Alexander wrote All Things Bright and Beautiful in 1849. The joyous text and its happy melody are perfectly matched! Here’s our new arrangement of the hymn tune ROYAL OAK for sixteen handbells. This score is available in C5-B6 and G4-F#6 versions; the latter can be played on a standard two-octave set of handbells.

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small,
All things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.

Each little flow’r that opens, each little bird that sings,
He made their glowing colors, He made their tiny wings.

The purple-headed mountain, the river running by,
the sunset and the morning that brightens up the sky.

The cold wind in the winter, the pleasant summer sun,
the ripe fruits in the garden: He made them ev’ry one.

He gave us eyes to see them, and lips that we might tell
how great is God Almighty, who has made all things well.

Purchasing this 16-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to eight 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.

Jan 27

Take My Life and Let It Be (MESSIAH) – for twelve handbells

Hymnody, the body of hymns that we have and sing, often combines the same words with several different tunes. Sometimes we also match the same melody with different words – it can enrich our Christian musical experience. In this case, Louis Hérold wrote the hymn tune MESSIAH, which also works with the same words as César Malan’s hymn tune HENDON in Take My Life and Let It Be. Here’s our twelve-bell arrangement of this hymn tune.

Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord, to thee.
Take my moments and my days; let them flow in endless praise.

Take my hands and let them move at the impulse of thy love.
Take my feet and let them be swift and beautiful for thee.

Take my voice and let me sing always, only, for my King.
Take my lips and let them be filled with messages from thee.

Take my silver and my gold; not a mite would I withhold.
Take my intellect and use every power as thou shalt choose.

Take my will and make it thine; it shall be no longer mine.
Take my heart it is thine own; it shall be thy royal throne.

Take my love; my Lord, I pour at thy feet its treasure store.
Take myself, and I will be ever, only, all for thee.

Purchasing this 12-bell arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain up to six 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.

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Jan 24

How Can I Keep From Singing? – Twelve-Handbell Version

Christian joy depends only on God and His everlasting goodness. Because of that, believers have the power to rise above even the most troubling of times and circumstances. Here’s our twelve-bell arrangement of this hymn.

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 20

America the Beautiful (AMERICA/MATERNA) – Handbells, 3 to 5 octaves, Level 4

I think of America the Beautiful as a “wannabe national anthem”, because it says so much about what matters in the country where I live. Our Level 4 arrangement for three to five octaves of handbells will sparkle in your church service or patriotic gathering.

O beautiful for spacious skies / For amber waves of grain,
For purple mountain majesties / Above the fruited plain!
America! America! / God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet / Whose stern impassioned stress
A thoroughfare of freedom beat / Across the wilderness!
America! America! / God mend thine every flaw,
Confirm thy soul in self-control / Thy liberty in law!

O beautiful for heroes proved / In liberating strife.
Who more than self their country loved / And mercy more than life!
America! America! / May God thy gold refine
Till all success be nobleness / And every gain divine!

O beautiful for patriot dream / That sees beyond the years
Thine alabaster cities gleam / Undimmed by human tears!
America! America! / God shed his grace on thee
And crown thy good with brotherhood / From sea to shining sea!

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

New “Newness” video!

We’ve continued to make videos of our works for handbell choir. Here’s a new five-octave version of Newness, an original work for three or five octaves of handbells, plus three octaves of handchimes.

Newness can be played either as a Level 2 or a Level 3 piece. To play it as a Level 2 piece, play all notes indicated for chimes with bells instead; this eliminates most changes and four-in-hand. The score is Level 3 as written.

Jan 14

Come Down, O Love Divine (DOWN AMPNEY) – (Handbells, 3 or 5 octaves, plus handchimes, 3 octaves, Level 3-)

This lovely hymn tune was written by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Here’s our handbell arrangement for three or five octaves of handbells plus three octaves of handchimes.

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

Gaudete! (Handbells, 3-8 octaves, plus handchimes, 3-4 octaves, Level 4+)

Here’s our new arrangement of this sixteenth-century Christmas song! It’s scored for three to eight octaves of handbells plus three or four octaves of handchimes – and if you have a percussionist, there also is a cajón part!

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.


Gaudette

Jan 01

Happy 2022, and Thank You!

Happy New Year! It’s time for celebration and a bit of relaxing and making resolutions… uh, okay. Maybe not all of those. Many of us have had a difficult year, and are hoping the next trip around the sun is more user-friendly than the one that’s just ended. We hope you have some optimism, however guarded it may be!

Carla and I would like to thank all of you for shopping with Choraegus. We’ve had a wonderful time hearing about how you’ve been able to use our music to keep your handbells active in your churches, schools, and wherever else you may be. The music must continue, because it makes our lives better.

We’re planning to continue writing and publishing music for the foreseeable future (naturally!). Not only are we anticipating new additions to our hundreds of arrangements for six, eight, twelve, and sixteen bells; our catalog of pieces for full-sized handbell choirs will be growing as well. We’ll have music to fit your playing opportunities!

So we thank you for investing in your musical endeavors with our music, and hope that the coming year will be a good one. It’s an honor to serve you.

Blessings, and Happy Ringing!
Larry & Carla

Dec 24

If you’d like to play and hear bells on Christmas Day – Secret Santa redux!

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day is a pre-Civil War song that sets a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to the tune WALTHAM by John Baptiste Calkin. The theme is “peace on earth, good will to men”, and the words reflect on how hopelessness will give way to glory.

And on Christmas Day 2021, you can get this arrangement free of charge from Choraegus!

The score for our piano-accompanied eight-handbell arrangement of I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day comes as a package containing versions in D major (D5-D6) and G major (G5-G6). The D major version is in the key to which the song is most often sung; the G major version uses a more easily-managed set of bells, especially if you’re playing four-in-hand (but is not in a comfortable range for most vocalists).

Our arrangement comes with three verses. There are separate accompaniment MP3s available for both transpositions. Note: If you choose to play our arrangement as a sing-along program element and want to sing all five verses, it will be easy for you to work out which verses you’d like to repeat with a (live) accompanist.

I heard the bells on Christmas day / Their old familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat / Of peace of earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come, / The belfries of all Christendom
Had rolled along th’unbroken song / Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head: / “There is no peace on earth,” I said,
“For hate is strong, and mocks the song / Of peace on earth, good will to men.”

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep: / “God is not dead, nor doth He sleep;
The wrong shall fail, the right prevail, / With peace on earth, good will to men.”

Till, ringing, singing on its way, / The world revolved from night to day
A voice, a chime, a chant sublime, / Of peace on earth, good will to men.

The eight bells in the score are accompanied by piano; if you don’t happen to have an accompanist available, we also have an accompaniment MP3 available for purchase.

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.

Find Larry and Carla on Facebook!

Dec 24

Secret Santa

Just for today (Christmas Eve 2021), we have a little gift for you. Our new twelve-bell version of Silent Night is free of charge!

Merry Christmas from Choraegus!

Larry & Carla