Dec 17

“Silent Night” for eight handbells – at last!

We’ve wanted to have an eight-bell arrangement of Silent Night for some time. If you count your way through the score, you’ll find that the melody has eleven notes. Since eleven is a lot more than eight (to two four-in-hand handbell ringers), we couldn’t initially figure out how to make it into one of our very compact arrangements. But… after six years of trying, we’ve finally succeeded!

We have a special deal for you, too. Until January 5, 2019, it’s available for just $3.00 (after which it goes back to the normal price of $7.00).

Merry Christmas from Choraegus!

Nov 05

Two new arrangements for Christmas!

We’ve just released two new Christmas carol arrangements for handbell choir (three to five octaves) – do take a look!

Oct 23

Kelvingrove

A few years back, we published a 2-3 octave arrangement of the Scottish melody KELVINGROVE (also known in modern hymnody as The Summons/Will You Come and Follow Me). Our attempts to get a video of it being played failed back then, and so we had to settle for an MP3.

However, the handbell choir at our church played it just a short while ago, and here’s how it actually sounds!

Oct 17

$100 Gift Voucher

Sep 26

Mu Süda Ärka Üles

The Estonian handbell ensemble Campanelli visited the eastern United States in 2017, performing in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. We had the privilege of tagging along with them for the week, and enjoyed their company and friendship. When we all went to the Malmark factory for a tour, Inna, their director, had us join their group picture, saying, “You are Campanelli now.” <3 We also had a chance to commission a piece for them to play. It's Susan Nelson’s arrangement of the Estonian song Mu Süda Ärka Üles, the title of which means Awake, My Heart. Sue even wrote an eight-bell part for us, which we subsequently filled out a bit and played with them on tour.

Sep 10

New Eight-Bell Music! Hooray! Hooray!

It’s been a while since we released a stack of eight-bell pieces, so we’re excited to share nine new Christmas arrangements! Take a look!

We hope you have fun with this for the coming holiday season!

Aug 31

Los Peces en el Rio (for eight handbells)

This Spanish Christmas carol was part of our “A Carol a Day” postings a couple of years ago, but somehow it escaped official publication! It’s a lively song about how the fish in the river – “los peces en el rio” – rejoiced at the birth of Christ. Here’s where you can find our eight-bell arrangement!

Aug 28

New Freebies

We have new free stuff for those of you who’ve been buying our eight-handbell music – binder cover pages! It occurred to us that having all of our scores in “one neat pile” wouldn’t be as good as having a way to divide them into several binders. So if you have binders with front covers into which you can slip a cover page, we have cover pages for you to use!

Here are preview links:

  1. [sg_popup id=”11271″ event=”click”]”Standard” Eight-Bell Pieces:[/sg_popup]
  2. [sg_popup id=”11273″ event=”click”]”Standard” Eight-Bell Christmas Pieces:[/sg_popup]
  3. [sg_popup id=”11275″ event=”click”]”Surprisingly Easy” Eight-Bell Pieces:[/sg_popup]
  4. [sg_popup id=”11277″ event=”click”]”Surprisingly Easy” Eight-Bell Christmas Pieces:[/sg_popup]

Aug 24

More music will be on the way soon…

The mad pace of composing music from July and early August has vanished for a bit, mostly because we were at the 2018 Bay View Week of Handbells. In case you aren’t familiar with BVWOH, it’s a solid four days of ringing – about 20 or 25 hours of rehearsal – with a concert on the evening of the final day. It’s one of the highlights of our ringing year, and it even includes the opportunity to hunt for some Petoskey stones when we have a bit of free time.

Anyway, composing has resumed, and soon we’re planning to have more new music out for you to check out!

Jul 16

I Vow to Thee (THAXTED) for Eight Handbells

I Vow to Thee, My Country is based on the THAXTED theme from the “Jupiter” movement of Gustav Holst’s suite The Planets. In the United Kingdom, it’s sung to words written by Cecil Spring-Rice about dedication to God and country. In some US hymnals, this melody is matched to O God, Beyond All Praising.

This was the offertory we played on our last Sunday before moving to Michigan, and it continues to be one of our absolute favorites!