Apr 04

Calmer Sailing Ahead

If you haven’t noticed (perhaps you’ve been on a nice, long Caribbean cruise?), we’ve been going through a little bit of craziness over the past few weeks. Our website was in limbo, the bottom line being that no one could see it, or browse, or shop, or buy music.

Anyway, the Choraegus site is up and running again, and we’ll be bringing out more music for your ringing/singing/playing enjoyment soon!

But first, we’re going to celebrate with a bit of Netflix and watching the Lake Michigan snow that’s enhancing our garden… 🙂

Mar 31

Hooray – Rehosting is completed!

Some of you have gone through the potentially harrowing experience of rehosting a website. There are a number of steps that sometimes mean your site goes down for a while; some of those steps can lead to a bit of angst as you jump through the requisite hoops.

I’m happy to report that the Choraegus site is now fully operational! You might recall that the last step was getting our SSL certificate working. This is indicated by being able to access our site using a web-secure link such as https://www.choraegus.com. Once you can see the “https://” at the beginning of your browser’s URL (sometimes indicated by a little padlock), you know that your visit to our site is safe and secure. Shop with confidence!

Thank you for bearing with us through this slightly bumpy bit of our adventure. On to even greater things!

Mar 29

Rehosting…

We’ve been in the process of rehosting our site for the last couple of weeks. We apologize for our site being unavailable during that time.

As of today (March 29, 2018) we’re getting close but aren’t quite there. Pretty much everything works, except that we still have to reactivate our e-store. That’s a significant problem, and we’re looking into what needs to be done. Meanwhile, you can now browse our pages, and see what will be once again available once we make those last few fixes.

If you need to get some music from us immediately, do contact us, and we’ll figure out how to keep you ringing and having fun!

Feb 20

Happy https:// to you!

We’d like to apologize to those of you who’ve noted that our site’s appeared to be “insecure” over the past couple of days. There was a little bit of difficulty with our SSL certificates which has now been fixed. Browsing the Choraegus site is now perfectly safe, and we hope you’ll keep on visiting to discover the music we have for you to play.

So… it’s a bit more than halfway through our second Michigan winter. The snowfall in Holland has been rather closer to normal than last year’s teensy total of “only” 56 inches. When we haven’t been shoveling, we’ve had lots of opportunity to write and rehearse new music. We’ve already put out a couple of new twelve-bell pieces in the last month, and there’s a lot more in the (hopefully) not-too-distant future!

Feb 13

Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose

We all go through difficult, unsettling circumstances from time to time. The hymn Thou Hidden Source of Calm Repose is one of those reminders that God is in control, and that He can make sense of life when it seems scrambled.

Here’s our new twelve-bell arrangement of this hymn!

Jan 22

How Great Thou Art – Twelve Handbells

After a great Christmas season (and a very, very busy December), we’re heading into 2018 with lots of music. Today we’re leading off with our new twelve-bell arrangement of How Great Thou Art. We think you’ll enjoy playing it, and that your church families will love hearing it.

It’s available in two versions, one for the traditional twelve-bell range C5-G6, and one based on “normal bell choir assignments” for F5-C7.

Happy ringing!

Jan 01

Happy 2018!

Happy New Year to all of you (or as they say in some places, “all y’all”)!

We’ve had a fun year finding videos and receiving emails about who’s been playing our music. The greatest number of stories are about our eight-handbell repertoire. Most of what we’ve seen is videos of four-in-hand duets or one-bell-in-each-hand quartets playing at their church services. But there are others!

  • In New York, Natalia Paruz and her ringing partner Richard have been taking our music not only to churches, but also to local cemeteries (yes, you read that correctly). If you happen to be in NYC, you also get a chance to see Natalia playing her musical saw – she’s exceptional!
  • Honolulu Bronze performs on Oahu either as a duet or trio. When there are three ringers, one of their members plays four of the bells while the others have two apiece.
  • Robin and Jeffrey in Washington State got out to play at a local mall. They took about two dozen of our pieces so they could play a two-hour stint there, and passers-by loved their music.
  • Melodiem, a young handbell ensemble in Singapore, has been playing lots and lots of music. In their playlist, they include some of our eight-bell music, and did a fantastic presentation of our sixteen-bell Sleeping Beauty Waltz with six ringers.

We’re looking forward to having even more fun in the coming year. If you have a story or video about our music, do share it with us!!

Dec 08

Gift shopping for Christmas (or anytime)!

We’ve just added a new feature to our e-store to make it easy and fun for you to give the gift of our music to your family and friends. Now you can buy gift certificates – all you have to do is purchase, download, print, and give!

They’re available in amounts of $10, $20, $50, and $100.

So now you can get a “flexible-definition present”:

  • Some music for a friend who’d like to play some (more) eight-, twelve-, or sixteen-handbell music,
  • A new score for your handbell director, or
  • Choral music for your choir.

And just in case you have a special bass handbell ringer that you’re shopping for, we suggest that you consider whether she (okay, or he) would like to have a copy of the recently-released second edition of the “Bass Ringer’s Notebook”, the most extensive work on the subject of bucket-slinging.

Do take a look!

Oct 27

Five (5 octaves of handbells)

Our fifth anniversary was approaching, so I wanted to give Carla something special. This original composition was the result, and the handbell choir at our church in Holland, Michigan premiered it as the prelude in the services on our anniversary weekend.

It’s entitled Five, and can be a treasure hunt for you and your ringers as you look for where that number appears in the score. For instance, the two key signatures are B major (five sharps) and Db major (five flats).

It’s AGEHR level 2+. Enjoy!

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.

Oct 23

Accompanied twelve-bell music for Christmas!

We usually play unaccompanied eight-handbell music. Maybe that’s because it’s easier to get together to practice; only two of us have to head to the rehearsal room.

However, we do realize that many of you may have larger groups, or might want to include a pianist. So we have a couple of new Christmas arrangements for twelve bells plus piano. They’ve arrived just in time for you to prepare them for your holiday services!

In the Bleak Midwinter – Purchase it here!

Still, Still, Still – Purchase it here!