Jun 06

New 3-octave Christmas music!

Handbell folks find it’s never too early to start thinking about what we’re going to play for the Christmas (technically, Advent + Christmas + Epiphany) season. The world around us associated handbells with Christmas, so we have to be ready to play in church, at Christmas parties, and even outdoor events such as parades.

Today we announce a dozen new Christmas arrangements for three octaves of handbells. They range in difficulty from Level 1 to Level 3, with most of them being Level 2. That means your ensemble will be able to prepare then fairly rapidly – and that means your congregation or audience won’t have to wait too long to see/hear you in performance!

We’ve assembled a video of excerpts from each arrangement:

3-Octave Handbell Music for Christmas and Advent – arr. Larry Sue from Larry and Carla – Handbell Duo on Vimeo.

And here’s the list of songs in the order on the video. Have fun browsing and shopping!

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.

Jun 04

Our first US duet performance

Many of you know that Carla and I (Larry) were in a long-distance relationship between California and England for several years. After getting engaged in 2011, we worked on getting her a fiancée visa; it was approved in time for August 2012 to be the Month of One-Way Plane Tickets.

I flew from California to England, then we went from England to the Bay View Week of Handbells, and from there back to California to get married. Before that all happened, we’d already started putting down roots at the Los Altos United Methodist Church (and one in Los Altos… not the one in Long Beach).

And when we got back, Paul, the LAUMC organist, asked us to play in the morning services. The date was September 9th, which meant we had just three weeks to get ready. We’d already started practicing eight-bell music, so it seemed to be reasonable. Then something like this happened:

Paul: “So, there are three morning services.”

Larry & Carla: “Sounds good. How many pieces should we play?”

Paul: “How about three?”

Minor shock. That was because our entire eight-bell repertoire at that time consisted of three pieces. So off we went to practice, and then we played everything we knew for our new church family. That, of course, meant not only learning new music for future opportunities, but also writing it first. So began a wonderful four-year relationship with LAUMC which would have continued through the present had we not moved to Michigan.

“Holy Manna” was one of the three pieces we played that wonderful morning. The video, as it happens, was from a concert we played on a 2019 visit to California. Enjoy!

Holy Manna – for 8 Handbells – arr. Larry Sue from Larry and Carla – Handbell Duo on Vimeo.

May 31

New freebie: “Daisy Bell” for eight handbells!

Daisy Bell, also known as A Bicycle Built for Two, was written in the late nineteenth century by Harry Dacre. If you’re movie buff, you’ll probably remember that it was sung by Hal, the computer from 2001, A Space Odyssey. I remember learning it from my mom and grandmother.

Most people I know sing only the chorus (that’s true of other songs, such as By the Light of the Silvery Moon. And that’s true of our free eight-bell arrangement, mostly because that’s the familiar part.

Anyway, here are all of Harry Dacre’s original lyrics from 1893:

There is a flower within my heart, Daisy, Daisy!
Planted one day by a glancing dart,
Planted by Daisy Bell!
Whether she loves me or loves me not,
Sometimes it’s hard to tell;
Yet I am longing to share the lot
Of beautiful Daisy Bell!

Daisy, Daisy,
Give me your answer, do!
I’m half crazy,
All for the love of you!
It won’t be a stylish marriage,
I can’t afford a carriage,
But you’ll look sweet upon the seat
Of a bicycle built for two!

We will go “tandem” as man and wife, Daisy, Daisy!
“Ped’ling” away down the road of life, I and my Daisy Bell!
When the road’s dark we can both despise P’liceman and “lamps” as well;
There are “bright lights” in the dazzling eyes Of beautiful Daisy Bell!
(Chorus)

I will stand by you in “wheel” or woe, Daisy, Daisy!
You’ll be the bell(e) which I’ll ring you know! Sweet little Daisy Bell!
You’ll take the “lead” in each “trip” we take, Then if I don’t do well;
I will permit you to use the brake, My beautiful Daisy Bell!
(Chorus)

Downloading this free arrangement gives you permission to print and maintain copies for your handbell group, and 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.

May 28

What does it mean to “specialize in bass handbell ringing”?

I’m a “bass ringing specialist”. The simple explanation of that phrase is that some people think that I’m reasonably proficient at ringing bass bells. I realize that still requires a bit of clarification, because the bass clef in modern handbell music tops out at C5 (which is written as a middle C on the handbell grand staff). Some of those “bass bells” are a bit on the small side, since C5 weighs a bit over one pound (comparable to a standard softball).

The bells grow in size more or less exponentially as you go down the scale. C4 weighs about three pounds and C3 weighs seven to eleven pounds, depending on manufacturer). These weights are for bronze handbells, and so the bronze C2 weighs between fifteen and twenty pounds, depending on manufacturer. There’s a huge weight improvement for Malmark aluminum bells; the C2 of this type weighs just nine pounds – but the aluminum casting is a lot larger than the corresponding bronze one, so the actual effort of ringing each bell is approximately equivalent because of the tradeoff between raw mass and weight distribution.

For handbell folks, the idea of “bass” seems to be from B3 downward (which corresponds well to piano music, where middle C actually is C4 – handbell scores are transposed down one octave from actual pitch). Bass ringers, then, are the members of the ensemble who typically handle the octave from C3-B3; if you’re fortunate to have more, those bass bells can extend all the way down to G1.

The challenge of bass ringing means that you have to keep up with the ensemble while slinging larger, heavier bells than everyone else. That entails more intense lifting and more forceful damping, because those large castings have to be tamed with more power than the little ones. The larger castings also mean that the clapper swing distance is correspondingly larger, so you have to account for that in the timing of your ringing stroke. They also take up a lot more real estate on the table; a treble ringer typically needs only about two or three feet of horizontal space to set up, while a bass ringer playing half of the octave C3-B3 needs about twice that. At the Bay View Week of Handbells, there are five “deep pit” ringers covering a double set of C2-B2 (plus one each of G1-B1 and C3), each with about eight linear feet of table space.

BVWOH Deep Pit 2011

I think “specializing” is best interpreted as “being the one who gets to do it”; in many handbell choirs, the bass ringers are the ones who can actually wield those bells creditably. In the first handbell choir I joined, there were two of us playing the lowest octave for a year, and then my partner moved on. So I became a specialist by virtue of being given the opportunity to play “CD4, and anything to the left that you can manage”. That was the beginning; fortunately, I’ve had lots of great bass ringing teammates over the last few decades, so the journey hasn’t always been a solo endeavor.

Eight years of the voyage was with Low Ding Zone, the World’s First Bass-Only Handbell Ensemble. We found that Bay Bells, the community ensemble with which we played, had five solid bass ringers. Someone had to ask the question (okay, it was me): “What if we formed a bass handbell ensemble?” For the eight years from 2005-2013, LDZ created and performed a lot of wild and crazy “heavy metal” music, and even now I spend some time writing a new piece for bass handbell ensemble, such as the “Dance of the Sugar Plum Sumo Fairy”.

By the way, there are even larger handbells out there. The Malmark factory has made some seriously huge bronze ones for research purposes, the largest of which is a G0 that weighs between 25 and 30 pounds. When it’s rung, the lip of the casting oscillates visibly (about an inch), and the mess of partials is so complex that it sounds like a gong. Carla and I saw this giant when we toured the factory in 2015, and couldn’t pass up the opportunity when asked, “you wanna ring it?”

May 23

Why is handbell music notated an octave lower?

In case you didn’t already know, handbell music is notated an octave lower than the bells actually sound. For instance, the “middle C” that handbell ringers read really is the C that’s on the third space (counting upward) of the treble staff. The convention in place, however, is to name a particular note by its letter name (possibly with an attached “flat” or “sharp”) and an octave number. Octave numbers are oriented toward the standard 88-key piano, where the bottom C is called “C one” and written “C1”. That makes a piano’s middle C to be C4, and its top key to be C8. Yes… it’s okay to dash over to your piano to check!

The current production range across all bell manufacturers is G1 to C9. That’s seven-and-a-half octaves, just a bit wider than an 88-key piano… but about an octave notes higher. C9 in piano-speak is nine ledger lines above the staff, and that makes it more than a bit challenging to (sight) read if you notate handbells a la piano. At the bottom end of the scale, C2 is only two ledger lines below the bass staff. So it makes a lot of sense to transpose the bell notes one octave downward so that their pitch range is centered vertically on the grand staff.

Here’s a quick comparison of the Cs in each instrument:

There are other devices implemented in handbell music that make scores easier to read. The primary one is expressed as “doubling”. To ringers, this means to add/play the note an octave higher in the treble, and the note an octave lower in the bass. Then it’s possible to get around reading tons of ledger lines unless the composer wants those extreme notes out there on their own. Here’s an example:

In real life, it also turns out that handbell ensembles acquire their bells starting from the middle of the range and working outward. It’s an act of cooperation between musicians, publishers, and manufacturers. It makes it easier for the musicians to read the scores, and standardizes the publication/editing process. Finally, the bells at the extreme ends of the range are less frequently played; in the case of the lowest bass bells, they also are frightfully expensive (currently up to about $7,000 apiece), so most ensembles are still figuring out how to get them. That means that with the octave-down transposition, the music is very readable.

And making life easier for everyone is a big step to keeping us all happy and making great music!

May 20

It’s small ensemble time!

Small (handbell) ensembles are much more the order of the day after mid-May, at least in the Northern hemisphere. Pretty much everyone in the United States syncs their calendar to the end of the school year, and so family vacations and summer programs ramp up, resulting in a local population decrease as people get out of town. So when this happens, large handbell ensembles also shut down for a couple of months (but not until they’ve performed their spring concerts!).

Despite the temporary exodus, we’ve found that there are a lot of folks who want to keep the handbell music going during the summer. Most of the time it’s to add our special kind of music to their church services and social gatherings. Sometimes it’s to take advantage of the opportunity to try something new and challenging or to acquire new skills, such as four-in-hand ringing.

Whatever the reason, we have lots of handbell scores suitable for this. Our music for six, eight, twelve, or sixteen bells can be played with two to eight ringers. Many of our “Surprisingly Easy”™ eight-bells scores, in particular, can be learned in just a few rehearsals and are ideal for summer services and events.

If you haven’t tried small ensemble ringing, this is a great way to start. You only have to find a friend or two to join the fun, and decide on which piece(s) you’d like to play!

May 15

Here’s the “Surprisingly Easy”™ eight-bell “O Worship the King” (LYONS)!

We started writing “Surprisingly Easy”™ variants of many of our eight-bell arrangements years and years ago. That was to provide a faster-to-worship learning time, especially for duets, trios, and quartets who are newer to four-in-hand and ensemble ringing. If you aren’t already familiar with our easier eight-bell scores, they’re generally equivalent to a Level 2 on the Handbell Musicians of America difficulty scale.

Today we’ve added a “Surprisingly Easy”™ version of “O Worship the King” (hymn tune LYONS). We knoPuw you’ll enjoy playing it, and that your congregation will love to see you play it!

Purchase includes permission to livestream, record, archive, and post to social media, including church websites!

May 12

ENGELBERG (Handbells, 2 octaves, Level 2+)

We’ve published a new arrangement of the hymn tune ENGELBERG today. In case you’re happier with hymn titles, ENGELBERG has been paired with several texts:

  • All Praise to Thee, for Thou, O King Divine
  • When in Our Music God is Glorified
  • We Know that Christ is Raised

This arrangement is for two octaves of handbells, and is Level 2-, so if you have a smaller handbell choir and need something that will come together fairly quickly, this one will work for you!

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.

May 10

The Flip

Playing handbell duets is both art and science. The art is about making the music happen, and the science is what has to be done to achieve that physically. The combination/interaction of the two is what you see in our videos and live performances.

When we play our really fast music, we each might be zipping along at about eight or more notes per second. When you boil that down to actual music, a rate like that translates to a string of sixteenth notes at a metronome mark of 120 to the quarter note, so that’s not abnormal. Lots of instrumentalists achieve this rate all the time; for instance, it’s a pace you’d expect from lots of music by J.S. Bach. Anyway, the fun bit is that this is equivalent to about 27,000 notes per hour. It’s amazing how much more impressive the bigger number can sound even though it’s really the same amount of playing.

One of the issues that we must conquer when we play eight-bell duets is knowing which bells we have. From there, we also have to know where each one is (which hand, and position in that hand), and when it plays. After that, we also have to know when to damp each bell (that is, turning it off). And that’s just the basic mechanics, because we also have to manage the volume of each note. And after that, we get to interact with each other, such as in fast passages where we play alternating notes.

Anyway, we have a term for when we play two consecutive notes with the same hand, one with each bell, the “flip”. It seems to be an appropriate choice, since it’s playing the two bells not-quite-at-the-same-time (NQATST); that results in a motion that appears to be a bit twisty and, well, “flippy”,

The problem of accuracy is the big deal here. That’s because a motion that makes NQATST has to be done in such a way that the time between the two notes matches the speed of the music. So the part you might not see is that our fingers flex to make one clapper strike, while the hand/arm makes the other strike. Physiologically, it makes a lot of sense, because then different parts of the body are accounting for each action; then they’re independently manageable.

The next trick, of course, is to play multiple flips (for instance, A-C-A-C-A-…) with one hand. These occur fairly frequently in handbell music, so knowing how to use the action for one bell to help the other reset for the next note is essential. But… until you master the single flip, that’s a skill augmentation for another day!

Here’s a video of our eight-bell arrangement of It Is Well with My Soul. Enjoy.

May 05

“How Do You Play Six Bells at Once?”

Rather curiously, “how do you play six bells at once?” is one of the questions that comes our way now and then. The funny thing about it is summed up something like this:

  • We have a slight familiarity with how to set up what’s called “six-in-hand”. Somewhere along the way we learned, perhaps in a workshop on “multiple bell techniques”, how to interlock the handles of three bells so that they can be picked up together without any fear of losing any of them. We also learned – again, from somewhere, how to “paw” three bells with one hand (one as a four-in-hand “primary”, one as a four-in-hand “secondary”, and one between the ring and little fingers parallel to the secondary bell) – only to understand that you really need long enough fingers to use idea effectively.
  • We have even less personal experience with actually trying to play six-in-hand. Situations requiring the technique just don’t cross our path with any appreciable frequency, which means we don’t get around to applying the tiny bit of intellectual knowledge we possess.
  • But it’s rather odd that we could probably teach someone how to play these six-in-hand methods. As some wag said long ago, “those who cannot do, teach.”

The truth of the matter may have something to do with electricity. Videos are created by a camera, usually by taking little pictures 30 or 60 times per second. When those frames are played back at the speed at which they were recorded, the stop-motion is so rapid that it tricks the eye into thinking that it’s viewing continuous motion. You get the same effect with electricity, because alternating current pulses at around 100 cycles per second, and so you get a similar “framing” effect. By the way, you can observe this framing effect by turning your head back and forth as you view an electric light source against a sufficiently dark background – if you do it correctly, you’ll see stop-action images of the light source, thereby proving that the transmissive nature of the light is not continuous but time-discrete.

I think that’s why our four-in-hand ringing looks as if we have six bells each; the light is playing tricks, and the stop-motion you see superimposes the images of bells at (slightly) different locations on your retinas. So you might see six images of four bells. There was a funny little photo of Carla that could be submitted as proof – on this single photo, the motion of one of her hands resulted in the appearance of that hand holding three bells (which I tagged on Facebook as “Klingon weapon”).

So if you see us playing four-in-hand and think it looks like six-in-hand, and ask about what you (think you) see, our answer probably will be “we don’t play six bells; it only looks that way.” Regardless, enjoy the music!