Apr 26

Finlandia

There seems to be no end to the repertoire that can be put into eight handbells. That’s good – we wouldn’t want to run out of possibilities!

This time, we have a classical piece to share. Jean Sibelius wrote his Finlandia as a protest against the Russian Empire that wanted to take over Finland in the very late 19th century. It was considered a patriotic work or a subversive device, depending which side you supported.

Today that conflict is past, and Finlandia is regarded as a great classical work. But that’s not all – the last section of the full work is known as the “Finlandia Hymn”, and it has made its way into many churches with Kathrina von Schlegel’s words, entitled Be Still, My Soul. Whether you want to hear or play it as classical music or a hymn, we think you’ll enjoy our eight-bell arrangement.

Apr 08

Flow Gently, Sweet Afton

Larry and Carla are part of Inspiration International, a UK handbell ensemble whose purpose is to take handbell music into the lives of people who sometimes feel forgotten by society.

Since two of the members are in the USA, it’s a challenge for the three to get together to play. So when Larry and Carla visited the UK in February, the trio get together and recorded the English folk song Flow Gently, Sweet Afton as a twelve-bell arrangement which now is available from Choraegus.

Apr 03

Two Titles for One Score!

As you know, many (hymn) tunes are used for more than one set of lyrics. HYFRYDOL, for instance, shows up many times, and often several times in the same hymnal!

We have a new eight-handbell score based on the hymn tune DIX, which doubles as the music for For the Beauty of the Earth and for the Christmas carol As With Gladness Men of Old. Easy peasy – all you have to do is learn one piece of music, and use the correct title depending on the time of year!

Mar 29

The “Sleeping Beauty Waltz” for Sixteen Handbells

In February, we made a trip to England to see friends and family. Alan and Gay Cooper were a couple of those friends; in fact, the four of us together comprise the Pizzazz Handbell Quartet. We spent an evening together, and managed to make a rehearsal video of our new sixteen-handbell arrangement of Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty Waltz. Do take a look!

Mar 27

A Glorious Easter!

He is risen!

It’s Easter Sunday, and we’ll be heading to church to play eight-bell duets in three morning services in a few minutes. We know many of you will be doing – or already are doing (because we’re in California) this as well, and we hope you’ll have a glorious celebration of our risen Savior.

And if you need a bit more handbell music… here’s our eight-bell arrangement of One Day, one of our favorite Easter hymns!

He is risen indeed!

Mar 26

Sweet Hour of Prayer

Here’s a new eight-handbell arrangement of the famous hymn Sweet Hour of Prayer. The hymn tune was composed by William Bradbury (who gave us many other wonderful tunes as well – can you name one or two?). This arrangement can easily be transposed to work with choir as a thoughtful, meditative piece for your service.

Mar 14

Faith of Our Fathers – New Eight-Bell Music!

As spring rapidly approaches, we’re back to recording more eight-bell music. Our latest release is Faith of Our Fathers, one of the famous hymns of the nineteenth century.

This arrangement is easy enough that you should be able to prepare it for Father’s Day!

Jan 25

Sing Praise to God (Who Reigns Above)

Sometimes we end up writing a “standard” and a “surprisingly easy”™ version of a particular piece. The reason for this, of course, is that sometimes the standard versions can be quite challenging. So we don’t want to prevent anyone from being able to enjoy playing a tune because they’re still on the learning curve.

In this case, we have a new standard version of Sing Praise to God Who Reigns Above which follows the “Surprisingly Easy”™ one we released a while back. No worries – they’re both available through the same web page!

Jan 20

One Day!

Well, that’s not a really-I’ll-eventually-get-to-it promise… it’s the title of our just-released eight-handbell hymn arrangement. One Day is one of the hymns that tells of what Jesus Christ did with no uncertainty – He’s our Example, and Redeemer, and Hope. Our arrangement shares the excitement of knowing that!

We hope you’ll take a look, and that you’ll give this fun new score a try!

Jan 03

O Worship the King!

There are many hymns whose words are sung with multiple hymn tunes (just take a look at your metrical index!). Some time ago we put out an arrangement of the LYONS hymn tune which is commonly used for O Worship the King… and today we’ve added an eight-bell score for HANOVER, one of the other tunes that fit the same words.

Do take a look and see which one is more familiar to you!

LYONS:
 HANOVER: