Fanny Crosby and William Doane were a “dynamic duo” of hymn-writing in the decades on either side of the year 1900. She wrote the words, and he composed the music. One of their best-known hymns is To God Be the Glory Personal note: This was the favorite hymn of Larry’s great-aunt Pat. Our new arrangement …
Category: Choraegus
SUNRISE [OMNI DIE]
The SUNRISE hymn tune (also titled OMNI DIE) from the eighteenth century is paired with with several different texts: At Thy Feet, O Christ We Lay Spirit Working in Creation Daily, Daily, Sing to Mary At thy feet, O Christ, we lay thine own gift of this new day; doubt of what it holds in …
Dec 19
Merry Christmas 2023!
As usual, our December has been our busy performance season. People associate handbells with Christmas, so that’s when they book us. We’ve been at some fun places: Holland Kerstmarkt. Between Thanksgiving and mid-December, we were the ambience for our city’s Dutch Christmas market. It’s an outdoor event, so we pre-chill our bells, bundle up, and …
Nov 27
Ding Dong, Merrily on High – for eight handbells
The sixteenth-century English tune Ding Dong, Merrily on High is quite popular at Christmas. It reflects the joy of the season, and invites us to share in the joy of heaven at the birth of the Son of God. Here’s our eight-bell arrangement – enjoy! Ding dong merrily on high, In heav’n the bells are …
Nov 13
And now, a second eight-bell version of “It Came Upon the Midnight Clear”!
We’ve had an eight-bell version of It Came Upon the Midnight Clear (hymn tune CAROL – the one most frequently heard in the USA) for over ten years. It’s one of my personal favorites; however, it does provide a bit of a challenge to the ringers. So… we’ve just published a second, somewhat less difficult, …
Praise to the Lord, the Almighty (LOBE DEN HERREN) – Twelve-Handbell Version
The title from Joachim Neander’s German 1680 chorale, reads even more impressively in German: Lobe den Herren, den mächtigen König der Ehren. “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” has been a church favorite for many years – after all, our very lives depend on God and His infinite power. Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, …
Oct 06
Server maintenance ahead…
We’ve been informed by our hosting service that they’re moving the Choraegus site onto a brand new server, so if you try to visit us between 01:00 and 07:00 EST tomorrow (Saturday, October 7th), you might not be able to get there for a bit. Don’t worry, we’ll be back, and working even better than …
Oct 04
Where’s the CART?
We made a change to the Choraegus site a few days ago. Before this, your shopping cart was displayed at the bottom of the product page you were viewing and also in the right sidebar. The (minor) disadvantage was that sometimes it would end up way, way down the page, and so you’d have to …
Sep 30
Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow – Twelve-Handbell Version
Rise Up, Shepherd, and Follow is an African-American Christmas spiritual. It’s about the message that drew the shepherds (well, at least one shepherd) to follow the Christmas star to find the Christ Child. The spiritual is a “call and response” song – one way it’s been done in many Black churches is to have the …
Sep 26
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming (ES IST EIN ROS’) (Handbells, 3 octaves, Level 1)
Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming dates back to sixteenth-century Germany. Its lyric combines the image of Jesus Christ as the Rose of Sharon and the Root of Jesse, plus the traditional impression of celebrating Christmas in winter. It was translated to English by Theodore Baker in the nineteenth century. Our arrangement for three octaves …
