Otto Kotilainen’s Finnish carol A Sparrow on Christmas Morning tells the story of a sparrow that has exhausted his summer food supply. In danger of starving in the winter cold, he visits a young girl who offers him a seed to eat. The sparrow gratefully accepts the offer, and then reveals that he, her deceased …
Category: Church Music
Jun 15
Oh, How I Love Jesus – for eight handbells
The tune OH, HOW I LOVE JESUS is a simple one; its composer is unknown. It’s been sung for quite a long time as a gentle expression of faith in Christ for young children and mature adults. We hope you’ll enjoy playing our arrangement for eight handbells! There is a name I love to hear, …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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, …
May 02
New video of (Level 1) “Newness”!
Newness is one of our very special compositions for handbell choir. In addition to being written for three or five octaves of handbells/handchimes, it’s possible to play it at Level 1, Level 2, or Level 3. The difference between the Level 2 and Level 3 versions is simply whether or not you choose to use …
Mar 26
Blessed Assurance (ASSURANCE) (Handbells, 3-5 octaves, Level 3-)
Blessed Assurance is one of Fanny Crosby’s all-time classic hymns. It speaks of faith, dependence, and triumph through having an absolute reliance on God and His power. Our arrangement is for three to five octaves, and will be a welcome addition to your ensemble’s repertoire. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of …
Mar 17
Bass Handbell Solo: “Danny Boy”/”Londonderry Air”
I arranged “Danny Boy”/”Londonderry Air” for bass handbells over twenty years ago, and after a run at a Silicon Valley retirement facility, finally dared to play in public at the 2004 Area 12 conferences. Unfortunately, technology of the time didn’t give us an easy way to make even a scruffy video of what happened then. …