Aug 09
No… not the purple dinosaur!
It’s been more than a month since the last post, so bringing out a new piece of music is way-y-y overdue. The new eight-bell piece is the Irish jig Barney Brannigan. It’s a lively, bouncy slip jig that’ll have you dancing even as you’re ringing it!
Jul 03
We have a new eight-bell arrangement, Children of the Heavenly Father. As far as our eight-handbell pieces go, this one is on the easier side – but it’s still fun to play and hear. We hope you’ll give it a try!
May 15
Sometimes we release the “Surprisingly Easy”™ version of an eight-bell score really quickly, and then it takes a bit longer to arrange or learn the “standard” (whatever that actually means) arrangement. Sometimes it happens in the other order, too – it often just depends on which one came together properly first.
Take the Name of Jesus with You, a joyous eighteenth-century hymn, is a case in point. We’ve had the easier of the two versions available for quite some time, and now we’ve added the standard one too!
We hope you’ll take a look and that you’ll decide to enjoy playing this song of faith with us!
Apr 26
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
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
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
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 26
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
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
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!