Apr 19

Tico Tico!

We were privileged to have our arrangement of Zequinha Abreu’s Tico Tico no fubá selected for Distinctly Bronze West 2015, where nearly 120 ringers participated in its world premiere performance under the baton of Dr William Payn. Because DB is a high-level event, our friend Alex Guebert created some wonderful percussion parts for the occasion, and now they also are available for purchase!

Here’s a rehearsal video!

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.

Mar 17

Hooray! New twelve-bell music!

We have eight new titles that we’ve added today, and they’re all for twelve bells (C5,D5,E5,F5,G5,A5,B5,C6,D6,E6,F6,G6)! They’ve been arranged in the spirit of our eight-bell music: A fresh look at the genre with some fun twists for ringers to enjoy. Do take a look at them!

Mar 17

Sixteen Bells!

We’ve just released a couple of new small ensemble arrangements. They’re larger-scale than our eight-bell arrangements, requiring twice as many notes. You can play them as four-in-hand quartets, or with eight ringers with two bells apiece, or anything in between.

We think they’ll be great fun for whoever plays them, so please take a look!

Feb 20

Here’s some new music!

We’ve just released our newest “Surprisingly Easy”™ collection of eight-bell pieces. This time it’s a set of hymn arrangements that you’ll find suitable when you need to prepare something for church but have only a few people to ring. Or you might have been thinking about getting into playing eight-handbell duets – these are a great way to start!

This collection contains these hymns:

  • A Mighty Fortress is Our God
  • Fairest Lord Jesus
  • Hyfrydol
  • I Need Thee Every Hour
  • Take the Name of Jesus with You
  • Take My Life and Let It Be (hymn tune: MESSIAH)
  • This is My Father’s World
  • To God Be the Glory

Jan 28

2015 seems to have started, finally!

It’s nearly the end of January… and it feels as if the year is trying to run away without us!

We finally are getting around to releasing a brand new piece! We debuted it in our Alzheimer’s benefit concert on January 23rd. We call it “Grizzly’s Peak”, but you might know it by another title. 😀

Nov 27

Throwback Thursday

No… this isn’t a reference to how Thanksgiving used to be. Rather, it’s about music!

Until recently, all we had for our piece A Snail’s Pace was a simple Finale playback MP3. The notes were there, but the piano patch just didn’t show how it would sound with real-life handbells.

But… at the Bay View Week of Handbells in August, A Snail’s Pace was one of the pieces selected for the repertoire, so courtesy of Pierpont Productions we have a video of over a hundred handbell musicians playing it!

Just surf to our product page for this piece, and you’ll find the video there!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Nov 05

Christmas Roses

We’re heading into Christmas season (well, after “Thanksgiving season” if you live in the USA), and so we’re continuing to refresh and expand our holiday repertoire.

Our ringing friend Maria suggested that we might create an eight-bell arrangement of the lovely carol “Lo, How a Rose E’er Blooming”, and we’ve taken some time to put one together.

We hope you’ll enjoy the video below, and that you might decide to give a try!

Oct 29

It’s time for another “Surprisingly Easy” collection!

We’ve been getting some hopeful messages asking about when we’ll be creating another one of our “Surprisingly Easy” collections. One friend even said that she’s found them to be very useful for teaching her ringers “four in hand” ringing, while others have said they’re having fun.

So… we’ve just released our third (!) “Surprisingly Easy” Christmas collection. We hope you’ll give it a try, and that you’ll be ringing them to celebrate the holidays!

Oct 22

Midnight

No… we don’t usually stay up until midnight unless it’s Christmas Eve and we’re playing at our church’s 11:00 p.m. service. But we do get to enjoy Christmas midnight by playing the Puerto Rican carol A la Media Noche!

We’ve just added it to the Choraegus store, and hope that you’ll enjoy playing it!

Oct 18

The Most-Requested Handbell Piece of All?

We’ve finally created an arrangement of Mykola Leontovych’s “Ukrainian Bell Carol”, probably better-known as “Carol of the Bells”. We speculate that it’s the most-requested handbell piece of all time, if only because of the title (and Christmas advertisements!). So if you’re a four-in-hand duet, you can have this in your repertoire and not disappoint those who ask whether you can play it!

Ukrainian Bell Carol – for 8 Handbells – arr. Larry Sue from Larry and Carla – Handbell Duo on Vimeo.