Jan 27 - Solo Handbells at Early Light

Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church has 3 services each Sunday: a Contemporary service in the evening; a Traditional service at 10am; and a Contemplative service at 7:50 am called "Early Light".

Early Light is loosely based on Taize-style worship and mostly uses music from that Community, although we also use a number of songs from other sources, as long as they fit in to the "Contemplative" mood. Additionally, we sing a congregational hymn from the Presbyterian Hymnal to close each service - this hymn is also sung at the 10am Traditional Service, so it serves as a source of unity between the services. (It might even be done at the Contemporary Service, but I'm not sure.)

Anyway, I volunteer as part of the Early Light Music Ensemble and the Music Coordinator uses me both on flute and on solo bells (never on the same Sunday, though!).

I really enjoy playing bells for this because:
1) I love to play bells! ;-) and
2) it makes me a much more flexible ringer.

Why? Because we don't get the music until Monday or Tuesday, then we have one rehearsal as an ensemble on Thursday morning (and some of the musicians can't be there due to day jobs), then a run-through on Sunday morning before the service, then we play the service. This short time-frame forces me to learn my parts quickly.

Also, because the instruments ensemble vary each Sunday, I am always playing with different people and so have to learn how to integrate my instrument into their mix, follow their lead, blend my sound with them, phrase with them, etc. Since we don't have much rehearsal time, this has to happen Sunday morning "on the fly".

(I am VERY blessed that the musicians and other people at this church treat me just like any other instrumentalist. There's none of this "handbells are just toys" nonsense.)

Typically, the Coordinator contacts me the week before I'm supposed to play bells. She gives me the list of music for that Sunday & I go through all the instrumental books and tell her which parts would work for me. She takes that information and then generates what we call a "rep sheet", which lists all the repetitions for each song to be sung that Sunday.

For example, this past Sunday our first song was "Sing Praises All You Peoples" (aka "Laudate Omnes Gentes"). The rep sheet says this:

Sing Praises All You Peoples Iv1p13
8m 7x
1) Michèle intro
2) Michèle fl c1; John tacet; Jim tacet
3) Michèle fl c2; John trb c1; Jim tacet
4) Michèle tacet; John tacet; Jim ob sq1c1
5) Michèle tacet; John trb c2; Jim ob sq1c2
6) Michèle tacet; John tpt sq1c1; Jim tacet
7) Michèle kbd sop; John kbd bass; Jim kbd alto

The "Iv1p13" means that it's found in Instrumental volume 1 on page 13. The "8m 7x" means that the song is 8 measures long & we will play it 7 times.

I have the "intro" - that means that I play the melody unaccompanied (before the congregation sings). The piano comes in the last measure or two to help bring in the singers, congregation, and other instrumentalists.

For reps 2 & 3, I play the flute part. c1 and c2 refer to "circle 1" and "circle 2", a way of identifying the music in the book. I am tacet on reps 4-6, then play the keyboard soprano for the last repetition.

Here's what my music for this song looked like:

(click on the picture to see a larger version)



To make things easier to deal with on Sunday morning, I usually scan in my parts and arrange them so as to eliminate page turns as much as possible (I only have 2 hands!). Here, I re-scanned in my marked-up music so you can see what I did.

You can't tell from this scan, but my setup involved removing the F#6, putting the A#6 in its place, pre-setting the F6 over the G#6 and moving the C7 up to the A#6's home position.

Down at the bottom under "Varied Accompaniments and Solos" is the Flute part, circle 1 and circle 2. In the circle 2 part I eliminated 2 eighth notes from the part just to make it a little easier to play. (I could have played those notes with a little more practice, but I try to avoid the "flailing factor" - this is a Contemplative service, after all, and I don't want to be the center of attention - if I'm not confident I can play it with absolute smoothness, I leave it out.)

During reps 4, 5, and 6 (my tacet reps), I put all my bells back in keyboard order and pre-set the C6 over the B5 for the final rep.

Our next song was "Come Holy Spirit, Comforter" and it involved a little more modification of the parts for me. Here's my music:



(It's a little hard to see my markings, but pencil marks don't scan all that well. Sorry.)

For this song, I was tacet on reps 1-3. I played the trumpet part for rep 4 (which is on a different page & isn't in this picture), then rep 5 was the oboe part (from the oboe, clarinet, and bassoon trio -- the other instruments that day were french horn & bassoon, so the horn played the clarinet part), rep 6 was the bottom of the flute duo, and rep 7 was the top of the recorder duo.

(I goofed when I originally scanned it in & kept the top of the flute duo - that's why it's scribbled out.)

The oboe part was pretty straight-forward, no modification needed. The 2nd flute part required just a little tweaking - I took out the G#6 8th note in measure 3, and replaced the last 2 beats of m. 4 with an A6 half note, plus played a D6 dotted-half note for the first 3 beats of m. 5. There are other modifications, too. I always refer to the "lead sheet" so I can see what chords are there & choose alternate notes accordingly.

For rep 7, I played the 1st recorder part. I did a little bit of octave jumping - playing A6 where an A5 was notated, for example, and only left 2 8th notes out (one of which I decided to do at the last moment because I didn't step far enough to the left to get there comfortably - that whole "no flailing" thing, you know).

After a few more songs, we closed with Hymn #332 "Live Into Hope", the tune "Truro". I have Hal Hopson's wonderful book "The Creative Use of Handbells in Worship, Book 2: Easy Settings for a Few Ringers" which I absolutely LOVE. (I use it a lot when I play at various churches across the country!)

I planned to play the handbell part for Truro from that book on verses 2 and 4 (verse 2 down an octave and verse 4 as written), but we ended up singing only the 1st 2 verses, so I just did the as-written notes on the 2nd verse.

Whenever I mention that I play handbells in a Taize-style service, people always ask me what I actually play (there are no "handbell" parts in the instrumental books). The answer is that I play whatever is assigned to me!

By working closely with the Coordinator, I can be challenged without being overwhelmed and we bring the beautiful sound of bells to this wonderful service.

I am scheduled to play for this service 3 or 4 more times this semeseter, so I will post more about it as the year progresses.

.

Sonos is working on a new DVD

Sonos Handbell Ensemble is working on a new DVD. We got partial funding from an arts supporter in Japan & are now actively fund-raising to get the rest of the money.

As part of our proposal to the supporter, we created a demo video of me, Jason, Missy, and Jukka playing Jim's arrangement of the Japanese folk song "Sakura". He created this arrangement so that it could be played in the lobby during our tours of Japan - the audience LOVES this! - so it uses no tables.

Jim is really into combining contrasting elements - this one uses a simple Change Ringing motive interlaced with the "Sakura" melody. The Change Ringing motive is in the "handle clicks" - we really are hitting the bell casting with the handle of another bell. It creates a sound similar to mallets, but more ethereal, IMO.

He's also into combining movement with music - there's a lot of movement involved in playing bells, of course, and Jim likes to make use of that. His composition "Sonics", which appears on our "Space Between the Notes" video, is all about the movement.

This video was made on Monday, Oct 1, 2007. The 5 of us (the quartet plus Jim) met at a recording studio in Oakland that morning & spent a couple of hours laying down the audio track. Then we headed down to Hakone Gardens in Saratoga and "bell-synced" to the audio track, which was played on my little boom box. Our video editor (Eric Thiermann of The Impact Media Group in Santa Cruz) went away and gave us this video a few days later.

As I said, it's just a demo not a final product, but if this is a taste of things to come, our video is going to be AWESOME!!





Jan 29 UPDATE - Wow! I posted that video to YouTube last night & by this morning it had had 2,141 views!! The video itself has an "honor" listed - "#90 - Most Viewed (Today) - Music" and my account has a tag saying "#24 - Most Viewed (Today) - Musicians". I, of course, have screenshots!




Jan 29 - 2nd UPDATE: This Wikipedia article talks about the song & it's history & gives an English translation of the lyrics.

Sunnyvale Choir of Bells - Sun, Jan 27

The Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church's Choir of Bells played in church for the 10:00 Bright Traditional service yesterday.

For the Prelude, we played the Level 2 piece Intermezzo by Paula Szalit, transcribed by Kevin McChesney. That's the easiest of the 4 pieces chosen for this year's Bay Area Spring Ring in Cupertino, so I thought we'd get a head start on it & play it for church.

The group did pretty well (despite not watching me for one ritard, grrr!) on it & so I know they will have absolutely no trouble with it at Spring Ring.

For the Offertory, we pulled a piece out of the files - the Level 2+ Peals of Joy by Douglas E. Wagner. Written for 3 octaves, I doubled the bass down an octave for most of it and added the upper 5th octave in a few places, too. Nothing too outrageous - I am not one of those "double everything all the time" people, I like a bit of contrast and I prefer to add bass bells rather than high treble.

I deliberately chose simple stuff for this Sunday because we only had 3 rehearsals to work on stuff. I usually work on 2 months' worth of music at each rehearsal, but because we do that 30-minute Christmas Eve Prelude, all of our rehearsals after our November service date are dedicated to Christmas stuff. Consequently, when we start again in January, it is with a clean slate.

We've also been working on our February music & tomorrow night will start working on stuff for March, too. After that, we'll start work on our Spring Concert repertoire. I've got some neat ideas for the concert & am really looking forward to that. :-)

.

Elvira?? (catching up #3)

Back on Sunday, Jan 6, 2008, Sonos gave a "Twelfth Night" concert in Walnut Creek, CA.

We had just returned from Japan on Christmas Eve & hadn't rehearsed since then - and there was no time to rehearse or warm up or anything before the concert; we barely had time to setup before the audience arrived! Plus, while KatRyn from Los Angeles was able to come to Japan, she wasn't available to play this concert, so Patti (a local Sonosian who couldn't come to Japan, but was available on Jan 6) played those parts. PLUS, Tess had sprained one of her feet in Japan and sprained AND broke the other one, so she played with a cast on her foot (and had a rolling stool upon which she propped the cast while she played!), so some of the "floaters" played for her and Melissa Rossi (another local Sonosian who couldn't come to Japan) played Tess' part in "Leyenda" since it used to be Melissa's part.

But even with all of those strikes against us, the concert went really well! I think all of us were really focused because we knew the chance of disaster was really high, plus, well, we're all really good! ;-)

The audience really enjoyed the concert and came up to our tables not only at intermission, but also after the show to look at the bells and to shower praises on us!

At our next rehearsal, Patti brought in a clipping from an East Bay newspaper that showed pictures from our concert and had info about our upcoming concert with the Diablo Symphony - of course, some of the info is wrong, but what can you do? *sigh*

Here's the whole layout:

Jason took one look at the picture and started calling me "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark"! I mean, do YOU see any resemblance?!? LOL!

My CD was Reviewed!

My CD Chimera was reviewed in the December 2007 issue of "Percussive Notes, The journal of the Percussive Arts Society"! How cool is that??

Yes, they spelled my name wrong (I think spellcheck is to blame!), but they've promised to print a correction in the Feb 2008 issue.

(click on the picture to see it full-size)




Jan 29 UPDATE: True to their word, the PAS did print a correction:

Bells in the Synagogue (catching up #2)

On Friday, Dec 28th, the Trinity Ringers of Holy Trinity Episcopal Church in Menlo Park played for a Shabbat service at Etz Chayim synagogue in Palo Alto.

You might be asking why an Episcopal Church's bell choir is playing at a Jewish synagogue.

The answer is simple: because one of the members of the Trinity Ringers is Jewish! You see, Mark is a professional percussionist who used to live down the street from the church. One evening he was walking home and took a shortcut through the churchyard. He heard bells ringing in the Sanctuary & went in to investigate. They invited him to stay and ring & he did!

Periodically, Etz Chayim has lay-led Shabbat services, usually on the 5th Friday of each month. Dec 28th wasn't a 5th Friday, but because it was Solstice and the last Friday of the year, it was lay-led, too. Whenever Mark is the lay leader, he invites the bell choir to ring.

This was our 3rd time there and the congregation seems to really love us - and we love them! They are enthusiastic and always curious about the bells and chimes as well as super-welcoming of all of us ringers into their midst.

It's my understanding that their Shabbat services don't usually have instrumental music; the congregation sings the prayers a capella. That all changes when Mark's in charge!

This time, we played 2 pieces on our own:

*) Meditation by Dan R. Edwards (published by Choristers Guild - there is another Meditation by Dan Edwards published by someone else (National, I think)); and

*) Ring Alleluia by Howard F. Starks (published by Harold Flammer).

One of our members is a harpist & we played along with her on a few things from Sylvia Woods' book Hymns and Wedding Music For All Harps. We played:

*) Hine Ma Tov as a round. First Mary played the whole thing on harp with the congregation singing along, then she started again this time with the left half of the congregation, and we started 8 bars later with the right half of the congregation. We carried on like this until Mark told us to stop; and

*) L'cha Dodi with some doubling of the melody in octaves in the bells and some other embellishes by the harp.

The bells just read off of the harp music for this and used their pencils to indicate any added notes or things - and to mark notes that were in a clef they're not used to reading them in!

I also played 2 duets with Gretchen Rauch. We added bell embellishments to harp and harpischord on the theme from Pan's Labyrinth, and did the melody plus some embellishments to a piece by Alan Hovhaness, the name of which escapes me at the moment Spirit Cat (unpublished) with bells playing the voice part & with Mark on vibes.

All in all, we had a great time!

Christmas Eve (catching up #1)

I flew back from Japan with Sonos on Christmas Eve. The day started out with a 1 hour bus ride from our mountain lodge at Yatsugatake to the train station. Then a 2 hour train ride to Tokyo, then another hour by train to Narita airport. Finally, we flew from Narita to San Francisco - an 8 or 9 hour flight - and arrived at 11am.

That evening, my Sunnyvale bell choir (The Choir of Bells) played a 30 minute prelude to the 11:00 Candlelight service.

This is the service for which they were rehearsing when Stephanie Wiltse flew in to work with them. Larry Sue worked with them one week, too.

We started rehearsing at about 9:30 -- just once through everything with the organist & flutist, plus ironing out any rough spots -- and let me tell you, my smile was so wide, I thought the top of my head would fall off!

I was amazed - this was by far the best they have ever played! I am SO PROUD of them!

The church took video of the prelude; I need to take a blank DVD to church & get a copy of it. I'll post some of it to YouTube once I get it & will post a link here.

Meanwhile, here's what we played that night:

"Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus (Prelude on 'Hyfrydol')"
-- arr. by Janet Linker and Jane McFadden
-- full choir with organ & flute

"Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring"
-- by J. S. Bach, arr. by Victor Gumma
-- handbell duet with piano

"Carols of Christmas"
-- arr. by D. Linda McKechnie
-- full choir with piano

"Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella"
-- arr by Christine D. Anderson and Daniel Kramlich
-- handbell solo with piano

"Greensleeves"
-- arr. by Nancy Hascall
-- handbell solo with piano and cello

"Cradle Song"
-- by A. Ilyinski, arr by Diane L. Mayer and Margaret R. Tucker
-- full choir with piano

"Silent Night"
-- by Franz Gruber, arr. by Cathy and David Moklebust
-- full choir with organ

I'm back

I was away for a little while due to some family issues, but I'm back now. I totally flaked out, though - I've gotten hardly anything accomplished in the past 3 weeks or so, and I've got a lot of catching up to do.

If you're one of those people with whom I need to catch up, please forgive me - I'm not usually that flaky. These were extreme circumstances & it was all I could do to just carry on with the basics of life.

I also need to catch up here - I have a lot of things to blog about! Unfortunately, I have a 2 hour meeting tomorrow morning followed by a 6 hour rehearsal. Sunday morning, my Trinity group is playing in church, followed by a 3 hour rehearsal. I might get a chance to blog on Sunday night, but I might not (as I said, I've got other things to catch up on, too!).

I have some exciting things coming up this year & I can't wait to share them all with you! Until I get a few moments to do that, though, this blog will have to wait just a little while longer.

Thanks for hanging in there. Meanwhile, I'll leave you with the immortal words of Christopher Robin:

GON OUT
BACKSON
BISY
BACKSON


.