Christmas Eve in Sunnyvale 2008

Every year, the Choir of Bells plays a 30-minute or so "Prelude of Bells" before the 11:00pm Candlelight Service at church.

I am not always there. Sonos has gone to Japan on tour for 5 of the last 7 years (2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, & 2007) & it depends on when we get back whether or not I can actually be at the service to conduct. (I've actually been able to conduct in 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007.) Sonos didn't go this year, so I conducted again.

We're supposed to play a minimum of 30 minutes of music (the church advertises the Prelude starting at 10:30), but sometimes we have more. OK, we *usually* have more! :-) This year was no exception - we started playing at 10:18 & finished at 10:59. In between the pieces, our wonderful organist Valerie Sterk provided transition music as we moved from position to position. We do practice that - our last two rehearsals always include a "tech run through" of the music.

Here's what we played this year:

*) Joy to the World arr. by John Behnke.

The latest edition of Overtones included a one-page Processional intro, so I decided that that would be a great way to open the program. We didn't process, so we just played through it one time, then went into "Joy to the World" proper with the organ playing the hymn from the hymnal, and the bells playing a chordal accompaniment.

*) What is This Lovely Fragrance? arr. by Mike Mazzatenta.

This is a Level One piece to which I added some bass swings and treble shakes here and there & took it at a brisk clip. It's written for 3-5 octaves; I think we played from about G3 to C8 with 10 people, like this:

1. Bass 1 (sharing G3-F4)
2. Bass 2 (sharing G3-F4)
3. GA4
4. B4 C5
5. DE5
6. FG5
7. AB5 B67
8. CD6 C78
9. EF67 (I think this person helped with the C8 on occasion)
10. GA67

*) Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming arr. by Gary Smoke.

A beautiful arrangement of this historic tune, it is not technically difficult, but can be musically challenging to bring out all the musical nuance. It features an almost canonical overlapping of the theme in several places. Lovely!

*) Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence arr. by Matthew Prins.

When I was planning the Prelude of Bells, I asked the group if anybody wanted to do any solo or small ensemble pieces. Marsha Dyslin and her 2 daughters Sara & Debbie said they'd like to do a trio. I posted a request for suggestions at the Handbell Podcast Community & Matthew replied with this unpublished trio. I presented it along with a couple of other trios to the Dyslins & they chose to do Matthew's piece. I borrowed Ruben's Peery bell tree stand (along with the 2 extra arms for the thing) and they went to work. It's a really lovely arrangement and they played it well. :-)

*) Savior of the Nations, Come arr. by Cathy Moklebust.

I like to use chimes for the melody at the beginning & end. Meanwhile, at the beginning, I have the bass chords "robot ring". In a "robot ring", the ringer does the preparation and the strike, but does not follow through. They "park" the bell. I described the sonic and visual aspects of this a few days ago in the post about Etz Chayim because I had them robot ring on the piece we did for the Kaddish, "Tropes". At the end of "Savior", the bass ringers gyro instead of robot ring. We used the percussion, too.

*) Symphonia on 'Hyfrydol', retitled for this program as Symphonia on 'Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus' arr. by Kevin McChesney.

Elaine Collins performed this solo piece, after working on it less than a month! It's a fairly challenging piece so she took it a bit under tempo and abridged the ending mallet section. There were a few minor issues with it, but *especially* considering how little time she'd had to prepare it, she did a great job. She's planning to continue working on it & present it again at our Spring Concert in May. (Yay!) I hope it stays in her repertoire for a long time to come!

*) Of the Father's Love Begotten arr. by John Behnke.

I first conducted this piece back in 2000, when I was still in Cleveland directing the "Ring of Truth" bell choir. Back then, I added a cello line to it because we had a cellist who *really* wanted to play "Divinum Mysterium" with us. This time, there was no cello, so we did it as written. It's a bit more challenging because it changes time signatures fairly often and is more upbeat than some of the other stuff on the program. The transitions between bells & chimes, with their accompanying tempo changes, seemed to give us the most grief in rehearsal, but they really concentrated for the performance and did really well!

*) O Come, O Come, Emmanuel arr. by Christine Anderson & Daniel Kramlich.

I decided at the last minute to play a solo, too. As I said over at The Clearinghouse of Choreography: This is one of my all-time favorite handbell solos! People always seem to love it when I play it & I really love the way the melody ascends through the various keys which, to me, symbolizes our heightened anticipation of Christ's birth during the Advent Season.I wrote that in 2004 and it's still one of my favorite solos!

*) Silent Night arr. by Cathy & David Moklebust.

We have finished our Prelude of Bells with this piece for the last 3 years & we just love it. The writing for both the bells & organ is really good - the parts work together well & the organ does not overpower the bells. On the 2nd verse, I have the melody & chordal accompaniment played on chimes while the descant 8th notes are played by bells. I also ask the organ to lay out of this verse, which really brings out the chimes. (If we were doing it to accompany congregational singing, I would have the organ keep playing.) We ended this piece at 10:59, just in time for the beginning of the service proper!

When we were done playing, we moved the bell tree, all the music stands, and the wind chimes off into the "wings" so they were out of the way, and moved the rear bell table up so it was touching the front bell table in order to create room between the bell tables & the Chancel steps.

I managed to take some pictures during our setup & pre-service rehearsal & have uploaded them to Flickr. Here's a sample:



Have a happy holiday season everyone!!

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Sonos at Davies Hall

Last night, Sonos appeared as guest artist with the San Francisco Girls Chorus at their annual "Stars of Wonder" concert at Davies Symphony Hall in downtown San Francisco.

We played a short Fanfare, written by our director James Meredith, to start the program. We also played in the last piece on the first half, "Ring Out, Wild Bells!" for SSAA chorus and handbells by Bradley Ellingboe.

During intermission, we set up for the second half - our solo number was the fifth piece in the second half. We played "Christmas Tidings" by James Meredith, a medley of "Mary Had a Baby" and "Go Tell it on the Mountain" for bells and clarinet. Our clarinetist for the evening was Joel Jaffe.

When we went onstage for our piece, the audience clapped politely. When we finished the piece, the audience went WILD! The hall *erupted* in applause, with some whistles, hoots, and hollers thrown in for good measure! It was obvious that they really really liked the piece!! Yay!

Immediately after "Christmas Tidings", 5 of us stayed on stage to join the Girls Chorus on the audience sing-along "I Saw Three Ships" - we played on verse six, "And all the bells on earth shall ring".

At that point, we left the stage, to return for the final piece on the program, the audience sing-along "Joy to the World", with brass, piano, and organ, too!

Davies Hall is a simply DIVINE place to play - wonderful acoustics, stage managers & -hands who know their stuff and aren't overly-authoritarian.

We always enjoy it when we get to collaborate with other wonderful musicians, and the SFGC certainly fits that bill! While we were backstage, the girls sang "O Holy Night" and I commented (with a happy sigh), "This is what heaven sounds like!"

Here are some pictures I took. Ruben took some, too, and when he puts them online, I'll post a link.

Now it's time for me to get ready to conduct the Sunnyvale Presbyterian Church's Choir of Bells in our annual "Prelude of Bells" before the 11:00pm Candlelight Christmas Eve service. Fun!

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Long-overdue Pictures on Flickr

I posted some long-overdue pictures to Flickr this morning. I've got more, but don't have any more time today to post them. I have a concert to get ready for!



And some sets:

Europe 2008

October 2008 - Las Vegas

Sonos with the SF Chamber Orchestra - This will be on-going, since the performance isn't until Feb 2009.

Solstice Shabbat at Etz Chayim

Once again, the Trinity Ringers played for the Winter Solstice Shabbat service at Etz Chayim synagogue in Palo Alto. We've played there 3 times before - here's the blog post from the last time, which details how we came to start ringing at a synagogue in the first place!

This year, we were joined at the last minute by Gretchen Rauch & her daughter Theda Howard. 2 of our regular members were out with health issues & another had a scheduled absense that I apparently completely blanked about because I thought she was going to be there. But, I've been really busy lately, so I probably just missed it.

We played more pieces this year than we ever have in the past, plus there was a trio of women from the congregation (Mark called them "The Moms") - keyboard/vocals, guitar, and violin - that sang 3 songs, plus a piece for recorder & harpsichord, PLUS Mark played a piece on vibraphone accompanied by Mary on harp.

There was LOTS of music & here's what we did:

Before the service proper, Mark started out by passing out some small percussion instruments to the congregation - finger cymbals, small wind chimes, etc., - and encouraging people to ring them when they felt moved to. It was interesting having random "bings and bongs" happen during the service!

Then, still before the service proper, Mark read something from Rabbi Moshe Cotel (who was also a pianist) about how Friday night Shabbat was always his chance to step away from the world & from the hustle & bustle of everyday life - he saw the moon as being a "silver fermata" in the sky. After that, the Moms sang "Erev Shel Shoshanim", then Mark led the congregation in reciting the Sim Shalom.

After that, the congregation sang a 3-part round -- handbells on one part, harp and vibes on another part, violin & harpsichord on the 3rd -- to "Hava Nashira". (The handbell part was just the melody, in 4 octaves.) Mark then read "Eternity utters a day" by Abraham Joshua Heschel.

Then, the handbells and the harp led the congregation in singing "L'cha Dodi" to greet the Sabbath. The handbells played the melody in 2 octaves, plus a nice bass line. Next up was Psalm 98, read responsively, followed by handbells alone on Arnold Sherman's "Grazioso".

At this point, the service proper began. (Yes, that was all "Prelude"!)

The leader of the synagogue's Saturday morning contemplative Shabbat service led us all in singing the Baruchu and Mark read a piece about Creation and Night before the handbells played Beethoven's "Moonlight Sonata" - which was specifically requested of us by a member of the congregation!

A meditation followed this, then the handbells and harp led the congregation in singing "Etz Chayim". The handbells played the melody in 3 octaves. This was followed by the Shema and a song sung by the Moms, "Oifen Pripitchik". A reading about redemption came next, then the Hashkevienu, followed by Mary (harp) accompanying Mark (vibes) on the Largo from Dvorak's New World Symphony.

Before the Kaddish, the handbells played the 2nd movement from a piece called "Tropes" by a composer that Mark knows. I only know the composer's last name - Liederman. Originally for piano, it has the notation "Bell-like", so Mark thought it would be appropriate to play on handbells! A technically simple piece, it consists of 12 measures, 11 of which start with the two notes E-A followed by a chord (the chord is different in each measure). (The 12th measure doesn't start with the E-A, but goes E-A chord chord.) I had the bells all "robot ring" for this piece, which is different sonically as well as visually. Sonically, because the bell is stationary after it's rung, so the sound waves are limited to a single plane rather than being broadcast all about the room - this makes for a much more "austere" sound than regular ringing. Visually, because the bell is staionary after it's rung, so the ringers do not have the flowing "multi-armed" look that regular ringing gives them. It made for a very effective contrast.

Mark read something else from Rabbi Cotel, then the harpsichord & recorder played a Handel piece. I don't know which one it was, but as they were playing it, it was on the tip of my tongue. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to ask them! :-( This was followed by the Healing Prayer, then we played "Tropes" again.

Now it was time for the Dvar, or lesson. Mark modified a previous sermon he had given on "Everything I Needed to Know, I Learned in Bell Choir"! LOL! We're trying to get him to give that sermon at our annual spring concert. :-)

After the Dvar, the violinist played with us on Kath Wissinger & Tammy Raetz's "The Travelers from Nazareth".

I know that that seems kind of a weird thing to play at a synagogue; that was my first reaction, too! But when Mark & I were first talking about what to play, he asked me what we were working on for our other engagements - Kara & Lessons & Carols. We decided that "Lo How a Rose" probably wouldn't work at all, but since "Travelers" was an original composition and we wouldn't be singing the words, it would be ok. I believe Mark's words were "Nazareth is in Israel!" So, we've done that piece 3 times this season: once with viola, once with choir, and once with violin. It really is lovely. :-)

The Alenu came next, followed by the Moms singing a lovely song called "Lay Down". This was followed by the Mourner's Kaddish, announcements, and the Parents Blessings.

To wrap up the service, Mark passed out pots, pans, bowls, and other odds & ends to the congregation and the handbells led them in singing "Psalm 150". The treble played the melody in 2 octaves, while the bass played chords underneath. Then we all headed over to the back of the room for the Oneg before packing up & taking everything back to the church.

As always, it was a LOT of fun to play at Etz Chayim. They are always so welcoming and warm to us - many people come up to the tables after the service to ask questions or to tell us how much they enjoy hearing the bells. I know that there aren't a lot of groups that play at synagogues, so it feels pretty special, too. :-)

I sent a note to the Ringers thanking them for all their hard work in putting this together. While we had prepared "Grazioso" and "Travelers" for the Kara service, "Moonlight" and all the other stuff was unique to this one. We had a few rehearsals on "Moonlight", but only one rehearsal on the other stuff, so they really did work very hard in a very short amount of time to learn all this music! Mark replied to my note:

Seconding Michele's note, you were amazing on Friday. Thank you all so much for volunteering to do this for my congregation, and especially for working on the knife's edge this time. Learning so much music so quickly and with just-in-time subs as well. And then fitting it all into a complicated service with other "acts" as well. Bells are always special wherever we play and I'm sure ringing for shabbat must be one of the most unique things any handbell choir anywhere does. (That and consuming large quantities of chocolate.)

Here's to next year! :-)

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New Educational Percussion DVD

The NYTimes reports on the new educational percussion DVD Fred Armisen Presents: Jens Hannemann Complicated Drumming Technique:

In a scene from his latest instructional DVD, this vaguely Teutonic musician has just finished demonstrating the step-by-step mechanics of an overly elaborate rhythm: in this case a two-handed drum pattern from his song "Just in Time" that he illustrates by calling out the words "left" and "right," seemingly at random, about 31 times in a row. Then he turns to the camera and with a straight face tells his would-be pupils, "You might want to memorize that for when you’re practicing at home."

I *so* want this DVD!!

BTW, I found this via a blog post by my good friend Ben at The Good Music Adventure. Check out the rest of Ben's blog while you're there - I've added it to the blogroll over there on the right-hand nav panel, too.

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Said by Billy Jean King...

... "Be bold! If you're gonna make a mistake, make it a doozy!"

That's always been one of my favorite quotes & I use it a lot when encouraging the ringers under my baton, or my students, or whoever I'm trying to encourage at the moment.

My husband is a photographer. Not a professional one (yet), but definitely an above-average hobbyist. He's got fancy equipment & is creative, so he really enjoys taking pictures (LOTS of pictures).

Today, he sent me a link to this article which, despite the title, is Safe For Work. I enjoyed the entire article, but wanted to call out one part in particular:

Nobody likes feeling like a noob, especially when you're getting constant pressure on all sides to never stick out in an unflattering way. And, in this godforsaken just-add-Wikipedia era of make-believe insight and instant expertise, it's natural to start believing you must never suck at anything or admit to knowing less than everything — even when you're just starting out. Clarinets should never squawk, sketch lines should never be visible, and dictionaries are just big, dumb books of words for cheaters and fancy people. Right?

I think finding your own comfort with the process (whatever that process ends up being) might just be the whole game here — being willing to put in your time, learn the craft, and never lose the courageousness to be caught in the middle of making something you care about, even when it might be shit and you might look like an idiot fumbling to make it. What's the worst thing that could happen?

That really is my philosophy on my career as a handbell solo artist in a nutshell. I've made lots of mistakes - my first public recital here in the Bay Area was pretty much a total disaster of the Epic Fail variety - but I perservered and now feel like I actually have a handle on things.

This is NOT to say that I don't recognize areas of potential improvement. (Oh, how I do!) What I'm saying is that, if you live your life in fear of failure, you will fail simply because you never try anything new. I know I'll improve - because I keep at it, despite the odds, despite the knowledge that it would just be easier to give up and play "safe" music instead of being all pioneer-ish and "pushing the envelope" and all that jazz.

But really, where's the fun in that? ;-)

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Bay Bells with Quadre

Tonight, I got to sub with Bay Bells in their appearance as guest artist on the Quadre "Horns for the Holidays" concert.

What fun!

We arrived at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts at 5pm to load in, with rehearsal with Quadre at 5:45.

The concert started at 7. Our joint piece, "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly", arranged by Quadre member Nathan Pawelek, was next to last in the first half. After "Infant Holy", we played "Silver Bells", arr by Cynthia Dobrinski, as a solo piece.

Bay Bells played very well tonight -- they should be VERY proud of themselves!

I, of course, have uploaded pics to Flickr. Here's one just to whet your appetite:



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Busy Weekend!

Friday night was the tech rehearsal for the Sunnyvale Prebyterian Church's "Thesbyterian Players" production of "The Silent Bells". 3 members of the Choir of Bells, plus a ringer's SO, plus me were "The Belfry" for the show (I also had another job - I got to turn pages for the pianist!). In addition to the tech rehearsal on Friday night, we had 2 performances on Saturday and one today.

Of course, all the performances were great, thanks in large part to the very capable direction of Martha Groves Perry!

I took a few pictures when I wasn't otherwise occupied & you can see them here. I'll post more pics when I get them from the other people with cameras. :-)

Meanwhile, here's a pic of Brian in the belfry:

(I think he wants me to stop taking pics already!)

***

This morning was also the Lessons & Carols service at Holy Trinity Episcopal (Menlo Park). The service started at 10:30 & I was sure it would last until noon - which was the start time for today's performance of "The Silent Bells"! Fortunately, it ended at about 11:40, so Brian & I had plenty of time to make it to SVPC from Trinity. *whew*

I got a few pics & uploaded them to Flickr, too.

***

Brian & I also attended the Velocity concert in Castro Valley on Saturday night. Unfortunately, I left my camera at home, so no pics. :-(

Velocity is operating as a trio now since one of their members dropped out. They played some of the standard "quartet" literature, but with only 3 people! Since I've played some of those, too, I mostly just sat there with my mouth open wondering how the heck they managed to do it with three!

Totally awesome!

***

I spent a couple of hours on Thursday practicing on the church's piano for my piano final on Friday. The time was well spent because I got an A!

(That makes straight A's this quarter YAY!)

My piano teacher said that next quarter, we'll do about 3 more pieces from our book, then move on to another book, the Eckstein Book 6.

***

Next quarter, in addition to piano, I'll also be continuing in Music Theory, plus singing in the College Chorale. I'm hoping that being in the singing group will help with my ear training.

I will also be taking "Fitness for Life" - even though I don't need any more PhysEd classes, I figure it's a good idea to keep taking them, just for my own health benefit.

Plus, I'll be taking American History. It's a California State University General Education requirement - you get a choice of taking one of 3 AmHis courses: Colonial era - 1816; 1816-1914; and 1914-present. I figure that we got up to WWI in High School, so it'll be interesting to take 20th century history.

***

Since I'm done with my finals now, I have a week "off". Tuesday night, I'll be playing with Bay Bells at the Quadre concert. I hope to take some pics there & blog about it. (Larry Sue will be sub directing for me at Sunnyvale Pres that night.)

Wednesday night is the regular weekly rehearsal for the Trinity Ringers & we'll spend the time getting ready to play at Etz Chayim on Friday night.

Saturday & Sunday are Sonos rehearsals to prepare for Dec 23rd's concert with the SF Girls Chorus, plus our February concerts with the SF Chamber Orchestra.

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A few things from the Miscellaneous Musical Musings department:

Classical Music after the CD
Contains the dire prediction:

The remaining 3 "major" labels – Universal, Sony and EMI - will be out of the classical business within 2 years.

Favorite quotes from the 'Lexicon of Musical Invective'
My favorite is the one for Wagner:

the diabolical din of this pig-headed man, stuffed with brass and sawdust, inflated, in an insanely destructive self-aggrandizement, by Mephistopheles' mephitic and most venomous hellish miasma, into Beelzebub's Court Composer and General Director of Hell's Music

The Classical Music Homepage
My new favorite page on the internet! Especially their News page!

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Ridiculous, but fun!

This video clip is ridiculous, but fun!

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2 down, 1 to go!

Just got home from taking my Marine Biology final exam. My brain now feels like a damp sponge after squeezing all that info out of it.

Don't get me wrong; this was probably the most fun I've ever had in a science class! We had so many field trips! Sure, there's a LOT of information to know, but as long as you keep up with it, there's no problem. I studied a bit, but it was mostly a question of just reminding myself of it after lecture, not "cramming" to learn new info.

I have no exams tomorrow, but I need to spend a fair bit of time practicing for my Piano final on Friday at 11am. I have to play both the e-flat and b-flat minor scales, plus "Valse" from the piano book. I'll probably run over to church so I can practice on a real piano instead of my keyboard here at home (the keys of which are not touch-sensitive & not weighted, and there's no pedal).

***

Thursday night, the Trinity Ringers played for the Kara Grief Support organization's annual candle-lighting ceremony. This is the 4th year in a row we've been asked to do it & we love it. It's a very emotional service, but totally worth the time investment. This year, we did Arnold Sherman's "Grazioso" as well as Kath Wissinger & Tammy Raetz's "The Travelers of Nazareth" (retitled "The Journey"). For "Travelers", we had a viola with us. Not wanting him to play just the straight melody all the way through, I embellished the melody for each successive verse & had him play that. We got lots of great comments that night. I am so proud of them!

Also at Trinity, we will be playing for the annual "Lessons & Carols" service this coming Sunday, the 14th. It's definitely an Advent service; we end with the Magnificat. The priest says that there's still a week and a half of Advent left after that, so there's no need to rush.

We'll be playing "Fantasie on 'Lo, How a Rose E'er Blooming'" by Everett J. Hilty for the Prelude. This is not a technically difficult piece, but it's very exposed. Lots of 8th notes single-bell lines and not a lot of chords. Beautiful. I'm thinking of adapting it for solo bells & chimes with harp or piano.

We'll also be doing "The Travelers of Nazareth" for the Postlude, this time with vocal solo on the first verse, TB on the 2nd (T's sing melody), SA on the 3rd verse, and SATB on the 4th. I think that'll be a nice way to end the service. :-)

I also hope for us to play along on the congregational hymns "O Come, O Come Emmanuel", "Comfort, Comfort Ye My People", and "Let All Mortal Flesh Keep Silence", but "Lo How a Rose" is definitely our priority in rehearsal tonight. If we don't get to the hymns, so be it. :-(

***

Over at Sunnyvale Pres, 4 members of the Choir of Bells will be involved with the church Christmas play, "The Silent Bells". The bells of the Swiss village of Beaumont are silent unless someone learns the true meaning of Christmas. So, yeah, we only play a little bit at the end, but it's fun. :-) We had a dress rehearsal last Sunday. Friday night is the tech rehearsal, there are 2 performances on Saturday, and one on Sunday.

Also at SVPC, we are dilligently rehearsing for our annual 30-minute Christmas Eve "Prelude of Bells" before the 11:00pm Christmas Eve service. This year, we're playing five group pieces, plus there's a trio & a solo, too (and it's not me, although I am considering playing something).

Last night was my last rehearsal with the group. Larry Sue has kindly agreed to sub direct for me on the next 2 Tuesdays because:

• on the 16th, I will be joining Bay Bells as they appear as Guest Artist at the Quadre concert at the Mountain View Center for Performing Arts; and
• on the 23rd, Sonos will appear as Guest Artist at the San Francisco Girls Chorus concert at Davies Hall in San Francisco.
  

More about those things later!

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Nov 30, Advent One: Contemporary Service

Last Sunday, November 30th, was the First Sunday of Advent and I played solo bells for a contemporary service (which we all hope becomes permanent for the last Sunday of each month) at Holy Trinity Episcopal Church. I love playing for contemporary services because not only does it show the congregation - and other musicians! - that handbells can fit into such a service, it stretches me because it requires me to be flexible, both musically in that I get to improv, and personally as I'm an ENTJ and like things to be "just so", and this style of service is almost never "just so"! (I've worked very hard to overcome some of the problems inherent to being an ENTJ, and this is definitely part of my "therapy"!)

We had 3 singers, guitar, bass, piano, harp, and handbells. There's usually a drummer for these services, too, but he was out of town this time. This is the first time I've participated in a contemporary service at this church and I had a GREAT time!

Here's how the service went:

There was no Prelude or processional song. The pastors chose to do "something special" for Advent 1, so they chose to just ring a "bell" (actually a bronze bowl, which sounds something like a gong when struck) before proceeding to the front of the church.

Next up was the Lighting of the First Advent Candle, the candle of waiting. Following that was the Penitential Order, in which we all confessed our sins against God and against our neighbor.

Note for those not familiar with church: there was a moment of silence in which we all silently confessed our personal sins, then we all prayed together aloud, asking for forgiveness. (I can remember being a child and thinking that a "public confession" meant that we had to go up front & tell everybody what we did wrong. The thought was absolutely terrifying!)

After the Celebrant assured us of our forgiveness, we all sang a Trisagion.

This particular Trisagion was written by our Music Director Michael Taylor. It's not specifically "contemporary", so the person in charge of the music for this service was hesitant to program it, but Michael made the very valid point that he's trying to teach it to the congregation and playing it at this service will help that effort. Personally, I thought it was lovely & worked really well in this service format.

I was given the piano/vocal score and since I know the pianist is the kind who likes to improv rather than read just what's on the page, I decided to take some of the motives from the written piano part and play them. These motives come back later in the song as a vocal descant, which sounded lovely doubled by the bells. I plan to write out what I played and give it to Michael to include should he get this commercially published (and he should). The part is easily playable by a ringer with good 4iH skills, but would also work really well on a bell tree (that is, suspended bells struck with mallets).

After the Collect of the Day and the first Scripture reading, we played the Gospel Hymn. This was "Thy Word" by Amy Grant. In our church, we usually sing a couple of verses of the Gospel Hymn before the reading of the Gospel Message, then sing the rest afterwards. Since "Thy Word" has only 2 verses, we sang one before and one after. I played the melody during the intro & the refrain, then played chord tones during the verses.

After the Homily were the Prayers of the People, then the Peace. There were a few Announcements, then it was time for the Offertory Anthem, which was my solo.

I played Christine Anderson & Daniel Kramlich's arrangement of "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel", which is a particularly beautiful arrangement. The piano part is simply gorgeous and the bell arrangement is not just repetitions of the melody, but features some lovely descants and counter-melodies. Lovely! When I play this for contemporary services, I usually like to do it with synthesizer set to strings+piano or strings+guitar or strings+harp, but we didn't have a synth available, so we did it on piano. Don't get me wrong - I love piano! But a synth offers so many more timbral choices that I like to take advantage of them when I can. :-) I did use my own choreography, though, since Christine published this before Traveling 4iH became widely known.

After the Offertory Anthem, the congregation sang the Doxology. The one chosen for this service was by Jimmy Owens. I didn't play along but instead used the time to set up a bell tree (using duplicate bells) for the closing hymn. I ordinarily would have set that up before the service, but due to space constraints, the tree needed to be set up at the bass end of my six-foot solo table and would have gotten in the way of the Offertory.

After the Doxology, the Holy Communion begins. After an opening chant and prayer by the Celebrant, we sang a Sanctus, the one from the Iona Community called "Santo, Santo, Santo". We always sing it one time in Spanish, then again in English. I played the melody the first time through, then played an arpeggiated accompaniment in the high bells based on chord tones.

After some more ritual spoken by the Celebrant, we all sang the Lord's Prayer. I was just given some hand-written music for this, so I'm not sure who wrote it. It's familiar to the congregation, though, so perhaps it was written by someone at the church? Anyway, I wasn't planning on playing to this because I wasn't sure if I was going to have time to set up for the rest of the music in the service, but it turned out that I got that finished pretty quickly, so I just improvised a part for this.

After the Breaking of the Bread, the musicians received the Eucharist first, then as the people lined up, we sang "People in Darkness are Looking for Light" by Dosia Carlson. The band decided to alternate between singing the song & playing it through instrumentally. On the instrumental verses, I played the melody and during the vocal verses, I played a descant loosely based on a combination of the alto & tenor parts with some other movement thrown in for good measure.

We had another song ready to play in case we needed more time for everyone to receive the Eucharist - the hymn "The King Shall Come", set to the tune "Consolation (Ulster)" - but it turned out we didn't need it.

After Communion, we sang our closing hymn, the first 2 verses to "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". The clergy has decided to sing 2 verses each week during Advent, so we'll sing verses 3 & 4 on Dec 7th, etc. I used the bell tree I set up during the Doxology for this one. Here's what I played: I played the melody for the first verse (the 2nd staff, up an octave from written - hence the "8" above the treble clef!) and the whole notes for the 2nd verse, which are based on the chords from the lead sheet given to me by the music leader. The part should work whether your sing the hymn with the dotted-half note or the quarter note rhythm during the refrain.

My bell tree stand had 2 arms & the bells were arranged simply, like this:

Left arm = D6 by itself (I forgot my separator disks, without which it would always touch the next bell)
then a tree made up of (from top to bottom): E6, F#6, and G6

Right arm = a tree made up of (from top to bottom): A6, B6, C7, and D7
and E7 by itself

You'll notice that I hang my bell trees with the lower pitches on top. This is because they are larger bells and are better able to handle the weight of the smaller bells strung beneath them. Some people seem to have real trouble with the idea of "lower bells up high, higher bells down low" but it only takes a little bit of practice before your brain adapts. :-)

After a short prayer by the congregation, we sang "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord" by Stephen Schwartz from Godspell.

We started with the traditional a capella intro, then the piano and bells entered (I played roots of the chords - basically, the left hand of the piano part), then the tempo kicked up several notches! The fast tempo interlude alternates between B-flat and E-flat/F, so I played F6+B-flat6 and E-flat6+B-flat6 in an appropriately rhythmic pattern. The chord progression for the remainder of the song goes: B-flat | Cmin | Dm B-flat E-flat | F | B-flat | Cmin | Dm7 E-flat F | B-flat || I played (again, in an appropriately rhythmic pattern): F6+B-flat 6 | E-flat6+C7 | D6 F6+B-flat6 E-flat6+B-flat6 | F6+A6 | F6+B-flat 6 | E-flat6+C7 | D6 E-flat6+B-flat6 F6+A6 | F6+B-flat6 ||. (If anybody's interested in my choreography for that, let me know in the comments & I'll post it.)

We did a reprise of the song for the postlude.

I love playing on fast-paced rock songs like that because it completely blows people's minds that bells can do that! :-)

[UPDATE: If I had had time to set one up, I might have used a bell tree for this - I could do a LOT more rhythmic things with a bell tree than with bells in-hand!]

After the service, I heard a couple of the elderly ladies from the congregation come up to the music leader and tell him that the service was "very Anglican", which is a Good Thing because I think a lot of the anti-contemporary service sentiment comes from people who think that it means that the service format must change in ways that change the distinctive flavor of each denomination's heritage. Not so! Yes, a "seeker sensitive service" will usually have a different format, but it also has very different goals from a regular Sunday morning service. There's no reason why a service that's based on a denomination's doctrinal & liturgical heritage can't be contemporary. And I'm not talking about just the music! It can include liturgical dance, drama, and other "contemporary" things that really do speak to people and still be true to that heritage I keep talking about!

Speaking from the perspective of a handbell musician, I'm frustrated by people who say "oh, we can't use handbells in a contemporary service" because yes we can! I do believe that solo or small ensemble handbells are easier to include because of the flexibility required and the more people involved, the less flexible the group is, but a full group can also participate and contribute some very beautiful things to such a service. It requires much more planning and practice, at least initially, than a more traditional service, but it can be done.

Later that day, I got an email from the music leader:

"Michele, it was especially great to have you part of the group this morning and showing the congregation that hand bells can fit a number of music styles, including a contemporary type service. Your solo number for the offertory anthem was great and it is always amazing to watch you play solo with all those bells, as well as playing solo on the other songs you accompanied with group. Thanks much for talking to me several months ago about joining us today. We should do it again in the future as you are available versus the contemporary music service schedule."

So there! :-)

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