Description

This handbell quartet piece was written for Five Octave Frenzy at The Master’s College in Santa Clarita, CA. It was performed and recorded in the Come, ChristmasSing Christmas 2006 concert series at Master’s, as well as making it into several other handbell-related concerts on and off campus. The quartet makes use of multiple bell ringing techniques, including mallets, marts, a bell tree, shakes (normal and one starting from behind the table), etc. Musically, the work combines two Christmas carols, Here We Come A’Wassailing and Sing We Now of Christmas. The structure not very complex, besides some rhythmic twists. Because this quartet was written for a specific audience (the Christmas concert audience), they were written to be “crowd pleasers,” but they also had to be fun (and challenging) for the quartet to play. The performers from left to right are Amanda Madrid, Leslie Ann Tulloch, Hannah Cooper, and Paul Ellsworth.