It's time for some handbells! Listen to my latest creation, Dreaming Beside Still Waters for 3 octave bell choir. It is dedicated to my friends The St. Matthias Ringers, who introduced me to handbell music and let me ring with them.
Dreaming Beside Still Waters is a level 2.5 (or moderately difficult) piece of music for handbell choir. When I first heard The St. Matthias Ringers play, I knew I wanted to write a piece for handbells. The wealth of different sounds and techniques they utilized in their ringing was mesmerizing, ranging from simply rotating the rung bells (gyro) to using mallets to strike the bells, and even making the bells sing a la singing bowl. (Singing bell in this case.) Those are just a few of the many techniques used in bell music, and it was really difficult to exercise some restraint and not put every single technique in this one short piece. As such, I limited myself to 3: gyro, mallet, and mallet lift.
There is some interesting harmony in Dreaming Beside Still Waters, resulting in every bell from C3 to C6 being rung at some point during the piece. Modes are used frequently. For example, the intro is in C Aeolian, modulating to C Mixolydian when the first theme comes in. There are some harmonic minor and melodic minor modes used as well, resulting in some odd chords near the middle of the tune. By far the most interesting modulation in Dreaming Beside Still Waters (to me anyway) is near the end of the piece where the tonality modulates from E Phrygian Dominant to B Ionian. If you're looking at key signatures, that's 0 sharps to 7 sharps. R.I.P. sightreaders.
There are 3 main ideas in this piece: the intro, first theme, and second theme. The intro and first theme are all typically rung. The second theme is almost entirely mallet based, giving it a stark contrast to the other sections of the music. The melody is rung as normal over top of a nice pad of staccato, rhythmic chords produced with mallets. The bells that are malleted are on the table, so there isn't much sustain when they are struck. This type of accompaniment really lets the melody stand out.
The artwork for Dreaming Beside Still Waters is a picture of a river that I edited heavily. I used one of my favorite art techniques: mirroring the image both horizontally and vertically to make 4 separate images, then combining them into a single picture. It resulted in a uniquely shaped tree with a misty, blue sky peering over the tops of the branches, all reflected in the still river. After completion of that portion of the art, I used an oil painting filter to make the image look as if it were painted. I'm particularly fond of this image in comparison to some of my other artwork.
Thanks again for listening to Dreaming Beside Still Waters. I greatly enjoyed this maiden voyage of mine into handbell music, and it certainly won't be the last time I write for bells. (Maybe next time I'll be more considerate with my key changes so that you don't need every single bell in the 3 octave choir to play it.) If you know of any handbell choirs in your area, I strongly encourage you to go see them, and get involved with playing bells if you can!
Thanks again especially to The St. Matthias Ringers for teaching me about handbells, for letting me ring with you, and for being such a blessing to the community here in Fredericksburg.
Until next time!
Nathan C. Curtis
