By Don Urquhart
Ringing in the festive cheer this coming weekend will be the Oliver Handbell Ringers (OHR) and Singers as they present “A Journey to Christmas” concert at the Osoyoos Baptist Church.
The bell ringers, accompanied by singers, will perform a variety of Christmas songs – from very modern to traditional favourites.
The group, which has been performing since 2007, will feature six bell ringers who will use 83 pieces of equipment including chimes.
“We build up to more than three octaves of handbells and we have chimes and other things that complement it and we have brought in a choir as well,” says Sue Gay who is the former director of the group but is an accompanist while her daughter Helen Wollf has taken over the lead.
Gay says some of the music will be a combination of bells and singing and some will be separate. The concert will feature Mal Bearman as emcee, a role he has often undertaken with the OHR and is a “very characteristic part of that as our program,” she adds.
This unique art form has its roots in 16th century England where bell ringers used to perform with the large bells of churches, but as Gay explains it, neighbours were none to impressed with noise of practicing and this led them to use small handbells to practice which then became an art form in its own right.
The handbells range from “tiny little things,” to big ones which can weigh as much as 4 kg (9 lbs).
The handbells are laid out on a table very much like a keyboard with A,B,C, D, flats and sharps and so on.
The group plays and practices from September to early-May and the group is excited because they have reconnected with their choir after being disrupted by the pandemic. “We’ve got a lot of new singers, quite a few from Osoyoos, so this is quite exciting for us, you know, to be able to do this again.”
Typically they perform at the Alliance Church in Oliver but because of scheduling conflicts they will perform at the Baptist church in Osoyoos.
Practices take place at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in Oliver and “we’re always looking for new members,” she slips in, but cautions that the ability to read at least a little bit of music is needed.
And while one might assume the bells don’t take up a lot of space, this couldn’t be further from reality. “We need a lot of room, a lot of real estate,” she highlights. “The bells need really big tables because we often, what we call ‘mark them,’ and that means we hit the bells on the table so you have to have big thick foam on the table.”
The handbells themselves range from “tiny little things,” to big ones which can weigh as much as 4 kg (9 lbs). “It takes some muscle,” she chuckles.
Often the ringers will have more than one bell in their hand at a time. “You have to get a technique where you can use two in each hand.”
“It’s quite amazing what you can do with them, because it’s up to the imagination of the player as to how they’re going to get the effect that the composer wants.
“You have to not only play the bells, you have to dance them against either the table or part of your body, or whatever, to stop them ringing at the right time as much as starting at the right time. It takes a lot of concentration,” she laughs.
But it’s also a lot of fun, she says and it’s an activity that spans generations and in fact some of the members started out as kids. In fact her daughter Helen started out at Oliver Elementary School, where handbell ringing is still taught and just last weekend put on a performance.
The three octave range is pretty typical, she says, but adds “We actually have some bigger bells that we’re not going to be using this time and some smaller ones high up.”
For this performance they will be using the OHR bells which span three octave intervals and some of her daughter’s bells which are another two octaves but they crossover. This allows them to use alternates as they go, she says noting “it gets quite complex”.
And with this they have the choir, keyboard and of course the emcee. Surprisingly the handbell ringing also needs to be amplified, “otherwise people 10 rows back won’t hear anything.”
Practising for the Christmas concert.
Gay highlights the fact the show is completely free but part way through they will take a collection for monetary donations to help offset their costs, “but really it’s a gift to the community. We do it for fun and the enjoyment of the community,” she adds.
The music is a mix, with some very newly composed songs and familiar favourites everyone will know. “We have quite an eclectic mix in there, one of them is a calypso song and we have traditional stuff too,” she says like “Joy to the World”.
Any piece of music can be played using handbells she says, including jazz pieces although they won’t be playing any at this performance.
She highlights that the group is a community group and not a church group so the music doesn’t just focus on hymns for instance.
One of the pieces they will perform is titled “William go tell it,” because its based on Rossini’s William Tell Overture, a sort of song underneath another song, she says.
The roughly one hour concert is very much oriented towards families and perfectly suited for young children as well.
The group recently performed during the Oliver light up weekend at the Holly Jolly Christmas concert at Venables Theatre.
The free “A Journey to Christmas” handbell concert will be held on two dates – Friday, Dec. 15 at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday, December 17 at 3 p.m. – both at the Osoyoos Baptist Church, 6210 Highway 97.
