Rejoice Ringers	Director
Beck's Handbell Ministry

By Ken Keuffel JOURNAL ARTS REPORTER Most days, they lead perfectly conventional lives. One is a pediatrician. Another is in sales. Another attends a local high school. On Thursday nights at Beck's Baptist Church, however, their normal routines change, and the multidimensional sound of incessantly clanging aluminum and brass fills their ears. They put on gloves, stand around foam-covered tables, and ring pitched bells for the better part of two hours. They are called the Rejoice Ringers. In addition to performing regularly at Beck's Baptist and other local churches, the 15 members of the group have performed at the White House, for a handbell-ringing convention, in a prison and for various community concert series. And tonight, they will perform at Beck's Baptist Church in the first of a series of Christmas concerts in the area. This year, they issued Christmas Reflections, their first CD. The recording, which has arrangements of familiar holiday music, also features guitarist Colin Allured, percussionist Greig Ashurst and flutist Elizabeth Ransom. Kathy Cook, one of the group's founding members, clearly looks forward to rehearsals. "It's the one thing I do every week for myself," said Cook, who is a medical technician. "It takes my total concentration. You can't worry about anything else." Deborah S. Rice has two music degrees from as many universities. She leads the Rejoice Ringers in much the same way that a conductor directs a symphony orchestra. She has been directing the handbell ministry at Beck's Baptist since 1983. In addition to the advanced, largely adult Rejoice Ringers, which was founded in 1990, she directs two other ensembles at the church and teaches others how to start and lead handbell choirs. The term handbell choir is a bit misleading. In a choir, several singers are on one part, and they all sing the same notes in that part. In a handbell ensemble, each player contributes a limited number of different notes to one of several parts. If a melody features a succession of eight notes, for instance, all eight players could play a different note in that melody. Or four musicians might get two notes apiece. The only way melody and harmony can emerge is through the precisely timed teamwork of all involved. "Handbell ringing is wonderful mental aerobics,'' Rice said. "Each player has nine to 15 bells that he's responsible for. Switching bells is a challenge." William H. Griffin is the interim executive director of the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers, a service organization based in Dayton, Ohio. He called making music with handbells "very challenging" and likened the process to a football team. "No one person has total control of that line," he said. "If one person on that line doesn't do what he's supposed to, there's a major problem." Not surprisingly, absences from rehearsals by the Rejoice Ringers create glaring gaps in the music. They are avoided at all costs. Several ringers spoke of the camaraderie that ringing engenders. "You feel like people really need you," said player Michelle Soyars. "If there's a couple of people missing, they're letting everyone down." Each bell sounds a note that corresponds to a different white or black key on the piano. Most handbell music is written within two or more octaves. Rice's most advanced players often perform music for seven octaves, while her less-advanced players tackle music for fewer. There could be more than 90 bells in use at one time, in addition to an array of hand chimes and other percussion instruments. Remarkably, several of Rice's most advanced players could not read music when they started ringing bells. Rice had them rely on an elaborate labeling system that told them which bell to play and in which hand to hold it. She also taught them the rudiments of rhythm and meter to give them a better sense of when they should actually ring their bells. "You just have to count beats in a measure and keep up with the measures you're on," player Steve Bennett said. Cook agreed, but said she had learned other musical skills in addition to counting, such as how and when to play more loudly. Creating a pleasing sound that projects well is a top priority. Typically, when a handbell is rung, it is moved in such a way that a sticklike clapper strikes the bell's rim. She instructs her players to keep the rim upright and to move the bell in a circular motion; that way, she said, the sound projects out to the audience, rather than traveling to the floor. "You pretend it's filled with coffee and that you don't want to spill the coffee," she said. A handbell choir can effect a wide variety of colors and textures. Bells are made of brass or aluminum. Smaller ones produce higher notes, while larger ones produce lower notes. Some sounds are clanging and brilliant; others take on a warmer, mellower quality. Rich, multinote harmonies seem to be the norm. A ringer can also create a number of special sound effects, all indicated in a score. He can shake the bell back and a forth to create a crescendo. He can place a thumb on the bell's waist to replace a stream of ringing with several staccatolike sounds. He can grind a ringing bell into the foam to dampen the ringing. He can tap a ringing bell on the foam to create a wallowing echo. He can strike the bell with mallets to effect brief drum rolls. And he can ring two bells simultaneously in the same hand. Officials at the American Guild of English Handbell Ringers estimate that there are about 450,000 ringers in the United States. Most perform in churches, though many semiprofessional and student groups have sprung up as well. The ringer movement took off in the 1950s and '60s, when two Pennsylvania companies began manufacturing relatively inexpensive handbells. Before that time, Rice said, if you wanted to buy handbells, you had to order them from an English manufacturer. The English bells took months to arrive, and they were often prohibitively expensive, she said. (The collection of bells at Beck's Baptist, most of which were donated by a church member in memory of a daughter who died in a car wreck, is thought to be one of the most extensive around; it cost between $50,000 and $60,000, Rice said.) Rice is pushing hard to make handbell conducting a specialty, rather than one more duty of a church's music director, who often plays the organ and directs several vocal ensembles. "Too often, handbells are kind of like the stepchild," she said. "To really do (them) well takes study." Handbells are commonly associated with the Christmas season, but Rejoice Ringers and other groups have long since taken on other fare. Since 1995, Rice has commissioned three composers to write pieces for Rejoice Ringers, and another composer, Arnold Sherman of Texas, even sent them a piece of music as a gift. "It's not that I don't love Christmas carols," Rice said. "I enjoy exploring original music for handbells." Beck's Rejoice Ringers