March 2013

Upcoming events the ringers are all preparing for!

The ERIII's and ERI's will be ringing at the Palm Sunday Service on March 24.

In April, the ERI's are busy preparing for the Riverside Handbell Festival to be held on Saturday, April 13. A full day of rehearsal, then ringing in church on Sunday morning, April 14 with the concert at 4 PM at Riverside Church in NYC.

Then the AER's are busy preparing for the Hudson Valley Handbell Festival being held at Nyack College in Nyack, New York on April 27th 7:30 PM.

Save those dates! Hope to see you there.

Eiko

Fall 2012 Update

Greetings - it has been a while since I have had a chance to post - many many exciting things we have been doing.

The end of tour brought us to say good bye to HS seniors off to college, Kim, Jessie, Ashley and Jonathan.

The fall brought us combining our ERII's and ERI's to make it our Middle and High School group.  As always there is an adjustment period as they all get to know each other. They rang in church and finished the year off with their Benefit Concert with Katonah raising money for HelpHOPELive raising over $2400 for this great cause.

Christmas Eve was the last of the services for the calendar year, with alumni coming home to ring with us. There were many who came and joined us for Thanksgiving too - (pictures later!)

The ERIII's the 6 boys from 2nd grade to 5th have been busy learning their music for church service and are always enthusiastic!

The Adult Ringers rang at the Thanksgiving Ecumenical service held at St. John's this year.  Happy to have some ERI's and alumni who came to fill in.

(Ok so there is one person who is/was not a ringer but I told them to join our picture anyway, do you know who it is?:>)

The fall was also busy with our fundraisers of citrus sale, bake sale, our ongoing Gift Card sale.

We are planning this summer, in lieu of a festival, participating in the mission trip to Schoharie County, New York as the county is still recover and will be in recovery mode for the next 3-5 years after the hurricane and flooding that went through last year.

I am also in the works planning for the 16th International Handbell Symposium to be held in Korea the summer of 2014.

Thank you very much for a great experience!

The Emanuel Ringers and Katonah Celebration Ringers are back safely from our trip to Ireland, Wales and England to attend 15th International English Handbell Symposium.        As you can see from the blog, the young ringers had a valuable experience in foreign culture along with a very intensive week of ringing bells together with 450 ringers from all over the world.        We brought back wonderful memories , have made new friends and contacts for future get together.     We would like to thank the members of the Emanuel, Katonah and supporters who made generous contributions making it possible for the young ringers to travel, play and gain a valuable and unique experience.        

Sunday, August 5th, 2012

Dear Ringers, (non-ringers, and all!) and to all those who have followed our blog these past two

What a great trip it has been.

As we are on our way home, most of you are sleeping as we were up at 4 am to catch our flight out of Manchester, England. A beautiful sunrise started our morning and a smooth check in. We had all our passports, all our suitcases, and bells. All is good. Last minute shopping for some at the airport.

From the ringers to the non-ringers thank you to you all for being such great traveling companions. We have seen, ate, talked, and heard so many things these past 2 weeks. My hope for all of you is that you have all enjoyed the trip – have learned something new, made some new friends. Ringers we have rang a lot and heard a lot great ringing - I hope that it inspires you all for the coming fall.

Thank you to all the parents for your support!

I hope that you will read the blogs and see the photos that are posted. Thanks to all who wrote - as you read the blogs be sure to comment if you want to add your view of the day!

Now a thanks to all who have followed our posts!

The ringers had a chance to share their gift of music with others – and it is because of all of you that we have been able to do it.

In great appreciation to all!

Eiko

Saturday, August 4th, 2012

Today we woke up at a semi-reasonable hour of around 8 in the morning to prepare for our long day of playing bells. After breakfast, we made our way to the playing floor.  We had an amazing three and a half hour practice as a "run through" for the concert. This was an exasperating time on the trip, but it went quickly as it was soon time for lunch. Today we had potatoes and meatballs, lots of meat balls.  During the time we had lunch we had a little extra free time.  Most people got ready for the concert, but some just chilled. After the hour and a half of lunch/free time, it was our dress rehearsal. We practiced only the beginnings and endings of all our songs, just to refresh our memories before the concert. After the dress rehearsal, we prepared for the concert. At this time, all the procrastinators, who hadn't already done so, got dressed. We lined up fifteen minutes before the concert in our groups- nervous, dressed and ready to go. We heard them announce us from behind the curtain and the show began. For the most part we played the concert very well, apart from the left side (we were on the right) which was playing like there was a train to catch. It lasted two and a half some-odd hours, including a short encore. We were sooooo relieved to have the concert over and done with.  We were pretty proud of ourselves! We took a huge bow, whispered the ritual, "I love handbells." and walked out. We then went back to our hotel rooms and gussied up for the closing ceremony and banquet. Everyone looked  super fresh (stunning). We ate a great meal of Welsh beef and finally enjoyed some free, socialization time. (There was almost none in such an intense and tiresome week). The two choirs didn't end the celebration just then, we had a little surprise up our sleeves for our marvelous directors, Eiko and Eileen. We bought them each a baton, (handle colored specifically to match their personalities) and wrote the names of all the members of the trip on them. I (Ashley) also learned how to write a few messages in my Chinese writing workshop at the symposium and penned a message for Eiko in Chinese.  It was very appropriate for the setting: "I love handbells."  It was hard to tell, but I think it's safe to say that the two were slightly moved by our gesture. (They were "totes-magotes", or "totally" in Grace language, on the verge of tears). The closing ceremony proceeded with the recognition of everyone who was involved in the symposium process; from the guild members, to the directors, to the staff and, of course, the ringers!  After dinner, we went back up to our hotel rooms and finished packing. It was very late when some of us finished. After so much work, so much standing and not so much sleep, it was nice to finally be able to relax and look forward to our trip home!

Kim, Jessie, Grace (helped a little) and Ashley...( but mostly Ashley)

Reflection about Bread of Angels

Last fall when I saw that "Bread of Angels", the piece my adult choir commissioned from Bill Payn and surprised me with 7 years ago for our 20th anniversary ringing together, was one of the pieces being played in Liverpool, I called Eileen and asked about attending the symposium, she graciously said "you can ring with us!"

What fun it has been to travel for 2 weeks with the Emanuel Ringers and the Katonah Celebration Ringers and to perform in Dublin, Chester, and here in Liverpool.

The conductor of "Bread of Angels",Stephanie Wiltse, is interpreting the piece the way Bill Payn intended, and it is such a thrill to play "my" piece with over 400 ringers.

My new friends from Emanuel and Katonah have all been so welcoming-----what a wonderful group!

Lee Corbett

Friday, August 3rd, 2012

Patrick’s blog 8/3/2012

Please bear with me while I digress into physics for a bit.

There is a category of physical effect known as an "inverse-square law". One occurs when energy starts at a point and radiates outward in all directions. A good example is a candle on a table: The light and heat goes out from the flame in all directions, initially. When an inverse-square law applies, the amount of energy at a point is based on the inverse of the distance to the energy source, squared. This means that doubling the distance between an observer and the energy source divides the amount of energy that reaches the observer by four. The reason for this, for the curious, is that the energy outputted by such a source can be viewed as if it is distributed on the surface of a sphere, with the radius of the sphere being the distance between the source and the observer. As the distance increases, the same energy must cover a larger area, and therefore there is less energy per point, and the surface area of a sphere depends on its radius squared.

By this point you're probably wondering why I'm bringing this up in a blog about handbells. At least, I hope you are; if you already know why then this will be a rather boring paragraph for you. Sound waves, such as those generated by handbells, are governed by an inverse-square law. When one rings a bell, it emits energy, in the form of sound waves, in all directions. Now, imagine that you have a few hundred ringers filling a room. The difference in the distances between one choir and the audience and a different choir and the audience can get quite significant, and ringers must account for this. In other words, a choir farther away from the audience is harder to hear, and therefore should play louder. Given the size of the room we're playing in, the difference can be huge.

Choirs near the back of the room, incidentally, have another disadvantage. In handbell ringing, as in all ensemble music, it is very important to stay synchronized with the other players. In massed ringing, this is even more the case, because not only do you have to stay synchronized with your own choir, but with many other choirs as well. This is why there is a conductor: He or she indicates key points in the music with his or her baton, and if people watch him or her, this allows them to ensure that they are at the same point in the music as everyone else. Music is divided into measures, which are divided into beats; a measure is typically a few seconds, and there are usually three or four beats per measure, though there can be more or sometimes fewer. The beats are what the conductor indicates, so as long as you know what measure you are in you could synchronize yourself about once every two seconds. (Not knowing what measure you are in is called "being lost" and is a bad idea.) The problem, of course, is that choirs at the back have to look over the heads of those in front to see the conductor.

Speaking of conductors, the Japanese girls' choir immediately behind us apparently usually plays without one. Every day, a few choirs give performances to the others by themselves. The choir in question did not have a conductor, but instead relied on each other. At any given point one ringer would probably be playing a repeating pattern for a few measures; the other ringers would look at that ringer and use her notes to stay synchronized. They can do this because they have their music memorized. It's incredibly impressive.

About equally impressive was the solo ringer who played on Tuesday. English handbells only ring if played in a certain direction; playing one sideways or backwards produces no sound. This is used in various ringing techniques, such as "four-in-hand" or the "Shelly grip", which allows one to hold two bells in one hand. The common techniques are to place both bells in different directions, or to place them so that one may be rung with the other rotating instead of moving. Getting four bells in two hands can be difficult, and doing it at high speeds is fairly advanced. This man had four bells in each hand, and the song he performed was not exactly slow. His performance was impressive. Actually, there are just a lot of impressive people here. It's pretty awesome.

Written by Patrick C.