Jersey Jubilation Handbell Choir Home Concert – Heavenly Bells Friday, December 16, 2016

Ridgewood NJ, The Ridgewood United Methodist Church (RUMC) is the residence of Jersey Jubilation. RUMC is an ‘acoustically active’ venue that reverberates musical presentations equivalent to many fine music halls in New York City. The venue has been the site of concerts and recordings of many professional, accomplished groups and musicians including the Youth Ringers (a touring, concert and broadcasting youth handbell choir resident for over 15 years under Christine Braden, Director), Dr. Jean Langlais, Virgil Fox, Dr. Richard E. Frey, Dr. James Wynne, and the current guest resident choir, the Jersey Jubilation Handbell Choir.

We are delighted to be offering our 13th Annual Home Holiday Concert through the RUMC music department. The Concert is open to the community and takes a free will offering to support the costs of the Handbell Choir, the music program of the RUMC and in addition, to other programs in need.

Programs are part of the RUMC 2016-2017 Music Concert Series which presents music of different mediums throughout the year. The programs begin at 8:00pm and will be presented at the Ridgewood United Methodist Church Sanctuary located at 100 Dayton Street in Ridgewood, NJ. (Office Phone: 201-652-2868)

Jersey Jubilation Handbell Choir (JJHC)

JJHC is currently centered in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and is being hosted by the Ridgewood United Methodist Church. Members moving up from the predecessor choirs and ensembles have significant concert experience throughout the eastern US from Maine to Florida and as far west as Ohio and Ontario.

JJHC rings on two 5-octaves sets of Whitechapel English Handbells originally tuned using the analogue tuning system that was employed for years giving the Whitechapel Bells their distintive clarity and overtone sound. In addition to the Whitechapel instruments, JJHC also rings a 5-octave set of Suzuki hand chimes which most closely matches the tonal mosaic that the ensemble wishes to present.

JJHC selected this combination of these instruments in order to accomplish two goals in preenting their musical programs. The first is that Whitechapel bells are superb in allowing higher paced ringing when required to maintain lightness in the music(Ring of Fire had same conclusion).

The second goal is to allow interpretive changes in volume within any given arrangement. This requires that the ringers learn to modulate their playing techniques while handling the Whitechapel bells to give texture to the music as differentiated from the american versions of handbells which typically are set for a given sound by changing the clapper setting once prior to the start of the music selection.

Suzuki handchimes also are responsive to the same modulation techniques of the Whitechapel bells. The harmonic structures of both instrument sets are complimentary, thus giving cohesiveness in sound in the entire presentation.