ringing requires one bell to one person and produces a joyous peal of the kind one hears when the Prince of Wales is getting married . The problem was practice . How do ringers master this complicated art without waking up an entire town ? The answer was hand bells . Invented by the change ringers , and soon to be recognized as instruments in their own right , hand bells produced music that resembled angels appealing to heaven . Hand bell choirs formed all over England . By the 1830s hand bell concerts had made their way to America .
No one is entirely sure when Wesley United Methodist Church got its first set of hand bells . One of the longest playing members of the current hand bell choir , John Bishop , relates the story : “ We were over at the old church at the time . As far as I can remember , the church was gifted with a three-octave set of hand bells and noone had any experience playing them . So Jan Norman , the music director at the time , learned how to play and then formed a group in 1986 and taught the rest of us .”
Since then , the original set has grown to five octaves and a full set of chimes .
As Christmas approaches , the hand bell choir prepares for a joyous holiday season including three upcoming services where they will perform . Dorothy Straks , the hand bell choir director , said , “ We will perform on All Saint ’ s Sunday [ on Nov . 3 ], Blue Christmas on Dec . 15 and Christmas Eve definitely ,” and everyone is always welcome to hear the angels sing .
GREENVILLE LIFE 21 HOLIDAY 2024