Many of you may not realize that much of the choral and handbell music that is performed at Ascension has actually been commissioned. There is generally a dedication line at the top of the score that often gives context to the piece. We often thought about what an awesome experience it would be to commission a piece “someday.”
You also may not realize that the equipment we have collected over the years is really quite the envy of other church handbell choirs. When the handbell choir was conceived 25 years ago, we only possessed a 3 octave set of handchimes. Since that time, we have increased our ensemble to 7 octaves of handchimes and 5 octaves of handbells. The cost of all this was many tens of thousands of dollars and was made possible only through generous donations from members of Ascension. Beyond that, we are very fortunate to continue to have committed choir members that help these beautiful instruments come to life and reach their full potential.
With this church season marking the 25th anniversary of our handbell choir, we believed that “someday” to commission a piece had come! In anticipation of this anniversary, we actually started the process of commissioning a piece several years ago. We quickly found that it is more of an undertaking than what we first envisioned. The biggest challenge we faced was the process of selecting a composer that we could work with and one that would be able to come up with something that reflected our specific vision.
As luck would have it, we attended a weeklong handbell camp in the summer of 2024 where Sandra Eithun, the renowned composer of over 600 handbell pieces, served as the clinician. Over the years, we have enjoyed ringing a variety of her pieces. The layers of her compositions can be on the tricky side, but that is why her pieces are fun to ring and she has become a personal favorite. We were excited to be under her direction and instruction for a week. We met Sandy and enjoyed working with her. By the end of that week, we were confident she was the composer for our commissioned piece.
When we met with Sandy to collaborate on our piece, we made some rather simple requests for what it should represent and accomplish. Since we originally started with only handchimes and lacked ringing experience, we wanted the piece to reflect that by starting the song with handchimes. From there the music builds into a joyous celebration reflecting the evolution of our handbell choir. The crescendo is intended to reflect the growth of our ensemble of instruments and performance skills as well as the joy we feel whenever we make a musical offering to our Lord.
When we heard Ascend! for the first time, it was evident that Sandy used her musical expertise to create the piece we envisioned from the beginning. She incorporated the wide array of our handbells and handchimes. Many of the ringing techniques you have experienced throughout the years are woven in and out of the piece. If you have a musical ear, you might even notice a temporary shift to a minor key early after the handbells start playing that pays homage to our first performance when we fell apart like a house of cards and had to regroup and finish the piece. The charter members of the handbell choir still reminisce about that to this day!
On Sunday, Oct.12, we will perform our commissioned piece, Ascend! (Together We Rise!) for the first time at Ascension at the 8:30 service. It is our prayer that you experience all the joy that was intended with our inception of this commission. We hope that you are able to share in the joy and celebration of Ascend!
Steve & Carol Spieker
