Handbell - Level 3 - Digital Download

SKU: A0.1284588

Composed by American Folk Song and Scottish Folk Song. Arranged by Mark R Lewis. Celtic,Folk,Irish,Traditional. Score. 8 pages. Mark R Lewis #875763. Published by Mark R Lewis (A0.1284588).

This lively Sea Shanty Medley is a combination of two different sea shanties, Fish in the Sea from Scotland and Santiana from the Americas.

Fish in the Sea is quite simple but has dozens of verses. It takes the form of a chorus that is identical every time and a verse that describes various fish. The idea being that everyone would sing the chorus and each individual sailor would basically ad-lib new lyrics when it was their turn to sing a verse.

Santiana actually tells the story of the Mexican General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna during the Mexican-American war in the 1840s. However, the various exploits described in the song have very little to do with historical reality. There are of course dozens of version of the song, each associated with different shipping lanes, and there are even a wide variety of shanties from other countries that seem to be adaptations of this tune with different stories.

This arrangement by Mark Lewis is for 3 to 5 octave handbell choir and makes extensive use of both malleted and normal ringing techniques. There are some very quick transitions between the two techniques. The piece moves along at a pretty good clip with some portions in 6/8 and others in cut time with various duplet and triplet patterns to help with transitions, leading to a difficulty rating of 4+. While the piece should be playable by most intermediate groups, they will definitely need to put in enough practice time to perform it properly.


Season: Concert
Range: 3-5 octaves.