The Bells at Temple Square (formerly known as the Bells on Temple Square) is a handbell choir that is an official music organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was formed in 2005 under the direction of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (Choir).[1] The group is a double handbell choir, performing with 27 to 35 ringers on two sets of Malmark handbells (one seven-octave set and one 6½ octave set) and two sets of Malmark handchimes (six octaves each). The octave two bells are Malmark aluminums. Each part is usually doubled (played by two ringers on separate sets), except octave two.
The Bells at Temple Square frequently accompany the Choir in its annual Christmas concert and on the weekly Music and the Spoken Word broadcast.[2] Additionally, the group performs its own semi-annual concerts, typically in November[3] and June.[4]
The Bells on Temple Square was selected to perform the closing concert at the 2017 National Seminar for the Handbell Musicians of America, held in Anaheim, CA.[5] The group was also selected to perform at the 2023 National Seminar for the Handbell Musicians of America, held in Irving, Texas.[6]
On May 8, 2020, it was announced that the Bells on Temple Square would now be known as the Bells at Temple Square, in accordance with the Choir's new visual identity.[7]
Thomas M. Waldron served as the group's first conductor from 2005 thru 2011. LeAnna Willmore succeeded him in 2011 after serving as associate director since 2005.[8] She retired in June 2024 and was succeeded by Geoff Anderson, who had served as the associate conductor since 2017.[9][10]
Gallery
The Bells at Temple Square performing in "Music and the Spoken Word"
The Bells at Temple Square performing in the Salt Lake City Tabernacle
Handbells owned by the Bells at Temple Square in the Tabernacle
TheTabernacle Choir at Temple Square, formerly known as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, is an American choir affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It has performed in the Salt Lake Tabernacle for over 100 years. Its weekly devotional program, Music & the Spoken Word, is one of the longest-running radio programs in the world, having aired every week since July 15, 1929.
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a tightly controlled manner to produce precise variations in their successive striking sequences, known as "changes". This can be by method ringing in which the ringers commit to memory the rules for generating each change, or by call changes, where the ringers are instructed how to generate each change by instructions from a conductor. This creates a form of bell music which cannot be discerned as a conventional melody, but is a series of mathematical sequences. It can also be automated by machinery.
Campanology is the scientific and musical study of bells. It encompasses the technology of bells—how they are founded, tuned and rung—as well as the history, methods, and traditions of bellringing as an art.
Temple Square is a 10-acre (4.0 ha) complex, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in the center of Salt Lake City, Utah. The usage of the name has gradually changed to include several other church facilities that are immediately adjacent to Temple Square. Contained within Temple Square are the Salt Lake Temple, Salt Lake Tabernacle, Salt Lake Assembly Hall, the Seagull Monument, and two visitors' centers. The square was designated a National Historic Landmark District in 1964, recognizing the Mormon achievement in the settlement of Utah.
The King's Singers are a British a cappella vocal ensemble founded in 1968. They are named after King's College in Cambridge, England, where the group was formed by six choral scholars. In the United Kingdom, their popularity peaked in the 1970s and early 1980s. Thereafter they began to reach a wider American audience, appearing frequently on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson in the United States. In 1987, they were prominently featured as guests on the Emmy Award-winning ABC television special Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas.
A handbell is a bell designed to be rung by hand. To ring a handbell, a ringer grasps the bell by its slightly flexible handle – traditionally made of leather, but often now made of plastic – and moves the arm to make the hinged clapper strike the inside of the bell. An individual handbell can be used simply as a signal to catch people's attention or summon them together, but handbells are also often heard in tuned sets.
The Orchestra at Temple Square (Orchestra) is a 110-member orchestra based in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Orchestra was created in 1999 under the direction of Gordon B. Hinckley, then the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as part of an initiative to continually strengthen and expand the capabilities of the church's music organizations.
Music & the Spoken Word is a religious radio and television series. Broadcast weekly from the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah, the program primarily features performances of music by Tabernacle Choir (Choir)—often accompanied by the Salt Lake Tabernacle organ and the Orchestra at Temple Square. The program also includes spiritual messages and passages related to a specific episode's theme, presented by Derrick Porter.
Belleplates is a brand name of a musical instrument of the percussion family and handbell sub-family. Consisting of a handle attached to a trapezoidal aluminium plate, struck by an attached hammer, they are something of a combination of handbells and handchimes. They are played with the same basic methods as handbells by teams or by individual players. Belleplates are manufactured by Belleplates, Ltd.
Mack J. Wilberg is an American composer, arranger, pianist, conductor, and choral clinician who has been the music director of the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (Choir) since 2008.
The Chorale at Temple Square (Chorale), formerly known as the Temple Square Chorale, is one of the musical organizations on Temple Square in Salt Lake City, Utah. The main purpose is to train its members musically for the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square (Choir), which is a more rigorous musical institution.
The Salt Lake Tabernacle organ is a pipe organ located in the Salt Lake Tabernacle in Salt Lake City, Utah. Along with the nearby Conference Center organ, it is typically used to accompany the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square and is also featured in daily noon recitals. It is one of the largest organs in the world. Jack Bethards, president and tonal director of Schoenstein & Co., describes it as an "American classic organ" and "probably one of the most perfect organs ever built."
The Wonder of Christmas was recorded during the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's 2001-2005 Christmas shows in the LDS Conference Center with special guests Angela Lansbury, Bryn Terfel, Audra McDonald, Frederica von Stade, Renée Fleming, and Walter Cronkite. The album was released in 2006.
Tualatin Valley Academy (TVA) is a preschool-through-tenth-grade private school in Hillsboro, Oregon, United States. Founded in 1916 as Tualatin Valley Junior Academy, the school is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church. TVA was affiliated with the Ring of Fire handbell choir from its inception in 1997 until 2004.
Prayer Bells is a choral concert piece by Tasmanian (Australian) composer Constantine Koukias featuring dozens of handbells cast for the celebration of Australia's 2001 Centenary of Federation. Also comprising three solo cantors and a small male choir, the one-hour work premiered at the Federation Festival of Melbourne in 2001. Since then it has been performed in Australia in Launceston, Canberra, Adelaide, Melbourne, Hobart, Wollongong and Sydney. It had its USA premiere at the Chicago Cultural Center.
The Schoenstein Organ at the Conference Center is a pipe organ built by Schoenstein & Co., San Francisco, California located in the Conference Center of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Salt Lake City, Utah. The organ was completed in 2003. It is composed of 160 speaking stops spread over five manuals and pedals. Along with the nearby Salt Lake Tabernacle organ, it is typically used to accompany the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. Schoenstein & Co.'s president and tonal director, Jack Bethards, describes it as "an American Romantic organ" that is "probably more English than anything else."
Martin Ellis is an American church, concert and theatre organist. He is currently the organist for Rose City Park Presbyterian Church in Portland, Oregon. He was Principal Organist and Assistant Music Director at North United Methodist Church, and Senior Staff Pianist/Organist, Staff Arranger and Orchestrator for the Indianapolis Children's Choir and Youth Chorale in Indianapolis, Indiana until August, 2014. He works with Gresham High School's Theatre Arts Department as their resident piano accompanist.
CPU Handbell Ringers is a Handbell choir founded at Central Philippine University. It is considered as the first handbell choir in the Philippines and also the only 5-octave handbell choir in the country. The group was organized by an American Baptist missionary named Elizabeth Taylor way back in the 1970s.
The O.C. Tanner Gift of Music is a series of free concerts presented in Salt Lake City by the Utah Symphony and the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, with soloists, conductors and other choirs as guests. The concerts have been hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on Temple Square since 1983. The thirtieth anniversary gala concerts were held September 6 and 7, 2013.
The Raleigh Ringers is a concert handbell choir based in Raleigh, North Carolina. The Raleigh Ringers perform interpretations of sacred, secular and popular music, including rock 'n' roll tunes, arranged for handbells. The Raleigh Ringers has performed in 39 states and the District of Columbia, in several cities in France and England, and in Canada.
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