I guarantee that your audience will never forget what you have done. If you are looking to drum up more ringers for your groups, try making the "Art of Ringing Handbells" so exciting that everyone wants to join.

Dennis Dell, Area 10 Chair

     Dr. Donald Allured passed away peacefully the afternoon of February 28 with his wife Melissa by his side. The handbell world has lost its "Guru!" I don't think Don ever realized what an indelible stamp he left on the art of handbell ringing. It was his mission to bring artistry and musicality to the instrument. In his workshops he always stressed that the notes on the page became music through the handbells on the table or in the hands of the ringers, working as a team, thinking as one. Ringing handbells was creative art. "Ringing the right bell at the right time at the right volume was just the tip of the iceberg". It was also important to him that directors get behind the table to experience what they were expecting their ringers to do at every rehearsal. Every workshop was a "hands-on" workshop when possible because "you remember if you actually ring it rather than trying to remember what your copious notes are supposed to tell you."

     He was a kind, gentle, humble man until he stepped on the podium with baton in hand. Then it was all about the music. He was a master conductor and could often be heard in conducting workshops saying, "Remember, you get what you conduct. Practice in front of a mirror." He was patient but repetitious wrong notes annoyed him and he would respond with, "When in doubt, don't." If a particular section was not coming together due to the nuances, the first thing he would do is examine his conducting pattern and then explain exactly how he was going to conduct the passage every time. It was never personal, it was all about making music.

     I remember meeting Don in September, 1976 here in Spokane. I had been ringing handbells since 1968 so I was elected to take the Sampson Ayers display of Broadman, Crescendo and Flammer (then the only publishers) music to the workshop. During the break Don shared his thoughts about possibly leaving his church position in Lake Charles, LA and becoming a handbell clinician full time - from a guaranteed income to living on faith. The next time I saw Don was at the 1977 National Festival in Tacoma. He was a full time clinician and 'working' a busy schedule all over the country. A word about that festival because it was unique and probably the only one of its kind in Guild history. It was a gathering of 'Who's Who' in the handbell world. Nancy Poore Tufts, the national chairman conducted the national anthem and every composer/arranger of the rest of the titles on the program was there to conduct their piece. There were no Tins etc. divisions; everyone rang all of the pieces en mass. The popular handbell collection was Listen to the Bells and I think we heard every title from that collection as a choir solo. The most popular title was Fountainhead. In 1980, Don was the Area X conductor in Walla Walla. There were nearly 700 ringers, afternoon temperatures were over 100 degrees, and the fire marshal was unhappy with all of the people, tables and equipment in that small gym. The concert was performed for a "full house" and was the first Area festival concert to be video taped.

     Joyfully Ring, the first 'method' book for handbells, was written in 1974. The music was published separately for ringers. He also made the first instructional videos for Malmark. He wrote Flipzicato Frolic, a piece for plucking (first termed pizzicato.) It was revised and published again by National Music in 1996 re-titled With Mallets Aforethought. At the directors seminar in 1981 I had the privilege of plucking a new composition - Pick A Winner. That was the choir challenge piece and we were thrilled to get all the way through it without stopping. Mallets and handbells were not even a vision. 1982 brought Musical Excellence in Handbells, the second 'method' for handbells that contained not only the regular information about how to start a handbell choir but exercises for smooth, legato bell handling. He used his 'new' method at the first of three summer seminar weeks at Whitworth University (then College). In 1984 he taught two weeks of handbells prior to the Area X festival at Seattle Pacific University. Week one was beginning handbells and week 2 was advanced ringing which could be called the first bronze workshop in the area. He accompanied my handbell solo at the festival opening concert. I was using my new set of handbells that I had purchased an hour earlier as the exhibits closed. Over the years Don taught several more workshops at Whitworth, the last being structured as an advanced ringing workshop with a concert as the conclusion. In 1988 I had rung The Creation in manuscript at Bay View and wanted to include it on the Whitworth program. In addition to The Creation were Rondo Passacaglia, (according to metronome marking i.e. break-neck speed) as well as Le'Ping, Incalzando and other selections. That was also the year that my car got named The Bell Buggy as I dropped the car keys in Don's hand so he could explore Spokane on his afternoons off.

     Mastering Musicanship in Handbells was published in 1992. It had been Don's dream to write a handbell guide that he could use to start with page one on Monday morning and by Friday afternoon finish the last page with supplemental music to reinforce the exercises and teaching concepts. One of the first workshops that used the book was at Lutheran Bible Institute in Issaquah. The first week was beginning handbells and the second week was an advanced ringing workshop that closed with a concert. In 1994 a revised edition of Handbell Composing and Arranging was published by National Music. Don served as music editor for Broadman/Genevox as well as AGEHR and National Music. In the 90's Genevox published the Donald Allured handbell series of compositions. Don invited composers and arrangers to submit manuscripts for the series. Two of the selections that I remember as outstanding were Carillon Fantasy by Karen Buckwalter and So Many Hopes by William Payn. We rang CARILLON FANTASY at Bay View right after it was published. When I talked with Don about how wonderful it was to have a series of his own, he was wondering, why a series with his name on it. He told me, "It's a humbling experience." The series carried his name but did not include one of his compositions.

     One of Don's favorite questions at the beginning of a workshop was "How many NAADAWs do we have here?" The participants would look at each other and wonder "What's a NAADAW?" A NAADAW was a person who had Never Attended A Don Allured Workshop. At the beginning of his workshop career, most of the hands in the room would go up. Over the years, there became fewer and fewer so he stopped asking the question. Don taught other workshops in Area X, conducted the bronze at the National Festival held in the brand new Seattle Convention Center and conducted the Big Sky and Rogue Valley Festivals. In 1983 he conducted the first Canadian Handbell Festival in Calgary which included the founding of the Alberta Guild, the first handbell guild in Canada.

     In addition to the three method books, numerous collections, single copies of handbell music and workshops, Don's influence has touched every aspect of handbell ringing. The basic bell assignment that choirs use came from him. Prior to his assignment formula, directors used to count the number of times a pitch rang in a piece, add up the number of pitches, divide that by the number of ringers and then assign the bells so everyone rang the same number of times. Can imagine the ringer assignments? The weave and other techniques were his way to make passages that looked impossible to ring, possible and legato. Many of his compositions were written/commissioned with a special technique, person, choir or idea as the guide. He proved to people that although the bass bells were heavier, they could ring fast and they could ring melodies (Incalzando and The Celebration for Handbells). One of my favorite technique names was the result of having to ring the bell and then pluck it on the next beat. He appropriately named it the Ring, Clapper Grab and Pluck. He also gave us the tap pluck that was required in the opening of his American Overture in the bass bells. He had the first 7 octave set of handbells while he was teaching at Westminster Choir College and is responsible for the 8^th octave of bells as well as the extended set of chimes to the 7^th octave. His Lake Charles handbell choir was one of the first touring choirs in the country in his Winnebago. Due to a lack of published music for advanced choirs, Don sometimes used piano or organ music as well as composing and arranging music for the choir. One of his favorite anecdotes about that high school choir was the absence rule. When a ringer had to miss a rehearsal, it was their responsibility to reschedule the rehearsal at a time when all of the other ringers could be there. The ringers found it was easier to come to the regularly scheduled rehearsal than to find another rehearsal time.

     The DeColores 1993 commission was for Still, Still, Still. They had just purchased an F2 so the piece was written in the Key of F with the F2 having the last note. He also included a section for mallets at ppp because he wanted to prove that mallets could be used softly. The choir had the opportunity to 'rework' the manuscript with him and ring the premiere under his direction at the Big Sky Festival in Butte, Montana. When the composition was published by National Music, it was published in the key of G to accommodate the choirs that had only 6 octaves.

     One time he questioned me about why I keep coming to his workshops because he was teaching essentially the same material. My answer was that each time I leave a workshop, my brain is on overload and I need time to 'digest' all the material I have learned and put it into practice. Every time I come, I am at a different level of my learning curve and need to reinforce what I already have learned and then add more to that foundation. "Your workshop material may be the same but you never teach it exactly the same way because you are adapting it to the workshop participants and your teaching curve is changing." In March, 2006 he was persuaded to come out of retirement and teach one more workshop - a weekend of intensive coaching in Spokane. When he started rehearsal on Saturday morning, he had the Hallelujah  from "The Mount of Olives" in his hand. He looked at the bass ringers and said, "The bass line printed is incorrect. I have rewritten it as it should be. Will you make the following changes?" They got out their pencils and started writing. It made the bass part more difficult with all of the added eighth notes, but they rose to the challenge. The weekend was a musical experience that all of us will never forget. At the airport, just before he checked in for the flight he put his arms around me and said, "Thank you for giving me the opportunity to prove to myself that I could still teach a workshop." I could find no words to respond.

     A common introduction for Don was "This man has forgotten more about handbells than any of us will ever know." A pebble dropped into a calm pond sets ripples in motion. That describes the invisible mark that Don Allured has left forever on the art of making music with handbells. The ringers of this generation and the coming generations may not know the man, or even his name, but his teachings and influence will be passed on from his students to their students and on and on and on. Thank you Dr. Allured, colleague, mentor and teacher to many, friend to all and Maestro of handbells. You are missed already. 

Saturday, May 7 - 7:00 pm, Emerald City Ringers™ (ECR), a nonprofit community based handbell choir, will present its spring concert, Over the Rainbow, at Cross of Christ Lutheran Church, 411 156^th Ave NE, Bellevue, www.coclc.org. Suggested donation at the door is $10/adults, $8/seniors/students, $5/children to a maximum of $25/family, or pay as able. For more information, visit www.emeraldcityringers.org.