The Raleigh Ringers group comes to Elizabethtown from its home in Raleigh, N.C. (SOURCE: Lancaster Sunday News)

By Stephen Kopfinger, Sunday News Correspondent

“You know the sound of a handbell choir.

“Or do you?

“The crisp, clear tones of handbell music are usually associated with Christmas and winter nights, or, at the very least, sacred music. Or perhaps something classical, such as George Bizet’s ‘Farandole from L’Arlesienne Suite No. 2.’

“But Led Zeppelin’s ‘Stairway to Heaven’? Vince Guaraldi’s iconic music from those ‘Peanuts’ TV specials with Lucy, Linus and Charlie Brown?

“Expect all of the above and more from the Raleigh Ringers, the acclaimed handbell ensemble, which makes a warm-weather return to Elizabethtown College for a 2 p.m. Sunday, July 15, concert at Leffler Performance Center. The concert is presented by Gretna Music at Elizabethtown College.

“The group comprised of musical director David M. Harris and 18 ringing members played Elizabethtown ‘several years ago during the holiday season, and we sold out,’ said Harris in a phone interview from his home in Raleigh, N.C., the city that gives the ringers their name.

“For the uninitiated, handbell music is exactly what it sounds like.

“Small hand-held bells are rung, sometimes with swinging arm motions, to play tunes. The bell is thus a musical instrument, one that traces its origins back to old England.

“That’s where the small bells were used as a kind of way for the ringers of big church bells to fine-tune their sound without disturbing the populace, Harris noted. The handbell sound came to America around the turn of the 20th century.

“It’s been a beautiful noise ever since. And the Raleigh Ringers, founded in 1990, delight in giving the old sound a new twist.

“The group has starred in five compact disc albums and one DVD video release and their long-running holiday special has become a beloved staple on North Carolina Public Television as well as PBS outlets all over America.

“So how do such classy connections meld with rock ‘n’ roll? It’s not as alien as you might think.

“In 1992, the group was exploring new sounds, Harris explained. A local classic rock radio station invited the ensemble to play holiday music on the air. Then came a riff on tradition.

“‘It was almost a joke,’ Harris recalled, when the Ringers played the iconic rock anthem ‘Stairway to Heaven.’

“Listeners loved it. Ever since then, Harris said, ‘we try to mix it up,’ music-wise.

“And bell-wise. Most handbell choirs, Harris said, use one kind of bell in their presentations. The Raleigh Ringers, Harris said, use seven types.

“There’s also a Pennsylvania connection to the Ringers and how they came to do what they do.

“Though Harris calls North Carolina home these days, ‘I grew up playing handbells in Lock Haven, Pennsylvania,’ Harris said. And many of the bells the group uses are made in Plumsteadville and Sellersville, both in the Philadelphia region.

“Those bells have taken the Raleigh Ringers from concerts in Floyd’s Knob, Ind., to Chartres in France, site of the great cathedral of legend.

“‘The reverberations … the sound just travels forever and ever,’ Harris enthused about their concert in the church.

“And now, those same sounds will ring out in Elizabethtown. Be it classical music or classic rock, bells will be ringing.

“The Raleigh Ringers will appear 2 p.m. Sunday, July 15, at Elizabethtown College’s Leffler Performance Center, 1 Alpha Drive. Call 361-1508 or log on to gretnamusic.org” to order tickets.