While all of the county's elementary schools are ringing in the holidays, Lisbon Elementary in Howard County is doing it with a little more resonance this year, thanks to an early Christmas present from the school's PTA.
This holiday season, the Lisbon became one of the few Elementary schools in the county to own and play a three-octave set of handbells.
Eleven 5th-graders have spent barely three months working together to create a kind of human carillon, a sound so polished that, without watching, it might be hard to believe it wasn't coming from a single instrument.
"The kids work really hard," said Parent-Teacher Association president Nancy F. Sheridan. "The only unfortunate thing is only a select few can do it, but they're very, very good."
Music teacher Dan Hoffner started the handbell choir last winter, picking 4th- and 5th-graders to play bells he borrowed from Wilde Lake High School.
So impressed were members of the Lisbon Elementary Parent-Teacher Association with the group's spring performance that in June they put up $3,700 to help replace the bells when the high school asked for them back.
"Dan Hoffner has an extremely good command of music theory, and he's got those kids trained very well. They're very good," Ms. Sheridan said.
Once the PTA provided money for two octaves' worth of bells, Barbara F. King, county schools' music supervisor, agreed to spend $2,150 on the third octave to complete a 37-bell set. Each octave has 12 or 13 bells.
Mr. Hoffner said the students' performance persuaded the PTA and county to buy the bells.
"Once they heard the kids, they were very supportive," said school Principal Louis Chillemi, himself a major handbell lobbyist.
On Saturday, the choir went out to Chatham Mall to show the public its shiny new instruments and share a bit of polished holiday cheer, playing standards such as "Jingle Bells," and "Deck the Halls."
"I like it because you get to be the center of attention at concerts," said choir member Adam Haughton, 10, of Mount Airy.
One thing that sets the choir apart from its accompanying vocal choir is the visual performance, which often makes it the target of an army of camcorders, Mr. Hoffner said.
Parents got a chance to use their video equipment Monday night at the school's annual holiday concert, during which the handbell choir played with the school's other musical groups.
In addition to the movement of the bells, the children's expressions are also worth watching, Mr. Hoffner said. Many are poised like prizefighters waiting for a chance to throw a punch. The children's gazes are fixed to their music sheets propped on black loose-leaf binders in front of them. "They're watching for their notes," Mr. Hoffner said. "It just takes a lot of concentration. Those kids that I picked, I know that they would concentrate and do the best they could."
That ability to concentrate counted for even more than musical experience. Three of the children did not play instruments before the picked up handbells.
"Some of them have not had music lessons, and this is a new thing," Mr. Hoffner said.
Each child plays three or four bells, holding two at a time, open side up, to his or her chest. When the proper moment in the score arrives, the ringer moves one of the bells out and down, then up and back to the chest. Mr. Hoffner tells his students that the elliptical path is like drawing a football in the air.
Once a bell is rung, the player generally holds the bell to his or her chest to stop the vibration; at the end of each song, the children hold the bells out, allowing the note to fade, slowly, as the audience catches its breath.
At an average price of $160 per bell, it is no wonder that the Mr. Hoffner and his students take care to keep them from getting damaged, or even dirty.
The children have to wear white cotton gloves to avoid getting skin oil on the bells and regularly buff them.