This week we tried something new, with a quarter of cyclic spliced Kent and Oxford. "Cyclic" refers to a 7-part composition in which the part ends are 12345678, 13456782, 14567823, 15678234, 16782345, 17823456, 18234567. Cyclic spliced has become increasingly popular in recent years, especially in Maximus and usually with some challenging methods. The idea is to generate "runs", i.e. sequences of consecutive bells. For example, a change ending with the run 5678 in one part turns into 4567, 3456, 2345 (as well as the less musical 8234, 7823, 6782) in other parts. Runs can also occur at the beginning of the change or within the change, and can be of various lengths.

This week's quarter was the beginning of an exploration of the cyclic spliced idea in an easier form. We used a standard way of splicing Kent and Oxford, which is to ring Kent most of the time but occasionally to ring Oxford places both before and after a particular lead end. Technically this is usually classified as half-lead spliced, but a convenient way to call it is to announce the change of method when the treble is in 3-4 down, and then again when the treble is in 3-4 up.

Here is the composition. Each line is one lead; KO means ring Kent in the first half of the lead and Oxford in the second half, i.e. ring Oxford places before the lead end. OK is the reverse, with Oxford places after the lead end.

1344 Spliced Treble Bob Major (2m)
S.J.Gay
         2345678
----------------
K        4263857
K        6482735
K        8674523
K        7856342
KO       8735264
OK       7823456
----------------
7 part
1120 Kent, 224 Oxford
14 changes of method at the half lead.

It's quite musical - for example, the change 28765431 at the handstroke of the first half lead produces nice runs in the other parts. Many more runs can be generated in this style of composition by using other methods - I will write more about this as we ring some other compositions in weeks to come.

Which Treble Bob Major Variation is this an example of? I am not very good on the terminology, and I have mislaid my copy of John Longridge's book. As far as I can tell from looking at online compositions, the use of Oxford in this way with no other bobs is a characteristic of the Worcester variation, although usually compositions keep the tenors together. Maybe we could call this the Cyclic Worcester variation.

Curiously, the same idea applied to Maximus gives a peal length, which might be a candidate for the simplest composition of cyclic spliced Maximus.

5280 Spliced Treble Bob Maximus (2m)
S.J.Gay
         234567890ET
--------------------
K        42638507T9E
K        648203T5E79
K        8604T2E3957
K        08T6E492735
K        T0E89674523
K        ET907856342
KO       TE795038264
OK       ET573920486
KO       TE352749608
OK       ET234567890
--------------------
11 part
4224 Kent, 1056 Oxford
44 changes of method at the half lead.