This isn't a handbell article, except in as much as we might hope eventually to ring on handbells anything that we are ringing in the tower. But I want to write about some compositions, so here goes.
We've assembled a Scottish Association spliced surprise royal peal band, finally trying to restart some more advanced projects after the pandemic. We started in February with a peal of 3-spliced (Cambridge, Yorkshire and Bristol) for which Mike called a nice 2-part composition by Mark Davies. (I think that composition could be within reach on handbells, and it can be rotated to have a more handbell-friendly part end). Next was 4-spliced in May with the addition of London. I called another 2-part composition, this time by John Warboys.
The band agreed that we would like to explore some cyclic compositions, and I would like to head towards exploring some of the methods that I have written about as a potential new surprise royal repertoire. To get started with cyclic spliced though, we started with the same standard methods: London, Bristol, Cambridge and Yorkshire. I came up with what I think is an appealing composition:
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (4m) Simon J Gay 234567890 3 4 7 10 ------------------------------------------ 789023456 - - x x BCB.L.BYY.LLY.CLCB ------------------------------------------ 9 part. x = 6th place bob. Contains 1440 Bristol, London No. 3; 1080 Cambridge, Yorkshire; 99 com; atw. 11 56s (5f,6b), 372 4-bell runs (142f,230b).
The number of 4-bell runs is not particularly impressive, and actually it's less than the John Warboys composition. But the idea is to work towards compositions with methods that are more suited to the cyclic style, for example:
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (4m) Simon J Gay 234567890 3 4 7 11 ------------------------------------------ 789023456 - - x x BSD.D.BSR.DRSR.RSB ------------------------------------------ 9 part. x = 6th place bob. Contains 1440 Remus, Sgùrr a' Chaorachain; 1080 Bristol, Dumfries; 99 com; atw. 11 56s (6f,5b), 532 4-bell runs (244f,288b).
Replacing Dumfries with Fermanagh increases the 4-bell runs to 578, but I think I prefer Dumfries as a method.
We tried the London, Bristol, Cambridge and Yorkshire this morning, and fired out after three parts. But it was encouraging for a first attempt, and I was pleased to be able to keep track of the coursing orders. It's the coursing orders that I want to write about now.
From a conducting point of view, cyclic compositions are more difficult than tenors-together compositions because instead of a five-bell coursing order involving 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, there is a nine-bell coursing order involving all the bells. But what I like about my composition is that the coursing orders follow some simple patterns and change relatively infrequently, making them a bit easier to remember and work with.
The idea is to think of the coursing order in two blocks: a five-bell block and a four-bell block. Everything starts with the bell that's in 5th place at the beginning of a part. For the first part we start in the plain course, so the blocks are 53246 and 8097. I think of these as two shapes: first a "valley", then a "hill":
0
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
The two 4th place bobs change the 4-bell block from 8097 to 0987 and then 0879. This changes the hill into a second valley:
0
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
The two 6th place bobs change the 5-bell block from 53246 to 32465 and then 24653. This changes the valley into a hill:
0
9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
The bell that was in 10th place at the beginning of the part, i.e. 10, will be in 5th place at the beginning of the next part. We now shuffle everything round to start with 10, moving 2 from the beginning of its hill to the end of the valley, and recreate the overall shape for the next part:
6
5
4
3
2
0
9
8
7
Here we have to consider 2 to be above 9 and 0, and similar views have to be taken in some of the other parts. But with a bit of practice, it all makes sense and it's much easier than remembering arbitrary 9-bell coursing orders. One other useful point is that once 8097 has changed to 0879, those bells stay in the same relative position for 17 leads, until the first 6th place bob in the next part.
Having said that this system makes the coursing orders easier to remember, it still took a lot of concentration. I managed to follow the coursing order while I was passing the other bells, but I couldn't work out anyone's place bells when there were mistakes. More practice needed.