Back in March, I wrote about compositions of Superlative, in advance of a peal attempt with Mike and Ian. We didn't get that peal, and yesterday we had another go and failed again. Perhaps there was another attempt in between; I don't remember. Despite the possibilities for compositions that keep 5-6 coursing, or even both 5-6 and 3-4, I have been sticking to Pitstow's, which is easy to remember but not very handbell-friendly. 

5088 Superlative Surprise Major
Nathan J Pitstow

B  W  H  23456
--------------
   -  3  52436
   -  3  35426
-     2  23564
--------------
3 part.

All of the maximum-coursing compositions that I have found either use half-lead bobs (the Don Morrison composition that I discussed previously), or non-standard calls (the arrangement that I put together in the previous article), or look complicated to learn.

Today I thought again about compositions with 5-6 coursing, and I wondered about doing something based on Andrew Hudson's peal of Plain Bob Major. The first step is to try out the basic block that keeps 5-6 coursing and moves them from one end of the coursing order to the other, and back. Ringing it twice gives 8 courses.

1792 Superlative Surprise Major

M  W  H  (25364)
---------------
   s  s   53624
s         43526
-     -   65324
   -      26354
   s  s   63524
s         43625
-     -   56324
   -      25364
---------------
Snap start and finish.

That's a good start, so we just need to add another 15 courses. We can do this by finding places where 5-6 are at one end or the other of the coursing order, and inserting a block of calls on the other three bells. Here is the final composition.

5152 Superlative Surprise Major
Simon J Gay

M  W  H  (25364)
---------------
4  s  s   53624
s  6      43526
-     -   65324
   -      26354
3  s  s   63524
s  6      43625
-     -   56324
   -      25364
---------------
Snap start and finish.
4 = -s-s
6 = --s--s
For handbells: 5-6 course throughout, 3-4 ring 70% coursing, 22% 3-4 and 9% 5-6.

Probably this also looks complicated, but having worked it up from a simple structure, I will find it easy to remember. We've got another attempt for the peal next week, so I think I will give this composition a try.

I constructed and checked this composition with the help of Graham John's excellent online composition library, which also works out the analysis of handbell positions.