Ringing Forums

Yes I ring at an 8 bell tower where the front six or even the front 5 was the norm for a long time. I have done my best to turn this around simply by being the person who volunteers to ring the tenor up - sometimes I have to ring up both the tenor (21cwt) and the 7 (13cwt). And then ring one of them for the whole session.

I don't like ringing the front 6 of 8 (or any other ad-hoc non-standard selection of bells), because it sounds wrong, and I think that makes it harder to follow a method.

John de Overa, just because change ringing music is different from classical music doesn't mean it isn't music, or interesting to listen to. There's plenty of other music in the world that is almost as minimalist and opaque as change ringing, and which has enthusiastic followers who listen to extended performances where to a non-connoisseur nothing seems to happen.

It is also normal in non-classical musics for people to drift in and out of the performance listening to the bits they want to and then going off to chat or do something else. Sitting in an auditorium for the duration of the performance is not the only way to enjoy listening.

So yes I think we are missing a trick by not promoting our formal performances as actual performances for people to listen to.

I considered writing a letter about this but decided it could get interminable!

My thought is that calling up allows you to ring only by rythym and place, and moving one place up or down when you are called. Calling down forces you to follow the numbers.

Simon there is a broken link on the acknowledgements page, you need to remove the www from the link to Bryn Reinstadler's ebook.

Its really good, I would get a printed copy if you ever publish it. I did a lot of work in St Andrews with calling and ringing the "old peals on five bells" from Tintinnalogia, sometimes trying to do the entire sequence with a call every handstroke.

Signed up here after seeing the piece in RW, hope that there's enough interest to make something of it.