[Bell Historians] Pitches of bells

[Dickon Love]

Andrew Higson:
> Ever tried playing anything in G flat? As a key signature it is 
somewhere 
> you only get by transposition during a piece from, er, er, well 
another key 
> anyway.

I agree entirely, but we are not talking about key signatures on a 
piano. The fact is that terms such as G flat are used by (some!) 
bellfounders. Perhaps Nigel Taylor can tell us why he reclassified 
Brasted as G flat over F sharp.

What you are saying Andrew is that there are some note names we 
should never use, and that may well be the right way of doing 
things. But if others insist upon using all combinations then some 
sort of consistent system needs to be devised, and I don't see what 
the improvement on mine is.

I should also point out that I wouldn't necessarily suggest naming 
the other pitches in the ring relative to the tenor, but I do see an 
argument for claiming that a ring of bells *should* be defined in 
terms of a musical scale. (Whitechapel currently describes the 5th 
as being C flat which is consistent with a scale in G flat but 
intrinsically is B!) But this is a different argument.

DrL