[Bell Historians] More bells?

[Edward W Martin]

--- In bellhistorians at yahoogroups.com, "Richard Offen" 
<richard.offen at ...> wrote:
> 
> Personally, whilst I find 16 bell ringing intellectually challenging
> (some would say that I find 6 bell ringing intellectually 
challenging!),
> musically I don't find it particularly enjoyable.
> 

Living in the USA for 40 years, if I wasn't struggling trying to 
compose 5040s of Stedman Triples or Triples in general, I tried to 
produce 'musical' stuff on higher numbers but found that I had 
forgotten the sound of 12 bells. "you've got a piano" was advice that 
didn't work for me, I just couldn't imagine what combinations would 
sound interesting. Then there was a band of us capable of Erin 
Cinques on handbells, so I cooked up an easy to call which happened 
to hold the little bells together and I was very taken by the effect 
of what is now termed 'little bell music'  it seemed to me that it 
didn't much matter what the big bells wre doing, the fascination for 
me was with this ping-ping-ping rythm...obviously something to 
explore.

Now we live within distance of Guildford Cathedral whose ringers are 
patient enough to put up with my getting lost in Stedman Cinques and 
generally making it very obvious that if I ever was a 12 bell ringer, 
that was very long ago!

To get back to 16:  I can't imagine that sound at all, and if the 
friendly plain hunt coursing is the least bit deviated from, how do 
you know where to look???  

Not much to do with bell history in general but perhaps might serve 
to illustrate how ringers' attitude to more challenging methods as 
welll as numbers of bells has increased over the past 50 years

mew