[Bell Historians] Open handstrokes

[Hayden Charles]

Peter Trent wrote on 21/06/2010 21:59:

>
> I have played Jenkins' music quite extensively in the past and never
> felt that his melodies were in any way method based.

My suspicion is that the link with methods is some kind of folk tale 
which Morris and others passed on without investigating. But I may well 
be wrong in that assumption.

> Having played the
> "six bells, mourners and ringers" lyra consort set in particular, I
> would have said that the extended penultimate note of the changes
> represented is far more about trying to fit the melody into common
> triple time than representing an open handstroke lead.

Well we are all likely to hear and interpret music within patterns that 
are familiar to us. I think that in the 'Five Bell' pieces there is 
probably a little less distortion of the type of ringing rhythm which is 
familiar to us today. I was more taken by the idea that the 'bells' are 
arranged in groups of twelve and ten in the six and five-bell pieces 
with a definite 'breath' before launching into the next one. So to me 
the closed backstroke lead at least implies an open handstroke.

I have found the various expert musicians whose who have written about 
Jenkins to be unfamiliar with ringing, so it is good to find a ringing 
musician who knows about Jenkins.

Hayden Charles