[Bell Historians] Bizarre Warner octave scale

[Dickon Love]

I have been doing some research into the old bells of St Peter's, Tunbridge
Wells. They were a Warner 5 in an 8 bell frame, augmented (with a treble) to
6, and then (with 2 trebles) to an 8, all in the space of decade. The Kent &
Sussex Courier on 24 Jan 1879 says that when the octave is complete, the
notes of the bells will be "1st F sharp; 2nd, E; 3rd D (the recent
addition); 4th C; 5th, B; 6th A; 7th, G; 8th (tenor), F flat." (from the
tenor, F flat, G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp)   Clearly this is not a diatonic
8, and my instinct was (is) to put this down to a series of typos. The
nearest key to these is F major (F, G, A, B flat, C, D, E, F). However,
before I dismiss this out of hand, might there be occasions where Warners
got the key so wrong that someone with perfect pitch might choose to
describe the notes in this way?

 

The ring can't have been very good. Gilletts recast them (and put them in a
new frame) 34 years later.

 

DrL



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