[Bell Historians] Bell-historians Digest, Vol 25, Issue 6

[Richard Johnston]

On 26 Jan 2022 at 11:00, bell-historians-request at lists.ringingworl 
wrote:

> 4 3 1 2 2 3 1 4
> 4 3 1 3 2 1
> 4 3 1 2 2 3 1 4
> 3 2 3 1 2 4

Given what Tony has now told us, this looks to me far more like a 
piece of music that was played by chiming the bells manually than 
anything to do with full circle ringing.  

The first and third lines are identical and 8 long, 2nd and 4th are 
same length at 6 long. 2nd line ends with ascending notes that imply 
it must continue and 4th ends on base note thus completing it.  A lot 
of tunes have structures similar to this.

A tune of this sort in a church context might have been used as a 
setting for the verse of a psalm. 

Tony might like to concert this into conventional musical notation 
and then try to search for it, or ask the question on a musicology 
forum.  There may be options for variants, depending on what is known 
about the actual notes of the 4 bells which may not have been tuned 
to the modern diatonic scale.

Richard Johnston