[r-t] New maximus composition (was multiple hunt bells in treble bob methods)

[Philip Earis]

Glinty: "You could ring it variable hunt!"

Benjy: "That does rather remove the benefit of the hunt bell(s) --  
stability.  And it probably means the composition is more difficult.  But 
I'm open to correction on that"


Whilst Ben is of course correct to highlight the absuridities of Glint's 
somewhat peverse statement, there are certainly interesting compositional 
effects to be obtained by similar arguably counter-intuitive approaches.

I rang one such example today (probably yesterday by the time you read 
this).  The details of the peal are at 
http://www.campanophile.co.uk/show.aspx?Code=57674

The composition was a super new David Pipe example that combined the cyclic 
runs character of many similar compositions with some mega-tittums music 
(where all consecutive bells are coursing).  The first half of each part was 
aimed at generating runs, using the traditional cyclic structure of the 2nd 
and tenor of the part alternating ringing pivot-bell leads.  The second half 
of each part uses a succession of different bobs in a-group methods to 
quickly get to the mega-tittums coursing order, has a principle to exploit 
this and simultaneously switch to another part, and then reverses the bobs 
to get back to the part end. The composition was:

                      1234567890ET
Io LA                 142638507T9E
Chaldene LA           13527496E8T0
Leda LA               1648203T5E79
Callisto LA           157392E4T608
Europa LTP            18604T2E3957
Europa LTP            1795E3T20486
Callisto LA           108T6E492735
Leda LA               19E7T5038264
Chaldene LA           1T0E89674523
Io LA          10 bob 1ET907856423
Plain B        18 bob 1ET907862534
Plain B        16 bob 1ET908273645
Amalthea LA    14 bob 1ET029384756
Amalthea LA           1T2E30495867
Ganymede Diff  12 bob 8907E6T54123
Amalthea LA    14 bob 890ET7162534
Amalthea LA    16 bob 890ET1273645
Plain B        18 bob 890ET1234756
Plain B        10 bob 890ET1234567
12-part


It was an all-the-work cyclic 12-part, improving on other recent 11-part 
examples on a similar plan (eg 
http://www.campanophile.co.uk/show.aspx?Code=54613, 
http://www.campanophile.co.uk/show.aspx?Code=46007). Unlike previous 
12-parts that I've rung, the methods were much less treble-dominated than 
conventional methods, and indeed were tailor made to bring out the music in 
all 12 parts.

A 12-part structure is good because it naturally supports both the cyclic 
runs and the mega-tittums music.  However, a problem is that the 
mega-tittums coursing order is the same in each of the parts, leading to 
possible flaseness problems, and so it is not immediately obvious how to 
maximise this type of music.  By ringing a principle in each part you switch 
to a different part - arguably the ideal choice is original, but this would 
only give two changes in each part, which is a bit of an anticlimax.

David got round this problem by choosing methods which perhaps 
counter-intuitively gave some runs-style music in the mega-tittums coursing 
order, thereby linking back to my original statement. The principle chosen 
is Ganymede, which is reverse Thursday Maximus (a Rod Pipe method) and which 
has elegant mirror symmetry as well as conventional palindromic symmetry.

The use of this in the composition gives a number of runs in the 
mega-tittums coursing order.  Amalthea is a conventional a-group method, 
albeit one that incredibly elegantly gives some really super runs music in 
the mega-tittums coursing order. It joins the ranks of a small group of 
"bespoke" methods (such as Spinning Jennie Delight Royal) which are designed 
not to be rung in the plain course.

There are a variety of very pleasant and almost unexpected runs of different 
types, both forward and backwards, in both of the sets of two consecutive 
leads of Amalthea in the composition. The first half-leads of both methods 
are shown below:


Amalthea Little Alliance Maximus
     1ET029384756
5T   E10T23948576
14   E01T32495867
70   0ET123459876
9T   E01T32549786
x    0ET123457968
49   0TE132547698
x    T01E23456789
1236 T012E3547698
5T   0T21E5374968
16   02TE15739486
5T   20ET17593846
1e12


Ganymede Differential
     1T2E30495867
30   T123E4059876
x    1T324E508967
58   T12345E09876
x    1T32540E8967
67   13T52408E697
x    315T42806E79
67   3514T28607E9
x    53412T68709E
1T   543216T7890E
x    4523671T98E0
58   5432671T890E
x    452376T918E0
3670 542736T9810E
x    4572639T81E0

All in all, great fun.  Future developments could include changing some of 
the plain bob for more "bespoke" methods.  Watch this space...