[r-t] Old methods

[Don Morrison]

On Thu, Jul 17, 2008 at 6:33 AM, Andrew Craddock <andrew at towerbase.net> wrote:
> Can anyone tell me if it is included in the ASCY peal records?

Andrew Wilby has on at least one occasion, and I think more than one,
referred to it passionately at a Council meeting, decrying the vote to
not retroactively "accept" it, and saying it very much is a part of
the ASCY's records and that they remain proud of it.

> The following motion to include the 24 May 1995 peal in the analysis
> was presented to Council in a very confusing way and as a result I
> am sure that many delegates didn't vote for what they intended. I
> don't think many delegates would have voted out of spite (although
> some may have).

That it even had to be put as a distinct motion should be an
embarrassment to the Council. Having the Decisions structured so that
the first band to do something innovative is not automatically
credited with it is itself a symptom of the problem.

> 1. 5000 or more rows.
> 2. Begins and ends in rounds.

Sadly, even then we'd have arguments:

- What's a row? For Alan Winter's "Cylindrical" there are actually
  more the 720 distinct 6 bell "rows", as you've got all the usual
  rows plus all those that are missing one bell but have the same bell
  leading and lying.

- Why begin in rounds? Why not pull off in Queens, start from there,
  and end there? If we do that does it cease to be change ringing?

- Can the same row of rounds be the end of one peal and the start of
  the next? Or can one row be only an element of a single peal?

- There are undoubtedly further hairs that could be split.

(Also I think your description is slightly inaccurate. I think you
mean 5000 or more changes. As you've written it a composition that
would currently be considered of length 4999 would be acceptable, and
I don't think that was your intention.)




-- 
Don Morrison <dfm at ringing.org>
"Ironically, Poets are popularly supposed to treat of matters
ethereally remote from the day-to-day concerns of the man in the
street. In reality, they bring us down _to_ Reality -- and with a
bump."     -- Christopher Palmer, notes on Britten's _War Requiem_