[r-t] 23 Spliced Treble Dodging Major (all the runs)

Mon Sep 14 11:51:04 UTC 2009

I've copied out Rob's composition below, as I always think it's best to have independent records rather than rely solely on links to websites.

The composition is utterly magnificent - one of the very finest 8 bell compositions ever devised. It truly sets a new standard.

Palindromes are the key to so many important effects in ringing, and here Rob uses a palindromic structure very cleverly, both to get (varied) music, and to increase elegance whilst simultaneously eliminating falseness.

The composition isn't an absolute pure palindrome - the exception here is that Bridgwater / Helium and Jovium / Bolonium are 2nds / 8ths place pairs. Hence it being 14 (12) spliced.

The composition makes use of a very neat calling structure to vary the music. Though the first part end is 18234567, the way the runs appear through the composition is quite dynamic.

The composition starts with a palindromic five leads in the plain course, finishing with a bob before. This affects bells 6,7,8 (in the first part), maintaining the natural (runs) coursing order for bells 2,3,4,5. The second bob (at 5ths) brings up the row 15678342, giving a course with "natural" runs involving bells 5678. The third bob (at middle) puts you into the plain course of a different part, allowing the 'missing' two plain course leads to be rung. The composition then pivots about this point (starting with a bob to avoid hitting the part-end) until you reach the genuine part-end.

The beauty of this structure is that as well as the varied music, because each course contains 'natural' runs then the methods can be fairly standard and structured - they don't need to be messy and bizarre to artificially try to mop of runs in unlikely courses.

Hence the composition has methods with nice underworks (such as plain hunting on 4 in Tattersalls), nice overworks (such as Jovium - the method is pure Phobos maximus contracted), as well as familiar motifs (Bridgwater is Bristol over, Zonda is 3-Jersey under, Revolver is basically Cassiobury under, Taunton is nearly Malpas over and so on).

Runs are clearly the order of the day here, and for Rob to pack in all 96 possible runs of each type is a phenomenal achievement. This requires very clever 'manual' thought and input, as well as hour upon hour of patient playing around with specialised tools like Philip Saddleton's SCAMP software.

How can things be taken further? Well, it's very hard to better this. It's a rare example in ringing of where a clear quatified problem was set out in advance, and then maximally solved. Bobs-only Stedman triples is another example of such a problem.

In terms of developing the concept, a pure palindrome would be nice. Including all the 4-runs involving the treble also (in a cyclic 8-part?) would be a very interesting avenue also.

In summary, Rob has produced an absolutely fantastic composition that is also very ringable. He has taken things to a new level, and it's hard to find words of praise lavish enough.

5152 Spliced S Major (14 [12] methods)

2345678 Straker's Passage S
3527486 Speedball S
4263857 Revolver S
6482735 Speedball S
7856342 Straker's Passage S
- 7864523 Zonda S
3526478 Taunton S
4283756 Panamera S
8472635 Helium S
6758342 Xanadu S
- 5678342 Tattersalls S
6854723 Bolonium S
2347856 Uracco S
- 4237856 Evora S
8364527 Evora S
- 7568234 Uracco S
6725483 Jovium S
3482567 Tattersalls S
- 3426875 Xanadu S
2384567 Bridgwater S
8253746 Panamera S
5872634 Taunton S
6745382 Zonda S
- 8234567

7 part
Contains all 384 4-bell runs
not involving the treble.

Evora S -34-4-2-6-2-5-2-1, e
Panamera S 3-56.4.56-56.3-4-3.56-56.1, f
Revolver S 36.5.36.4-5-3-2-5-4-1, f
Speedball S -3-4-2-36.4-2.5-56-1, e
Uracco S -5-4-56-36.2-4.5-6.34.1, m
Zonda S -34-6-2.5.6-4-5-36.2.3, d

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

________________________________
From: ringing-theory-bounces at bellringers.net <ringing-theory-bounces at bellringers.net>
To: ringing-theory at bellringers.net <ringing-theory at bellringers.net>
Sent: Mon Sep 14 11:39:51 2009
Subject: [r-t] 23 Spliced Treble Dodging Major (all the runs)

Me:
>I'll put my composition on here in September when it's been attempted, after which point anyone
>who's so inclined can have a go at it.

The composition is now on Michael Wilby's website: www.compositions.org.uk<http://www.compositions.org.uk>.

We rang 2.5 parts of this yesterday - the unfamiliarity of the methods makes it a real challenge
even for an experienced band.

Any comments welcome!

Cheers
Rob

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