[r-t] 23-spliced TB major

[King, Peter R]

The concept of difficulty is clearly very subjective (there are some methods I have difficulty staying awake in) . All of these compositions are clearly very challenging for very experienced bands so it doesn't really matter to me whether comp A is harder than comp B or vice versa. I guess though that most people could give a rough ranking and then argue fine distinctions between different compositions. Certainly I found the 45atw plain major challenging because of the speed with which the treble moves around. What motivated me to produce these compositions was the notion that there is more to life than suprise major. Plain major and treble bob both offer very different kind of challenges that I find much more rewarding than another peal of 8 spliced (whichever 8) or even 23 (not that I have actually rung Chandlers). So rather than focussing too much on ranking difficulty I would encourage people to sample what life beyond syrprise major can give.

In terms of difficulty, though, I believe Don Morrison has a composition of all the work (literally, even the treble is involved) where the hunt path is different in each method, in a normal length peal. I suspect that outranks all the compositions discussed here, although I don't think it has been rung yet (correct me if I'm wrong).

Peter

________________________________
From: ringing-theory-bounces at bellringers.net [mailto:ringing-theory-bounces at bellringers.net] On Behalf Of Rebecca Cox
Sent: 30 April 2010 13:30
To: ringing-theory at bellringers.net
Subject: [r-t] RE: 23-spliced TB major

>Philip:

> Last night we rang what I think is arguably one of the hardest 'normal length' peals ever attempted.

Without wishing to denigrate the achievement of the band ringing 23 ATW TB Major as I'm sure it was as difficult as Philip suggests.
I think there are a couple of other candidates for the hardest normal length peal of major that Philip may be unaware of as they were rung quite some time ago, in the early 1980's.

Firstly 5040 30 all the work Little Surprise Major, rung at Hungerford 2 May 1980 (almost exactly 30 years ago), again all unfamiliar methods,
but more methods and more changes of method. I thought this considerably harder than Chandler's
and at that time there wasn't the depth of experience of ringing atw compositions there is now.

Secondly Tony Peake's spliced plain major series which included 330 methods in a 5000 (8 April 1983) and 400 methods in 5890 (3 June & 1 July 1983) (somewhat longer than a normal length though).
This series which took at least a year and a half of sustained effort, was by some considerable margin the most difficult I've ever rung.
In many ways cyclic atw compositions are easier than this type of composition as half the leads are reversals of others and it's easier to know in advance what the next method will be. Calling these peals (as Tony Peake did and Tim Pett also the 400) was an exceptional achievement in my view.

Tony
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