[r-t] Handbell all-the-work compositions

[Graham John]

Simon wrote:

> I have been thinking about this problem on and off for a long time, and
> I produced a couple of compositions of spliced surprise major a year or
> so ago. They are not variable treble, but they have the property that
> every pair of bells (not just the standard handbell pairs) rings all 21
> pairs of place bells in every method.

Very interesting, Simon. I was asked whether I could come up with something
by Eddie Futcher at a CY meeting in the 1980s, but I never got round to
looking at it seriously.

I need to look at these compositions in more detail, but at first glance
they look not too bad to call, but very difficult to check the coursing
orders or lead ends. Having something that is more cyclical might improve
the music and keeping right.

With regard to the all the pairs feature, my first thought was - wouldn't
any composition having all the handbell pairs doing all the work have this
as a by-product? My second thought was - can it be done using a standard
cylic 7-part composition, reducing the number of methods from 23 to 7?

Graham