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

[Alexander Holroyd]

I think these plans might offer some quite interesting possibilities for 
music.  The group of order 21 that forms the part ends is a conjugate of 
the one composed of rounds, queens, tittums and their cyclic rotations 
(Price's [7:05]
http://www.ringing.info/bdp/peals-in-parts/parts-2.html#1
)

The compositions given can't be transposed to have those part ends, but it 
should be just as easy to get a composition starting from them.  Then 
there seems to be no reason why a large number of (or even all) 4-bell 
runs could not be included...


On Wed, 27 Jul 2011, Simon Gay wrote:

>
>
> On 27/07/2011 16:40, Graham John wrote:
>
> 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.
>
> Indeed, that seems to be the main problem in ringing them.
>
> Having something that is more cyclical might improve
> the music and keeping right.
>
>
> I didn't think about music at all, I'm afraid. These are combinatorial 
> compositions rather than musical compositions. I haven't checked, but I don't 
> suppose there is much noteworthy music in either composition.
>
>
> 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?
>
> I don't think so. Consider three courses of a single method, with course 
> heads 12345678, 12567834, 12783456. Imagine that these three courses could 
> somehow be joined together; then you would have a touch of one method that is 
> handbell-atw for 3-4, 5-6 and 7-8. But, for example, the pair 6-8 would ring 
> the coursing course twice, the 3-4 course once, and the 5-6 course not at 
> all.
>
> My second thought was - can it be done using a standard
> cylic 7-part composition, reducing the number of methods from 23 to 7?
>
>
> Depending on what you mean by cyclic:
>
> - if you mean plain bob lead ends, both compositions are based on this 
> structure, with the part being a 3-part; but actually the part in the 7-part 
> structure is a round block, so the parts have to be joined together in some 
> other way.
>
> - if (more likely) you mean part ends 13456782 etc: off the top of my head I 
> don't remember how much I investigated this (it was a while ago); either I 
> didn't look into it, or it didn't turn out to be the most promising idea for 
> getting the calling and fitting in the methods. I'll have to look back at the 
> intermediate results to check.
>
> The main idea in both compositions is a 3-part with a part end corresponding 
> to the coursing order 8526734, in which *every* pair of bells is in a 
> different relative position than it is in the plain course.
>
> Simon
>
>
>
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