[r-t] Spliced minor in whole courses

Sun Apr 15 19:57:16 UTC 2012

Spliced minor often feels a bit different to spliced at other stages, with
methods appearing in a seemingly ad hoc style.

Peal compositions of spliced minor are often assemblies of different
blocks. These blocks sometimes individually consist of beautifully-crafted
3-parts: however perfect n-part minor peal constructions - analogous to
the elegance of 23-spliced major - remain an under-developed and
relatively rarely rung area.

One of the beauties of regular minor methods is that there are only two
“positions” for a pair of bells – a coursing position and one non-coursing
position. For an extent of regular treble-dodging minor, you just need 6
courses: 3 coursing courses and three non-coursing courses.

And so the great thing is you can logically obtain a true 3-part bobs-only
multi-extent block by simply having keeping a pair of bells (eg 56) fixed
at the part-end, and ensuring each part consists of equal numbers of
coursing and non-coursing whole courses of each method.

A related bonus is by ringing a composition in whole courses, it will
naturally be all the work.

Ringing a whole course of a minor method and then moving on also feels
very nice – the few interrupted minutes a course takes gives long enough
to get settled whilst being short enough to maintain regular variety and
interest.

To demonstrate the concept, using 4 common “almost double” surprise methods:

 23456	Norwich		(coursing)
-23564	Cambridge
-52364	Norwich
-52643	London		(coursing)
-65243	Chester		(coursing)
-26543	London
-52643	Chester		(coursing)
-65243	London		(coursing)
-26543	Norwich
-26435	Chester
-42635	Cambridge	(coursing)
-64235	London
-26435	Chester
-42635	Norwich		(coursing)
-42356
3-part, rung in whole courses

In each part there are 7 coursing and 7 non-coursing courses.  Moreover,
each method splits into coursing and non-coursing pairs. So eg there are
four courses of London – two coursing and two non-coursing.

Peter Ellis is the real champion of this genre, producing (as far as I’m
aware) the original (and very nice) bobs-only composition on this plan.
Having 14 courses in each part gives a peal length composition, such as
this wonderful composition of Peter’s that I highlighted (at Glint’s
prompting) as a “composition of the decade”:

5040 Spliced S Minor (14m)
                 123456
 Warkworth      -123564
 Carlisle       -152364
 London         -135264
 Berwick        -135642
 Morpeth        -135426
 Bacup          -135264
 Cunecastre     -123564
 Primrose       -123645
 Westminster    -162345
 York           -136245
 Lightfoot      -123645
 Whitley        -123456
 Cambridge      -142356
 Chester        -134256
3-part, rung in whole courses)

The composition can simply be rearranged by factoring in course-splices to
increase the number / variety of methods, including more varied (and
non-surprise) methods. A rearrangement we recently rang for the first time
which I like is:

 23456 Warkworth S
-23564 College Exercise TB
-52364 Leasowe D
-35264 Hexham S
-35642 Morpeth S
-35426 Annable's London S
-35264 Castleton D
-23564 Norfolk S
-23645 Donottar D
-62345 York S
-36245 Bamborough S
-23645 Oxford TB
-23456 Chester S
-42356 Cambridge S
-34256
3-part, rung in whole courses)

Taking the long view, Richard Pearce also has an older whole-course
surprise minor composition (with bobs and singles) that was reproduced the
very first message to this list
(http://bellringers.net/pipermail/ringing-theory_bellringers.net/2004-August/000000.html)

John Warboys has also expanded on Richard and Peter’s work, maximally
incorporating delight and treble bob methods to produce a couple of
marvellous 42 method compositions:

5040 Spliced Treble Dodging Minor (42m atw) TD0710

	  Part 1		Part 2	Part 3
  23456 Bacup 		Wath		Carisbrooke
- 23564 Morning Star	Rochester	Duke of Norfolk
- 52364 Pontefract	Donottar	Bamborough
- 35264 Clarence		London Vic	Waltham
- 35642 Rossendale	Stamford	Annable’s London
- 35426 Dover		Pevensey	Balmoral
- 35264 Burton		Oxford	Sandal
- 35642 Elston		Kirkstall	Burslem
- 63542 Merton		Neasden	Braintree
- 63425 Cambridge		Ipswich	Beverley
- 46325 Bedford		Old Oxford	Marple
- 34625 Berwick		Primrose	Norfolk
- 34256 Dunedin		Wilmslow	Ely
- 23456 Lightfoot		Wearmouth	Netherseale
- 42356
  Repeat twice.  Contains no 65's at backstroke, and a change of backwork
every course.

5040 Spliced Treble Dodging Minor (42m atw) TD0711
	  Part 1		Part 2		Part 3
  23456 Neasden		Braintree		St Alban's
- 23564 Duke of Nor	Morning Star	College Exercise
- 52364 Combermere	Lincoln		Southwark
- 35264 Sandiacre		Ely			Bogedone
- 23564 Oswald		Ludlow		Wath
- 23645 Sterling		Cheviot		Castleton
- 62345 Balmoral		Dover			Fotheringay
- 62453 Melrose		Wooler		Sherborne
- 62534 Sandal		Oxford		London Scholars'
- 62345 Peveril		Pennine		Norton le Moors
- 36245 Old Oxford	Marple		College Bob IV
- 23645 Conway		Carisbrooke		Chepstow
- 23456 Coldstream	Wells			Abbeyville
- 42356 Fountains		Pontefract		Alnwick
- 34256
  Repeat twice.  Contains no 65's at backstroke, and a change of backwork
every course.

(http://website.lineone.net/~jswcomps/)

Having 14 methods in each part coincides nicely with the 14 “different”
overworks present in the standard 147 treble-dodging minor methods
(counting 2nds and 6ths place leadend variants as different).  Ideally
there would be a whole course perfect 3-part composition containing a
course of each over-work.  Sadly I don’t think this is possible (but would
love to be proved otherwise), as 2 courses per part are needed of both the
“Hills” overwork (&34-3.6-2-) and London overwork, so there isn’t enough
room for both.  However, arrangements with 13 of the 14 overworks are
easily possible.

And of course, all 14 overworks can bit fitted into slightly longer plans:

5760 Spliced TD Minor (16m)
arr PJE
 23456	Dover
-23564	College Exercise
-52364	Ely
-35264	Castleton
-23564	Norfolk
-23645	Cunecastre
-62345	Leasowe
-36245	Netherseale
-23645	Morpeth
-23456	Donottar
-42356	Rossendale
-42563	Wath
-42635	Cambridge
-64235	London
-26435	Chester
-42635	Oxford
-42356

So what’s next?  Well, I’d love to see people play around with this type
of construction further. All ideas very welcome.

And how about a bit of chopping up to get even more of a 23-spliced major
feel, changing method every lead to produce a perfect 5 part (15 part) on
the same sort of plan?  As a rather monkey proof-of-concept:

2880 Spliced TD Minor (3m: Cambridge S, London S, Peveril D)
23456 C.LL.P*
35264
15 part, bob at * in parts 5,10,15

23456 L.CP.L*
65324
15 part, bob at * in parts 5,10,15