[r-t] Early peals of Cambridge Maximus

[Jim Clatworthy]

Philip Earis:-

What I found especially notable was the original composition that was rung -
a 10 course block by H Law James.  Instead of being the tired and uninspired
arrangement (keeping the 6th home, for example) I'd have naively assumed, it
actually has really a rather fresh and neat feel to it (especially after the
opening three courses) with plenty of little-bell courses.

And:-

It almost feels contemporary. So where did things all go wrong? What caused
people to bash out (and ring) surprise max compositional monstrosities with
gruelling "combination courses ends", etc? How come 50,60,70,80+ years on
people ended up ringing things like (to pick one of a plethora of typical
mediocrities) this? 


I think it was not totally clear to the composers around that time that the
falseness of C12 (and indeed C10) was NOT the same (and as restrictive) as
C8.

If you look at these early compositions of C12 (and C10) they are all (by
and large) reductions of the Middleton 25 courses i.e. hopefully
guaranteeing truth.

What happened in more recent times is that we all got seduced by the CRU
(from eight bell ringing) and assumed that what's good for eight is equally
good for 10, 12 and more.

I think this also explains why people still talk about the Standard Eight on
10 and more bells!