Change Ringing - Plain Hunt Major
Change ringing as we know it originated in the 17th century as tower bell ringers wished for more complicated music encompassing a larger range of bells and precision ringing methods. There can be up to 16 bells in the tower, but 6-8 is most common. Bells are mounted in a bellframe and suspended so that they can rotate a little less than 370 degrees, as dictated by the pull of a rope. Thus, the bell is struck on the “handstroke” and the “backstroke.”
In tower ringing, each person would be responsible for a single bell and coordinate with their teammates to complete the call or method ring successfully. These can take hours and consist of an astounding number of permutations. For instance, 6 bells have 720 permutation, 8 bells have 40,320, and 12 bells have an astounding 479,001,600! A full peal of this magnitude would take over 30 years to complete! Peals are often shorter (thankfully), but must last at least 5000 changes on 8 or more bells, and 5040 on 7 or fewer. There are even shorter peals such as the quarter peal, but in all cases, no row can be played twice. (Ah, the mathematical nerdiness of some musicians! It’s wonderful!)
Because the bells are so heavy, they can only be shifted by one position in each cycle. Usually a peal starts and ends with the highest bell (treble) and descends to the lowest bell (tenor); this is known as “ringing rounds.” In this exercise you will hear thus. The tower swings at the beginning give the feel of the pitch bend one would hear from tower bells, and the “ringing up” process by which the bell would transition from the downward resting position to the upright ringing position.
Because we’re in SIP, I’m doing it on handbells by myself. Change ringing is quite popular on handbells in its own right and is often written into celebratory music for festive occasions such as Christmas and Easter. The method you see me ring here is called “lapping” or “cross and stretch,” where each bell is physically swapped and the bells are rung strictly from right to left. This method peal has all bells “hunting” or moving up or down by one position in each cycle. There are 60 bell swaps in the 17 lines. Follow the white ribbon to watch one bell through its entire hunt!
There are not many instruments where notes can be displaced (or misplaced if you’re not careful!). Handbells are, for good or bad, one of those instruments.