A revolution in English bell ringing
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A revolution in English bell ringing
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Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#2Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#3I was in England when HM QE II died. It was a rare opportunity to hear quite a lot of change ringing, notable not least because many of the bells were fully muffled in mourning of the monarch.
Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#4Bell ringing is English?? I grew up in England and assumed all churches everywhere did it. I guess I just never noticed its absence in the USA, despite living here for over 20 years.
Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#5Sayers, mentioned here in passing, wrote probably the only detective story explicitly called out (as an introduction to change ringing) in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (a mighty 20 volume encyclopaedia).
So if you like old detective stories and this article tickled your interest, perhaps give "The Nine Tailors" a whirl.
Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#6> composers tend to base their methods in mathematical principles such as group theory
I know many composers were and are very in tune with the mathematics of music. But the “tend to” makes me wonder: were most of them in tune, or is it that pleasant sounding music will inevitably display mathematical patterns?
Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#7Bell ringing is English?? I grew up in England and assumed all churches everywhere did it. I guess I just never noticed its absence in the USA, despite living here for over 20 years.
Not bell ringing - change ringing. Most places they play a tune on them; our ringers work out mathematical permutations instead.
Edit: ...and I should add: Sayers was quite reactionary, preternaturally English, and writing in the 1930s, so I wouldn't be at all surprised if it wasn't true that change ringing was uniquely English.
Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#8Bell ringing is English?? I grew up in England and assumed all churches everywhere did it. I guess I just never noticed its absence in the USA, despite living here for over 20 years.
This might be two ways of saying the same thing, but I wonder if it’s less about culture and more about having a lot more big-giant-bell-era churches. Not that you implied your observation is about culture. I’m doing that.
Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#9I love seeing a change ringing article on HN, especially with well labelled diagrams!
The move to a framework system where we can all ring what we like and just describe it within an agreed upon nomenclature is a great improvement rather than the legacy Decisions. Having strict rules always seemed quite dated to me - the ringing police after all do not show up if you ring a "banned" performance. But agreeing on names makes communication possible - a good role for a central body.
Jump changes are fun too, but I don't think I agree with the article that allowing them has really led to a revolution. The top performances on BellBoard are of commonly rung non-jump methods. In fact I don't think I've seen a jump method be featured at all. Philip himself doesn't seemed to have published a performance of "Jump" anything since 2013. For many I think it remains an interesting novelty.
Re: A revolution in English bell ringing
#10Bell ringing is English?? I grew up in England and assumed all churches everywhere did it. I guess I just never noticed its absence in the USA, despite living here for over 20 years.
There is some change ringing in the USA, just not very much of it. There are towers around.. https://www.nagcr.org/towers-and-bands
There's even a few change ringing towers dotted around parts of Africa, Australia, some of Europe. Just few and far between.
But when compared to England, where practically every town can be relied upon to have at least a 6 bell tower where change ringing can happen, it's no comparison.