Finally, a Cafe Society question I actually know something about. You see, I used to be a change-ringer at St. Andrew’s Cathedral in Honolulu, although that was over a decade ago, and my mother was also a bell ringer. If you type “campanology” into Google, you’ll get quite a few sites with accurate information (“campanology” is the formal term for bell ringing). Meanwhile, Here’s a website with some relevant information.
Let’s start with ringing up. The bells used in change ringing are heavy. The eight bells at St. Andrew’s ranged from 595 pounds to 1,370 pounds, and I think that’s fairly standard. My two favorites were 769 lbs and 836 lbs. The bells are rung by rotating them. At the beginning of a stroke, the mouth of the bell is facing up. The ringer gives a gentle tug on the rope and the bell rotates until it nearly completes a full circle. There’s a wooden stick called a “stay” attached to the bell which keeps it from going full circle and holds it upright when it’s not being rung, or at least, that’s the theory. You can see a picture of the mechansim here. Bell ringers do break stays from time to time, but that’s another story. Since balancing several hundred pounds of rather old metal upside down is rather dangerous, the bells are left right side up (mouth down) when they’re not being rung. “Ringing up” is the process of tugging on the bell rope until the bell is upside down, resting on its stay. This takes a bit of time and it’s usually done at the beginning of ringing practice. Now, you may think that persuading several hundred pounds of bell to work its way upside down is difficult enough, but the other thing towers will do is do it in sequence, so that each bell rings in turn from lightest and highest in pitch to heaviest and lowest in pitch. Don’t worry – it’s not as difficult as it sounds.
On to Kent Treble Bob Major.
Obviously, if you’ve got 8 bells in constant motion, each one rotating around its axis then swinging back again, you’re not going to be able to play tunes in the conventional sense. It takes a while for an 800 pound bell to ring twice. As a result, change ringers ring patterns called, surprise, surprise, “changes” There are basic rules for these changes. First of all, when you’re talking about changes, each bell is referred to by number from 1, also called the “treble”, the lightest one to 8 or however many bells are being rung. When the bells are ringing in order from highest to lowest, it’s written out like this:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
The general rule is a bell can only do one of three things: change places with the bell ahead of it; change places with the bell behind it; or stay in the same place. Let me give you an idea. I’ll start with the sequence I gave you above:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Now, lets have every pair of bells swap. This will result in:
2 1 4 3 6 5 8 7
If we have every pair of bells swap again, that will go back to what we just had, and that get’s boring fast. Instead, if you have the bells ringing first and last continue to ring first and last and have the middle six swap, you get this:
2 4 1 6 3 8 5 7
Combining these things in various orders results in set patterns which have been given names. For example, if you keep alternating having all 8 bells swap and then just the middle 6 swap, you get this pattern which is called “Plain Hunting”, the simplest and most basic pattern:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
2 1 4 3 6 5 8 7
2 4 1 6 3 8 5 7
4 2 6 1 8 3 7 5
4 6 2 8 1 7 3 5
6 4 8 2 7 1 5 3
6 8 4 7 2 5 1 3
8 6 7 4 5 2 3 1
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
7 8 5 6 3 4 1 2
7 5 8 3 6 1 4 2
5 7 3 8 1 6 2 4
5 3 7 1 8 2 6 4
3 5 1 7 2 8 4 6
3 1 5 2 7 4 8 6
1 3 2 5 4 7 6 8
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
at this point, things repeat ad infinitum or until the ringers get tired or bored.
A “peal”, another major part of The Nine Tailors is ringing the bells in such a way that every possible permutation of bells is rung. For 8 bells, this comes to 40,320 different permutations according to this website which I’ve come across while typing:
I’m afraid at this point, my knowledge stops. You see, I never got a chance to ring Kent Treble Bob Major and the information I’ve been able to find about it on Google is set up for someone who knows a lot more about ringing than I’ve told you. Let’s just leave it at saying that it’s one of a set number of bell ringing patterns. If anyone’s truly interested, I’ll see if I can look it up in Mum’s old ringer’s manual over the weekend.
One final note. I keep talking about 8 bells. That’s not just because it’s convenient. You see, the “Major” in Kent Treble Bob Major means specifically that it’s a pattern rung on 8 bells. There are other names for things run on other numbers of bells. “Minimus” means 4 bells are used; “Doubles” means 5 bells are used; “Minor” means 6 bells are used and “Triples” means 7 bells are used. There are terms for patterns rung on more than 8 bells, but I’m afraid I’ve never had occaision to learn them.
Hope this helps,
CJ
2nd generation bell ringer and Lord Peter Wimsey fan!
This link includes the answer to the all important question “So Why Do People Do This?” A predilection toward insanity is only part of the answer!