Change ringing

This creates a form of bell music which cannot be discerned as a conventional melody, but is a series of mathematical sequences.

Ordinarily a bell will swing through a small arc only at a set speed governed by its size and shape in the nature of a simple pendulum, but by swinging through a larger arc approaching a full circle, control of the strike interval can be exercised by the ringer.

The considerable weights of full-circle tower bells also means they cannot be easily stopped or started and the practical change of interval between successive strikes is limited.

Some towers contain additional bells so that different subsets of the full number can be rung, still to a diatonic scale.

When stationary in the down position, the centre of mass of the bell and clapper is appreciably below the centreline of the trunnion supports, giving a pendulous effect to the assembly, and this dynamic is controlled by the ringer's rope.

The headstock is fitted with a wooden stay, which, in conjunction with a slider, limits maximum rotational movement to a little less than 370 degrees.

The clapper is a rigid steel or wrought iron bar with a large ball to strike the bell.

As the bell swings downwards the rope unwinds from the wheel and the ringer adds enough pull to counteract friction and air resistance.

In change ringing where the order the bells are struck in is constantly altered, it is necessary to time the swing so that this strike occurs with precise positioning within the overall pattern.

There are also many towers where experienced ringers practise call change ringing as an art in its own right (and even exclusively), particularly in the English county of Devon.

Calls are usually of the form "X to (or after) Y" or "X and Y"; in which X and Y refer to two of the bells by their physical numbers in the tower (not by their positions in the row).

The sequence of calls shown gives three well-known musical rows, which are Whittingtons, Queens, and Tittums.

After starting in repetitive rounds, at a given command, the ringers vary the bells' order, to produce a series of distinct sequences known as rows or changes.

Plain hunt consists of a plain undeviating course of a bell between the first and last places in the striking order, by moving a place in the sequence at each change, but with two strikes in the first and last position to enable a turn-around as the internal bells change over.

To enable a greater number of changes to be rung without repetition, more advanced methods were developed, many based upon the plain hunt.

This enables the other ringers to produce large numbers of unique changes without memorising huge quantities of data, without any written prompts.

Ringers stand or sit in a straight line at a single convenient table on which the bells are placed.

Some handbell change ringers practice a hybrid of these two methods, known as body ringing: ringers standing in a line each hold one bell, exchanging places in the line so that the changes sound correctly when the bells are rung in sequence from right to left.

[13] The recreation began to flourish in earnest in the Restoration era; an important milestone in the development of method ringing as a careful science was the 1668 publication by Richard Duckworth and Fabian Stedman of their book Tintinnalogia, which promised in its subtitle to lay down "plain and easie Rules for Ringing all sorts of Plain Changes".

Today change ringing is, particularly in England, a popular and commonplace sound, often issuing from a church tower before or after a service or wedding.

[15] There is some evidence there may have been an earlier peal (also Plain Bob Triples), rung January 7, 1690 at St Sepulchre-without-Newgate in the City of London by the Ancient Society of College Youths.

Ringers generally adhere to the Council's rules and definitions governing change ringing.

In Devon, Cornwall and parts of Yorkshire, this custom is not followed when call-change ringing; instead the bells strike steadily without the pause.

These competitions are organized on regional and national levels, being particularly popular among the call-change ringers of Devon where it is customary to include the quality of the rise and lower of the bells as part of the judging criteria.

To an expert ringer's ear at this level of competition a variation of a tenth of this would be discernible as a striking fault.

The council's president, Chris Mew, said: "Where is the glamour of the sports field and where are the David Beckhams of the belfry?

Searching for alternative methods, in March 2020 two ringers from the USA developed software called Ringing Room that mimics the operation of ropes and bells, and permits people to ring together online, in a type of networked music performance.

[23][24] In one Shropshire church, bells can be tied up with their sounds simulated by sensors, so ringers can practise in silence using Bluetooth headsets.

Connie Willis, who frequently references Sayers in To Say Nothing of the Dog (1997), features bell ringers in her earlier novel Doomsday Book (1992); a group of American women led by a Mrs. Taylor frequently appears practising for or ringing both handbells and changes.

In the science-fiction novel Anathem by Neal Stephenson (2008) changes are rung in a cloistered monastery for mathematicians to signal different ceremonies.