Call-Change Peals

During my time as Tower Captain of Keynsham Church Bell Ringers I developed two Triples Call-Change Peals that I would routinely conduct for weddings and other special occasions when we had a full band of eight ringers available. I aimed to include as many musical rows as possible in these compositions, with efficient yet musical transitions between them, while also keeping them to a reasonable length for wedding ringing. I've since rung these compositions on My Bell Tower at Lyndenlea so I decided to publish them here on my website to fully describe what I rang.

Not all of my wedding ringing was on eight bells, of course, so I also developed a Doubles Call-Change Peal (often conducted at Queen Charlton, a six-bell tower I also looked after while Tower Captain at Keynsham) and a Minimus Call-Change Peal – this latter both for when we were short of ringers (rare for weddings at Keynsham or Queen Charlton, but more likely on other occasions) and for when I'd ring at Horfield, Bristol, which is a relatively uncommon five-bell tower.

A note about terminology: In call-changes a "peal" is a complete piece of ringing of any length starting and ending with Rounds (the descending scale; bells numbered 1-2-3... etc. rung in order). This is distinct from a peal in method ringing, which requires ringing at least 5,040 changes (or 5,000 for Major or above) in one or more methods. I'm unsure whether the rule about not repeating rows exists in call-change peals: some long-established peals effectively start and end with another row (such as Queen's or Tittums) but actually include the necessary calls to move to and from Rounds at either end, some of which will necessarily be repeated, but perhaps these are considered incidental. In any case, I've chosen not to repeat any rows in my own compositions.

In addition to documenting my call-change peal compositions for posterity, I also hope that other ringers might wish to ring them. To that end, I've included both the "Called Up" calls that are the custom in my region and the "Called Down" equivalents more common in other regions (hopefully the row resulting from each change will illustrate the effect of each style of calling), which should also help with transposing between the two styles if needed.

Many particularly musical rows have acquired names over the years, and where possible I've added these names to the tables. While the majority are commonly understood within the ringing community, others might be more local to my region (e.g. Kennet, which is based on Queen's but with the internal pairs swapped) or even disputed – the row I've named as King's on six bells (531246), for instance, some ringers will insist should be called Whittington's, and indeed both sides of the argument have valid reasons for being correct. I make no apology for the names I've chosen to use, but be aware that not everyone will agree with me!

Finally, I've given the necessary notation for the Abel bell ringing simulator software to conduct each peal, which I've also used myself with my own bell tower. You'll see that in my two Triples peal compositions I've added "plain" calls at the most musical rows, which is how I'd generally conduct them; Abel has a setting for the number of "whole pulls" (i.e. pairs of rows) to ring between changes – I've chosen two whole pulls, or four rows – and adding a "plain" call simply repeats that number of whole pulls so the row can be enjoyed for longer before moving on. I haven't added any "plain" calls to my Minimus and Doubles compositions as the musical rows come around so frequently, it's worth enjoying almost every row – for these compositions I'd prefer to extend the number of whole pulls between all the changes.

Tetratonic Minimus (16 changes)

I've named this peal Tetratonic as I would most often call it at Keynsham when we only had five ringers available and I'd have us ring bells 1-3-4-6-8, the Tetratonic Five (a very pretty selection of bells). However, I also called it when ringing other sets of five bells, such as the front five of eight, and of course on diatonic rings of five.

Abel notation

2111224333114424

Queen Charlton Wedding Doubles (34 changes)

My go-to six-bell composition either when I wasn't in the mood to call Sixty On Thirds or with a less experienced band of ringers.

Notes:

• Bell 4 is never called to Lead.

Abel notation

221111    # Exploding Tittums
433335422 # Tittums
24244     # Whittington's
11        # King's
15253     # Queen's
5331552   # Rounds

Keynsham Wedding I Triples (44 changes)

Notes:

• Bells 6 and 7 are never called to Lead.
• The row 31527468 I have named Heather's after a ringing friend of mine who called it once at Keynsham.

Abel notation

631121p27pp      # Seesaw
123112pp         # Exploding Tittums
57pp             # Exploding Hagdyke
44444433336625pp # Tittums
662265pp         # Queen's
7p1p735537       # Rounds

Keynsham Wedding II Triples (32 changes)

Notes:

• Bells 3, 4 and 6 are never called to Lead.

Abel notation

644p533pp    # Whittington's
1111p222p2pp # King's
777p355pp    # Queen's
7p34373pp    # Tittums
75pp         # Hagdyke
6655         # Rounds

Sixty On Thirds Doubles (66 changes)

The six-bell competition peal defined by the Devon Association of Ringers, which I include here for reference. Traditionally called every handstroke in competitions, I normally aimed for every second handstroke (i.e. each row rung four times) but I was always happy to pause my conducting if one of the band – myself included! – needed some extra time to think about their next step. Note that Thirds is an old name for Queen's, and the Sixty changes are those called between the opening and closing Queen's (hence there being 66 changes overall, as three changes are needed at the beginning and end to move between Rounds and Queen's).

Rather than memorising the calls, this peal has a set of rules to follow, using the Treble (bell 1) as a "Hunt bell" and bells 2, 3, 4 & 5 as "Half-Hunt bells":

1. Call the bells into Queen's (135246). This puts the Half-Hunt bells into the order 3-5-2-4.
2. "Hunt" the Treble up to fifth's place, calling it up one place at a time.
3. Call the first Half-Hunt bell (3) up one place.
4. Hunt the Treble down to Lead.
5. Call bell 3 up one place.
6. Hunt the Treble up to fifth's place.
7. Call bell 3 up one place. It's now behind the other three Half-Hunt bells.
8. Continue hunting the Treble up and down. Whenever it's either leading or in fifth's place, call each Half-Hunt bell in turn up behind the others, one place at a time.
9. The bells return to Queen's when bell 4 is finally called behind the other three Half-Hunt bells.
10. Call the bells back into Rounds.

For a shorter piece of ringing 34 changes long, from Rounds, swap bells 3 & 4 into Bow Bells (124356) and continue from there, starting by hunting the Treble up to fifth's place and then calling bell 2 up one place. The second half of the full composition is more musical than the first half, so this more commonly done than starting from the beginning and then calling the bells from Bow Bells straight back into Rounds.

Notes:

• When ringing only the second half (from Bow Bells to the end), bell 5 is never called to Lead.
• When ringing only the first half (from the beginning to Bow Bells), bell 4 is never called to Lead.

Abel notation

422                            # Queen's
111134235311113342551111535425 # Bow Bells
111125324211112253441111424534 # Queen's
553                            # Rounds

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