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I recently joined a newly formed bell ringers group - The Brooklyn Bell Ringers. My neighbor rings the carillon at Trinity Church in lower manhattan - and bought a set of 8 hand bells from England. We are still getting the rudiments down and are a long way from performing - but this is an idea of the kind of thing we are starting with. I played this on the keyboard using glockenspiel voice - this is not a recording of our bells. Not yet.
Plain hunt is a ringing cycle as illustrated in the image above. The eight bells are an octave with 1 the highest and 8 the lowest pitch. When hunting - each pitch shifts it's place in the cycle in such a way as to visually represent weaving or braiding. There is no implicit melody - and it is a very strict counting discipline to enter on time and in turn. We are working in the tradition established in 17th Century England.
In this piece I go half way through the cycle (with odd numbers counting up and even numbers counting down) and then introduce the same cycle an octave lower against the higher cycle reversing it's count on the way to resolution. This is not strictly Kosher - I just did it for fun.
Last rehearsal we each played one bell at a time. Tonight we will graduate to playing two bells each. Should be a snap. This is ridiculously challenging and arcane and I love it. One of these days there will be an actual recording. Meanwhile you can find some on youtube.
Here's one: http://youtu.be/oAIrnRa15fI
Plain hunt is a ringing cycle as illustrated in the image above. The eight bells are an octave with 1 the highest and 8 the lowest pitch. When hunting - each pitch shifts it's place in the cycle in such a way as to visually represent weaving or braiding. There is no implicit melody - and it is a very strict counting discipline to enter on time and in turn. We are working in the tradition established in 17th Century England.
In this piece I go half way through the cycle (with odd numbers counting up and even numbers counting down) and then introduce the same cycle an octave lower against the higher cycle reversing it's count on the way to resolution. This is not strictly Kosher - I just did it for fun.
Last rehearsal we each played one bell at a time. Tonight we will graduate to playing two bells each. Should be a snap. This is ridiculously challenging and arcane and I love it. One of these days there will be an actual recording. Meanwhile you can find some on youtube.
Here's one: http://youtu.be/oAIrnRa15fI
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Symphony101
:-)