CALL CHANGES

Call changes can seem somewhat tedious to spliced surprise maximus ringers and yet they can be made more interesting by observing the following facts. It also turns out that in many cases where these facts are evident the call changes are particularly musical. Much of what follows also applies to methods but since methods are fixed structures it is less easy to spot or manipulate the following features.

Call changes can be seen as and are usually called as random calls made up by the conductor as he goes along. Along the way the conductor will “visit” the usual Queens, Tittums, Whittington's etc. and any other local favourite. What is not often noticed is that some journeys through call change land can be made highly ordered. This has two effects: the music varies in a structured way (which may fall on deaf ears in some cases) and the calling can be made easier by observing the patterns.

In the early days of ringing and still to this day in Devon the idea of “call change peals” was based on systematic callings. Any calling can be seen as systematic in some way but there are one or two that lend themselves to mixing the bells in some of the most musical ways. Similarly some of them are horrible.

Triangles

One way to view call changes is by way of triangles. To call a triangle you swap the bells in 2-3 then those in 4-5... When you have gone as far as possible with this you swap those in 3-4, 5-6... Next you swap those in 4-5... until you start with the central pair. The following diagram gives the idea:

In each case the triangle of calls produces Queens, and will do so on any number of bells. This way of thinking about is discussed in the article on call changes and so is not taken further here. What is interesting from the point of view of this article is the symmetry. Symmetry has two beneficial side effects. The first is the apparent fact that symmetrical changes are often more musical than asymmetrical ones and the second is the useful property that symmetry helps with the calling.

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Updated 15^th December, 2006