handbells?

Anybody know anything about handbells? Has a JI handbell ensemble
ever been attempted? Can these things be retuned with clip-on or
magnetic weights?

(Just came back from a concert by the Sonos Handbell Ensemble.)

-Carl

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_45475.html#45475

> Anybody know anything about handbells? Has a JI handbell ensemble
> ever been attempted? Can these things be retuned with clip-on or
> magnetic weights?
>
> (Just came back from a concert by the Sonos Handbell Ensemble.)
>
> -Carl

***The co-director of our composers group, Patrick Hardish, is very
knowledgeable about "change ringing," the English practice of ringing
hand bells. I've never heard him talk, though, about the *tuning* of
them. Most of the emphasis is in the extremely complex rhythmic
cycles that take place during the change ringing enterprise...

J. Pehrson

>***The co-director of our composers group, Patrick Hardish, is very
>knowledgeable about "change ringing," the English practice of ringing
>hand bells. I've never heard him talk, though, about the *tuning* of
>them. Most of the emphasis is in the extremely complex rhythmic
>cycles that take place during the change ringing enterprise...

Yes, I'm not so interested in change ringing, though it is cool.

Hey, I thought change ringing was mainly steeple bells, not handbells.
?

-C.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, Carl Lumma <ekin@l...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_45475.html#45483

> >***The co-director of our composers group, Patrick Hardish, is
very
> >knowledgeable about "change ringing," the English practice of
ringing
> >hand bells. I've never heard him talk, though, about the *tuning*
of
> >them. Most of the emphasis is in the extremely complex rhythmic
> >cycles that take place during the change ringing enterprise...
>
> Yes, I'm not so interested in change ringing, though it is cool.
>
> Hey, I thought change ringing was mainly steeple bells, not
handbells.
> ?
>

***My understanding is this practice is performed with a group of
people ringing bells with their hands. I'll ask about it, though.

JP

> -C.

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_45475.html#45484

>> ***My understanding is this practice is performed with a group of
> people ringing bells with their hands. I'll ask about it, though.
>
> JP
>

***Hi Carl,

Already the Internet has an answer. It appears that, although the
practice *started* with steeple bells, hand bell ringing is *also*
called "change ringing..." and the ringers like to think that it is
equally sophisticated (steeple bells being at a "premium"... :)

http://www.nagcr.org/pamphlet.html

JP

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_45475.html#45485

>
> ***Hi Carl,
>
> Already the Internet has an answer. It appears that, although the
> practice *started* with steeple bells, hand bell ringing is *also*
> called "change ringing..." and the ringers like to think that it is
> equally sophisticated (steeple bells being at a "premium"... :)
>
> http://www.nagcr.org/pamphlet.html
>
> JP

***I guess the handbells or steeple bells would be tuned to meantone
or 12-equal, or as close as bells can get to meantone or 12-equal (??)

[We had that bell discussion on this list not too long ago, as I
recall...]

J. Pehrson

>***I guess the handbells or steeple bells would be tuned to
>meantone or 12-equal, or as close as bells can get to meantone
>or 12-equal (??)
>
>[We had that bell discussion on this list not too long ago,
>as I recall...]

The handbells I heard had totally solid fundamentals, and
were apparently in perfect 12-equal. I don't believe any
spectral adjustments were made to the tuning, other than perhaps
moderate octave stretch.

The bells I heard were made by these folks...

http://www.malmark.com/

...which is coincidentally only miles from where I was raised
in nowhere, Pennsylvania (there's another bell company nearby
too... http://www.elderhorstbells.com/ ). Off hand, I don't
see much tuning info at their site.

-Carl

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...> wrote:

> ***The co-director of our composers group, Patrick Hardish, is very
> knowledgeable about "change ringing," the English practice of
ringing
> hand bells. I've never heard him talk, though, about the *tuning*
of
> them. Most of the emphasis is in the extremely complex rhythmic
> cycles that take place during the change ringing enterprise...

Rythmic? Change ringing involves a traversal of permutations of the
bells, but I hadn't heard anything happened with rythms. Do you mean
this literally?

Gene Ward Smith wrote:

> Rythmic? Change ringing involves a traversal of permutations of the > bells, but I hadn't heard anything happened with rythms. Do you mean > this literally?

If you wander through Clevedon on a Sunday morning you'll hear some really freaky rhythms. Whether they do it deliberately I can't say. I not, handbells will be more disciplined as there's less latency.

Graham

--- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Gene Ward Smith" <gwsmith@s...> wrote:

/tuning/topicId_45475.html#45497

> --- In tuning@yahoogroups.com, "Joseph Pehrson" <jpehrson@r...>
wrote:
>
> > ***The co-director of our composers group, Patrick Hardish, is
very
> > knowledgeable about "change ringing," the English practice of
> ringing
> > hand bells. I've never heard him talk, though, about the
*tuning*
> of
> > them. Most of the emphasis is in the extremely complex rhythmic
> > cycles that take place during the change ringing enterprise...
>
> Rythmic? Change ringing involves a traversal of permutations of the
> bells, but I hadn't heard anything happened with rythms. Do you
mean
> this literally?

***Hi Gene,

I was only meaning the complex permutations, so that was unclear.

J. Pehrson