The Music of Change Ringing
Belfries, pubs; sallies, stays; full peals, touches; Grandshire Major, Treble Bob Minor—this is the world of the English bell ringer. Often following in the footsteps of parents and grandparents, young ringers start at age thirteen or fourteen to learn the proper technique of bell ringing. When they become proficient, most go on to learn the fascinating art of change ringing.
Change ringing developed in England in the mid-1600s and is one of the most challenging and intricate forms of bell music in which sets of bells are rung in prescribed sequences with different bells changing place in each sequence. With many bells, these sequences can take hours—or even days—to ring, and notable rings are commemorated in plaques in the ringing chambers. Although the dominant form of bell music in England, change ringing can be found in other countries, such as Canada, Australia, and the United States.
A vivid description of change ringing can be found in Dorothy Sayres’s mystery novel The Nine Taylors in which a murder takes place during a peal of a Kent Treble Bob Major, which is 15,840 sequences on eight bells. Although the book is fiction, the description of the processes and culture of change ringing are wonderfully accurate.