Call Change Ringing
Most ringers begin their ringing career with call change ringing; they can thus concentrate on learning the physical skills needed to handle their bells without needing to worry about methods. There are also many towers where experienced ringers practise call change ringing as an art in its own right (and even exclusively), particularly in the English county of Devon.
Calls are made with spoken commands such as "X to Y" or "X and Y" or "X after Y", in which X and Y refer to two of the bells by their numbers (not by their positions in the row); such a call signifies that after the call a pair of bells will have swapped, resulting in X following Y. However, there are several different ways of representing any given change. By far the most common two are known as "calling up" and "calling down"; each has its merits and inconveniences, but generally any given tower will consistently use one system in preference to the other.
As an example, consider the following sequence of rows, and the calls a conductor would use to evoke them:
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Row Conductor's intent Call, if calling Up Call, if calling Down 1,2,3,4,5,6 to swap bells 2 and 3 "2 to 3" "3 to Treble" 1,3,2,4,5,6 to swap bells 4 and 5 "4 to 5" "5 to 2" 1,3,2,5,4,6 to swap bells 2 and 5 "2 to 5" "5 to 3" 1,3,5,2,4,6 to swap bells 1 and 3 "1 to 3" "3 to lead" 3,1,5,2,4,6
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Thus it can be seen how these two ways of calling differ:
- In calling up, the two bells named are already neighbours in the row, with the second-named previously following the first-named. As a result of the call, these two bells swap position; thereafter the first-named bell follows its erstwhile successor (having moved one spot 'upwards' (backward) to a position nearer the end of the change); the second-named has meanwhile moved 'downwards' (forward) to a position nearer the start of the change. In short, the call literally consists of an instruction that the first-named bell move up (i.e. back away from the lead).
- In calling down, by contrast, the first-named bell is instructed to move down (i.e. forwards, towards the lead). The second bell named, the one which the first-named bell is to follow, does not alter its place in the row: it still immediately precedes the swapping pair. The bell which swaps with the one moving down towards lead, on the other hand, is not itself named; its ringer must simply realize that his or her bell must move up to accommodate the first-named bell.
In both cases, the ringer of the bell immediately above (behind) the swapping pair must also be alert, as this bell will be following a new bell after the swap. Rarer forms of call- change calling may: name just one of the moving bells, call the moving bell by position rather than number, or call out the full change.
Read more about this topic: Doubles (bells), Permuting The Bells
Famous quotes containing the words call, change and/or ringing:
“There is a call to life a little sterner,
And braver for the earner, learner, yearner.
Less criticism of the field and court
And more preoccupation with the sport.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“[T]here is no Part of the World where Servants have those Privileges and Advantages as in England: They have no where else such plentiful Diet, large Wages, or indulgent Liberty: There is no place wherein they labour less, and yet where they are so little respectful, more wasteful, more negligent, or where they so frequently change their Masters.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“Love is the hardest thing in the world to write about. So simple. You’ve got to catch it through details, like the early morning sunlight hitting the gray tin of the rain spout in front of her house. The ringing of a telephone that sounds like Beethoven’s “Pastoral.” A letter scribbled on her office stationery that you carry around in your pocket because it smells of all the lilacs in Ohio.”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)