The Standard 41 Surprise Minor

Of the many thousands of Surprise Minor methods, there is a special subset of 41 that are considered the standard Surprise Minor methods (or "from the book" methods). To be included in this subset, there are certain criterion of subjective quality that the methods have to meet. These are:

 

• Plain Bob lead ends ("regular lead ends")

• Standard symmetry

• No bell makes more than two consecutive blows in one place

• Places are never made in 5-6, except at the half lead (methods that don't pass this rule inevitably have backstroke 6,5s somewhere in a 720, and the places also produce an unusual rhythm in other leads)

• Place notations cannot produce in-course falseness (and thereby render the method useless for producing a true 720)

• Single-changes are not permitted (place notation 1236 when the treble crosses from 3-4 to 5-6 and back, as this arguably affects the rhythm)

 

Methods that fit the criteria include Cambridge, Norwich, London, Carlisle and Westminster. Methods that do not fit the criteria but can be useful in other contexts include King Edward (irregular lead ends), Superlative (places in 5-6), Flamstead and Freyerning (both with place notation 1236.) A full list of the standard 41 can be found here, though it somehow looks like far fewer methods!

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When considering Delight and Treble Bob methods that pass the test, this makes a total of 147 "from the book" Treble Dodging Minor methods. As stated, these criterion of quality are subjective, and to my mind there are a number of excellent methods not "from the book" which are more musical and enjoyable than those which are. More of this elsewhere.

 

The 41 standard methods are the staple diet for peals of Surprise Minor, in single method peals, 7-method peals of one method per extent, and peals of Spliced in numbers from 14 right up to all 41. Interestingly, though, compositional advances in this field are only very recent. Until 2012 you had to ring a 7200 if you wanted to ring an all-the-work peal in the spliced 41, due to the technical difficulties of splicing some of the methods together. Then in August of that year, John S Warboys published a ground breaking and exciting all-the-work 5760, which was rung at Brimingham Cathedral. The composition - SU0801 - can be found here on CompLib, and also on John's website with a number of similar compositions. The composition is a 5-part, achieving all-the-work by ensuring that every bell rings a different place bell for each method in each part, just as Norman Smith's 7-part of 23 Spliced S Major had done in 1966.

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An important rquirement for a genuine all-the-work composition is that plain leads are rung in all of the 2nds/6ths place variant methods. For example, there must be plain leads of Primrose, as a bobbed lead of Cambridge and Primrose is the same, and you could "cheat" by saying that the Primrose is included by bobbed leads. So apparently a big challenge of composing this was incorporating all of the methods identifiably. Some methods - such as Warkworth, Westminster and London - do not have 2nds/6ths place variants, so incorporating just bobbed or singled leads in these methods is acceptable.

 

Another special feature of SU0801 is that there is a change of method backwork and frontwork every lead. Though quite a challenge to ring, this feature gives the composition the fullest integrity of being a spliced peal and not "laminated." It seems unlikely that an all-the-work 5040 is possible, 39 methods currently being the limit for that shorter length.

 

Soon after John's new creation was rung, a letter by John Fielden titled "Brilliant Composition" was published in the Ringing World (2012, p970) and is reproduced here:

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SIR, – John Warboys’ new composition of Spliced S Minor with all the work of the 41 ‘from the book’ Surprise methods in a round block of 8 extents is worthy of the highest possible acclaim. It was first rung at Birmingham Cathedral on Tuesday, 28th August conducted by John. The composition is especially of note because it is the first all the work peal of the 41 ‘from the book’ Surprise Minor to be constructed on the (n-1) plan and the first peal on this plan which is not derived from multiple true extents.Way back in 1966, when Norman Smith produced, and we rang, his ground breaking 7-part 23 atw Spliced Surprise Major followed by 14 atw Royal and then 10 atw Maximus, which I had produced, I looked at the possibility of 5-part peals of Spliced S Minor on a similar plan. My knowledge of spliced Minor construction at the time (and now!) was limited to lead and course splices and the possibility of putting 6 methods into a 720 (at the time, multiple extent round blocks were little used) seemed utterly unachievable. I quickly decided the concept was a non-starter for Minor but now, at last, John has proved me wrong and achieved the impossible. Full marks to him! John’s understanding of Spliced Minor and his dedication to overcoming the challenges of producing his many excellent compositions, is arguably unparalleled, built up by grappling with how all the 41 traditional Surprise Minor methods could be squeezed into true round blocks with each row rung the same number of times. This new composition not only does all that but now, due to its equal 5-part construction, has all the work of each of the 41 methods in the equivalent of only 8 extents and with a change of back work and front work every lead. Note that there are 239 changes of method in the peal and as an aside, it seems to me that this information should be stated in all peals of Spliced Minor; it always is on higher numbers. This composition is a truly first class piece of work and deserves to rank alongside Norman Smith’s 23 atw Spliced S Major as a genuine classic.Thankfully, through his website, John has given us the background to the composition and for anyone vaguely interested in the history, development and technicalities of compositions it is well worth a look, http://website.lineone.net/~jswcomps/. The amount of effort and original thought required is clearly phenomenal and as ever, there are variants of the basic composition; two other arrangements of the 41 method atw 5-part, and three atw 5 parts with 39 (of the 41) methods in 5040 changes, which no doubt will become classics themselves. On the other hand most peals of Minor are relatively quick, so in not much over 3 hours you can ring all 41 methods atw in 5760 changes! Quite a challenge! Well done, John!

JOHN FIELDEN

Birmingham, West Midlands

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In 2018 Ander Holroyd published an altogether different composition of equal merit and celebration. Another all-the-work 5760 based on 5-part structure, this is the opposite to SU0801 in that all of the four types of overwork are grouped into four sections, meaning that you only have three changes of overwork in the entire peal! These are rung in the order Carlisle-above, London-above, Norwich-above and Cambridge-above. In Ander's words, this is the 41 spliced atw made easy. His masterpiece can be found here, along with a brief explanation in his own words. This reveals that Ander discovered some new types of splices not previously known to John. I expect you could ring the 5760 as an exact 5-part, though this would defeat the purpose of the composition.