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Double Norwich Court Bob Major

I think Double Norwich is a wonderful method - far better than Bristol Major. The method produces the changes in a particularly pretty and aesthetic way. The fact that the half leads and lead ends have place notation 18 is enough to sustain the dodges at the front and back, while still breaking them up before they become too monotonous (in contrast to Double Oxford Major.)

Luckily, sixths place bobs and singles remain the default calls used in peals and quarters of Double Norwich. As these do not affect the back bells (except to split the tenors, or to bring up a course end prematurely) they allow the full seven-lead course structure of the method to be rung over and over again, undisturbed - for me an extremely important effect. 4ths place calls completely shatter this discipline in Double Norwich, causing the bells to be sloshed around from one part of the course to the other, and spoiling the rhythm of the method - no thanks. I also prefer to use split-tenor courses sparingly in the method. Generally they just don't work, unless carefully chosen - they can be an effective way of linking two pretty sounding tenor-together blocks.

Many people agree that the plain course of Double Norwich is exceptionally pleasant to listen to. Though Double Norwich is a very different method to Bob Major, I still find that most of the courses which sound nice to Bob Major are also the courses most suited to Double Norwich. This is because both methods have the feature of the coursing order being clearly and easily displayed throughout the lead. Because of this, I find that courses packed full of "runs" are generally inappropriate and not suitable for Double Norwich. These courses generally are not pleasant to listen to, except for the moment of the actual run itself. For Double Norwich, as with Bob Major, you need something else - substance, with the medium bells working closely with the two tenors. That's why the CRU compositions of Bob Major and Double Norwich are generally far better than what is being composed today (though these CRU compositions can be quite monotonous when they use lots of blocks of 3 or more - better to include more calls, I find.) 

In 2013 I composed many peals of Double Norwich, attempting to incorporate pretty courses based on the position of bells 4,6,7,8. Most of these compositions are formed episodically, with one episode of bells 4,6,7,8 in a particular position while bells 2,3,5 are made to rotate, and then another epsiode based on the same principal, and so on. One of my favourite compositions on this plan can be found here. Another interesting composition is a six-part with bells 4,6,7,8 in their home positions at the part ends, but the six parts are not all called the same. The in-course half is called differently to the out-of-course half. After ringing this, I found that the in-course half was slightly disappointing, and that the out-of-course half was nicer.

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