In 1926 a new peal composition of Grandsire Triples by A. J. Pitman was rung at Overseal, Derbyshire. The composition (click here to view) was specially designed by Pitman so that all of the changes ending in 678, 468 and 748 would occur at backstroke. In Triples, these combinations are considered particularly pretty to listen to and the requirement that they occurred at backstroke ws quite fashionable at the time. Pitman's composition was a technical achievement as well as an aesthetic one. To get all 360 of those combinations to strike at backstroke is no mean feat for the composer. Or, indeed, the conductor. For this feature to work, there must always be calls when bells 4, 6 and 7 are taken by the Treble, so there are already going to be a lot of calls.

 

I have had the pleasure of ringing this composition twice, and can safely say that it was the prettiest peal composition of Grandsire Triples I have ever heard. It wasn't just the case that the 678s, 468s and 748s seemed to occur at the correct stroke - but every other combination of bells somehow also seemed to occur at the correct stroke. For example, all of the 7658s also occur at backstroke in the composition, as do all of the 4758s.

 

It is interesting that Pitman settled on this particular part plan, which is, rather unusually, 'half a twelve-part.' By that I mean that bells 4, 6 and 7 do a three part rotation, and then 2 and 3 swap over halfway through and the whole is repeated. This is unusual for a six-part. (For a 'full' 12-part group, 6 and 7 would then swap over and that whole would be repeated.) The reason for this is that Pitman quite likely tried other part plans first that didn't work.

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The most obvious plan, for example, would be a six-part in which bells 4, 6 and 7 are fixed in their home positions at the part ends, with 2, 3 and 5 rotating. I tried to come up with such a composition myself, but couldn't find one with all of the 678s, 468s and 748s at backstroke (I did however, some time later, come up with a composition on this plan which gets very close. All of the 748s occur at backstroke, and most of the 468s and 678s do to. Most of the 7468s actually occur at handstroke, which always sounds nice, and every part has this lovely sequence of lead ends from 6478s to 7468s: xxx467, 74x6xx, 764xxx, xx7x64. The composition is also very palindromic. We rang it at Acton in the summer of 2017, and I was really pleased with how it sounded. Click here for the figures.)

 

Another part plan that I tried for this was a 'bicycle three-part,' where bells 2, 3, 5 and bells 4, 6, 7 are rotating independently as two separate groups. Possible part ends for this are Queens, Tittums, and Rounds. This part plan has been used for a number of Grandsire Triples peal compositions by various authors, but I was unable to come up with one which had all of the 678s, 468s and 748s at backstroke.

 

I also tried to come up with an exact two-part, with bells 2 and 3 swapped over halfway through, but once again I failed.

 

Pitman's six-part, then, is a testament to a man who truly knew what he was doing, and this beautiful coposition deserves a wider public.