May 2017

During my final university exams in May 2017, I was hit by a wave of ideas for new Treble Dodging Major methods and how to devise suitable compositions for them. It wasn't easy to keep focussed on my studies! Perhaps this spontaneous surge of creativity was a form of therapy, to ease the pressures of exams off the mind. I have always looked back fondly at that time - only three months before my student friends and I had to leave our house in West Acton, where all the methods were devised - and refer collecively to the group of methods as "May 17."

There were five methods in total. So far, two of these have been rung and named. A description of these follows - in the order that they were devised - but the three unrung methods will have to be left out until they have been officially named.

Downderry Beach Delight Major

Downderry Beach originated from a very simple incident. I have always found the start for Glasgow Surprise Major slightly disappointing: 36x56. The 36 start is good and rhythmical, but the consecutive 56 place two changes later spoils this (though the logic of it is clear, as it helps to put the bells above the treble back into a Plain Bob coursing order.)

While thinking about this in May 2017 I decided that the start 36x58 would be much better rhythmically. You also get some lovely opening changes in the plain course. I soon realised that a super method can be grown from this start.

Being a huge fan of Superlative Surprise Major, I often spot in other methods the occurrences of 4-bell snap combinations that are characteristic of Superlative. For example, Glasgow Surprise and Downderry Beach both start like this:

21354687

12536478

The 6478 at the back of the change is the same combination of bells that appears in Superlative. In Glasgow you only get the one 6478, due to the 56 place notation a moment later. But with the Downderry Beach start you return to another 6478, like this:

21354687

12536478

21356748

23157684

32516748

23156478

This means that - just like in Superlative - you have two of these combinations near each other.

But there's more. I realised that, continuing from this point, the same Superlative 4-bell combinations could also be had off the front of the change when the treble moves up to 5-6:

32514687

35241867

53428176

35421867

53248176

35428716

53247861

The 3542 is the equivalent of the 6478 from another lead of the plain course (so the 3542s will be replaced by 6478s in another lead.) This means that - just like in Superlative - the combinations of 4-bells that you get off the back of the change, you also get off the front. And the thing that makes these Superlative 4-bell combinations so special is that their reversals automatically occur in the same place, in another half lead. So in another half lead of the plain course, the 6478s are replaced by 8746s, and the 3542s by 2453s - all of these occur at the back and front of the change. These very special combinations of 4-bells can be found in many methods, if you spot them. Avon Delight Maximus is another method, and they have been used to good effect there.

The useful function of these 4-bell combinations is that they can be used to efficiently produce roll-ups in compositions, and that roll-up will occur off the back and front of the change, in addition to its reversal, all in the same course. This is a well known technique for compositions of Superlative, and I was delighted to find another method with the same property - still unnamed at the time.

To crown it all, I found that by using place notation 36 - again, just like in Superlative - you could get regular half leads (albeit, at the opposite stroke to Superlative, which is a great change and makes for even more interest):

53247861

35274816

53728461

35274861 Half lead

And that was how Downderry Beach was devised. Where did the name come from? The plain course of the method is beautiful to listen to - producing some stunning changes in a rhythmical and satisfying way. Because of this, I decided to the name the method after one of my spiritual homes - a place that I have known all my life and which conjurs up wonderful childhood memories.

Composition

The method has a 18 lead end. This produces some stunning changes just before the bells come round. You get two lots of 7568s and 7658s intertwined with each other off the back, a then Rounds seems to appear from nowhere. Before the course end 14235678, you get the change 12347568 only three changes earlier - magic! Consequently, the final lead of each course if always a joy to listen to with this great build up to the course end. In the courses starting 1xxx6478, you get 7468s off the back just before the course end - an opportunity not to be missed in compositions.

Being so similar to Superlative, the courses that are suitable for that method are a good guide for compositions of Downderry Beach. The methods have similar falseness, though Downderry Beach has BE falseness, where Superlative only has E falseness, making the latter slightly more versatile.

The courses in which bells 5,6 course on either side of the tenors are the ones that have 5678s off the back and front (these are the courses starting from 1xx6x578 and 1x5x6x78.) As is the case with Superlative, it is not easy to get to these courses from the plain course while avoiding the E falseness. But when 6ths place bobs are used, Downderry Beach has a completely clean lead when the tenor is 5ths place bell, and my own compositions make use of this to get round the falseness.

On 22nd May 2017 I composed the first peal in the method, and this was used for the naming peal. The composition uses many courses in which roll-ups occur at the snap, the advantages of these being described above. However, though courses of little-bell roll ups are fashionable at the moment, they are certainly not the best as they usually lack the substance of the bigger bells working together. This was why I decided to include three courses of 1xxx4578 in this peal, rather than three courses of 6278s, even though the latter have more little-bell roll ups. As a number of courses get crammed full of roll-ups, there are quite a number of other courses with no roll-ups at all. But this doesn't prevent the band from still enjoying the way that the changes are produced. There are calls at V,I at the start and end of the peal to get in and out of the 5678s off the front courses, avoiding the E falseness. My other reason for using 6ths place bobs is so that the 7-lead courses remain in tact, as these hold together the rhythm.

As is often the case in Superlative, there was no need to split the tenors here as they already get to ring in all sorts of interesting combinations in their plain course position. Indeed, one of the factors that makes Downderry Beach so enjoyable is the distinctive and dynamic rhythm created by the tenors - it produces an amazing effect. A particularly enjoyable part of the course is when the two tenors are dodging together at the front, but the other way round to most methods, meaning that the 87s are at Handstroke. This adds to the pacey and exciting tempo.

I have since come up with other peal compositions in the method, some employing more substance-based courses than those with lots of roll-ups in them. I'm very glad to have discovered Downderry Beach Delight Major and hope that other bands will enjoy ringing it, despite its challenges.

Telos Surprise Major

Being a Superlative fan, I wondered how far you could work back from a regular half lead to a regular lead end while still keeping the method as Superlative - but with the regular half lead at the opposite stroke to normal. So instead of 23456781 appearing at Handstroke - as in Superlative - 23456781 would appear at Backstroke. By working backwards from this half lead I came up with Telos Surprise Major (Place Notation: x38x14x56x1238x14x58x36x78, lh12a).

I named it Telos, which is the Greek word for 'purpose,' or 'end point,' and is the root of the word 'teleology,' which means that something has been purposefully designed. Telos S Major had indeed been purposefully designed, as opposed to being thought up by chance, so the name seemed appropriate.

The falseness is easy and rather nice to work with. The 'E' falseness occurs when the tenors are at the back, and the 'B' falseness occurs in the leads when the tenors are on the front. This is a very accommodating situation, and makes it possible to be versatile - these two different parts of the method are almost like two separate methods from the perspective of falseness.

Telos is a good, rhthmical method. The strong resemblance to Superlative, the Cambridge start, and the good lead end order all contribute to the method's quality. Having the Superlative half leads at the opposite stroke to normal makes for a great change, rather like in Downderry Beach Delight Major.

But soon after devising Telos I realized that it had another great source of compositional potential - hat tricks. By calling two or more bobs in a row, the same pair of bells dodge together on the front for successive half leads. This means that 4-bell combinations can occur off the front of the change three leads in a row. It is well-known that if you call a bob in Superlative, you will get some of the same 4-bell combinations that you got before calling the bob. This is what makes the hat tricks possible in Telos, due to its structure being based on Superlative. But the lead end order in Telos means that the calls can be manipulated to concentrate the roll-ups in this way and produce the hat tricks.

And - rather neatly - due to the led end order and the Cambridge start, you also get hat tricks off the back of the change! But for these you need to have consecutive plain leads, rather than calls. We named Telos on 23rd February 2018, on the light eight at St Leonard's, Shoreditch, which is a very suitable ring for this kind of method. The method certainly lived up to my expectations. The composition focusses on attaining hat tricks, though not obsessively as that would produce a rather forced result. There are also some rather nice course ends - and the bits around them - such as 13265478, and some consecutive courses of 6478s in the final part.