So, we have looked (first here and then here) at the main sections of a plain course of Cambridge Surprise Minor. Now we have to stitch those bits together. This is how it works. We will consider bell 2, which starts in the middle of the front work, as if it had just made 2nd place over the treble. We continue with:
The tricky bits here are remembering the extra dodges at the front and back, and the order in which they come.
We can now do two things. We can trace out the entire plain course of a single bell. Or we can write out a single lead end for all six bells. In fact these are equivalent things, as we shall see in a moment, and the single lead end is a more compact format.
This is what the lead looks like:
123456
214365
124635
216453
261435
624153
621435
264153
624513
265431
256413
524631
256431
524613
542631
456213
546123
451632
456123
541632
514623
156432
516342
153624
156342
At the end of each lead what we have done is to change the order of the bells, and they then do the work that the bell in that place did in the just-finished lead. For example, if we trace bell 2 through a single lead, then it will end up in 6th place, and that means that what it does next is whatever bell 6 did in that lead end. It has become the 6ths place bell. So we can continue tracing the path of this bell by following the 6 through the lead end. We can do the same for each place bell, noting where it starts, and which place bell it becomes:
2, or rather seconds place bell: second half of frontwork, dodge ‘two and one’ at the back; become sixths place bell
sixths place bell: down to front, lead and dodge; places up; become thirds place bell
thirds place bell: straight up to the back and do back work, dodge 3–4 down; become fourths place bell
fourths place bell: make 3rds place at start of places down; dodge and lead; up to back and dodge 5–6 up (start of ‘one and two’); become fifths place bell
fifths place bell: two blows behind and double dodge 5–6 down (end of ‘one and two’); down to lead and begin frontwork; make 2nds over the treble to become the seconds place bell
One other point is perhaps worth noting. In Kent Treble Bob, we always dodged and made places with the same bell in each dodging position (except when the treble was there) — in Kent when you are making 3rds and 4ths up (Kent places) another bell is making 3rd and 4ths down at the same time. But in Cambridge Surprise, the dodges and places are made with a different bell each time — and only one bell is making (Cambridge) places at any one time. It’s a much more complicated dance, all together.
0 CommentsIn learning the blue line for Cambridge Surprise Minor we have looked first at what happens when you make ‘Cambridge places’. Next we will look at the back work and the front work. (The warning given before still applies: if you are reading this and trying to learn Cambridge, then don’t assume that the instructions here are right. I am doing this from memory as part of my own learning process.)
The back work in Cambridge is like this:
double dodge 5–6 up, lie behind, dodge 5–6 down with the treble, make 5th place (below the treble), dodge 5–6 up with the treble, lie behind, double dodge 5–6 down.
And we can draw this in diagrammatic form, like this:
-1-x–
1—x- double dodge 5–6 up
-1—x
–1-x-
—1-x
–1-x-
—1-x two blows at the back
—-1x and dodge 5–6 down with the treble
—-x1
—-1x
—-x1 make 5th place below the treble
—-x1
—-1x and dodge 5–6 up with the treble
—-x1
—-1x two blows at the back
—1-x
–1-x- and double dodge 5–6 down
—1-x
–1-x-
-1—x
1—x-
-1-x– and continue
Next, we come to the front work, which is something like this:
dodge 1–2 down, lead full, dodge 1–2 up, make 2nd place, lead full, dodge 1–2 up with the treble, make 2nd place over the treble, dodge 1–2 down with the treble, lead full, make 2nd place, dodge 1–2 down, lead full, dodge 1–2 up, and continue.
Got that? Perhaps a diagram will help:
–x–1
-x–1- start with a dodge 1–2 down
x—-1
-x—1
x—1- lead
x—-1
-x–1- and dodge 1–2 up
x–1–
-x1— make 2nd place
-x-1–
x-1— lead again
x1—-
1x—- dodge 1–2 up with the treble
x1—-
1x—- make 2nd place over the treble
1x—-
x1—- dodge 1–2 down with the treble
1x—-
x1—- and lead agan
x-1—
-x-1– make 2nd place again
-x1—
x–1– dodge 1–2 down
-x–1-
x—-1 lead
x—1-
-x—1 dodge 1–2 up
x—-1
-x–1-
–x–1 and onward
Now we have each of the components of Cambridge Surprise Minor. We just have to put them together, along with a few more dodges and some plain hunting.
0 CommentsI went yesterday to practice at Hemingford Grey. Although the tower captain there is away on an extended holiday, this is still a weekly gathering of more experienced ringers. At the end of the practice I was asked, ‘What method are you learning at the moment?’ Hmm, I thought, ‘Nothing really, busy running practices and teaching some beginners.’ Back came the suggestion ‘You could start having a look at Cambridge.’
So, I had a quick look at Cambridge Surprise Minor in Steve Coleman to see what is involved. I also glanced at Cambridge Surprise major, and quickly decided that I’d concentrate on Minor for now. If the Hemingford captain were around he’d probably throw me into the deep end with Major (as he threw me into Stedman Triples and Kent Treble Bob Major without first trying Doubles and Minor).
Anyway, after reading what Coleman has to say on the subject, the next step is to commit this to memory, and part of that process is to regurgitate it here. (Warning: if you are reading this and trying to learn Cambridge, then don’t assume that the instructions here are right. I am doing this from memory as part of my own learning process.)
We can divide a plain course of Cambridge into several pieces of work: the front work, the back work, and the places, which combined with a couple of other dodges, and some pieces of plain hunt, make up the method.
Coleman calls the places the most difficult bit, but they looked fairly easy to remember to me (though perhaps not so easy to remember when ringing, of course). Places are made in 3–4 up and in 3–4 down. Cambridge places in 3–4 up work as follows:
dodge 3–4 up, make 4ths place, make 3rds place, dodge 3–4 up, make 4ths place, make 3rds place, dodge 3–4 up
That’s it. Cambridge places down are the exact opposite of this:
dodge 3–4 down, make 3rds place, make 4ths place, dodge 3–4 down, make 3rds place, make 4ths place, dodge 3–4 down
If I remember correctly, then the dodge in the middle of the places work is made with the treble.
So, we can build a skeleton diagram of this, showing the treble and the bell making places.
First, Cambridge places up:
-x—1
–x-1- dodge 3–4 up
—x-1
–x–1
—x1- make 4ths place
—x-1
–x-1- make 3rds place
–x1–
–1x– dodge 3–4 up with the treble
–x1–
–1x– make 4ths place
-1-x–
1-x— make 3rds place
-1x—
1–x– dodge 3–4 up
1-x—
-1-x–
1—x- and continue
And secondly, Cambridge places down:
1—x-
-1-x– dodge 3–4 down
1-x—
1–x–
-1x— make 3rds place
1-x—
-1-x– make 4ths place
–1x–
–x1– dodge 3–4 down with the treble
–1x–
–x1– make 3rds place
–x-1-
—x-1 make 4ths place
—x1-
–x–1 dodge 3–4 down
—x-1
–x-1-
-x—1 and continue
That’s enough for now. Next we’ll look at the front work and the back work, and then we’ll put it all together.
0 CommentsFor the last few weeks our ringing teacher has been away on an extended holiday. This means that I have to run practices, and that I have to deal with learners. Of course, we are all learners, and there are various ringers in the band at different stages.
One of the band, R, is just at the stage of being able to plain hunt on the treble reasonably competently, and beginning to take the step of trying to ring Bob Doubles on bell 2. At one practice where we had just enough competent ringers I stood behind R and helped him count his place. Learning to count one’s place is a big step — moving from the security of following known bells in a known order to having to acquire ropesight and see which position you should be ringing in. The very concept of ‘place’ can be difficult to get hold of, let alone move to. So the two of us sat down after practice and went through some of the theory of places and blue lines. When I was doing this myself I gradually made sense of it by reading and trying to understand the theory and then trying to ring it. Week by week I made a little progress until it had clicked into place. We shall have to see whether this works for R.
Some of our other ringers can just about ring a plain course of Bob Doubles on bell 2, and now they need to move to a different bell, so that between us we can ring Plain Bob more often (as well as aspire to greater things; but Plain Bob Doubles will do for now!). One thing that helps them get through a plain course is to be reminded what action they need to take each time the treble leads. When I am ringing bell 5 for a plain course the ‘partner bell’ is number 2. This is the bell that is dodging 3–4 down when you are dodging 3–4 up and vice versa, and is making long fifths when you are making 2nds, and vice versa. So it is fairly easy to tell this ‘partner bell’ what to do: either dodge with me, up or down as I am dodging down or up; or stay at the back when I am staying at the front (and when they make 2nds that’s rounds).
A little bit harder is to tell one of the other bells what to do, since they are busy dodging with a different bell. This morning I was able to tell bell 4 each time what they should be doing. I knew that at the first lead end they needed to be making long fifths, and was therefore able to work out, as we were ringing that at the next lead end they should be dodging 3–4 up, whilst at the same time not forgetting that I needed to be making 2nds. And then at the next lead end they should be making 2nds and I should be dodging 3–4 down. It’s nice to be able to have time to think about what another bell should be doing whilst having enough time to remember what to do myself, and at the same time still be counting my own place and ringing in that place. For a long time when I first saw this done I was amazed at the ability of the conductor to keep these different bells’ courses in his head. Now I find that I can do a little of this too, even if it is only one other bell in a plain course of Bob Doubles!
0 CommentsThis Sunday’s readings include part of chapter 3 of the book of Genesis, the central story of the fall, in which Adam and Eve are tempted to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, planted in the centre of the Garden of Eden, and which God has forbidden them to eat.
The consequence of this is that the couple are expelled from Eden, and they will die.
What are we to make of this?
The key to our understanding this today is perhaps in the words ‘knowledge of good and evil’. Our human ancestors, at some point in their evolution, developed enough consciousness to become self-aware. This is a fundamental human trait — to be aware of yourself, and to be aware of other people and realize that they too are self-aware. Perhaps this realization, this consciousness, went hand in hand with the development of language, the development of communication with fellow humans. And consciousness and the recognition of others leads to conscience — the recognition of good and evil, as the writers of the Genesis story put it. Humans had eaten of the fruit of the tree, and there was no going back.
And along with this self-awareness must have come the realization that things die: that other creatures die, that other humans die; and eventually the realization that each of us will die too — the realization of our own mortality.
Like the writer of Genesis chapter 3 we can understand the link between this high level of consciousness, or self-awareness, and death. The writer of Genesis puts the story in mythic language, language that all can understand. He (most probably it was a ‘he’ or several ‘he’s) starts from the innocence in which we assume the non-conscious to live: the innocence where one does not have to make moral choices and the innocence in which one’s own life is the centre of the world, indeed the only thing that makes the world, the innocence in which one has no idea that one’s life is finite. And he points out that self-awareness leads inevitably to a loss of that innocence which culminates in the knowledge of our own impending death.
And in this mythic language we too can grasp at the truth, that in our self-awareness we do things that we know to be wrong, and in our knowledge of our own mortality, we live in darkness and fear, failing to reach the great heights of creativity and light of which we should be capable.
What then of Jesus? Jesus proclaims to us the kingdom of God in which is life in all its abundance. In this kingdom we are freed from fear of death to live life, a life in which we can make moral choices, a life in which we are not consumed with jealousy or with bitterness towards others, but a life in the light, a life of creativity. The apostle Paul wrote, ‘As in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive.’ (1 Corinthians 15.22.)
0 Comments