There's a new life opening wide

[sovay]

Rabbit, rabbit! My poem "Andromache" has been accepted by Not One of Us. It is my first-written poem and my first acceptance of this year; it was inspired by a remark of kore's and its title leans more toward the Amazon who fought Herakles than the wife of Hektor.

derspatchel and I did not ring in the new year in the literal sense, but we watched schreibergasse and lauradi7 and six other members of a band of change ringers at Church of the Advent do so. It was my first exposure to change ringing outside of Dorothy L. Sayers' The Nine Tailors (1934) and I don't seem able to write about it without an access of Tiny Wittgenstein; it registered to me as an actively interesting art form—I couldn't have reproduced any of the patterns I heard, but I could track in the moment some of the ways the bells moved through them, which differs sufficiently from most of my experiences with music that it reminded me much more of observing a dance—and exactly the sort of complexly coordinated group activity that I should not let myself get drawn into trying to learn because the chances of my being able to achieve the levels of minimal competence that would allow me not to burden the people around me are slender to laughable and I don't like doing things badly when I know they can be done well. It was an excellent thing to be present for, however, and the bells at Church of the Advent have great overtones. We got home at a reasonable hour and I stayed up far too late finishing Mike Mignola and Christopher Golden's Baltimore, or, The Steadfast Tin Soldier and the Vampire (2007), courtesy of teenybuffalo, and writing an utterly unrelated poem.

Today was the traditional New Year's ham and fondue at my parents' house, followed by the somewhat less traditional deconstruction of the tree and concomitant sweeping of an apparently infinite amount of fir needles off the living room floor. Rob came out as soon as he had finished work. I shared with Schreiber' the Twitter thread of "1 like = 1 borderline insane member of the clergy" that Rob had sent me last night (I learned everything I know about the Reverend Harold Davidson from a song by Dave Goulder!) and developed an unexpected eye-watering headache, which is why I am going to try to head for bed as soon as I have stopped catching up on comments.

I am well aware that if it follows the course set by the last months of 2016, 2017 will contain many things I will not look back on fondly, except for how the people I care about fought and survived them. As a first day, though, this was all right.

Comments

[moon_custafer]

I read The Nine Tailors at quite a young age, so I had trouble making head or tail of the change-ringing parts of the story. When I reread it years later, I could sort of see what was going on, but since what was shown on the page was the pricking, rather than the experience of listening to the bells in real time, I thought of it in terms of braiding, or a chart for a cabled knitting pattern.

[sovay]

When I reread it years later, I could sort of see what was going on, but since what was shown on the page was the pricking, rather than the experience of listening to the bells in real time, I thought of it in terms of braiding, or a chart for a cabled knitting pattern.

I don't think that's an un-useful way to think of it. I thought of dance, also visual-spatial rather than auditory.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yup. The bells totally dance together, in that formal country- or contra-dance sense. If the chance arises, learn handbells. (Also, I once had a deeply stoned but deeply intense conversation with my best friend about the influence of change-ringing on the English landscape.)

[heliopausa.livejournal.com]

"a very country dance indeed". (as Lucy said, watching the Trees move in and out in complicated patterns.)

I'm glad the year's begun well. :)

[sovay]

The bells totally dance together, in that formal country- or contra-dance sense.

That is exactly the sense in which I was thinking. I have only taken part in a contra dance once, at a friend's wedding, but I have seen it done and the bells made the same shapes, only in different dimensions.

If the chance arises, learn handbells.

schreibergasse also mentioned handbells as an alternative, but it would retain all the same problems of complex group coordination without the same immediate interest that the ropes of the tower and the air full of harmonics inspired in me. Before they got started, the conductor had me take over the rope of a bell she was chiming (I believe it was 4, although this was before I knew where the treble and tenor were, so mostly it was "the rope nearest the doorway") and I had enormous trouble maintaining the rhythm; I think I got it back to a semi-steady beat once I figured out how much pull the bell itself exerted and where I actually needed to take hold of the rope in order to have any control over it, but it had changed tempo in that time and while I am sure it was just intended to give me a feel for the forces involved, it felt unfortunately like a brief but effective demonstration that this was something I had absolutely no natural affinity for. It was nonetheless immediately fun, which I had not been expecting, as well as intellectually interesting. The latter at least makes sense to me: it is the pattern-making. All I can do with that is narrative and people if they are consistent enough. I can watch a dance, but I have never been a good dancer.

(Also, I once had a deeply stoned but deeply intense conversation with my best friend about the influence of change-ringing on the English landscape.)

What did you conclude?

[spatch]

When I had my go at the bellrope I lost the rhythm and the bell stopped ringing entirely because I was [probably making a classic newbie mistake of] subconsciously trying to time my pull with the sound, but I was horribly off since the bell didn't ring as soon as I'd pulled on the rope. Once the helpful man from Quebec had given me a pointer, the exact phrasing of which I have conveniently forgotten (something about feeling it near the top of the upswing) I began to feel the feedback from the rope and that was a neat little breakthrough, there.

[sovay]

"a very country dance indeed". (as Lucy said, watching the Trees move in and out in complicated patterns.)

Yes!

I'm glad the year's begun well.

Thank you! I hope the same for you.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

What you were doing is called chiming. Actually full-circle ringing (with the arc from nearly mouth up to nearly mouth up) has a much more significant time lag between pull and sound. This varies from bell to bell (or maybe more accurately, wheel to wheel. Wheel sizes are mostly proportional to bell sizes, and the rope is attached to the wheel), so it's one of the difficult parts of learning to ring in the correct place.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I am sad that you feel after one short try that it would be too hard. People vary wildly in terms of how long it takes to learn the physical skill, but you already understand that rhythm is crucial, and you like the sound, so you're ahead of the game compared to some people. It's not a physical skill like anything most people have experienced, so everyone starts from scratch. The people in a band in a teaching tower all remember the struggles involved, and expect that. It's a musical instrument of a sort, but it doesn't do to imagine the possible irritation of members of a string quartet rehearsal if someone who has never played a violin shows up, expecting to be taught. There are towers in the world (like St Paul's, London) that are only open to invited high-end ringers, but most local towers expect to spend months training newbies.
Knowing oneself is always useful, though. I will say that after 36 years, I'm still not ringing up to my hoped-for level of precision, but I'm working on it... Setting yourself up for frustration might not be a good thing, but we'd love to have you try, if you want.

If you like overtones, you should come to Old North. Modern (since late Victorian times?) change ringing bells have had the overtones tuned by turning on a lathe (I'm over-simplifying). Many can be very nice, but some of the randomness is gone. The Old North bells (cast by Abel Rudhall in Gloucester England in 1744) are the old style, and in his particular case, he was extraordinarily good at getting a wonderful sound by careful shaping of the bell as it was cast. There are some old style bells that sound yucky, but I think (not entirely objectively) that the bells at ON are the nicest in the world (having admittedly only heard bells at fewer than two hundred towers).

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

OTOH, chiming is hard.
Also, I at least spend a great deal of time, when ringing, getting out of tempo and then getting myself back in.

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

Thank you for those members of the clergy. I learned about the vicar of Stiffkey from my father (including how to pronounce it), but I didn't know Tow Law also had an insane vicar. We drove through Tow Law today, on our way to lunch.

[gwynnega]

Congratulations on your first poetry sale of the year!

[sovay]

Congratulations on your first poetry sale of the year!

Thank you!

[sovay]

Thank you for those members of the clergy. I learned about the vicar of Stiffkey from my father (including how to pronounce it), but I didn't know Tow Law also had an insane vicar. We drove through Tow Law today, on our way to lunch.

You're very welcome! That thread is a public service.

[sovay]

I am sad that you feel after one short try that it would be too hard. People vary wildly in terms of how long it takes to learn the physical skill, but you already understand that rhythm is crucial, and you like the sound, so you're ahead of the game compared to some people.

Thank you. I did warn that my reactions came with Tiny Wittgenstein, who is not necessarily an accurate assessment of my own capabilities. My experiences with dance and sports are almost universally negative, however. I was talking elsewhere on the internet about cross-country, at which I was desperately terrible and which gave me no pleasure as a physical exercise but which I pursued in high school because I really enjoyed having the ability to run five miles without needing a rest, however slowly or ungracefully it was done; I think I was permitted to stay on the team only because it was not possible for me to lose everyone else races even if I came in constantly last or third-to-last at best, whereas if it had been a sport where my incompetence actually affected the ability of other team members to play at their best I'm pretty sure I would have been more firmly encouraged to drop out. The coach couldn't stop me, but he was confused that I kept coming back. I don't like to do things badly and I really don't like to waste other people's time.

It's a musical instrument of a sort, but it doesn't do to imagine the possible irritation of members of a string quartet rehearsal if someone who has never played a violin shows up, expecting to be taught. There are towers in the world (like St Paul's, London) that are only open to invited high-end ringers, but most local towers expect to spend months training newbies.

That is useful to know.

Setting yourself up for frustration might not be a good thing, but we'd love to have you try, if you want.

Thank you. It is honestly more likely that it will not work out no matter what because I have serious chronic insomnia which means that early-morning activities are few and far between in my life. If I decide to give it a shot, however, you and schreibergasse will be the first to know.

Modern (since late Victorian times?) change ringing bells have had the overtones tuned by turning on a lathe (I'm over-simplifying).

What's the non-simplified version?

The Old North bells (cast by Abel Rudhall in Gloucester England in 1744) are the old style, and in his particular case, he was extraordinarily good at getting a wonderful sound by careful shaping of the bell as it was cast.

That is very neat. I would like to hear the difference. Do you (sing. or pl.) ring there or is it a different guild?

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

I can hear different hums and have a vague mental picture of sine waves of different lengths, but I can't give you a decent tuning explanation, so here is this:
http://www.hibberts.co.uk/tuning.htm
I don't know if this will help
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grqNikjb9h8

The bell at Harvard's chapel is a Taylor bell. Modern tuning, really nice. Paul Revere cast bells, tuned in the old way. They were possibly inspired by Rudhall's bells, but are more like OK than glorious. The one that is reputed to sound the best is at King's Chapel on Tremont Street.

Does 12:30 PM count as early morning? You could come near the end of practice or service ringing (Saturday or Sunday, respectively). The hum from all of those notes bouncing around together as the bells are rung down in peal is the most distinctive. Check with someone first - sometimes it wouldn't be convenient, but usually it would be.

I live just uphill from Hastings Park, which is where the LHS cross-country runners seem to gather. I enjoy seeing them jog past in little clumps on their practice runs.

[landofnowhere]

Your post brought back some very fond memories to me.

When I was spending a year studying in the UK, I signed up for the change ringing guild out of sheer curiosity. I'm not certain I would have done it if I'd realized how long it would take to learn. But I liked the physicality , rhythm, and sound of the bells, and the ringers were super friendly and supportive of a clueless American who wanted to learn. I am a clumsy, slow, but stubborn learner when it comes to anything physical, so by the end of nine months I could reliably and smoothly control a bell, had acquired a good sense of rhythm, and could do very basic ringing with others.

Then I moved to a place where the nearest ring of bells was 2 hours away by train, and though I went there once, it wasn't worth the time to go regularly. Now I'm back in an area with bells, but I've been too timid to pick it up again. Perhaps I should...

[landofnowhere]

also Elizabeth Wein wrote a short story "The Bellcaster's Apprentice" about change ringing bells and a fairy queen. You might like it, though it may be hard to find. (I think I saw the collection containing it in a used bookstore, and sat diw to read then and there without buying the whole collection.)

[sovay]

also Elizabeth Wein wrote a short story "The Bellcaster's Apprentice" about change ringing bells and a fairy queen. You might like it, though it may be hard to find. (I think I saw the collection containing it in a used bookstore, and sat diw to read then and there without buying the whole collection.)

It's in Ellen Kushner and Delia Sherman's The Horns of Elfland (1997)—I've read it years ago, but not since! I remember willow splinters. I'll borrow my mother's copy the next time it's possible. At the time I suspect I somewhat overlooked it because it contained no Medraut, Goewin, or Lleu.

(It will be interesting to see what else is in the collection, too. I remember Doris Egan's "The New Tiresias" and Roz Kaveney's "Brandy for the Damned," but that's it.)

[sovay]

Your post brought back some very fond memories to me.

I'm glad! Your experience with change ringing sounds wonderful. I think you should absolutely take advantage of being within reasonable range of bells again.

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

Are you in North America? You can find the contact information for your local tower here:
http://nagcr.org/afftower.html

Local is a very loose term in North America.

E Wein

[lauradi7.livejournal.com]

>>At the time I suspect I somewhat overlooked it because it contained no Medraut, Goewin, or Lleu<<

I hope that has changed. If it means that you have never read"Code Name Verity" or especially "Rose under Fire," I can get copies to you.

[landofnowhere]

I'm in the Boston area, actually, so I should get in contact with you people! Who is the best contact person? (You can LJ-message me.)

Local is a very loose term in North America.

I understand that, from spending a stretch of time in the middle of New Jersey :-) I'm an academic with a temporary position, so I should take advantage of being near bells before I move who-knows-where..

Re: E Wein

[sovay]

I hope that has changed. If it means that you have never read"Code Name Verity" or especially "Rose under Fire," I can get copies to you.

I have the first and have read the second, thank you. This was in '97 when even A Coalition of Lions (2003) didn't exist!

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

We would love to see you! Anyone on here is a good contact (Well, don't email John, simply because he has a newborn, but other than that...) Or just show up on Brimmer Street tomorrow at 6:55ish.

And hey, you might find your next posting in DC, or Kalamazoo, or somewhere.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Congratulations on the poem! It deserves a wider audience.

[sovay]

Congratulations on the poem! It deserves a wider audience.

Thank you!