Change Ringing

Members of the general public are welcome to see how the bells are rung and to learn some of the history of the bells. Larger groups can also be accommodated in the belfry if enough advance notice is given. The long climb up the two spiral staircases may prevent elderly or disabled getting to the ringing room.

The reason for ringing the bells is that it forms part of the cathedral's link to the general public by announcing that a service or some other important event is about to begin. Sometimes the bells are also rung at the end of a service, especially weddings.

Some of the oldest bells we ring (cast in 1738) were probably made from the metal of a former ring of bells cast in 1670. The bells of 1670 in turn were cast from redundant cannon guns and so it is said that in times of peace bells pealed but in times of war cannons pealed! As bells are large and heavy making them awkward to transport, most bells cast in the 1600's and 1700's were cast by itinerant bell founders in the precincts of the church grounds. The weight of each bell is usually quoted in the Imperial System of hundredweights (cwts)- quarters (qtr)- pounds (Ibs). Presently in Christ Church the lightest bell weighs just over 4 cwts whilst the heaviest is 45cwts-0qtrs-20lbs. One cwt is equivalent to 112lbs or 50.78 kg.

Those people who think that they would be suited to the regular task and challenge of ringing the bells for the services of the cathedral there are special training courses on offer. As well as practical instruction in precisely how to control a bell that swings "full circle", there is also some theoretical insight given into change ringing (change ringing is both an Art and a Science) This involves ringing the handbells as well as ringing the miniature bells. People interested in attending such a course would be welcome.

The last way of sounding a bell mentioned above is the way in which teams of trained ringers ring bells that have complete wheels and ropes (the cut away view shows how the bells and ringers operate for the 4th way as mentioned above). There are only 35 or so towers in Ireland that have peals of bells hung for ringing in this manner. This compares to over 5000 in England. A special "bellringers' Atlas" (Dove's Guide) is available which lists every tower in the world with bells hung for full circle ringing. A peal of bells usually consists of at least three bells tuned to the major diatonic scale, although there are a few rings in minor keys. In Ireland there are mainly six bell and eight bell peals although the range could be from 3 bells to 16 bells in any tower. Although each bell has a different note bell ringers can be tone deaf but good performers as good ringing involves good bell control and a sense of timing.

In Christ Church cathedral there are 19 bells hung for full circle with an extra bell hung 'dead' for announcing the peace prayers at noon and other weekday services. It is sounded by means resembling that of no.2 in the list above. Although there are 19 bells in the tower that could be rung full circle at any one time this is not usually done. This is because three of these bells are used for ringing subsets of the full peal of sixteen. By having different combinations of the peal we can create a solemn sound with the heavy bells rung slowly or a bright and merry sound with the lighter ones rung quickly. No other change ringing tower in the world has such a variety of combinations to choose from.

When bells are rung full circle the ringers begin by ringing them in a descending scale, (usually one person to a bell) so the person ringing the bell with the highest note will ring their bell, closely followed in time by the bell with the second highest note and so on until the bell with lowest note has sounded. Only then is this sequence repeated. This particular sequence is called Rounds and the bells are numbered rather than named so rounds on six bells is 1-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6..1-2-3-4-5-6-1-2-3-4-5-6. It is usual to refer to the bell with the highest note as being the 'treble' and the one with the lowest note is called the 'tenor'. All of this may seem simple to accomplish and very repetitive but the accurate timing of each bell's striking is not easy. The bells take approximately 2.0 - 2.5 seconds to complete each swing and strike and this parameter means that they do not accommodate 'playing tunes' as when a bell strikes, its note cannot easily be reproduced for at least another 2 seconds! For bells hung for full circle ringing to sound good it is necessary to strike them to accurate time. Deviations of 1/10th of a second or greater in time are considered bad. When it is considered that the 'musical instrument' is usually several times heavier than the ringer and has to be controlled from a distance of roughly 30 feet with a piece of rope it is no wonder that people find it a challenge! This adds to the satisfaction of ringing the bells properly.

As people began to ring bells in this way probably around the 1500's they eventually became bored with ringing rounds and it was discovered around the late 1500's early 1600's that bells striking in rounds could be altered to strike in a different order from that of rounds and thereby produce a different and pleasant sound. One ringer of the six ringers pulling the ropes would be charged with the additional task of calling bells to swap places so that the order would be changed. For example the bells may be ringing 123456 and he may call for 3 and 4 to swap places thereby producing the new order 124356. This new order would remain for a few minutes and then he may change another pair of bells e.g 1 and 2 and this would result in the bells ringing in the order 214356 "1 and 4 change" would again change the order giving 241356 and so the term " ringing the changes"came to be. The conductor would just go on calling changes when it pleased him. Most of the peals of bells in Ireland are rung to this type of system week after week and if the tenor is left as the last bell to strike the other five bells can be changed into 120 'different' changes. As change ringing developed it became almost an obsession with the ringers to try and ring as many different changes possible within the allotted time, moreover, repetition of a change (other than rounds) was considered to be a failure on the part of the person calling the changes.

Order in which the bells ring	Name of the change
13 5 7 2 4 6 8	Queens
1 5 2 6 3 7 4 8	Tittums
7 5 3 1 2 4 6 8	Kings
1 2 7 5 3 4 6 8	Whittington's

Some changes are considered to be especially pleasing to listen to and in the previous centuries ringers gave special names for these changes which we still use today. With an eight bell peal some of these changes are shown in the table above.

Once ringers had began to use this system of obtaining different changes (by one person calling out what bells were to swap positions at his discretion) people began to wonder if it would be possible to ring changes by a more advanced means, enabling more changes to be rung within the same time. What resulted is now called Scientific Change Ringing and differs from the previous Call Change system in the following way.

1. With six bells, instead of just changing one pair of bells, e.g going from 123456 to 213456 what happens is that all the bells would swap positions. (only bells in adjacent positions are allowed swap)

2. The next step would be for the bells occupying the first and last positions to remain in those positions whilst the other two pairs of bells would swap. Continually applying this rule yields the 12 different changes shown in the diagram. Ironically though, looking at the symmetry of the paths of various bells and memorising its shape was not how ringers of the 1600's would have thought of this method and instead they rang these changes by memorising the bells that they would follow. So the person ringing the treble would probably just know that he made the bell sound just after no.2, then after no.4 then after no.6, then 5, then 3 and continually doing this would get him back to where he began in the sequence, i.e 123456.. Most people learning to ring this method would start by learning it in the same way as the ringers rang it 400 years ago but would eventually just know the shape of the line that their bell follows throughout the method.

3. This method of ringing changes some became more and more popular amongst the people who before the advent of Call Changes had less mental stimulation when ringing. Although this may be thought of as the ringers' "music" it is never rung by reading off the changes from a page or whiteboard! All ringers must know the pre-determined path that their bell must be made follow if the ringing is to succeed. The method shown above is known as plain hunt and is regarded as being the first stepping stone towards the more complex methods, it is in fact the basis for all other methods.

In the early 1600's a new method was devised for obtaining the maximum number of different changes on five bells i.e 120. A sub-set of 30 these changes known to ringers as the plain course of Grandsire Doubles is shown on the left.

Today there are literally thousands of different methods for ringing changes on various numbers of tower bells from 4 to 16 and new ones are being devised weekly. The only problem is to find new names for each one! Originally most methods were named after the place in which they were first rung but soon different categories emerged supplying names: from the elements of the earth e.g Neon Surprise Major, to the days of the week like Monday Surprise Major. As change ringing is a team effort there is always great satisfaction when ever one of these methods (especially the more complex ones) is successfully brought round (all scientific change ringing starts and ends with rounds). Great mental training is required to advance from methods such as plain hunt to the more complex ones as the amount of detail in the path that each bell follows is increased.

The ancient art and science of change ringing always needs new volunteers and it has been a tradition for many centuries to hand down the knowledge and skills required to ring the bells announcing the regular services of the cathedral in addition to other occasions such as births, marriages and deaths. It is only within more recent times (last 30 years or so) that the cathedral's Society of Change Ringers have had the benefits of women members as well as men. At present at least half of our ringers are female and can ring just as well as there male counterparts because ringing bells is about using skill and intelligence rather than brute force and ignorance! It is usually found that some of the best bands of ringers in the world are made up of a colourful mixture of young and old, male and female and come from widely varying backgrounds.

Many Dubliners recognise the focal point that christ church cathedral becomes on New Years Eve where thousands of midnight revellers flock to hear the 12 strokes of midnight struck on the Great Tenor Bell of 2¼ tons followed by the other bells in the tower that join in to welcome in the new year. The first stroke of the tenor, which is the deepest toned bell of any that swings full circle in Ireland, sends up a huge cheer from the crowd below and the ringers in the tower have to concentrate hard just to hear the bell that they are ringing.

As well as the bells of Christ Church featuring on the television over the years they also may be heard on the album "The bells of Dublin" by the Chieftans where the old middle eight octave (C#) are heard ringing the tittums change 1 5 2 6 3 7 4 8 so called because the bells are arranged with a light bell ("ti") followed by a heavy bell ("tum"). People who understand music may describe this arrangement as "fifths" which is the musical interval between adjacent bells in the change. The change known as Whittington's is also heard on the album.

Other social events which have nothing to do with bell ringing are also arranged. This is done so that the spirit of friendship between ringers within the tower and among other towers is fostered.

Most people are genuinely surprised to see that people and not machines ring these bells. Some are even more surprised to find it is an activity carried out by ordinary people with nothing else in common than the desire to enjoy something that is different, enjoyable and a service to this historic Cathedral.. It is a fact that of the many people taught how to handle a bell only a small percentage remain loyal to become long term dependable team players but that is the nature of The Exercise (an alternative term for 'bell ringing').

Since the new millennium is approaching there has been an extra effort made by ringers world wide to recruit more people so that Jan 1, 2000 will be welcomed in traditionally - with bells.