Recordings of Change Ringing on Handbells

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The sound of tower bells ringing changes in the English style is well known. Less well known is that change ringing is also practised on handbells. I say practised, because it is only very occasionally that change ringing on handbells is performed in public. This is mainly because, whilst pleasantly mesmerizing to listen to, the lack of variation in rhythm and limitation to a diatonic scale means that the "music" does not hold an audience's attention for more than a few minutes.

For the participants however, it is a different matter. Each person rings two bells and has to maintain a very high level of concentration to strike their bells accurately as they weave an intricate pattern through the changing permutations. No visual aids are allowed while ringing, and the ringers have to commit the pattern, known as a method, to memory. Additionally, the conductor has to learn a composition of bobs and singles, which are called out at pre-determined points in the method to instruct the ringers to switch the positions of two or more bells. This prevents any permutations from being repeated before the performance reaches its conclusion.

The ringers sit in a circle, holding one bell in each hand throughout. The hand-stroke and back-stroke required to control a tower bell with a rope are simulated with an up-stroke and a down-stroke. As on tower bells, all ringing starts and ends with rounds, the bells ringing down the scale from the highest to the lowest note. Normally a band consists of three to six ringers, ringing six to twelve bells; but peals of over 5000 changes have been rung on as many as twenty-two bells. A short video of change ringing on handbells can be seen here.

Some handbell ringers relish the challenge of ringing two bells to the ever increasing complexity of methods rung by only one ringer on tower bells, and most take pleasure in listening out for particularly musical sequences. It is a team effort and there is a considerable sense of achievement when a band succeeds in ringing something new and challenging, or they come close to the holy grail of faultless ringing.

The following recordings are taken from peals, where the bells are rung in continuous performance for at least 5000 changes. Normal length peals typically take between two and three hours to complete, depending upon the number of bells. However, several of the recordings are from record length peals, some of which have been transferred to mp3 from cassette tape.

The mp3 sound clips below are large files which may take some time to download. If they don't start playing soon after you click on the link, check that your media player options are set to play mp3 files.