I've been doing a bit of online ringing again. Last Friday I called a quarter of Lincolnshire Royal, using the standard simple composition W 3H sW and discovering that it makes 5-6 ring all the positions. Today we rang Cambridge, Yorkshire and Lincolnshire spliced, using a composition in whole courses:
1280 Spliced Surprise Royal (3m)
M B W H 23456
-------------------------------------
- x - - CCCC.CCC.CCC.CCCC. 42356
- NNNNNNNNN. 34256
- YYYYYYYYY. 23456
-------------------------------------
x = 16
560 Cambridge; 360 Lincolnshire (N), Yorkshire; 2 com
I don't know whether this has been credited to a particular composer. Simon Rudd called it; maybe he came up with the composition. The calling, using a 6th place "big bob" Before, is a neat way of getting 1280 for any of the methods individually.
This style of composition is sometimes described as "laminated", as the methods come in big slices. While I was looking in CompLib to see whether the above composition is included (it isn't, at the time of writing), I found this one which I had forgotten entering:
1282 Spliced Surprise Royal (3m) Simon J. Gay W H 23456 ------------------------ - - YYYYY.YYYY. 45236 - CCCCCCCCC. 24536 - NNNNNNNNN. 52436 s YYYYY.(Y) (32456) ------------------------ 562 Yorkshire; 360 Cambridge, Lincolnshire (N); 3 com; atw.
Maybe it's a stretch to claim authorship of something so simple, but there is a tiny bit of effort involved in working out which method to assign to each course so that the composition is true.
Some ringers look down on this style of composition, especially for peals, but there is a place for them. They can be viewed as easy ways to get started with spliced, and changing methods only at course ends reduces the need for the whole band to be secure with place bells. Roger Bailey used to prefer compositions with large blocks of methods, in comparison to compositions with changes of method at almost every lead. He likened them to a chunky soup with identifiable pieces that can be savoured, versus a homogenised soup that has been through a blender. At some point in the early 1990s, I remember him producing this composition, which I think we rang on handbells:
5040 Spliced Surprise Royal (3m)
Roger Bailey
M W H 23456
---------------------------
– CCCCCCCCC. 42356
– NNNN.NNNNN 32654
– s CCCC.C.CCCC 52463
– – NNNN.NNNNN. 34265
– YYYYY.YYYY 63245
– CCCCC.CCCC 46235
– – YYYYY.YYYY. 23465
---------------------------
2 part.
2160 Cambridge; 1440 Lincolnshire (N), Yorkshire; 13 com; atw.
It's not as easy as you might think to construct this kind of composition, because of the falseness between the methods. It is a relatively easy way of getting all the work though, because obviously if you have a complete course of a method between two bobs, all the bells ring all the work of that method.
I have generated some compositions in this style, using some of the methods I have been writing about recently. Here's one of Bristol and Sgurr A'Chaorachain, which has all the work in a five-part:
5000 Spliced Surprise Royal (2m)
Simon J Gay
W M H 23456
-------------------------------------
2 – BBBBBBBBB.BBBS.SSS.SS 45623
– SSSSSSS. 64523
-------------------------------------
5 part.
2600 Sgurr A'Chaorachain; 2400 Bristol; 9 com; atw.
and one of Bristol and Remus, which isn't all the work:
5000 Spliced Surprise Royal (2m)
Simon J Gay
M W H 23456
----------------------------------
– RRRRR. 42356
s RRRRR. 43256
– – s BBBBBBB.B.BBBBBBB. 56234
----------------------------------
5 part.
3000 Bristol; 2000 Remus; 9 com.
When we've mastered the individual methods, we'll see whether we want to ring a peal or two in this style, or go straight to something with a few more changes of method, such as this one, which nevertheless still has some good chunks of methods to chew on:
5000 Spliced Surprise Royal (2m)
Composed by Simon J Gay
W M H 23456
----------------------------------
– SBSSB. 42356
– – SSSSSSBS.BBSSBBB.B 34625
– BSB.B 64523
----------------------------------
5 part.
2600 Sgurr A'Chaorachain; 2400 Bristol; 59 com; atw.