Superlative Again

Back in March, I wrote about compositions of Superlative, in advance of a peal attempt with Mike and Ian. We didn't get that peal, and yesterday we had another go and failed again. Perhaps there was another attempt in between; I don't remember. Despite the possibilities for compositions that keep 5-6 coursing, or even both 5-6 and 3-4, I have been sticking to Pitstow's, which is easy to remember but not very handbell-friendly. 

5088 Superlative Surprise Major
Nathan J Pitstow

B  W  H  23456
--------------
   -  3  52436
   -  3  35426
-     2  23564
--------------
3 part.

All of the maximum-coursing compositions that I have found either use half-lead bobs (the Don Morrison composition that I discussed previously), or non-standard calls (the arrangement that I put together in the previous article), or look complicated to learn.

Today I thought again about compositions with 5-6 coursing, and I wondered about doing something based on Andrew Hudson's peal of Plain Bob Major. The first step is to try out the basic block that keeps 5-6 coursing and moves them from one end of the coursing order to the other, and back. Ringing it twice gives 8 courses.

1792 Superlative Surprise Major

M  W  H  (25364)
---------------
   s  s   53624
s         43526
-     -   65324
   -      26354
   s  s   63524
s         43625
-     -   56324
   -      25364
---------------
Snap start and finish.

That's a good start, so we just need to add another 15 courses. We can do this by finding places where 5-6 are at one end or the other of the coursing order, and inserting a block of calls on the other three bells. Here is the final composition.

5152 Superlative Surprise Major
Simon J Gay

M  W  H  (25364)
---------------
4  s  s   53624
s  6      43526
-     -   65324
   -      26354
3  s  s   63524
s  6      43625
-     -   56324
   -      25364
---------------
Snap start and finish.
4 = -s-s
6 = --s--s
For handbells: 5-6 course throughout, 3-4 ring 70% coursing, 22% 3-4 and 9% 5-6.

Probably this also looks complicated, but having worked it up from a simple structure, I will find it easy to remember. We've got another attempt for the peal next week, so I think I will give this composition a try.

I constructed and checked this composition with the help of Graham John's excellent online composition library, which also works out the analysis of handbell positions.

Comments

Glad to see you got the peal with the new composition! Congratulations all.