An Alternate Bell Assignment Scheme
(described in some detail in "Overtones" - May/June 1986
in an article entitled:
"Handbell Distribution - an Alternative System" by Everett Jay Hilty)
During the early years of our group's existence, Everett was finding that in
using a chromatic arrangement of bells, top and bottom players often had little
to do (especially for 2/3-octave music). Sometimes ringers would quit out of
sheer boredom. So he (and later Karen Pfiffner) devised a system whereby each
person would play a quartet of bells (bass, tenor, alto, soprano). He
attempted to assign two "busy" and two "not-so-busy" bells to each ringer so
that everyone could be involved in every piece of music, no matter how thin
the score (from 2-octaves on up). Various setups are outlined below:
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-- The basic set-up for 5(+1/2)-octave/ 13 ringers/ 2 ringers to a stand:
(C3-G8)
| Ringer 1: F#3, G4 , G#5, A6 , A7 (blue)
Stand 1 |
| Ringer 2: G3 , G#4, A5 , A#6, A#7 (red)
| Ringer 3: G#3, A4 , A#5, B6 , B7 (blue)
Stand 2 |
| Ringer 4: F3 , F#4, G5 , G#6, G#7 (red)
| Ringer 5: C#3, D4 , D#5, E6 , F7 , F8 (blue)
Stand 3 |
| Ringer 6: B3 , C5 , C#6, D7 , D8 (red)
| Ringer 7: D3 , D#4, E5 , F6 , F#7, F#8 (blue)
Stand 4 |
| Ringer 8: C4 , C#5, D6 , D#7, D#8 (red)
| Ringer 9: A#3, B4 , C6 , C#7, C#8 (blue)
Stand 5 |
| Ringer 10: C3 , C#4, D5 , D#6, E7 , E8 (red)
| Ringer 11: D#3, E4 , F5 , F#6, G7 (blue)
Stand 6 |
| Ringer 12: A3 , A#4, B5 , C7 , C8 (red)
|
Stand 7 | Ringer 13: E3 , F4 , F#5, G6 , G8
|
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-- The basic set-up for 4(+1/2)-octave/ 12 ringers/ 2 ringers to a stand:
(G3-C8)
| Ringer 1: B3 , G4 , G#5, A6 , A7 (blue)
Stand 1 |
| Ringer 2: G3 , G#4, A5 , A#6, A#7 (red)
| Ringer 3: G#3, A4 , A#5, B6 , B7 (blue)
Stand 2 |
| Ringer 4: A3 , A#4, B5 , C7 , C8 (red)
| Ringer 5: A#3, B4 , G5 , G#6, G#7 (blue)
Stand 3 |
| Ringer 6: D4 , C5, C#6, F#7 (red)
| Ringer 7: D#4, C#5, D6 , G7 (blue)
Stand 4 |
| Ringer 8: E4 , D5 , D#6, C#7 (red)
| Ringer 9: F4 , D#5, E6 , D7 (blue)
Stand 5 |
| Ringer 10: F#4, E5 , F6 , D#7 (red)
| Ringer 11: C4 , F5 , F#6, E7 (blue)
Stand 6 |
| Ringer 12: C#4, F#5, C6 , G6, F7 (red)
-- Hardest position(s) to ring (4-5 octaves): 12
-- Easiest position(s) to ring (4-5 octaves): 6,7,8 (and 4 is not too bad)
-- For a full 5 octaves, we use this scheme and let the bass bells (F#3 and
lower) float around the room to whomever can handle them on a piece-by-
piece basis.
-- This exact assignment scheme works well for 12 ringers with
2 octaves (G4-G6), 3-octaves (C4-C7), or 4-octaves (G3-G7).
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The basic set-up for 11 ringers
-- Use the above set-up described for 12 ringers, but give the bells for
position 9 away. Namely:
F4 goes to Ringer 7
D#5 goes to Ringer 1
E6 goes to Ringer 2
D7 goes to Ringer 10
-- Hardest position(s) to ring (4-5 octaves): 1,2,7 and 12
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The basic set-up for 10 ringers/ 3 octaves:
Again, using the original set-up described for 12 ringers/3 octaves
make the following changes:
(C4-C7)
| Ringer 1: add D6 (comes from ringer 7)
Stand 1 |
| Ringer 2: add D5 (comes from ringer 8)
| Ringer 3: add D#6 (comes from ringer 8)
Stand 2 |
| Ringer 4: add C#4 (comes from ringer 12)
| Ringer 5: no change (i.e., keep B4 , G5 , G#6)
Stand 3 |
| Ringer 6: no change (keep D4 , C5, C#6)
| Ringer 7: add F4, D#5 and E6 (all from ringer 9)
| remove D#4 (goes to ringer 10) and D6 (goes to 1)
Stand 4 |
| Ringer 8: eliminate this position
| Ringer 9: eliminate this position
Stand 5 |
| Ringer 10: add D#4 (from ringer 7)
| Ringer 11: no change
Stand 6 |
| Ringer 12: add E4 (comes from ringer 8)
remove C#4 (goes to ringer 4)
-- Hardest position(s) to ring : 1,2, and 12
-- positions labeled 3,7,10 can be challenging, but a troublesome bell
can be floated to someone else during a particular piece.
-- This 3-octave/10-ringer setup works well in case you expand your
choir to 4-octaves. Minimum re-learning of positions or re-marking
of music is required.
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Some benefits of this system:
a) Makes it easier to pick up and put down various bells during a fast
piece, since the bells are readily distinguishable as they lay in
front of you on the table.
b) Easier to distinguish notes on the page. Of course this makes
it also more challenging since a ringer has to pay attention to both
staves of the music. To alleviate this problem, we first cover all
the music with non-glare C-film sheet protectors, available at most
office supply stores. Then, with two people to a book, we circle the
notes with blue and red "vis-a-vis" or "Dixon" pens (water soluble so
that the sheets can be reused). So with 2 people to a stand, ringer
1 circles notes in blue and ringer 2 in red.
c) Overall sound coming from the choir blends better (opinion not fact).
Some idiosyncrasies to get used to:
a) It is awkward when a ringer has to ring very different-sized bells
at the same time.
b) This arrangement can be hellish on the director ("D4? Oh, D4,?
Where are you today, D4??")
c) Visual impact of ascending/descending arpeggios/chromatics is
somewhat lost.
A few general observations on the philosophy of the various setups Karen
mapped out:
-- In general, the bells for one person are spaced in minor 9ths (one
full octave plus one half step between each bell). The running
philosophy of this scheme is to assign minor 9ths as much as possible to
each position. Easy to do for 2-octave bell sets, but gets harder
for successive octaves. This tactic spreads out the work amongst all
ringers about as evenly as is possible (regardless of the range of the
piece and key signature) without actually going through and reshuffling
bells after each and every piece played. However, asymmetries remain.
So at times, ringers may want to give away or trade bells for a
particular piece.
-- To set up the basic scheme (looking at the G3-C8 chart), Karen assigned
the tenor (G4-F#5) and alto (G#5-G6) chromatically from ringer 1 to 12.
As you can see though, the G5 is assigned to ringer 5 while the C6
floats from ringer 5 to ringer 12. She still tried to accommodate a
chromatic ascent for the lowest and highest octaves, but had to
improvise to keep from jamming up too many notes close together on one
ringer.
-- For 4/5-octave bell sets, 6's and 7's of the same pitch are often
assigned to the same person so that they can be shelley'd.
-- The above general statements can be used as a guide to you if you want
to make up your own assignment scheme based upon a different number of
ringers than what is shown. What is shown above is what has worked
best for us over the years, but may require tweaking on your part to
suit your particular needs.