Bell Ringing at Church of the Ascension

My niece Alison never ceases to amaze me with her musical knowledge and talent, and her Thanksgiving visit, with her boyfriend, Nick, didn’t disappoint. On her agenda was a visit to the Church of the Ascension, off Lake Avenue, to ring their bells.

Tower bells are something I’d never given any thought to, but apparently there’s a whole organization devoted to what is called Change Ringing, and there are relatively few towers in North America (47 in the United States, and 9 in Canada, according to the website for the North AmericanGuild of Change Ringers). While it’s no surprise that Boston has three towers following this English tradition (most of the bells were made in Whitechapel, and there are roughly 6100 churches with change ringing bells in Britain), it is curious that there are three in Houston alone. Rochester is one of only a dozen on our side of the pond with 10 bells; most have 6 or 8, although Trinity Church in NYC (the only other tower in the state with active change bell ringing) and St. James Cathedral in Toronto have 12.

As they were getting ready, one of the regular ringers, Bob, explained the mechanics of bell ringing on a little wooden model. The bells start in the “down” position, and have to be rung “up” (upside down). This transfers the energy to the bell, making it easier to ring. There are special knots they tie on the ropes to indicate which position each bell is in. Once the bells are up, the ringing commenced, with Sue, on the smallest bell, calling, “look to, treble going, she’s gone.” They started the bells in sequence, finding the right pace, and then Chris would call out commands that only make sense to a bell ringer: “dodge” and “make seconds” and “plain hunt” and “stand.”

Nick's lesson

thumb ringing

Rochester’s bells are a recent phenomenon, as I learned from Helen while Nick was getting a quick lesson from Chris, and Bob, Sue and Alison were pretending to ring hand bells (which looked like they were practicing thumb wrestling). Helen is married to Chris, the “tower captain.” It was his passion that led to the bells’ installation just two years ago. Apparently, there weren’t many towers in Rochester that could accommodate the bells or the fundraising required. Helen has rung bells in over 1200 towers, mostly in England, while Chris has rung in over 2600 (she called bell ringing “addictive”). There are actually ringing tours, and the density of bell towers in England makes it easier to “collect” them. But there are English groups who tour North America as well, and three came through Rochester (and Canada) this fall. Most of those groups rang a “peal” in each location.

Sue, Helen, Alison, Chris, & Bob

A peal is around 3 hours of 5000+ changes. If you don’t want to repeat a change, a peal requires 7+ bells (7!= 5040 – yes, studying permutations and combinations is useful in real life…). Helen showed me a chart of one sequence of changes, and said it’s not as complicated as it looked – you just need to memorize the “blue line.” Alison (who Nick explained is the “ringing master” at Smith College) seemed to understand the patterns instinctively, and tried to help explain a more complicated one to one of the ringers who wasn’t getting it. It was cool, in a nerdy sort of way.

When they were finished with the practice session, they rang the bells down and put the ropes up. Nick explained that sometimes the ringers ring the bells down in a peal, instead of one a time, and that that’s particularly impressive. I can imagine – and now, I really can!

Ringing bells truly is a team sport – it requires not just the physical stamina to stand and pull the rope and understand the timing of your bell pulling to its ringing, but also to coordinate with your fellow players to ring in time, to change places in the sequences, to listen to the captain calling the changes, and to keep going when you make a mistake. It’s musical, it’s mathematical, and it’s hypnotic to hear and to watch. The Ascension ringers are always looking for recruits, and Chris is happy to teach and available for lessons. If you know someone who’d be interested in learning, visit: http://www.ascensionroch.org/change-ringing

And here's a video of Chris, Helen, Bob, Sue, and Alison ringing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcOtwyjtxCk&feature=youtu.be