Bryn Reinstadler

Enrollment: Unlimited: No advance sign-up

Attendance: Participants welcome at individual sessions

Join the Guild of Bellringers for an introduction to the history, math, and practice of English Change Ringing. Change Ringing is an art-form going back to the 15th century which involves teams of ringers working together to ring bells in weaving patterns that never repeat themselves, algorithmically generating musical permutations. The practice has deep connections to mathematics, particularly to group theory and graph theory, and also has a rich history both in England and in Boston itself. In this course, we'll introduce you to both the history and practice of change ringing, including several practical sessions ringing tower bells at the historic Church of the Advent in Beacon Hill in addition to lectures on history, theory, and practice.

Lectures are Monday/Thursday 2:30-4pm. All lectures will run 30-45 minutes and will be followed by practical exercises on handbells. Evening ringing lessons will be held on Tuesdays, meeting at Kendall T stop at 5pm, and are especially for IAP students, but students are also welcome Saturday practices (open to all) which run 11:15 - 1:15pm. Please email ahead about coming to Tuesday sessions if you can, so that we can ensure we have enough teachers. Further dates and descriptions below.

Sponsor(s): Guild of Bellringers

Contact: Bryn Reinstadler, brynr@mit.edu

How Ringing Got Started

Jan/09 Thu 02:30PM-04:00PM 5-232

We'll discuss the early history of change ringing and the development of the first ringing methods. We'll also introduce the basics of ringing handbells.

Bryn Reinstadler

Permutations + Perturbations

Jan/13 Mon 02:30PM-04:00PM 5-232

Change ringers are interested in the concept of truth as non-repetition. However, simple patterns using n bells often repeat themselves before all n! permutations have been rung. How can we ring for longer without repeating a permutation using the same basic pattern? Here we introduce permutations, groups, patterns, and perturbations to those patterns that allow us to ring without repetition for long periods of time.

Bryn Reinstadler

Evening ringing lessons

Jan/14 Tue 05:00PM-07:00PM Church of the Advent, We will meet at Kendall at 5pm to take the T Jan/21 Tue 05:00PM-07:00PM Church of the Advent, We will meet at Kendall at 5pm to take the T Jan/28 Tue 05:00PM-07:00PM Church of the Advent, We will meet at Kendall at 5pm to take the T

Come learn how to ring tower bells at the historic Church of the Advent in Beacon Hill. Advance notice preferred, but not required: email brynr@mit.edu.

Bryn Reinstadler

Ringing from 1715 to Today

Jan/16 Thu 02:30PM-04:00PM 5-232

In 1715, the first peal was rung a 3-hour feat of ringing covering all possible permutations of 7 bells without any repetition. We'll talk about the development of change ringing from the 18th century to today, and also continue practicing ringing on handbells.

Bryn Reinstadler

(Canceled) Patterns in Change Ringing

Jan/20 Mon 02:30PM-04:00PM 5-232

We'll discuss some practical aspects of learning change ringing methods, and continue learning handbell ringing.

Bryn Reinstadler

The Mathematics of Change Ringing

Jan/23 Thu 02:30PM-04:00PM 5-232

Change ringers developed and used aspects of group theory about 100 years before mathematicians did; in this class, we'll introduce the mathematical foundations of ringing. There will be more ringing on handbells.

Bryn Reinstadler

Wrap up & Handbell Ringing

Jan/27 Mon 02:30PM-04:00PM 1-132, Note different room

Likely to be mostly handbell ringing

Bryn Reinstadler