Featured Peal Projects
All Souls Memorial Episcopal Church, Washington, DC
(www.allsoulsdc.org/music/article102629c915005.htm) Here at an historic parish church just off Connecticut Avenue, and not far from Washington Cathedral, we installed a diatonic peal of three bells, D4--E4--F#4 in 2006, total weight of bells 1,140 lbs. Though a free-swinging peal, the effect of a diatonic peal, in this case the first three notes of a major scale based upon the note of the tenor, is reminiscent of change ringing, which is done on diatonic sets of bells in special mountings permitting single strike control with rope and wheel, by the ringer of each bell, so that sequences of notes (changes) may be performed according to methods, many very historic, which the ringers must learn in addition to learning the technique of bell control. It is possible, through the use of either manual, pneumatic, or electric strikers, to simulate the sequences of changes upon the stationary bells of a chime. Diatonic peals, and especially change ringing, whether actual or simulated on a chime, are historically associated with Anglican and Episcopal churches, though in recent years have been finding their way into towers of other denominations.
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