Chris P. Thompson

Program Note

The 350 year-old practice of English “change ringing” involves a group of people ringing either hand-held bells or full-circle cathedral tower bells sequentially in mathematical permutations. The simplest of the change ringing methods is known as a “plain hunt.”

Can the sequences of pitches generated in this manner be called melodies? Or are they pure mathematics translated into sound?

Plain Hunt aims to explore the boundary between combinatorics and composition, and introduce the natural harmonic series to the vibraphone.