Fabian Stedman
Encyclopedia
Fabian Stedman was a leading figure in campanology
and bell-ringing. His two books Tintinnalogia (1668) and Campanalogia (1677) are the first two publications on the subject, and introduce the idea of change ringing
.
Early Life
Fabian Stedman was the second son to Reverend Francis Stedman. Francis Stedman was born in Aston Munslow, Shropshire in 1598. He took Holy Orders in 1625 at the parish of Yarkhill, Herefordshire in 1625. Francis had seven Children by two wives. The Eldest was Francis Junior who followed his father and became Rector of the parish of Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire in 1660. Fabian Stedman was born in 1640 and baptised at Yarkhill Church on the 7th of December of that year. Fabian being second son to the Rector followed a different profession. At the age of 15 he went to London to learn the trade of master printing. He was apprentise to Daniel Pakeman. While in London he became the well known bellringer.
Fabian Stedman and the Father of Change Ringing
While in London Fabian became a member of the Scholars of Cheapside, a society of ringing that practised at St Mary-le-Bow; the famous great bell of Bow from the Nursary rymthme. He acted as their treasurer in 1662. It seems the society disbanded and he then applied to be a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths. The College Youths accepted him in 1664 at the age of 23.
The First book on the art of change ringing
Fabian Stedman acted as publisher to the first book on change ringing called Tintinnalogia. This book was a joint effort with Richard Duckworth. Duckworth supplied much of the content while Fabian complied and completed the book. The book was published in 1667 and is seemed to of been very popular as a second print was followed a year later. Campanalogia was written solely by Fabian in 1677 and this was also the year he became steard to the College Youths. In 1682 Fabian became the Master of the College Youths.
Fabian later life
Fabian Stedman latter life is little known other than it seems to of not involved ringing. He changed jobs and became auitor to customs & exercise for the crown. He wrote his will in 17th of October 1713 and died later that year and was parish at St Andrews Undershaft London.
Fabian Stedman legacy
On the first page of Tintinnalogia are the words that is written, "by a lover of that art" F. Stedman. Fabian will be remembered for his principle, (piece of bell ringing music) that is commonly rung as much as in the 17th century as it is today. Stedman Doubles to Cinques is often rung in every parish church in the British Isles and the old Empire where the art is still rung.
Information on English Change Ringing.
Bells in English churches, though very carefully tuned in the diatonic (major) scale, are not used for tunes: they are rung in 'changes'. If (to take a very simple example) a church has five bells in the key of C they will be numbered 1-2-3-4-5, 1, called the treble and having the highest note, (in this case G) and 5, the tenor, having the lowest - the keynote, C. If rung in order downwards they are said to be ringing 'rounds.' If the order changes according to a predetermined pattern, they are ringing changes - hence the activity of church bell ringing is usually simply known as change-ringing.
Because a bell's swing takes a determinate time which cannot be much altered by the ringer, changes can be produced only by a bell exchanging places with one next to it in the order. For instance, starting from rounds (12345) no. 3 can step down towards the front and move into 2nd place by exchanging with 2 to give 13245 or up to fourth place by exchanging with 4 to give 12435. Until Stedman's time changes were produced by exchanging only one pair of bells at a time, in this manner. The aim (remember that in the early days there were never more than 5 bells in one tower) was to start from rounds, produce every possible change (an 'extent') once and once only, finishing again with rounds. This is quite possible changing only one pair at a time (plain changes) but can be boring for ringers whose bells do not change position for many blows together.
Stedman's achievement was to develop methods - then known as 'cross-changes' - which could produce an extent (i.e. all possible changes) by changing more than one pair of bells at a time. For instance, starting with rounds on 5 bells (12345) one might move to 21354 then to 23145 and so on. The aim of producing an extent without repeating a change apart from rounds at the start and finish could now be realised more artistically and with more interest for the ringers.
As more bells were added to towers Stedman's methods were adapted to higher numbers. Since the number of possible changes varies as the factorial of the number of bells, it became impractical to ring extents on numbers above 7 (the extent on 10 bells would take around 3 months) any performance of 5,000 (approximately 7!) changes or above became recognised as a peal, but still with the traditional restrictions that no change may be repeated and that a bell may exchange only with one adjacent in the row. Nowadays many hundreds of methods are practised; all, in some degree, owe a debt to Stedman's pioneering work which has value as well in mathematics (group theory) as in the more limited field of bell-ringing.
Campanology
Campanology is the study of bells. It encompasses the physical realities of bells — how they are cast, tuned and sounded — as well as the various methods devised to perform bell-ringing....
and bell-ringing. His two books Tintinnalogia (1668) and Campanalogia (1677) are the first two publications on the subject, and introduce the idea of change ringing
Change ringing
Change ringing is the art of ringing a set of tuned bells in a series of mathematical patterns called "changes". It differs from many other forms of campanology in that no attempt is made to produce a conventional melody....
.
Early Life
Fabian Stedman was the second son to Reverend Francis Stedman. Francis Stedman was born in Aston Munslow, Shropshire in 1598. He took Holy Orders in 1625 at the parish of Yarkhill, Herefordshire in 1625. Francis had seven Children by two wives. The Eldest was Francis Junior who followed his father and became Rector of the parish of Stoke Lacy, Herefordshire in 1660. Fabian Stedman was born in 1640 and baptised at Yarkhill Church on the 7th of December of that year. Fabian being second son to the Rector followed a different profession. At the age of 15 he went to London to learn the trade of master printing. He was apprentise to Daniel Pakeman. While in London he became the well known bellringer.
Fabian Stedman and the Father of Change Ringing
While in London Fabian became a member of the Scholars of Cheapside, a society of ringing that practised at St Mary-le-Bow; the famous great bell of Bow from the Nursary rymthme. He acted as their treasurer in 1662. It seems the society disbanded and he then applied to be a member of the Ancient Society of College Youths. The College Youths accepted him in 1664 at the age of 23.
The First book on the art of change ringing
Fabian Stedman acted as publisher to the first book on change ringing called Tintinnalogia. This book was a joint effort with Richard Duckworth. Duckworth supplied much of the content while Fabian complied and completed the book. The book was published in 1667 and is seemed to of been very popular as a second print was followed a year later. Campanalogia was written solely by Fabian in 1677 and this was also the year he became steard to the College Youths. In 1682 Fabian became the Master of the College Youths.
Fabian later life
Fabian Stedman latter life is little known other than it seems to of not involved ringing. He changed jobs and became auitor to customs & exercise for the crown. He wrote his will in 17th of October 1713 and died later that year and was parish at St Andrews Undershaft London.
Fabian Stedman legacy
On the first page of Tintinnalogia are the words that is written, "by a lover of that art" F. Stedman. Fabian will be remembered for his principle, (piece of bell ringing music) that is commonly rung as much as in the 17th century as it is today. Stedman Doubles to Cinques is often rung in every parish church in the British Isles and the old Empire where the art is still rung.
Information on English Change Ringing.
Bells in English churches, though very carefully tuned in the diatonic (major) scale, are not used for tunes: they are rung in 'changes'. If (to take a very simple example) a church has five bells in the key of C they will be numbered 1-2-3-4-5, 1, called the treble and having the highest note, (in this case G) and 5, the tenor, having the lowest - the keynote, C. If rung in order downwards they are said to be ringing 'rounds.' If the order changes according to a predetermined pattern, they are ringing changes - hence the activity of church bell ringing is usually simply known as change-ringing.
Because a bell's swing takes a determinate time which cannot be much altered by the ringer, changes can be produced only by a bell exchanging places with one next to it in the order. For instance, starting from rounds (12345) no. 3 can step down towards the front and move into 2nd place by exchanging with 2 to give 13245 or up to fourth place by exchanging with 4 to give 12435. Until Stedman's time changes were produced by exchanging only one pair of bells at a time, in this manner. The aim (remember that in the early days there were never more than 5 bells in one tower) was to start from rounds, produce every possible change (an 'extent') once and once only, finishing again with rounds. This is quite possible changing only one pair at a time (plain changes) but can be boring for ringers whose bells do not change position for many blows together.
Stedman's achievement was to develop methods - then known as 'cross-changes' - which could produce an extent (i.e. all possible changes) by changing more than one pair of bells at a time. For instance, starting with rounds on 5 bells (12345) one might move to 21354 then to 23145 and so on. The aim of producing an extent without repeating a change apart from rounds at the start and finish could now be realised more artistically and with more interest for the ringers.
As more bells were added to towers Stedman's methods were adapted to higher numbers. Since the number of possible changes varies as the factorial of the number of bells, it became impractical to ring extents on numbers above 7 (the extent on 10 bells would take around 3 months) any performance of 5,000 (approximately 7!) changes or above became recognised as a peal, but still with the traditional restrictions that no change may be repeated and that a bell may exchange only with one adjacent in the row. Nowadays many hundreds of methods are practised; all, in some degree, owe a debt to Stedman's pioneering work which has value as well in mathematics (group theory) as in the more limited field of bell-ringing.