Wellington Combined Society of Bellringers

COMPOSITEUR(Composition Program)

Compositeur is designed by Edwin Hermann. It allows compositions for touches of single methods to be generated.


To access Compositeur click here: COMPOSITEUR


Compositeur opens with a settings page.

Select your method's stage in the top box. There is a drop down menu.

If you know the name of your method enter it in the Name box. If the name matches methods in the Central Council library a drop down list will show. Select the method you want. If a drop down does not appear there is no method with that name in the library.

If you have selected a method from the library, the Notation, Bob and Single boxes are automatically filled. The bobs and singles are 'standard'. If you want different bobs and/or singles, alter the notation in the boxes. If your method is not in the library, you must fill in the Notation, Bob and Single boxes yourself. The notation is in the form -16-16-16,12.

Enter the length of touch you want in the Length box. If you enter a length that is not possible for your method the program will prompt you with suggestions for valid lengths.

You can dramatically reduce the number of results (and therefore the search time) by specifying either a maximum number of calls, or separately the maximum number of bobs and/or singles. This is advisable with stages above minor.

By putting 0 in the Max cross tenors box you can avoid 65s, 87s, T9s etc at backstroke. This also reduces the number of compositions and the search time.

The "Minimise on" feature in Compositeur acts as a "sinking lid". So if you specify "minimise on number of crossed tenors", it'll identify the number of crossed tenors in the first result, and set that as the maximum. Any subsequent compositions with a greater number of crossed tenors are skipped. As it finds compositions with fewer crossed tenors, that number becomes the new maximum. This "sinking lid" has a narrowing effect, and therefore the algorithm gets faster and faster. It's useful if you're not sure whether or not any combinations exist without crossed tenors but still interested in finding compositions with crossed tenors if none exist without.

You can see an example of the use of Compositeur in the Ringing World, No. 5758, 3 September 2021, pp 810-811.