Existing comment:
Symbols of Refinement
Chinese regional courts competed with one another on the battlefield and on the music stage. Dozens of bronze swords could have been made with the metal used to cast this massive bell. Weighing 138 pounds (62 kilograms), it is the largest in a set of four bells made to hang together from a rack. Musicians used mallets to strike bells on the outside. Accuracy was essential because each bell produces two different notes depending on where it is struck. Four bells in this set could thus produce eight deep bass notes. Watch the video for a large bo bell (with a distinctive flat bottom) being played near the center of the set.
Bell (bo) with birds and dragons; from a set of four
Shanxi province, State of Jin, Houma foundry
Eastern Zhou dynasty, late Spring and Autumn period, ca. 500–450 BCE |