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Descriptif du lot
Bells of this type were made in graduated sizes to form a set, as illustrated with this impressive set. Each bell, when struck at two different points near the mouth, produced two distinct tones.
Music occupied an important position in the ritual and court life of ancient China. Representations of musicians playing string, wind, and percussion instruments appear in a wide range of media, from wood and pottery figures of the Han through Tang dynasties to the decoration of Eastern Zhou bronzes. A group of wooden musicians with stringed and wind instruments, excavated from the 2nd century BC tomb at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, is illustrated in Music in the Age of Confucius, ed. J. So, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 19, fig. 1.6. Musicians playing a set of bells and stone chimes are also depicted on the decoration of a bronze fanghu dated to the Warring States period, sold at Christie's New York, 25 March 2022, lot 719. (Fig. 1)
The extraordinary discovery in 1977 of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng 曾侯乙墓, which contained an intact set of sixty-five bronze bells together with a set of stone chimes, transformed the modern understanding of ancient Chinese musical culture. The Marquis Yi bells remain the largest, most complete, and best-preserved ancient bell-chime ensemble yet discovered, remarkable not only for their scale but also for their musical range and sophisticated tuning system. Their discovery demonstrated that by the 5th century BC, during the late Spring and Autumn to early Warring States period, Chinese craftsmen and musicians had already developed an advanced understanding of pitch, tonal structure, and acoustic design, including the use of a seven-tone scale and the concept of fixed pitch.
As Robert Bagley notes in his chapter on percussion in the same volume, pp. 35-63, “no other instrument tells us so much about musical performance, music theory, and acoustic technology” in ancient China. Bagley further notes that sets of bells were “both aurally and visually the most prominent instruments of musical ensembles,” a tradition that appears to have been unique to China in the ancient world.
Music occupied an important position in the ritual and court life of ancient China. Representations of musicians playing string, wind, and percussion instruments appear in a wide range of media, from wood and pottery figures of the Han through Tang dynasties to the decoration of Eastern Zhou bronzes. A group of wooden musicians with stringed and wind instruments, excavated from the 2nd century BC tomb at Mawangdui, Changsha, Hunan province, is illustrated in Music in the Age of Confucius, ed. J. So, Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 19, fig. 1.6. Musicians playing a set of bells and stone chimes are also depicted on the decoration of a bronze fanghu dated to the Warring States period, sold at Christie's New York, 25 March 2022, lot 719. (Fig. 1)
The extraordinary discovery in 1977 of the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng 曾侯乙墓, which contained an intact set of sixty-five bronze bells together with a set of stone chimes, transformed the modern understanding of ancient Chinese musical culture. The Marquis Yi bells remain the largest, most complete, and best-preserved ancient bell-chime ensemble yet discovered, remarkable not only for their scale but also for their musical range and sophisticated tuning system. Their discovery demonstrated that by the 5th century BC, during the late Spring and Autumn to early Warring States period, Chinese craftsmen and musicians had already developed an advanced understanding of pitch, tonal structure, and acoustic design, including the use of a seven-tone scale and the concept of fixed pitch.
As Robert Bagley notes in his chapter on percussion in the same volume, pp. 35-63, “no other instrument tells us so much about musical performance, music theory, and acoustic technology” in ancient China. Bagley further notes that sets of bells were “both aurally and visually the most prominent instruments of musical ensembles,” a tradition that appears to have been unique to China in the ancient world.