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The sound of bronze bells from 3,000 years ago
Updated: Mar 30, 2022
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In the Western world, when the orchestra strikes up its first song, a formal occasion starts. Almost 3,000 years ago in China, the noble class also recruited a band to liven up their parties. One of their instruments is a set of bells of Wangsun Gao. They are percussion musical instruments excavated from a tomb in Xichuan, Central China’s Henan province in 1978 and now in the permanent collection of the Henan Museum.
It is a set of 26 clapperless bronze bells, all of which are inscribed with ancient Chinese characters. They are designed in the same shape but in gradual sizes to produce varied chords.
