In the British Museum, a special musical instrument is on display, which is the phoenix head basket excavated in ancient Egypt. Although it was strange in appearance, it was badly damaged, and it was not until experts restored it that they heard its unique sound. What exactly does the sound of the hoops sound? If you want to know, let Xiaobian reveal the secret for you:
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The British Museum, also known as the British Museum, is located in Russell Square, north of New Oxford Street in London, England, and is the oldest and most magnificent comprehensive museum in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1753 and officially opened to the public six years later, the British Museum is hailed as one of the world's largest and most famous museums. The British Museum's collection of artefacts, including those from around the world, is a rarity and variety of objects in the world. According to statistics, the British Museum now has more than 8 million pieces of collection, but due to space constraints, most of the cultural relics still do not have the opportunity to meet visitors.
Among the various artifacts on display in the British Museum, one is very special, which is a hoop excavated in ancient Egypt. The whole of the basket is vertical, with beams under the curved wood, five metal strings tightly tied in the middle part, and most importantly, just in the first half of the basket, there is a vivid female head, which is believed to be the cheek of the queen of ancient Egypt, so it is also known as the phoenix head of the hoop. Unfortunately, although the phoenix head was unearthed and maintained its general appearance, the body of the basket has cracked, the strings have rusted, and it can no longer play a beautiful and beautiful music.
The hoop was an instrument invented by the ancient Egyptians, but its prevalence was not in ancient Egypt, but in ancient China. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty opened up the Silk Road, the Zhen Zhen was introduced to the mainland from Egypt through the Western Regions and became one of the important musical instruments in the ancient court of the mainland. In ancient mainland china, civilians were not qualified to listen to the playing of the basket. At that time, there was a rule that the musicians who played the hoop could only play for the emperor, and that others who wanted to listen to a piece of the hoop were guilty of losing their heads. Of course, the eunuch palace ladies were also very curious about court music, but if they wanted to see this magical instrument, they could only secretly open the curtain to watch, and the hoop had become the exclusive instrument of the royal members. However, with the change of dynasties, wars would sweep through the Central Plains from time to time, and the musicians continued to die of illness or be killed by rebels in the process of fleeing. When the baskets lose the musicians who play them, they become dumb.
By the late 14th century, the hoops had disappeared from the court bands, and posterity remembering them could only see some of the motifs on previous frescoes and reliefs. According to archaeological records, in the Sui Dynasty's "Book of Music", there were paintings of various forms of baskets that existed at that time, but after the Ming Dynasty, the figures of the baskets in the history books became less and less, and they could basically be identified as lost. As an ancient and mysterious musical instrument, the zhenzheng has aroused great interest from modern music experts, and many music experts have devoted themselves to it, trying to restore the original face of the zhenzheng and let the sound of the zhenzheng resound once again in the land of China.
Since the 1950s, Chinese musicians and instrument makers have carried out a lot of research work. Master Huang, who made the violin, devoted his life's efforts to the research and development of antique hoops, and finally successfully restored the five strings of the hoop. Master Huang's restored basket can not only be played, but also can be composed independently, and is known as an antique basket. Although the restored basket only has five strings and the playing technique is relatively monotonous, when playing, the tone of this basket is more beautiful, and it is no wonder that the ancient kings were fascinated and admired by it.
Master Huang continued to work the basis of the five-string fence, he also designed a multi-string basket, which can emit a pure and elegant sound, just like the sound of the phoenix, with its touching unique charm, which has attracted countless modern poets to fall for it, and does not hesitate to praise it: it really spans thousands of years, and it is worthy of the beautiful sound that only the royal and the emperor can hear. Master Huang said that although the number of strings in his restoration has increased compared with the ancient zhen zhen, the pronunciation of the five strings of the ancient zhen zhen is included in it, and the five tones of gong, shang, horn, sign and feather are not bad at all.
That is to say, although the sound quality and timbre of modern Zhenzheng are more complex than those of ancient Zhenzheng, the most basic five tones of Gong, Shang, Horn, Zheng, and Yu have not changed, and in the complex performance of modern Zhenzheng, the most basic sound of ancient five-string zhenzheng has been included.
After that, many music experts began to specialize in the production and debugging of the basket, making the basket more inclusive and cosmopolitan. At present, the instrument experts have copied the basket, which has a lot of similarities with the Western instrument harp, not only increasing the number of strings to 72, but also playing two melodies at the same time. At the same time, zhenzhen also has its own unique way of playing, including kneading, pressing, pressing, sliding and other extinctions, which can really be described as a song, a glass of wine, and the past years cannot be traced.
We believe that compared with the ancient five-string hoop, the music played by the modern hoop must be more beautiful, after all, the reason why the five-string hoop has declined may also be related to the monotony of its sound. Speaking of this, we can't help but feel fortunate that in ancient times, zhenzheng was imperial music, and ordinary people were difficult to hear for a lifetime, but now we can watch zhenzheng play at will, which is not a kind of happiness?
References: "Zhen Zhen Man Talk" zhang Weiwei published by Zhengzhou Music Publishing House
Wen xiucai, editor-in-chief of Wenlan Hairun Studio, written by: Special history writer: Changshan Zhao Zi worm