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"The Classic of Mountains and Seas" records an ancient myth that says: Emperor Yan's grandson Boling and Wu Quan's wife were connected with each other, and the wife was pregnant for three years and gave birth to three children, named Gu, Yan and Shou respectively.
Among them, Drums and Yeons were both musically talented, and they created a percussion instrument called "bell", which has since created a generation of musical styles.
In fact, the first person to invent the bell in Chinese history still needs to be verified whether it is a drum and a yan, but in ancient times, bell percussion instruments did exist, so what is going on?
【▶> Pre-Qin Chime Tuning Status <◀】
With the development of the times and the progress of technology, in the long-term exploration and practice, the pre-Qin musicians made exquisite ceremonial musical instruments - chimes.
As a ceremonial musical instrument, the chime can play a role in consolidating the royal power and deterring the government and the opposition on the one hand, and on the other hand, it can play moving music and feast guests, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone, and it is not an exaggeration to say that it can be compared with the four major inventions.
Since the twentieth century, a large number of inscriptions on bell instruments have been unearthed, which can be seen that the ancient aristocracy attached great importance to bell instruments, and many bells are engraved with the inscription "descendants will always use them", which can feel the rarity of bell instruments, and also shows the noble identity of the user.
"Forever used" not only reflects the preciousness of the chime in the society at that time, but also entrusts the ancient aristocracy with the vision of the generations to be precious, and the traces of the tuning and polishing of the pre-Qin music bell should be started from the Western Zhou Dynasty or earlier......
According to the preliminary statistics of the "Overview of the Excavation of Ancient Chinese Musical Instruments", "The Great Collection of Chinese Music and Cultural Relics", and about 500 pre-Qin excavated cultural relics since the 20th century.
In the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period, and the Warring States Period, there were a total of 161 cases of music clocks with tuning traces, and the three periods were: 53, 70, and 38 cases respectively.
The unearthed 161 cases of cultural relics in the tuning traces are mainly divided into two categories, mainly sound tunnel-like depressions and beam-like protrusions, after combing the collected 161 cases of music clocks according to the period, it is not difficult for us to find that the specific period has different characteristics, so what is going on?
[▶> Western Zhou Dynasty <◀]
A total of 53 cases of music clocks in the Western Zhou Dynasty had traces of tuning and filing, of which 52 cases of tuning and grinding were all in the shape of a sound tunnel, and only one of the tuning traces was in the shape of a sound beam, and the tunnel-like grooves were 1~9, which were distributed at the front and side drums and the angles of two milling.
Among them, there are 17 cases of music clocks with 8 sound tunnels and symmetrical shapes, 14 pieces of Jin Hou bells are the earliest music clocks with tuning file traces seen at present, and in addition, the button bell era of Guojiamiao Zengguo cemetery is 8 sound tunnels from the late Western Zhou Dynasty to the early Spring and Autumn Period.
It can be seen that the evolution of sound tunnels over time has formed a paradigm of symmetrical distribution based on even numbers in the late Western Zhou Dynasty, which is manifested in the tuning mode of four, six and eight tones, which is also concretely manifested in the music bells of the Spring and Autumn Period.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, a total of 70 music clocks had tuning and filing traces, of which 32 cases had clear tuning traces and 18 cases of symmetrical distribution of music clocks with clear tuning traces and sound tunnel-like grooves, and 32 cases of middle tuning files and grinding traces were even-numbered.
Among them, the five pieces of Qin Gong bell era for the early Spring and Autumn Period, the five pieces of music bell in the inner wall of the bell have eight tunnels, the front and rear wall of the front and side drums are three, two milling each one, the propylene and the same a, is the earliest example of the Spring and Autumn period with the traces of sound tunnel-like tuning.
The era of the Gonghua bell is the late Spring and Autumn Period, and there are six tuning grooves on the inner walls of the bell body on both sides, which can be seen from the early Western Zhou Dynasty to the late Spring and Autumn Period, although the sound ridge and sound beam tuning have risen.
However, the long-standing Xi way of thinking of musicians has not completely changed, and the even-numbered, symmetrical tone tunnel-like tuning mode adopted in the early Western Zhou Dynasty has continued with the emerging tuning mode.
The common sound beam form in the Spring and Autumn Period, there are semi-cylindrical, table-shaped, ridge-shaped, etc., and there is only one case of the sound beam music clock in the Western Zhou Dynasty - the Wuchang Mutouling bell.
In the Spring and Autumn Period, there are a total of 20 pieces of music bells with sound beams, these 20 pieces of music bells have different shapes, mainly beam-shaped, and there are also different forms such as ridge-shaped, plateau-shaped, ridge-shaped, etc., among which the sound of the sound beam-like tuning mode is only seen in one case, and there are nine pieces of bells in the tomb of Caihou in Shou County in the late Spring and Autumn Period.
There are raised rectangular sound towers on the front and back sides of the inner wall of each bell, which account for 5% of the 20 music clocks with volume in the spring and autumn periods, but what about after the spring and autumn periods?
【▶> Rise and Fall of Double Music Clocks< ◀
During the Warring States period, a total of 38 music clocks had traces of tuning and filing, and 24 of them had a beam-like tuning mode.
In addition to the continuation of the sound tunnel and sound beam tuning modes before the Warring States period, Legong also subdivided unique tuning modes in terms of sound beams, such as square toothed tone beam tuning and semi-cylindrical tone beam tuning.
During the Warring States period, a total of eight music bell tuning patterns were tunnel-like depressions, and the sound tunnels continued the previous development during the Warring States period, with symmetry and even-numbered arrangement.
According to the collation, the number of music clocks showing traces of tuning in the Warring States period has increased compared with the previous ones, and a total of 6 of the 38 music clocks have a square protrusion in the shape of the sound plateau, which are Yuefu Bell, Pan Dragon Pattern Clock, Diamond Dragon Pattern Button Clock, and Diamond Dragon Pattern Button Clock.
In the process of exploring and practicing a lot of bell instruments, musicians in the pre-Qin period found that the composite tile body was the most suitable instrument shape.
It can sound loud and the aftersound is appropriate, so finally the chime establishes the shape of an elliptical shell, that is, the tile body, and the belly line of the drum syllable line on the front side of the chime is 45 degrees, so that the front and side drums of the shell chime can emit a consonant interval three degrees apart.
As the most cutting-edge technology of the pre-Qin Dynasty, bronze manufacturing technology shows the profound wisdom of ancient musicians, and the appearance of one bell and two tones is of great significance both in theory and practice, attracting ancient and modern scholars to continue to explore.
At present, the bell with the form of two tones is the bell of the Marquis of Jin in the period of King Li of the Western Zhou Dynasty, a total of 14 bells of the Marquis of Jin, except for the first piece of damage and failure to carry out good sound measurement, the remaining 13 pieces of music bells can emit the sound of the drum on the front and side three degrees apart.
In the Han Dynasty, the long sound beam and the plate-shaped sound beam were replaced by wedges, and even the Xuyi chime appeared invalid tuning "welding", and the double tone of one bell began to decline, and the rhythm of the music bell was no longer complete.
The tuning technology of the music bell complements each other with the two-tone function, and its generation, development, peak, and decline are traceable, and the rise and fall of the two-tone clock can be glimpsed through the combing of the tuning traces of the pre-Qin music clock.
So, with the development of the times, what music clocks will appear next?
【▶> Acoustic Connotation of Chimes <◀】
Chinese chimes are also called "flat bells", which are very different from Western round bells, and different parts of the chimes have their own naming methods, such as: cymbals, drums, side drums, dance parts, etc.
The part that affects the pronunciation of the chime is concentrated in the main drum and the side drum, collectively referred to as the drum part, and the drum part has two phonemes, namely the main drum phoneme and the side (side) drum phoneme.
The two tones of the two-tone bell, one in the main drum and one in the side drum, will be struck at different positions of the bell body will produce the positive side drum interval three degrees apart, and most of the side drum parts of the two-tone bell body are ornamented.
Such as: phoenix bird pattern, cloud pattern, etc., in order to show its two-tone function, in the early stage of the development of the music clock, the chime tuning form presents a tunnel.
The chime sound tunnel has considerable symmetry, in which eight sound tunnels are symmetrically distributed in the front and side drums, generally three in the front and rear wall and one in the front and back walls, and one in each of the two milling.
At the same time, the vibration mode of the chime is also symmetrical, and the distribution of the chime section line according to the experimental mapping is consistent with the distribution of the sound tunnel.
The syllables of the main drum and the side drums are all four, and they are interrelated due to their intersections.
The difference between the base syllables of the drum sound on the side of the drum is 45 degrees, which plays a role in isolating and ensuring the stability of the drum sound on the front side.
According to this characteristic, ancient musicians made many attempts to sharpen the traces of tuning, resulting in different tuning techniques.
For example, the purpose of filing and chiseling is to grasp the pitch more accurately on the basis of conforming to the acoustic characteristics of the bell, so as to form an accurate two-tone interval.
From the establishment of the form to the maturity of the traces of tuning and tempering, it projects the profound wisdom of the pre-Qin musicians and the long Chinese civilization, and the mysteries are worthy of continuous exploration by future generations.
The tuning and grinding of pre-Qin music clocks showed different forms in different historical periods, and the music clocks in each period showed different traces of tuning and filing.
However, the development of the two-tone bell continued from the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Han Dynasty, which is inseparable from the evolution process of the tuning and filing of the music clock.
For the combing of the tuning of the pre-Qin music clock, we can start from the tuning methods of the music clocks unearthed in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and specifically analyze the traces of tuning filing.
Combined with the social background, political system, regional characteristics and other aspects of the time, the evolution of the tuning method of the music clock and the transformation process were analyzed from multiple perspectives.
Scholars can make a historical judgment on the transformation process of the tuning of music clocks at each stage, so as to construct the development context of pre-Qin music bell tuning, and further analyze the reasons behind the rise and fall of the two-tone phenomenon.
The appearance of the two-tone bell does not have any historical accident, reflects the high-level thinking and practice of theory, and shows the level of acoustics and manufacturing of pre-Qin musicians.
Western music clocks have only been able to produce a single tone, but as early as the 10th century B.C., the mainland has already produced two-tone bells, which has the significance of enhancing cultural self-confidence today.
The development of music is inseparable from the spread of regional culture and the progress of laws, whether it is music theory or music performance, in the details can get a glimpse of the country's development status, as well as the people's aesthetic way of thinking.
In the new historical stage, looking back on the traces of chime tuning and the development process of two-tone bells, we can not only feel the heavy historical precipitation of Chinese civilization, but also better grasp the development of music in the new era, which can be described as killing two birds with one stone.