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Source Description
From around 2000 BCE onward, bronze bells have been an essential component of musical instrument ensembles in China. This bronze bell was cast during the reign of the Huizong emperor (1100–26). Huizong sought to bring ritual court music into accordance with ancient standards. New sets of bells, like this example, were thus cast and modeled after a newly excavated ancient set of bells. On this bell, the name of the pitch was engraved on one side and characters reading “Bureau of Music” (Yuefu) on the other. The Bureau of Music was established in the 1st century BCE by the emperor of the time for the purposes of collecting music, overseeing court performances, hiring musicians, and standardizing pitch.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
5546
label
Bell
core
obj
dtoType
object
citationUrl
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
5546
sourceUrl
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Bell
description
From around 2000 BCE onward, bronze bells have been an essential component of musical instrument ensembles in China. This bronze bell was cast during the reign of the Huizong emperor (1100–26). Huizong sought to bring ritual court music into accordance with ancient standards. New sets of bells, like this example, were thus cast and modeled after a newly excavated ancient set of bells. On this bell, the name of the pitch was engraved on one side and characters reading “Bureau of Music” (Yuefu) on the other. The Bureau of Music was established in the 1st century BCE by the emperor of the time for the purposes of collecting music, overseeing court performances, hiring musicians, and standardizing pitch.
provenance
Ferguson Sale, American Art Association, April 7, 1916; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1916, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1105 (Song dynasty)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Metal
chung
bells
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
25.1
height
17.9
depth
17.3
dimensionsRaw
H: 9 7/8 × W: 7 1/16 × D: 6 13/16 in. (25.1 × 17.9 × 17.3 cm)
Source extras
cul
Chinese
inscriptions
[Translation] Bureau of Music
dynasty
Song dynasty
med
bronze
creator_ids
6238
collection_ids
CHN
exhibition_ids
none
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
73c8c2e8e8d7b6ee
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
af078200cda5109b
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no