Abstract
Traditional Chinese chimes can be traced back to the Shang dynasty (1600-1100 BC). In addition to their importance to history and metallurgy, they provide much insight into the design of ancient musical instruments and continue to provide inspiration in acoustics. These musical bells differ from European carillon and church bells and from Asian temple bells by their almond-shaped cross sections and by their varying internal surface profile for tuning purposes. This paper reviews the modal characteristics of individual chimes and focuses on the frequency relationship and tonal quality of the chimes as an entire set. The results shed some light on our understanding of the musical scales and sound balance principles in bell acoustics that might be recognized in ancient times.
| Original language | English |
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| Title of host publication | Proceedings of the 21st International Congress on Sound and Vibration 2014, ICSV 2014 |
| Publisher | International Institute of Acoustics and Vibration |
| Pages | 1-15 |
| Volume | 1 |
| ISBN (Print) | 9781634392389 |
| Publication status | Published - 2014 |
| Event | Acoustics of ancient Chinese chimes - Beijing, China Duration: 1 Jan 2014 → … |
Conference
| Conference | Acoustics of ancient Chinese chimes |
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| Period | 1/01/14 → … |