Double Bell
Double bells with two clappers in each bell. The pyro-engraved designs decorating this bell also appears as woven or stamped designs on West African textiles.
Instruments made of sonorous materials (idiophones) comprises the largest and most widespread type in sub-Sahara Africa. Names of identical instruments change from region to region. Some instruments and the music linked to them have traveled beyond the African homeland to North and South America and the Caribbean. Idiophones are sounded by shaking (rattle, sistrums), beating together (iron clappers), or striking (xylophones, slit gongs, bells). they reinforce the rhythmic foundation of a piece, provide a melodic line, signal by imitating spoken languages, or perform rhythmic, melodic and communicative roles simultaneously.
Instruments made of sonorous materials (idiophones) comprises the largest and most widespread type in sub-Sahara Africa. Names of identical instruments change from region to region. Some instruments and the music linked to them have traveled beyond the African homeland to North and South America and the Caribbean. Idiophones are sounded by shaking (rattle, sistrums), beating together (iron clappers), or striking (xylophones, slit gongs, bells). they reinforce the rhythmic foundation of a piece, provide a melodic line, signal by imitating spoken languages, or perform rhythmic, melodic and communicative roles simultaneously.
Artwork Details
- Title: Double Bell
- Date: mid 19th–early 20th century
- Geography: Gabon
- Culture: Gabonese
- Medium: Wood
- Dimensions: 12 × 2 1/2 in. (30.5 × 6.4 cm)
- Classification: Idiophone-Shaken
- Credit Line: The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889
- Object Number: 10.50.1
- Curatorial Department: Musical Instruments
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