A Study On The Da-sheng-zhong Bells And The Standard Pitch In The Song Dynasty

The Da-sheng-zhong bells were designed and cast in the final Bei-song dynasty whileSong Hui Zong was on the throne. Tbe bells were widcly used in the royal activities in boththe Song dynasty and tbe Jin dynasty. As a kind of bronze instrument, the Da-sheng-zkonghave the character of Pitch-fixing musicaI instruments. Having recorded tbe original soundof tbe Song dynasty, the Da-sheng-zhong bells have offered very important basis for theresearcb of the standard pitch (named Huang-Zhong) in the Song dynasty.So far, twenty-five pieces of Da-sheng-zbong bcll have been excavated. They arc nowcolIected in te museams in Japen, and Canada and Chinese provinces, i.e. Liaoning, Hebei,Beijing, Henan, Shandoog, Shanxi, Hunan and Shanghai, as well as Taiwan. AIthoughdiffei'ences exist in these bclls in decoration and inscription, they have a reguIar logicaIrelation preserved reaI sound of the Song dynasty.Huang-zhong, the standard pitch study is an important subject in reseach of Chinesemusical history. Before tbe excavation, the study was mainly based on documents and thechief method was a reckoning of the length about musicaI rulcr(乐尺). Thc excavation of Daskeng-zhong bells has provided both new historic materials and metbod for the study of thestandard pitch in thc Song dynasty.According to the study of historic documentals, there were surely three new standardPitches, made and used in the musical activties in the Song dynasty. They were Tai-changlu(太常律) in the earIy stage, Jiao-fang-lu(教坊律)in the middle period and Da-sheng-lu(大晟)in tbe final Bei-Song dynasty. As a result of the study of Da-sheng-zhong's musicalfurction,tbe range of tbe three standard pitch are 8imilar to thc ~be~1～e~1, ~#c~l～d~1 and b～c~1 ofmodern staudard (a~1 =440Hz ), but a bit higher.