BELLS, BOWLS, and GONGS — charter members of the struck idiophone family of resonant percussion.
BELLS originated in Neolithic China in the 3rd millennium BC. They were made of bronze, glass, ceramic, or minerals like quartz with a crystalline molecular structure. When formed into a circular cup shape and struck, bells produce a pitched tone and harmonics, which fade away slowly. Mechanical resonance gives bells their characteristic ringing sound.
GONGS are another member of the resonant percussion family from East and Southeast Asia. Suspended gongs are flat circles that produce clouds of sound without a central pitch; bossed gongs have a raised center, and are tuned to produce pitched tones.
BOWLS or more accurately bowl gongs, are both; they start as a flat circle like a gong, and are then bent into a bowl shape like a bell. They also produce a pitched tone and are often called singing bowls.
So much for the physics — the real mystery is the metaphysics. For millennia, these simple instruments have been used for ritual and ceremony, religious services, meditation and contemplative experience. Today there's a quiet boom in subtle, psychoactive sound, with hundreds of dedicated artists creating "deep listening" concerts, "sound baths," and recordings. On this transmission of Hearts of Space, the wintry tones of bells, bowls and gongs, on a program called MYSTIC METALS 2.
Music is by JARGUNA, HANS CHRISTIAN, KARMA MOFFET, SATORIO, SHAWN FEENEY, SCOTT LAWLOR, and THE LOVELY MOON.
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