Double Bell

Unknown

mid 19th–early 20th century · Wood · Musical Instruments

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.

Artist

Unknown

Date

mid 19th–early 20th century

Medium

Wood

Culture

Gabonese

Department

Musical Instruments

Credit line

The Crosby Brown Collection of Musical Instruments, 1889