&sq=Facebook&lang=en&file=File:Zang-e_zurchaneh.jpg) Zang-e zurchaneh, bells used in Zurchaneh power house, Iran | |
| Percussion instrument | |
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| Other names |
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| Classification | percussion, idiophones |
| Hornbostel–Sachs classification | 111.242 (Idiophones primarily produce their sounds by means of the actual body of the instrument vibrating; Directly struck idiophones (111) The player executes the movement of striking; 111.2 Percussion idiophones – The instrument is struck either with a non-sonorous object (hand, stick, striker) or against a non-sonorous object (human body, the ground); 11.24 Percussion vessels; 111.242 Bells – The vibration is weakest near the vertex) |
| Developed | Bells developed originally in China. They spread and also developed locally in other locations. |
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Zang (Persian: زنگ) means bell in Persian, for both large bells and small. The term has historically been applied to a number of ringing metal musical instruments, including large bells with clappers worn by elephants, smaller 3-9 inch bells worn on camels, horses, donkeys and cattle, 2-3 inch sheep bells, and tiny bells tied to the legs of hawks. It also applies to clusters of small bells worn by musicians and dancers, sewn onto cloth bracelets and anklets, or laced on a long string to be wrapped around the waist or hung as a necklace.
Additionally, the name in many forms has been applied to cymbals, especially small finger cymbals (Persian: sanj angshati سنج انگشتی) used by dancers, known worldwide today as zills, but also to some larger cymbals including the Iranian sanj or Iraqi zanj.
That cymbals and bells have been differentiated in Persian can be seen in the Shahnameh which refers to both instruments together:[1]
His elephant-attendants' crowns of gold, Their golden girdles and their golden torques, Their golden Sanj (cymbals) and their golden Zang (bells)... --Ferdowsky, Shahnameh, text number 7.
- ^ Abolqasem Ferdowski (2016). "Ardeshir's War Against Ardavan; Ardavan Is Killed". Shahnameh. Translated by Dick Davis. New York: Penguin Books. ISBN 9781101993231.
and the columns resounded with the blare of trumpets and bugles, the jangling of bells, and the clashing of Indian cymbals... The bells on the animals and the clatter of their progress made a noise like the trumpets of Tahmures; the whole plain was filled with their din until they reached the town...