Standing bell
A standing bell or resting bell is an inverted bell, supported from below with the rim uppermost. Such bells are normally bowl-shaped, and exist in a wide range of sizes, from a few centimetres to a metre in diameter. They are often played by striking, but some—known as singing bowls—may also be played by rotating a suede covered mallet around the outside rim to produce a sustained musical note.
Struck bowls are used in some Buddhist religious practices to accompany periods of meditation and chanting. Struck and singing bowls are widely used for music making, meditation and relaxation, as well for personal spirituality. They have become popular with music therapists, sound healers and yoga practitioners.
Standing bells originated in China. An early form called nao took the shape of a stemmed goblet, mounted with rim uppermost, and struck on the outside with a mallet. The manufacture and use of bowls specifically for 'singing' is believed to be a modern phenomenon. Bowls that were capable of singing began to be imported to the West from around the early 1970s. Since then they have become a popular instrument in the US-originating new-age genre often marketed as 'Tibetan music'.
Nomenclature[edit]
Standing bells are known by a wide variety of terms in English, and are sometimes referred to as bowls, basins, cups or gongs. Specific terms include resting bell,[1] prayer bowl,[2] Buddha bowl,[3] Himalayan bowl,[4] Tibetan bell,[4] rin gong,[2] bowl gong[3] and cup gong.[2] A bell that is capable of producing a sustained musical note may be known as a singing bowl[4][3] or Tibetan singing bowl.[4]
Contemporary classical music scores use a variety of other names including temple bell, Buddha temple bell, Japanese temple bell, Buddhist bell, campana di templo and cup bell.[5]
In Japan, the name for a bell of the standing type varies between Buddhist sects. It may be called rin (りん),[6] kin (磬),[6][1] dobachi,[1] keisu,[6] kinsu (きんす),[6] sahari[6] or uchinarashi,[6][7] among other things.[6] Large temple bells are sometimes called daikin (大磬),[6] while small versions for a home altar are known as namarin.[6]
The Chinese term qing (磬, or historically 罄), which historically referred to a lithophone used in state rituals, has more recently been applied to this type of standing bell.[8] Early Chinese standing bells are called nao[9] (traditional Chinese: 鐃; simplified Chinese: 铙; pinyin: náo).
Manufacture and composition[edit]
Most standing bells are manufactured substantially of bell metal (an alloy of copper and tin), sometimes with impurities or additions, although variability can be inferred from the variety of alloy colours.[44] They are generally bowl-shaped, and exist in a wide variety of sizes, from a few centimetres to one metre in diameter.[1]
It is sometimes stated that singing bowls are 'traditionally' made of an alloy consisting of various metals, often seven, each associated with a heavenly body. Those commonly mentioned are gold, silver, mercury, copper, iron, tin and lead (or antimony).[45][17] This is said to be supported by the results of a 1996 analysis of two bowls by Concordia University, which found them to be essentially of bell metal with small quantities—consistent with impurities—of some of the other metals that were looked for, namely lead, zinc, iron and silver. No gold or mercury was found within the accuracy of the measuring apparatus.[46]
Singing bowls are also sometimes said to incorporate meteoritic iron.[17][45] Some modern 'crystal' bowls are made of re-formed crushed synthetic crystal.[17]
The usual manufacturing technique for standing bells was to cast the molten metal followed by hand-hammering into the required shape.[32] Modern bells/bowls may be made in that way, but may also be shaped by machine-lathing.
The finished article is sometimes decorated with an inscription such as a message of goodwill,[1] or with decorative motifs such as rings, stars, dots or leaves. Bowls from Nepal sometimes include an inscription in the Devanagari script.[47]
