After listening to this melodious knocking sound several times, I was very curious.
I tried turning the door handle, but it didn't lock.
Push the door open and enter.
The basement is very large, the light bulbs are not very bright, and there is a row of huge wooden shelves placed in the dark space.
Dozens of bronze chimes are hung on wooden frames. These chimes range from big to small, fat or thin.
A long-haired girl about 20 years old was hitting the chimes with a small wooden stick to test the sound. The old man kept shaking his head and pointing at the side.
"Godfather? Godfather?"
Perhaps the two of them were too engrossed and didn't notice that I had come in.
The girl who was ringing the chime stopped with the hammer in her hand. The godfather turned around and said, "Why are you here?"
"I'm here to give you rice, Baijiami." I raised the half bag of rice in my hand for him to look at.
"Just put it on the ground. Go out first. I know what happened between you and the meeting."
"Sir, you are so lucky. These clocks are very well made."
I have just noticed that the fifty or sixty bronze chimes hanging on the wooden frame are all imitations. The rust-colored decorations are all imitated very well. To an outsider, they might think they are old. The flaw is on the bell body.
Those golden inscriptions are so new that the golden light shows no signs of use.
Talking about this, the godfather was not in a hurry to send me away. He said with some pride: "That's right, these clocks are all my own sons. They are completely imitated by Zeng Hou Yi. There are 8 groups in total, with three floors.
, there are 12 long-breasted Yong bells and one Fu bell on the bottom floor, 33 large bells in the middle, and 19 Jiezhong bells on the top floor. I came to Handan many times, and it took me several years to find Master Xiang to make these."
"Ah? Master Xiang?"
Mr. Qian glared at me: "It's not you! It's Master Xiang Guang. He often collects bronze raw materials in Handan, so I asked him to do it."
I was shocked and thought, luckily it's not me, what the hell am I? It's time to become a master.
After chatting for a while, I learned some things.
You should all know about the chime bell of Marquis Yi of Zeng unearthed in Suizhou, right?
That set of bells was unearthed in Tomb No. 1 of Leigudun in 1978. It has been rung three times since it was unearthed.
The first time was when it was unearthed in 1978, and the archaeological team did a sound test. The second time was when Hubei held a cultural relics exhibition in 1979, and the third time was in 1997 to celebrate the return of Hong Kong Island.
Qian Lao heard Zeng Hou Yi's chimes played once at the Hubei Cultural Exhibition in 1979, and he has never forgotten it since then.
If he still wants to hear that kind of sound, unless he has his own way, he will definitely not be able to get the original. If he wants to get it, he can only copy it.
Since the discovery of this thing, the relevant departments have decided to copy it. It is reported that a total of 5 sets were copied in 40 years. The most perfect set of these five sets was made by Xiang Guang and his team in 2012.
Not many people know that there should be 6 sets of replicas of this thing.
In fact, Master Xiang had already started making replicas for Qian Lao 10 years ago.
A layman looks at the excitement, an expert looks at the doorway. According to my understanding, this set of chimes is difficult to make. Master Xiang often lives near Handan because there was a lot of urban construction in this place, and a large number of bronze arrowheads, weapons, and bronze swords appeared on the market.
Wait, and the price is affordable. A bronze arrowhead from the Warring States Period can be bought for only five or six yuan.
At that time, there were three big antique dealers in Handan, one named Liu in Wu'an, one named Zhang in Cishan Town, and one in a place called Guantao.
Master Xiang collected many cheap bronze fragments from them and smelted them
After repeated research on the clock body materials, it finally became the set that Mr. Qianye had, a total of 64 pieces, which took 7 years to complete.
Unfortunately this set of clocks is not perfect.
The last step is to set the tone. Only when each chime chimes twice can it be considered successful. However, one piece of the set cannot be tuned well, and the two-tone tone is always slightly different.
.
"Xiaomei, you are trying to unveil the bell on No. 7 on the upper floor." Ganye said.
Xiaomei is pretty, fair and good-looking, with a good figure. The key is that she has a good temperament for studying music.
Her real name was Zhou Mei, and she graduated from the Wuhan Conservatory of Music. She was two years older than me at the time. She was the granddaughter of an old friend of Uncle Qian, and she was also in love with Zeng Houyi's bells.
"Okay sir."
Xiaomei flipped up her long hair, took a deep breath, picked up the gavel, and struck the upper part of the No. 7 clock.
The sound of the bell was melodious and low, constantly echoing in the empty basement. The beautiful notes penetrated people's ears like a joy.
At that moment, as if in an instant, people were dragged back from the basement to a grand night banquet thousands of years ago.
The godfather closed his eyes and listened carefully, then opened his eyes and said, "Try the second half again."
Xiaomei took the small wooden hammer and moved it down a few inches, then struck again.
The tone and tone are very close.
But as soon as I heard it, I heard something different.
Maybe I do have a talent for learning music. As I said before, I can move my ears forward, backward, left, and right. When robbing tombs on a rainy day, you can try listening to thunder underground. There is a 50% chance of success. Boss once indeed said that I have the talent to rob tombs.
point.
I said, "No, sir, it sounds nice, but this sound doesn't work compared to the previous one."
Xiaomei was a little surprised: "Can you tell? It's indeed low." You have learned vocal music even though you have played half a note?"
I shook my head and said that I'm not a music major, but I just heard it was a little bit different. Couldn't you just raise the pitch a little higher?
"not that simple."
The godfather took two steps forward, touched the No. 7 unveiling bell and said, "Xiao Mei and I have tried it many times. Even Master Xiang said we should not adjust it any more. If there is a slight mistake, the No. 7 unveiling bell will be scrapped."
The godfather spoke calmly, but I could hear the reluctance deep in his heart.
I was curious, so I asked you how to adjust the sound.
Xiaomei explained it twice and I understood it.
When tuning, they will first take down the chime, lay it flat on the ground, use an electric grinding wheel to connect a cylindrical sandpaper, and polish the inside of the chime. As long as the polish is only half a centimeter thin, the tone will change in different levels.
.
This polishing and tuning is a one-time use.
Once it went too far, there was no way to change it back. It was because of this that the godfather did not dare to adjust it. In the end, he could not achieve the perfect double tone of one bell.
I really wanted to say that I wanted to try it, but my godfather would definitely not agree, and he might kill me with a cannon punch, so I didn't dare to say anything.
"Okay, Xiaomei, let's stop here today," the godfather said, picking up half the bag of rice and saying, "Hold it for the time being. I'm leaving next Monday. Xiaomei, you can go back to Wuhan then. It's been a hard time.
Come, take me to say hello to your grandpa."
After locking the door and coming out, the godfather carried the rice to the third floor, and Xiaomei and I walked side by side.
It was around eleven o'clock in the evening, and Xiaomei suddenly smiled at me and said, "I've been auditioning all afternoon and haven't eaten any dinner. I'm hungry. Do you want a late-night snack? I know a place nearby that sells delicious food."
Late night snack, you are my godfather’s friend, I’ll treat you to it.”