This big bronze Chinese bell is MacGregor’s excuse to talk a little bit about Confucian thought, the sixth of the five major religions in the world. (?) He doesn’t particularly go out of his way, it seems to me, to introduce Judaism, Christianity, Islam, etc. one at a time, which is probably wise—a) everybody kind of knows, at least the big five, and b) it’s hard to say anything truly general about them, and he’d be attacked from every side if he tried to say anything specific; and c) any objects he’d use to introduce those religions are probably pretty interesting in their own right and being a museum director he couldn’t give ‘em short shrift. He uses this bell because it dates from the period, that is 5th century BC China, when Confucius lived (551-479 BC), and because the musicality of a bell illustrates the philosophy of a harmonic society—a bell isn’t really a solo instrument, but lots of bells sounding together are a musical illustration of the basic underlying idea here, that society works better if people think of themselves not as soloists, each stars of their own epics, but as small parts of a whole. He refers to a culture that enforces proper behavior by playing up to people, so that the pressure of avoiding shame keeps you always wanting to be and do your best. Not sure if he’s trying to contrast that with our culture, or ‘conflictual’ cultures like the Greeks he mentioned earlier. I can’t say that it’s one of MacGregor’s best podcasts. He plays some bonging bells, and alludes to Tan Dun (one of my favorite composers) without interviewing him or playing any of his music.
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