Lithophone

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This postcard from 1906 illustrates the method of early lithophone performances in Luray Caverns, Virginia, United States

A lithophone is a musical instrument consisting of a plurality of rocks or pieces of rock, in which musical notes are sounded by striking one or more of the rocks in combination (harmony) or succession (melody).

[edit] Notable examples

• A rudimentary form of lithophone is the rock gong, usually a natural rock formation opportunistically adapted by indigenous peoples to produce tones for a variety of purposes. Examples include the rock gong on Mfangano Island, Kenya, in Lake Victoria.
• Lithophones dating back to ancient times, called đàn đá, have been discovered in Vietnam and have been revived in the 20th century.
• The ritual music of Korea features the use of stone chimes called pyeongyeong, derived from the Chinese bianqing.

The Musical Stones of Skiddaw

• The British composer Will Menter[1] invented the llechiphone, a marimba with keys made of slate, while working in North Wales.[2]
  • Other slate lithophones, called stonaphones, are made in the U.S. state of Maine by Jim Doble out of recycled slate roofing.[3]
• One of the most celebrated examples of a lithophone is The Great Stalacpipe Organ of Luray Caverns, Virginia, USA, which uses 37 stalactites to produce the tones of the Western scale.
• The Musical Stones of Skiddaw from Cumbria, England, and Ringing Rocks Park in Pennsylvania are other well known lithophones.
• Prehistoric lithophone stones have also been found at Sankarjang in Orissa, India.

[edit] Use by composers

The German composer Carl Orff calls for a lithophone called Steinspiel in his later works.

[edit] Electric lithophone

Some lithophones include electric pickups to amplify the sounds.

Examples of electric lithophones include an installation in Quark Park by Perry Cook and Jonathan Shor, consisting of 17 bars stretched over a 35 foot long path.

[edit] Other similar musical instruments

The lithophone is similar to the glockenspiel, tubular glockenspiel, metallophone, xylophone, marimba, and to the glass percussion instruments created by Barry Prophet of The Music Gallery, not to be confused with the verrophone (a musical instrument that makes sound by rubbing, not by hitting, glass).

[edit] External links

[edit] Video

• Vietnamese Lithophone Video
• The Musical Stones of Skiddaw being played
• Video of the Great Stalacpipe Organ

[edit] See also

• Ringing rocks
• Sankarjang

Reference P. Yule/M. Bemmann, Klangsteine aus Orissa Die frühesten Musikinstrumente Indiens?, Archaeologia Musicalis 2.1, 1988, 41–50 (also in English und French)