Lithophone

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 rock or pieces of rock which are struck to produce musical notes. Notes may be sounded in combination (producing harmony) or in succession (melody). The lithophone is an idiophone similar to instruments such as the glockenspiel, metallophone, xylophone and marimba.

Notable examples

The Musical Stones of Skiddaw

Lithophone made of Phonolite in the botanic garden in Schellerhau (Germany)

• A rudimentary form of lithophone is the "rock gong", usually a natural rock formation opportunistically adapted to produce musical tones, such as that on Mfangano Island, in Lake Victoria, Kenya. The Great Stalacpipe Organ of Luray Caverns, Virginia, USA uses 37 stalactites to produce the Western scale. Another stalactite lithophone is to be found at Tenkasi in South India. Ringing Rocks Park in Pennsylvania is another well known lithophone.

A more sophisticated lithophone trims and mounts individual stones to achieve a full-scale idiophone:

• Probable prehistoric lithophone stones have been found at Sankarjang in Orissa, India.
• Vietnamese lithophones dating back to ancient times, called đàn đá, have been discovered and 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 from Cumbria, England, have been made into an instrument found in Keswick Museum and Art Gallery.
• The Silex Piano, circa 1885, employed suspended flints of various sizes which were struck with other flints to produce sounds.
• Composer-vibraphonist Wolfgang Lackerschmid uses an instrument called the gramorimba, which is featured alongside the vibraphone and marimba in a trio setting.

The German composer Carl Orff calls for a lithophone called Steinspiel in his later works. Some lithophones include electric pickups to amplify the sounds.

See also

• Ringing rocks
• Sankarjang

External links

• 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]
• An installation in Quark Park by Perry Cook and Jonathan Shor, consisting of 17 bars stretched over a 35-foot (11 m) long path.
• Audio and video of Stalacpipe Organ on Sound Tourism site
• lithophones.com Photographs, audio clips, and videos of lithophones from around the world, historical and contemporary.

Video

• The Musical Stones of Skiddaw being played
• Video of the Great Stalacpipe Organ
• The Parkbench Lithophone
• The Ringing Rocks of Montana