Lithophone

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A lithophone (from the Greek λιϑος “stone” and φωνή “sound”; German also sound stone ) is the name given to objects whose sound bodies are made of stone and which are set in vibration by mechanical means (impact, friction). According to the basic Hornbostel-Sachs system , lithophones belong to the group of idiophones . Due to its special sound quality, the preferred material is the lava rock known as phonolite . Other minerals are jade, granite or serpentine. In contrast to the metallophone and xylophone , in which metallic or wooden sticks are used to produce toner, lithophones consist of rod-shaped or plate-shaped, coordinated stones.

history

Probably the roots of sound generation using suitable stones already go back to the Stone Age. Even if the use of lithophones in the Holocene can only be assumed so far, the approaches to make the stalactites in the Luray Caverns sound in the form of the Great Stalacpipe Organ are so convincing that a Stone Age lithophone music, albeit less elaborate than in the modern form, seems quite possible. The oldest backed certificates owns the province West Sumatra on Sumatra identified as prehistoric Lithophone batu Talempong . It consists of six stone blocks of different sizes and sound heights. A lithophone from Ndut Lieng Krak in South Vietnam is attributed to the Iron Age Sa Huynh culture . Also worth mentioning is the discovery of 20 sound stones in India (near Sankarjang), which research dates back to the 2nd millennium BC. Is assigned. Excavations in An-Yang (China) found oracle inscriptions, drums, drumsticks, mallets, an ocarina- like ball flute and the sound stone called ch'ing , which can be attributed to the Shang II dynasty (1350–1050 BC) . The correct name for a single, large sound stone is t'e-ch'ing . In addition, the sound stone game pien-ch'ing was found, which consists of different, tuned stones. It is unlikely that these lithophones and the ocarina were already present in the earlier, the Shang I period, but it can be proven that the tuning of the stone , jade and bronze instruments was perfected in the early Chou dynasty. More recently, lithophones have been found in large parts of Southeast Asia from Vietnam to Korea. However, the strongest impetus for development came from China, whereby two characteristic shapes have emerged: On the one hand, the suspended plate in a traditional pentagonal shape with a curved base and, on the other hand, the flat jade sound stone in disc shape . Lithophones were used for ceremonial purposes in the temple and palace and were also used as grave goods. Research into litophones in Asia has been carried out for several years by the musicologist and ethnomusicologist Gretel Schwörer-Kohl.

In addition to the Far Eastern region, there are two other areas of distribution in which the lithophone has developed its own tradition: in Central Africa and in northern South America. Since the earliest times in northern Togo, five basalt slabs arranged in a star shape on the floor have been played for very specific rituals - a tradition that has also been demonstrated in Benin and Nigeria. The French archaeologist Eric Gonthier identified a soil find from Central Africa as a Mesolithic lithophone. Chime bars and plates made of stone from pre-Columbian times have been found in Ecuador, Colombia and Venezuela.

Orchestral instrument, stone game

Lithophone made from phonolite in the Schellerhau Botanical Garden

In Europe, stone games in the form of musical instruments can only be detected in recent history. The Englishman Peter Crosthwaite should be mentioned as a pioneer in the field of researching new sound sources, who for the first time built a six-tone lithophone that could be used as a musical instrument according to the Western understanding. In 1785 (other sources give the year 1875) a stone set consisting of 16 stone slabs and two diatonic octaves was found in the Lake District England, the age of which has not yet been determined more precisely. It could be one of the lithophones developed between 1827 and 1840 by the stonemason Joseph Richardson. In 1837 Franz Weber presented a lithocymbalom made of coordinated alabaster disks in Vienna , which a little later (1840) became the Rock Harmonica built by Richardson and Sons . One of these lithophones developed by Richardson is exhibited at the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery in Keswick under the name Musical Stones of Skiddaw . In 1883 the French Honoré Baudre played on a so-called Silex piano made from coordinated flint at the Amsterdam World Exhibition .

In the 20th century, the lithophone developed into an orchestral instrument. Mostly played by percussionists , it is similar in shape and handling to the stick games (xylophone, marimbaphone, vibraphone) or the round discs of the crotales . Usually the notes a3 to c5 are used. For the first time has Orff the sound of the Lithophons as an integral part of the orchestra sound in such works as Antigonae (1949), Astutuli (1953) and CEdipus used (1959). In 1961, the composer Milko Kelemen used the lithophone in his work Ekvilibri for two orchestras. Modern developments have given rise to so-called stone marimbas , in which the playing style is similar to the marimba technique. The Swiss Rudolf Fritsche and Lukas Rohner developed special possibilities for intonation on a gramorimba (2003). This "is the only lithophone whose plates are tuned both fundamental and overtone." The name for the instrument is derived from the terms granite, marble and marimba.

Sound stone, installation

Lithophone in Freudenberg Castle , Wiesbaden

The development of previously unknown forms and possibilities of sound development on and with stones was expanded through new technologies. That is why there has been a multitude of new types of sound stones in addition to the “lithophone”, which was clearly designed as a musical instrument, since the middle of the 20th century. They largely elude handling in the sense of traditional instrumental playing and are accordingly also referred to as sound sculptures . First and foremost, it was sculptors like Elmar Daucher in Germany and Arthur Schneiter in Switzerland who dealt with this phenomenon. Subject to a polyesthetic approach, her works of art serve not only all acoustic impressions but also primarily the experience of visual perception. In 1974 Elmar Daucher discovered, as it were, as a by-product the musical inner workings of his stone sculptures, which are criss-crossed by deep saw cuts, and developed a whole series of sound stones from them. Dauchers prototypes are influenced by representations of the harmonic research of Hans Kayser . In this sense, they were further developed by Michael Scholl and Urs A. Furrer. The sound stones developed by Klaus Feßmann are sculptures with rectangular shapes, developed based on sound research results, which he calls steles in the large shapes . Its construction is based on calculations of the proportions. His discovery is the special way of developing sound, working out the sound possibilities from the stone. The Swiss Rudolf Fritsche experimented with the external shapes of lithophones and developed a. a. a "stone egg".

The “stone organ” built in 1956 by Leland W. Sprinkle in the Luray Caves in Shenandoah National Park (Virginia / USA) has the character of an installation. Huge stalactites are vibrated by an electronically controlled system of small hammers until the whole cave is filled with the sound of the Great Stalacpipe Organ . Phonolites can be made to ring experimentally by visitors to Ringing Rocks Park in Upper Black Eddy (Pennsylvania / USA) until the whole park is filled with vibrations. Fritz Hauser installed sound stones by Arthur Schneiter in the Therme Vals (Switzerland) to create a sound ambience. In this context, which are Summsteine of Hugo Kükelhaus worth mentioning.

A combination of sound stones with conventional musical instruments turns out to be unusual and sometimes difficult due to the difference in sound and tonality, but has also been implemented in a few compositions. The Swiss Ulrich Gasser wrote Die singenden Zikaden for flute and 3 sound stones (1989) as well as a quote for soprano, organ and a sound stone by Arthur Schneiter (1991). Klaus Hinrich Stahmer resulted in the crystal lattice (1992) connecting a sound stone Daucher induced with a string in the way of the electronic ring modulation. Gottfried Hellmundt wrote scores such as Aiguille du Midi for chamber ensemble and lithophone (2000) and Steine ​​Leben for soprano solo, violoncello, lithophone, sandpaper and field stones (2002). Lapides clamabunt is the name of a work by Hans Darmstadt for voice and sound stone (2001). The composition Steinklang, Geschichte einer Stadt for gramorimba , stone harp and stone gong, composed and played by Wolfgang Lackerschmid , has been performed every summer since 2009 in the Roman Museum Augsburg. In 2012, the Swiss Gion Antoni Derungs wrote three scenes for the gramorimba, flute and string orchestra developed by Fritsche and Lohner under the title Im Märchenschloss .

literature

  • James Blades: Lithophones. In: The New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments. Macmillan, Volume 2, London 1984, ISBN 0-333-37878-4 , pp. 531f.
  • Lithophone. In: Music in the past and present . 2. rework. Output. Part 5, Bärenreiter, Kassel et al. 1996, ISBN 3-7618-1100-4 , pp. 1382f.
  • Lithophone. In: Gyula Rácz (Hrsg.): The great book of drum practice. Conbrio, Regensburg 2014, ISBN 978-3-940768-43-8 , p. 102.
  • Christoph Louven: Investigations into the sound and mood of the 'talempong batu' lithophone from Talang Anau, West Sumatra. (PDF; 7.1 MB) In: Wolfgang Auhagen, Bram Gätjen, Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller (Eds.): Systemic Musicology. Festschrift Jobst Peter Fricke . Musicological Institute University of Cologne, Cologne 2010, pp. 263–276.
  • Uwe Pätzold: The talempong batu 'by Talang Anau: A musical heirloom of a megalithic culture in West Sumatera, Indonesia . (PDF; 389 kB) In: Wolfgang Auhagen, Bram Gätjen, Klaus Wolfgang Niemöller (eds.): Systemic musicology. Festschrift Jobst Peter Fricke. Musicological Institute University of Cologne, Cologne 2010, pp. 277–291.
  • Trân van Khē: Du lithophone de Ndut Lieng Krak au lithophone de Bac Ai. In: Révue de musicologie. 68, 1-2, 1982, pp. 221-236.
  • Bernard Fagg: The Discovery of Multiple Rock Gongs in Nigeria. African Music (Johannesburg, South Africa: International Library of African Music) 1956.
  • Klaus Feßmann : sound stones. Encounters with the eternal memory of the earth. Munich 2008, ISBN 978-3-517-08392-6 .
  • Elmar Daucher : Stone.Sound.Stone. Exhibition catalog Ulm (published by the City of Ulm, Ulmer Münstergemeinde and Catholic Bildungswerk Alb-Donau-Kreis) 1986.
  • Bea Voigt, Mathias Bärmann (ed.): KlangSsteine ​​- SteinKänge. With contributions by Mathias Bärmann, Walter Gröner, Rudolf zur Lippe, Tadashi Otsuru, Klaus Hinrich Stahmer, Horst Stierhof and Michael Vetter. Bea Voigt Edition, Munich 1998.
  • Frank Böhme: Carved in stone - a musical lapidary. In: Layers, History, System - Geological Metaphors and Forms of Thought in Art Sciences, ed. by Hanns-Werner Heister. Weidler, Berlin 2016, pp. 417–438

Sound recordings (selection)

  • Stephan Micus: The Music of Stones. CD. ECM 1384. (c) 1989. (Daucher sound stones)
  • Klaus Hinrich Stahmer, Michael Vetter: Sound stones - stone sounds. CD. ProViva ISPV 159. (c) 1990. (Klangstein Daucher)
  • Klaus Hinrich Stahmer: Crystal lattice. CD. ProViva ISPV 167. (c) 1992. (Klangstein Daucher)
  • Klaus Feßmann, Hannes Feßmann: Duo on the Rocks. CD 2010. (Sound stones Fessmann)
  • Pinuccio Sciola : Great, fu il suono. CD 2015, Isula Records

Web links

Commons : Lithophon  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Yegor Reznikoff: Prehistoric paintings, sound and Rocks. In: Ellen Hickmann u. a. (Ed.): Music archeology III - archeology of early sound production and tone order . ( Orientarchäologie series , Volume 10), Rahden (Leidorf) 2000, pp. 39–56.
  2. ↑ http://luraycaverns.com/ (here also sound samples); viewed on September 25, 2016
  3. ↑ Uwe Pätzold: Das talempong batu 'by Talang Anau p. 279. ( Memento from January 12, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF; 389 kB)
  4. ↑ Paul Yule, Martin Bemmann: Sound stones from Orissa. The earliest musical instruments in India? In: Archaeologia musicalis. 2.1, 1988, pp. 41–50 (online at archiv.ub.uni-Heidelberg.de) (PDF; 613 kB) p. 13.
  5. ↑ Eric Gonthier, Jacob Durieux: Transfixions et labrets subsahariens néolithiques en quartz. In: M.-H. Moncel, F. Fröhlich: L'Homme et le précieux. Matières minérales précieuses de la Préhistoire à aujourd'hui . BAR International Series 1934, Oxford 2009, pp. 81-90
  6. ^ Alan Smith / Bruce Yardley: The origin of the musical stones of Skiddaw, in: Proceedings of the Cumberland Geological Society, Vol. 7 No. 3 (Oct. 2008), pp. 1-15; quoted according to: Frank Böhme (see lit.
  7. ↑ James Blades p. 531.
  8. ↑ MGG part volume 5, p. 1383.
  9. ^ Alan Smith, Bruce Yardley: The origin of the musical stones of Skiddaw. In: Proceedings of the Cumberland Geological Society, Vol. 7, No. 3, 2008, pp. 1-15.
  10. ↑ Frank Böhme (see lit. catalog) p. 428.
  11. ↑ Martin Frischknecht: Warm as stone. In: Traces - Rediscovering Life , 2008. Accessed July 24, 2020.
  12. ↑ Schneiter, Arthur - artist from Frauenfeld. Art Museum Thurgau, accessed on July 24, 2020 .
  13. ↑ 'This is how the hate mountains sound' (5): Stones live and sound. In: The sculptor Michael Scholl from Limbach. Mainpost, April 6, 2017, accessed July 24, 2020 .
  14. ↑ Urs A. Furrer: AN ART AND EXPERIENCE CENTER. The Alpwerkstatt, accessed on July 24, 2020 .
  15. ^ Pia Schwab: Mineral echo. In: Revue Musicale Suisse , No. 12 (2013), p. 8.
  16. ↑ Ulrich Gasser: The singing cicadas. (PDF) Accessed in 2020 .
  17. ↑ Klaus Hinrich Stahmer - Sound labyrinths. DISCOGS, 1992, accessed 2020 .
  18. ↑ Wolfgang Lackerschmid: Steinklang - STEINKLANG - HISTORY OF A CITY. WL, 2018, accessed July 24, 2020 .
  19. ↑ See chap. 2 "orchestral instrument, stone game