(from Gk. lithos: ‘stone’; Fr. lithophone; Ger. Lithophon, Steinspiel; It. litofono).
A sounding stone or series of resonant stone slabs or plaques (for the Hornbostel-Sachs classification see Idiophone). Lithophones occur in several forms: oblong bars suspended horizontally; vertically suspended plaques; or (as has been recently introduced) circular stone discs arranged chromatically. They may also occur in the form of rocks, boulders, stalagmites, stalactites etc., which are sonorous when struck and show evidence of having been used as idiophones; such lithophones may more appropriately be termed ‘rock gongs’.
In Asia, ringing stones are found in Annam, China, Korea, Samoa, and in southern India (e.g. the ‘musical columns’ found in many medieval temples). Prehistoric lithophones found in Indo-China (Annam) include three stone slabs (discovered actually in use in 1958) in which the surfaces show the typical flaking technique of Stone Age man, the edges apparently fashioned for tuning purposes. A Vietnamese lithophone (goong lu) discovered in 1949 is now in the Musée de l’Homme, Paris (fig.1). This instrument has 11 slabs 65 to 100 cm in length, and yields two sonorous pentatonic octaves. Further examples of goong lu, with sets of 12, 15 and 32 stones, have been more recently discovered, and are now at the Phu Khanh Museum, the Institute of Musicology of Vietnam, and the Institute of Research in Musicology and Choreography, Hanoi. Lithophones dating back to Neolithic times, from Indo-China, are preserved in the Horniman Museum, London.
Stone chimes are among the most ancient and valued instruments of the Chinese (see Qing). The foremost of these is the bianquing said to have existed as far back as c2000 bce. The bianquing comprises a set of calcareous L-shaped stone slabs (tequing) suspended vertically in a rectangular frame. From the 5th century bce the standard number of stones was 16, arranged in two rows of eight. The stones are tuned to the 12 notes of the lü octave and its four additional notes. They are struck on the long side with wooden mallets or padded sticks. Related instruments include the Korean p’yŏn’gyŏng (also with 16 stone chimes) and t’ŭkkyŏng (a survival of one historical type of Chinese teqing, comprising a single L-shaped chime), the Vietnamese biên khánh, and the Japanese kei, a vertically suspended plaque which is more commonly made of metal.
Sonorous stones occur in many and widely scattered regions. In Ethiopia, stone chimes are used as church bells in certain Christian places of worship. In Togo, the picancala, a lithophone consisting of four to five flat pieces of basalt arranged in a circle on straw, struck with two spherical stones, is played by young men to announce the millet harvest in mid-November. Resonant stones have been found in Venezuela and Ecuador, and in Europe on the islands of Chios and Sardinia. Ringing rocks used for the production of musical notes have been discovered in Nigeria. Hammered depressions provide evidence of their having been used as percussion instruments. Rock gongs are used currently, their purposes varying from use in religious services to providing accompaniment to singing and dancing.
Some of the most remarkable lithophones in existence are to be found in the English Lake District. A set of 16 musical stones embracing two diatonic octaves and one note is in the Fitz Park Museum, Keswick. These stones were discovered in 1785: eight in the bed of the river Greta and eight on the nearby mountain of Skiddaw. There is also in the same museum the Richardson rock harmonica comprising five chromatic octaves of stone slabs measuring 15 to 93 cm in length. The slabs lie over a soundbox and are insulated at the nodal points on ropes of straw (fig.2). The instrument (which was completed in 1840) was ‘invented and manufactured by Messrs Richardson and Sons after 13 years’ incessant labour and application from rocks dug out of the mighty Skiddaw’. The Richardson family became expert performers on this unique construction which is reputed to have at times embraced a compass of seven octaves and various bell effects. They toured extensively, performing on two occasions at command performances before Queen Victoria. A rock harmonica of similar proportions is privately housed in Keswick. This instrument, also from Skiddaw, was completed in 1886. An instrument contemporary with the Richardson rock harmonica was the lithokymbalom, of alabaster slabs, built by Franz Weber and displayed in Vienna in 1837.
Modern western composers have (to date) made sparing use of the lithophone. It occurs as Steinspiel in Carl Orff’s Die Kluge, Die Bernauerin, Astutuli, Trionfi, Antigonae and Oedipus. It is also used by George Crumb in Ancient Voices of Children (1970).
Tran Van Khê: Viet-Nam: les traditions musicales (Paris, 1967; Ger. trans., 1982 [with new appx, incl. lithophones])
M. del R. Alvarez Martinez and L. Siemens Hernandez: ‘The Lithographic Use of Large Natural Rocks in the Prehistoric Canary Islands’, The Archaeology of Early Music Cultures [II]: Berlin 1988, 1–10
P. Yule and M. Bemmann: ‘Klangsteine aus Orissa: die frühesten Musikinstrumente Indiens?’, Archeologia musicalis (1988), no.1, pp.46–50 [in Ger., Eng., Fr.]
E. Hickmann: ‘Lithophone aus Ekuador’, Archeologia musicalis (1988), no.1, pp.52–5 [in Ger., Eng., Fr.]
Ngô Dông Hai: ‘Das Lithophon, ein Originalinstrument aus der vietnamesischen Antike’, Archeologia musicalis (1988), no.1, 50–52 [in Ger., Eng., Fr.]
M. Dauvois and X. Boutillon: ‘Caractérisation acoustique des grottes ornées paléolithiques et de leurs lithophones naturales’, La plundisciplinalité en archéologie musicale: St Germain-en-Laye 1990, 207–56
A.M. Till: ‘The Till Family Rock Band’, Experimental Musical Instruments, vii (1992), 12–13
M. Clark: ‘The Qing Lithophones of China’, Experimental Musical Instruments, x/1 (1994), 29–35
C. Fagg: ‘What is a Lithophone, and What is a Rock?’, GSJ, xlvii (1994), 154–5
JAMES BLADES/R