Try your hand at rock music on this Victorian instrument played by the “Original Monstre Stone Band.”
Queen Victoria heard command performances of Handel, Mozart and Rossini on this large stone xylophone. It took Joseph Richardson thirteen years to construct this lithophone out of hornfels slate from the Lake District. The vast instrument is in the Keswick Museum and Art Gallery in Cumbria, where I was amazed to be encouraged to have a go. The tone varies across the instrument. Some stones ring beautifully, like a wooden xylophone, while others make more of a thunk, like a beer bottle being struck with a stick.
One historical account recalls, ‘The tones produced are equal in quality, and sometimes superior in mellowness and fulness, to those of a fine piano-forte, under the hand of a skilful player.’
Ringing stalactites create strange ethereal sounds from this huge musical instrument.
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This is a bizarre musical instrument. It was dreamt up and painstakingly constructed by Leland Sprinkle, a mathematician and electronic engineer in the 1950s. Rocks that ring have been used as musical instruments for thousands of years. But this is the only lithophone I know of based on stalactites.
It’s claimed to be the largest natural musical instrument in the world, generating a beautiful, ghostly and disorientating sound. The cave acoustics make it difficult to locate where the sounds are coming from. 37 stalactites produce the different notes of a musical scale. But the tuning isn’t entirely natural, as some sanding of the natural formations was needed to get the notes exactly in tune. Small rubber hammers strike the stalactites; these are electronically controlled by an organ keyboard.
Jaribu mkono wako katika muziki wa mwamba kwenye chombo hiki cha Victoria kilichopigwa na <unk>Original Monstre Stone Band.<unk> Malkia Victoria alisikia maonyesho ya amri ya Handel, Mozart na Rossini kwenye xylophone hii kubwa ya mawe. Joseph Richardson alichukua miaka kumi na mitatu kujenga lithophone hii kutoka kwa shaba ya hornfels kutoka Wilaya ya Ziwa. "Kifaa hicho kikubwa kiko katika Jumba la Makumbusho la Keswick na Jumba la Sanaa huko Cumbria, ambako nilishangaa nilipokubaliwa kujaribu.""" Sauti hutofautiana kulingana na ala ya muziki. Baadhi ya mawe hayo hucheza vizuri sana, kama vile kinubi cha mbao, ilhali mengine hucheza kwa sauti kubwa, kama vile chupa ya bia ikishambuliwa kwa fimbo. "Mwanzoni mwa karne ya 20, ""sauti za muziki zilikuwa za hali ya juu sana, na nyakati nyingine zilikuwa za hali ya juu zaidi kuliko zile za piano-forte iliyotengenezwa kwa ustadi na mchezaji stadi."" - The New York Times, Oktoba 8, 1935. - The New York Times, Oktoba 8, 1991. - " (Vote 10 kwa wastani wa 4.00) Hii ni chombo cha muziki cha ajabu. "Kama ilivyoelezwa hapo juu, ""Mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1950,"" Leland Sprinkle alikuwa mtaalamu wa hesabu na uhandisi wa umeme." Miamba inayopiga kengele imetumiwa kama ala za muziki kwa maelfu ya miaka. Lakini hii ni lithophone tu najua ya msingi juu ya stalactites. Inadaiwa kuwa chombo kikubwa zaidi cha muziki cha asili ulimwenguni, kikitokeza sauti nzuri, ya roho na yenye kupotosha. Sauti za pango hilo hufanya iwe vigumu kujua sauti hizo zinatoka wapi. Stalactites 37 ni moja ya mawe ya muziki ya kawaida. Lakini tuning si kabisa asili, kama baadhi ya sanding ya miundo ya asili ilikuwa inahitajika kupata maelezo hasa katika tune. Vipande vidogo vya mpira hupiga stalactites; hizo hudhibitiwa kwa njia ya kielektroniki na kibodi ya ala ya muziki.