Making the Rustic Lithophones for the Malham Visitor Centre


Our plan was to cut down into the rocks to create ‘teeth’ or notes which would be robust and yet still give a pleasant ringing sound. We decided to allow the shape of the rock to dictate the pitch and to see what ‘scales’ would emerge. In the event this proved quite difficult as stone masons’ equipment is geared to particular outputs and either our boulders were too small or too big.

In the end we had help from Fairhurst’s of Langcliffe for the ‘Thunder Rock’ made from Greywacke from Dry Rigg Quarry; and Stan Jordan’s for cutting limestone from Skipton Rock and Horton-in-Ribblesdale into chunky bars. We will collect all these bars together and work out how to tune them. We will then have a frame made to support the bars safely.