Musical Stones

Activities

Musical Stones

Activity PDF by Kevin Hamel

3 Stone Age

7 The Sword in the Stone

9 Museum Keepers

11 Strange Landscapes

14 Fossils

16 Petrified Forest

18 Factory Music

21 Richardson’s Rock Band

24 Willow Pattern

26 Short Ride in a Fast Machine

29 Rock Clock

31 Stone Circles

Contents

Langdale Axe Factory

‘For a million years, the sound of making hand axes provided the percussion of everyday life’Neil MacGregor, A History of the World in 100 objects BBC Radio 4

Before bronze and iron, people made the tools they needed from stone.

Thousands of years ago, the people of Great Langdale discovered something more precious to them than gold. This was a vein of very hard volcanic rock, called volcanic tuff – perfect for making axes!

The Langdale axes were so good that they were traded with people across Britain.

Stone Age 3

Stone Age

Many Langdale axes are worn or broken, suggesting they were used a lot.

Others look as good as new, and have been found in places that seem special.

Some archaeologists think they might have been given as offerings, or even played important parts in mysterious ceremonies.

Ceremonies and rituals were very important.

They helped people believe they had some control over their strange and sometimes frightening world.

4

Langdale stone axes

Stone Age

Although no one really knows what happened during these ceremonies, we think music was important.

Archaeologists have found simple flutes and whistles made from the bones of birds. Handfuls of small pebbles might be shaken.

Larger stones could be struck together, and even arranged to make different musical pitches.

In China, ancient musical stones called qing developed from stone tools.

The Langdale Axe Factory

5

Invent a ceremonial chant• Ceremonies might be held for many reasons: perhaps to make sure hunting went well, or to mark a birth or death

• The sounds of words and syllables in chants are often more important than their meaning e.g.

Yah ho hoYa ho ho hahYo ha(Zulu chant)

• Think of syllables/made up words which sound powerful and important when spoken or sung. Make up and perform your own magical chant for a ceremony

Ideas for accompanying your chant• Find out how stone tools like the Langdale axes were made

• Processes in making the stone tools included hammering, chipping, scraping and polishing.Choose instruments and soundmakers to sound like hammering, chipping, scraping and polishing

• Make up different rhythms that fit together to accompany your chant

• Invent a dance to go with your ceremonial music

Stone Age 6

Musical Stones• Develop your ceremonial music by including a lithophone during a museum visit

• Use fingers and beaters carefully to suggest scraping, hammering and polishing the stone tools

• Explore different pitches to create your own ‘stone age’ melodies for your dance

The Sword in the Stone 7The Sword in the StoneDo you know the story of Merlin and the Sword in the Stone? Whoever pulled the sword from the stone would be the true King of Britain. Although lots of knights tried, the sword was stuck fast.

A young boy called Arthur was the servant of a knight called Sir Kay. Sir Kay had set off to take part in a tournament, but found he had left his sword behind. Arthur was sent back to fetch it. On his way, he spotted the sword in the stone.

Thinking it would save time to borrow this sword rather than go all the way home, he pulled it out and took it to Sir Kay. Although we don’t know what the sword or the stone looked like, we can use our imaginations by studying ancient swords and old carvings on stones in museums and churches.

The Witherslack SwordThe best swordsmiths kept their ways of making swords secret.

People rich and lucky enough to own swords treasured them, and passed them on through their families.

The Witherslack Sword in Kendal museum was found in sandy gravel at the foot of Whitbarrow Scar.

• The end of the sword has been broken off. What might have happened to it?

• Some swords were given names. Do you know the name of King Arthur’s sword ?

• Make up a name for the Witherslack sword. Sometimes, names of swords were written on the blades using magical letters called Runes. Find out how to write the name in Runes

• Look for patterns on stones that twist, twirl and knot together like fighting snakes or dragons

Forge musicSwordsmiths melted metal in a furnace. Bellows pumped air into the fire, to make it burn as hot as possible. When the metal was hot enough it was hammered into shape.Make up music to suggest:

• The hiss of bellows pumping air into the furnace• The furnace getting hotter and hotter

Once the blade was shaped, it was heated again and plunged into water to harden it. Some legends say dragon’s blood was sometimes used instead of water! This is a magical moment, when the metal becomes a real sword, and is given a name

• Make music to suggest reflections in the water from the shining blade of the sword

• Invent words for a ‘naming song’ for the sword

Dragon dance• Make melodies on musical stones that twist, turn and weave in and out of each other like patterns in the stones.

The Sword in the Stone 8• Think about the story of the Sword in the Stone. Could patterns like these have appeared on Merlin’s stone?

• Draw some of the patterns, and work them into your own sketches for Merlin’s stone

• Fierce twisting dragons sometimes decorated sword handles and blades. Sketch the Witherslack sword as it appears today, and how it might once have looked

Museum Keepers 9

Museum KeepersEarly Tourists to the Lake District liked visiting local museums. These were crammed with all sorts of strange and wonderful objects, including fossils, minerals, stuffed birds and animals, coins, pottery, and even musical stones!

Eleven year old John Ruskin included those he saw at Keswick in a poem:And next we were shown, upon quite a new plan-OA kind of a sort of a stoney piano!Some stones in the bed of Greta’s stream foundEmitted, when struck, a most musical sound!

Peter Crosthwaite kept a museum in Keswick. He carefully noted down where his exhibits came from, and what he paid for them.

He had a mammoth’s tooth, a tiny stuffedhummingbird and a giant turnip measuring thirty eight inches across!

He also had what he said was the fossilised rib of a giant!

Travellers bringing back curiosities from overseas gave or sold them to museums.

Peter Crosthwaite was given a huge albatross by Captain John Wordsworth, and rival Keswick museum keeper, Thomas Hutton, had a model of a slave ship donated by William Wilberforce.

Visitors could buy souvenirs like fossils, minerals, maps, guidebooks, and even musical instruments.

William Todhunter made and sold sets of musical stones at his museum in Kendal.

Museum Keepers 10

• Sometimes exhibits were not what they seemed. Do you think the huge rib in Crosthwaite’s museum really belonged to a giant? What else could it have been? Find out about the Giant’s grave at Penrith

• Create a ‘mini museum’ or ‘curiosity cabinet’. This could be a single room or even a set of drawers full of interesting objects. The poet Robert Southey had a cabinet full of interesting objects he showed to his guests. Try using trays or shoeboxes to display your objects

• Decide what to include in your mini museum – remember that visitors will want to see items of local interest

• How will you display your exhibits? Make labels. What information do visitors need?

• Read the advert for Crosthwaite’s museum. Design posters, newspaper adverts or make a 45 second video to advertise your collection

• Decide on your admissions policy. Crosthwaite charged tourists and local people different rates, and William Todhunter at Kendal had reduced prices for working people and children

• Produce maps of your local area to sell in your museum. Peter Crosthwaite’s maps included drawings of places of interest, and showed the best viewpoints for artists. See these at http://www.geog.port.ac.uk/webmap/thelakes/html/crosth/ct2fram.htm

• Peter Crosthwaite played music to attract visitors into the museum. What could you do to attract visitors to your museum in an unusual and entertaining way?

Museum KeepersMuseum KeepersMuseum Keepers

Strange Landscapes 11NASA has sent ‘Rover’ robots to Mars to seek out a wide range of rocks and soils. Each Mars Rover can scoop up rock samples from the surface.

A new Rover called Curiosity can also drill below the surface for rocks, and analyse them in its onboard laboratory. The Mars Rovers are collecting and storing Martian rock samples. These will eventually be sent back to Earth.

What might scientists find?

Could some rock samples behave in strange and unexpected ways?

Strange Landscapes 12

• Blue-grey colour• Smooth and cold to touch • Fine grains packed tightly together• Hard, very heavy• Non permeable• When struck, vibrates gently Surface begins to warm• Very quiet sound at first, becoming gradually louder• Colour changes slowly from blue-grey to brilliant glowing orange• Surface of rock continues to warm until too hot to hold• Sound becomes uncomfortably loud and high pitched • Sudden return to silence as sound reaches its loudest point• Colour returns to blue-grey. Cold to touch

Top Secret Mars Log:

Sample J4

Strange Landscapes 13Explore different effects on the iRock at Brantwood,

can you describe what happens to the sound?

Explore sounds of rocks and stones found locally.Record these with Audacity.

You could: Slow sounds down

Play sounds backwardsAdd effects like echo, etc.

Could other Martian rocks have strange or unusual properties?

Find good words to describe the sounds they might make:

echoing, ringing, reverberating, wavering, etc

If ancient Martians had made sets of musical stones, how might these

have looked?

Fossils 14

Fossil MusicEarly tourists in the Lakes liked visiting museums with interesting collections of fossils. Many of these fossils are still in local museum collections.

Fossil hunters used hammers and chisels to remove interesting specimens from rocks. Careless collectors often damaged surrounding rocks and other fossils.

The French composer Camille Saint-Saens was irritated by people chipping away on the cliffs while he tried to enjoy a peaceful day out at the seaside.

14

Fossils 15

Listen to Fossils from Saint-Saens’ Carnival of the Animals• Fossils give the xylophone player in the orchestra a chance to show off! Hard beaters on the woodenxylophone bars sound like hammers chipping away at rocks

• The music starts with a very busy ‘chipping’ tune played on the xylophone

• This stops as a fossil (represented by a new tune) is found and removed

• The ‘chipping’ starts again as the fossil hunters chip away the next layer of rock to reveal anotherfossil

• Saint Saens’ ‘fossils’ are really very old tunes like Frere Jacques and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

• Listen to Chris Stones play the tune on the Richardson musical stones. Do you think these make better ‘chipping’ sounds than the xylophone?

Try composing fossil music• Try out and choose percussion instruments to suggest hammering and chipping (woodblocks, claves, etc). Make up a short rhythmic piece using these

• Decide on a short tune everybody knows. Practise singing or playing part of it. Try out one or two other tunes. These will be your ‘fossils’

Now put your fossil music together• Begin with the ‘chipping and hammering’ music

• Follow this with your first tune (‘musical fossil’ 1)

• Return to your ‘chipping and hammering’ music again

• Play or sing your second tune (‘musical fossil’ 2)

• Finish with ‘chipping and hammering’ music

© Kendal Museum

© Kendal Museum

Petrified Forest 16BirdsongFor thousands of years, musicians have tried to copy the songs and calls of birds.

Some bird calls, like the cuckoo’s, are quite easy to imitate.

Songbirds like the blackbird, produce long and complicated melodies. They are made up of lots of notes sung very quickly.

Some composers have tried writing these down, borrowing musical ideas from birds to include in their own compositions!

Copying birdsong exactly with musical instruments or voices is very hard to do. It’s best to listen to the song and take just one or two ideas that seem important - perhaps an interesting rhythm, or a short pattern of notes that repeats during the song.

Some musical instruments are good at suggesting birdsong.

Musicians in Vietnam think that musical stones sound like flowing streams and birds calling to one another.

Petrified Forest 17Petrified ForestWhen the tide is out on Allonby beach, part of an ancient forest floor with petrified tree stumps can be seen. These are all that is left of ancient trees that have turned to stone over time.

What if stone birds lived in a petrified forest?Imagine and make sketches of stone birds. Invent names for them. How do they move? What sound might they make?

• Make up calls for your stone birds. Find a number of stones that make different sounds. Arrange them in order to play your ‘stone’ birdcalls

• Work in pairs to play the ‘call’ of the male bird and the ‘response’ of the female

• Join up with other pairs of players, and share ideas

Develop your ideas with Cumbrian Musical Stones

• Try out stone ‘birdsongs’ on musical stones using a range of notes. Compose and practise three ‘stone birdsongs’

• Work together to make a ‘sound track’ for a petrified forest using musical stones for birdsong and birdcalls

Factory Music 1818Production Line“It is not, truly speaking, the labour that is divided; but the men: Divided into mere segments of men--broken into small fragments and crumbs of life; so that all that is left in a man is not enough to make a pin, or a nail, but exhausts itself in making the point of a pin, or the head of a nail.”John Ruskin

Before the industrial revolution, local communities made many of the things they needed. Most villages had a local potter, blacksmith, weaver, and woodworker. Trades like these were highly valued, and skills were often passed down through families.

During the industrial revolution, factories replaced the traditional workshops. Factories developed quicker and cheaper methods of doing things by breaking down the way things were made into a series of small tasks.

This meant that groups of factory workers were responsible for just one small part of making something, and repeated the same actions over and over.

Factory Music 19

Some thought that the new factories were a good thing. Now things could be made cheaply, more people could afford them.

John Ruskin argued that factory production lines destroyed pride and pleasure in work, and that jobs performed again and again made people behave like the cogs in the machines they operated, rather than like individuals.

• Make groups of 6-8 people. Each member of the group thinks of, and mimes, a repeated action: e.g. shovelling coal into a furnace

• Turning a handle to make a series of cogs revolve

• Gently tapping a piece of iron into shape

• Smoothing rough edges with a file or rasp

• Form a line, making sure you can see one another. Number one begins, repeating his/her action a number of times before number two joins in. Continue until all the factory workers are performing their tasks

• Explore ways of playing the rhythms of your actions on small percussion instruments, like woodblocks, triangles, rasps or guiros

• Make up a short melody to be played on musical stones to add another process to your ‘production line’

Factory Music 20

Richardson’s Rock Band 21Richardson’s Rock, Bell and Steel BandKeswick stonemason Joseph Richardson loved music. He taught himself to play violin, pipes and flute, and enjoyed making his own instruments - even sawing up his mother’s table for the wood to make a violin!

Joseph knew from working with stone that some rocks ring better than others when struck with a hammer.

Like Peter Crosthwaite, who made a set of musical stones to attract visitors to his museum in Keswick, Joseph foundthat certain rocks found around Skiddaw made the clearest sounds.

Joseph spent 13 years collecting and working enough stone to make a huge stone instrument like a xylophone.

He spent his days around Skiddaw looking for likely stones to cart home, and worked far into the night shaping and chipping away at them until they made just the right sounds.

Finally, in 1840, the great stone instrument was completed.

Richardson’s Rock Band 22Joseph set about learning to play the new instrument with his three sons. By striking the stone bars in different ways, the Richardsons found they could make a surprising variety of sounds. They arranged well-known classical tunes along with popular dance music like waltzes and polkas.

When Joseph thought they were ready, the ‘Rock Band’ gave concerts around Keswick and was soon goodenough to tour Northern England. The Richardsons made such a hit wherever they played that they didn’t return to Keswick for three years.

After this, they set their sights on London. To add variety to their concerts, they added tuned steel bars, Alpine bells, drums and other percussion.

In February 1848 the Richardsons played to Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and important British and foreign guests at Buckingham Palace. The Royal couple enjoyed the performance so much that they asked the Richardsons back for another two performances. However, it is reported that Victoria was less keen on the Alpine bells!

After playing all over Britain, the band took the instrument on the train and across the channel to play in France, Germany and Italy.

Richardson’s Rock Band 23Although the band planned to tour the USA, Robert, Joseph’s youngest son and the best player, caught pneumonia. He died the day before the band was due to set off.

Joseph was heartbroken, and the Rock Band was packed away. In 1917 it was given to Keswick Museum by Joseph’s great grandson.

Activities• Design and make posters advertising the Richardson’s Rock, Bell and Steel Band

• The Richardsons arranged folk tunes, well-known classical music, dance and hymn tunes. Make up programmes for the concerts at Buckingham Palace. What special tunes might be played for Queen Victoria?

• Write a letter to Joseph from Buckingham Palace, inviting the band to perform for Queen Victoria and Prince Albert

• Write a reply from Joseph on behalf of the band

Willow Pattern 24Musical Stones (shi 石)Musical stones have been played in China since ancient times.

Sometimes, the musical stones were carved from jade, used by Chinese craftsmen to make beautiful ornaments.

Sets of musical stones called bianqing hung by yellow silken cords from wooden frames.

A larger, very important, single stone chime hung from its own frame. This was the te qing or ‘special stone’.

Chinese OperaMusic accompanied Chinese stories told by singers and actors. Sometimes these were serious, and sometimes they were very funny.

Artists painted scenes from the stories on the Chinese blue and white pottery traded with Britain and Europe.

The blue and white pottery became so popular, that British potters included Chinese ideas in their own dishes, plates and cups.

Willow Pattern 25

The ‘Willow Pattern’ includes a pagoda, bridge with people, sailing boat, willow tree, fence and island. Although it looks Chinese, it was designed at the Spode Pottery Works in England.

Willow Pattern pottery became especially popular, as the scene seemed to tell a story, Soon, people made up songs, rhymes and stories about the blue and white ‘Willow’ scene.

The Willow PatternThe Willow Pattern plate tells the story of Koong See, the daughter of a wealthy and cruel Mandarin. Although she is promised to Ta Jin, an old but rich merchant, she falls in love with Chang, the Mandarin’s secretary.

• Find out the story of Koong She and Chang, and create a play- or even an opera - based around it

• Make up tunes to introduce each of the characters as they appear. Your music will only really fit if you develop each of your characters carefully – for instance: How do different characters behave? How are their characters reflected in the ways they move?

• Your tunes should be short and easy for the audience to remember

• You could practise these on xylophones or glockenspiels, and it would be possible to use theseinstruments to accompany a performance

But wouldn’t it be better to use real musical stones?

Short Ride in a Fast Machine 26BluebirdDuring the 1920s and 1930s, speed ace Sir Malcolm Campbell held 13 speed records on land and water in a series of cars and speed boats, all named Blue Bird.

Sir Malcolm’s son, Donald was also excited by speed. Donald developed a new Bluebird boat powered by a jet engine. In July 1955 Bluebird K7 reached 202.15 mph on Ullswater, beating the existing water speed record by over 24 mph. Donald set another six water speed records between 1955 and 1964, reaching 276.33 mph on Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia in December 1964.

In 1966, Donald tried to reach 300mph on Coniston. K7 was upgraded with a lighter and even more powerful engine taken from an aircraft. But there were problems with the fuel system, plus poor weather conditions. Finally, the fuel system was fixed. On 4 January 1967, the weather was good enough to try for another record run.

Find out more about Donald Campbell and Bluebird at the Ruskin Museum, Coniston

main image - Coniston WaterDonald Campbell, 1966, Coniston Water © John Wardaugh, courtesy of the Anne Catterall collection, The Ruskin Museum, Coniston

Short Ride in a Fast Machine 27

Short Ride in a Fast Machine• Listen to John Adams’ Short Ride in a Fast Machine. Fast rhythms running against the steady beat of awoodblock help us imagine the excitement of travelling at really high speeds.

• The piece begins with just three pitches, adding others as the ‘machine’ tears along. Rhythms go roundand round and work together like cogs in a gearbox

Short Ride in a Fast Machine 28

Compose your own Short Ride in a Fast Machine for musical stones

• In groups of five, invent clapping patterns that fit together. Begin one at a time. Listen carefully to the patterns made by the other players before joining in with your own

• The fifth group member plays a steady beat on a woodblock. Everyone’s rhythm must follow this!

• Start slowly at first. When you feel more confident, clap your pattern a little faster BUT – keep with the beat!

• Each player now invents a second clapping pattern, and practises moving smoothly from the first to the second pattern, keeping in time with the steady beat on the woodblock. Change patterns whenever you wish during your performance

• Develop your work to be played on musical stones. Each player should choose a different stone bar to play

• Bring other percussion instruments with you to the museum, and work out ways of including them in your Short Ride in a Fast Machine

Bluebird speeds down Coniston Water

A Summer Storm heads down Coniston Water

Bluebird K7, autumn 1966; © Paul Allonby, courtesy of The Ruskin Museum, Coniston

Rock Clock 29Concerts played by The Till Rock Band on musical stones included performances of the Trinity and Westminster chimes. Chimes are tunes played by clocks, usually marking the hour, half past, quarter to and quarter past.

They were originally played on bells struck by hammers operated by clockwork.

Rock Clock 30Westminster ChimesThe ‘Westminster Chimes’ were invented by William Jowett in 1794. These use just four pitches.

They were copied in 1859 for the chimes of Big Ben.

The chime gets longer with each quarter hour. Just 4 notes at quarter past the hour, 8 at half past, 12 at quarter to, and finally, 16 notes on the hour.

1st Quarter: 4,3,2,1

2nd Quarter: 2,4,3,1 2,3,4,2

3rd Quarter: 4,2,3,1 1,3,4,2 4,3,2,1

4th Quarter: 2,4,3,1 2,3,4,2 4,2,3,1 1,3,4,2

1=C 2=F 3=G 4=A • Listen to the Westminster chimes. These begin news programmes on the radio • Can you play these on chime bars or glockenspiels • Remember – don’t use any notes other than A G F and C • Could you invent a chime for a clock using five pitches (CDEGA)? • Try playing your Chimes on musical stones

31Stone Circles Stone circles are very special places. No-one is really sure why they were built or what happened there.

“There are so many stones in the Long Meg circle at Penrith that local people say you can count the stones again and again withoutgetting the same answer. Some people say the stones were once people. Anyone chancing to count them correctly would bring themback to life.….”

Stone Circles 32

Activity 1Make up a ‘standing stones’ melody to be played on a lithophone

• Stones making up the circles are different heights. Could taller and shorter stones suggest higher or lower musical pitches?

• Gaps between the stones are not always evenly spaced. Some stones are very close together, others are set wider apart. How will you show this in your music?

Stone Circles 33 Activity 2It is a magical night. As the moon rises over Castlerigg something very mysterious happens. Can you say what?

Tell a story called ‘The night Castlerigg came alive’

• Try out your ‘standing stones’ melodies on a lithophone

• Choose one melody to be the music for a ‘Dance of the Standing Stones’

• Using metallophones and glockenspiels, make ‘silvery’ and ‘shimmering’ sounds to suggest the moon rising

• Play xylophones with hard beaters to join in with the circle melodies

• Add a range of percussion to suggest the eerie atmosphere of Castlerigg

Castlerigg Stone Circle: Thomas Allom 1830 Castlerigg Stone Circle today

with thanks to the following;

Anna HallRachel LittenVicki SloweMike HumphreysLisa KeysCharlotte SteadJamie BarnesLisa StrangeLinda GravesStaveley Primary SchoolLeven Valley Primary SchoolKatharine HamelDave Harvey

Design and photography by Angie and David Unsworth

Angie and David Unsworth use traditional large format cameras to make their evocative landscape photographs of the Lake District from their studio in Grasmere.

www.greenburnpublishing.co.uk

all images not credited otherwise are © greenburn publishing and may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner; other than their intended use here.