In Upper Black Eddy, Pennsylvania, Ringing Rocks Park‘s namesake is also its main attraction.
This rare park attracts locals and tourists specifically on a quest to discover one of Nature’s many intrigues – ringing rocks.
The adaptly-named park has the worldwide distinction of being one of few natural areas where boulders emit sounds, at varying tones, when banged on using a hammer or another rock.
While there appears there is no official scientific understanding of how the rocks ‘ring’ when struck, the theory is that rare minerals like diabase, along with crystalline structures, inside the rock are the keys to the mystery.
Diabase, also known as dolerite, contains subvolcanic holocrystalline and mafic rock, and is equivalent to volcanic basalt and plutonic gabbro.
The iron-rich diabase, together with crystalline, in the large boulders at Ringing Rocks vibrate when struck, producing melodic resonant tones.
Futhermore, fracture lines within the rocks, coupled with mineral alignments, enhance the transmission of sound waves, thereby amplifying the overall ‘ringing’ effect.
Some artists have gravitated to the natural allure of these resonant boulders and set to lay down a musical legacy – however small – harnessing the park’s unique acoustic qualitifies for their own recordings.
One local musical group named Square Peg Round Hole have done just that at Ringing Rocks, creating acoustic harmonies by syncing varying tones of rocks into creating ‘natural song.’
Square Peg Round Hole, we’re sure, are not the only ones. There’s no good way to track who used ringing rocks for recordings.
But we do know is that ‘playing’ rocks for musical sake is not something new. Not new at all, in fact.
Back in the 1840s, a family of rock ringers from the English countryside entertained audiences in quite a unique way.
Newspapers from the time ran advertisements declaring the family, no kidding, as the ‘original monstre rock band’ performing ‘solid rock.’
The creation of a Keswick, England stonemason named Joseph Richardson, the ‘original monstre rock band’ soon became a headlining act.
In 1841, Richardson and his three sons began performing concerts, slinging and walloping mallets on the harmonicon and amazing audiences with their innovative classical repertoire.
One newspaper, The Athenaeum, exuberantly proclaimed the Richardson’s performance as ‘fabled things made real’ and hailing Richardson himself as a ‘shipwreck Mozart’ for his ability to create beauty from the crudest and most unlikely materials.
According to the family descendants’ official website, the band performed on February 23, 1848 at Buckingham Palace “before a whole host of European royalty, aristocracy and dignitaries.
“It must have been an overwhelming experience for Joseph and his three sons, but, by all accounts, they were so professional by that time that they carried off the performance with aplomb.”
“Queen Victoria, although she had heard the Band play before, was very impressed and, together with Albert, requested a couple of encores. Although she commented that she didn’t really like the addition of the Swiss Bells (which had been added since her last hearing), she gave the performance her royal approval.”
Initially, it took some years before the band was ready to go on stage, not because of nerves, but because their main instrument was still being created.
From 1827 to 1840, Richardson gathered and meticulously chipped pieces of metamorphic rock called hornfels.
Imagine that; after 13 years of deliberate and patient work, he completed his five-octave ‘rock harmonicon,’ comprising of a total of 61 stones aligned 12 feet long.
Richardson’s harmonicon was hewn of rocks from the volcanic mountain of Skiddaw, and is considered part of the lithophone family of instruments – such as a modern xylophone or glockenspiel – featuring stone bars shaped, assembled and tuned accordingly.
The largest rock was approximately three feet long and measured at an octave below middle C, while the smallest stone was only six inches long.
The stone was laid upon twisted straw across a pair of wooden bars. An assortment of specialized leather and wooden mallets were used to actually play the instrument.
Differently than ‘ringing rocks,’ Richardson’s harmonicon was actually constructed specificially because the hornfels he used were meant to dampen the vibrations immediately due to the greater density and minerals of internal structure.