Orchard music

In 2025, thanks to the vision of orchard volunteer Jane Farnell and with funding from Bradford City of Culture, a specially created musical instrument installation has been incorporated into the Church Orchard.

The Church Orchard Lithophone

A lithophone is a musical instrument made of a rock or pieces of rock which, when struck with a beater, vibrate with a resonant ringing tone to produce musical notes. Notes can be played together (to produce harmony) or in succession (to give melody). Lithophone means “sounding stone”.

Lithophones are very ancient instruments, percussions in the same family as xylophones, glockenspiels, vibraphones, and marimbas.

The lithophone in the Church Orchard was created by Bobbie Millar of Quarry Arts. It consists of 13 bars of stone held horizontally in a wooden frame (made by Addingham craftsman Martin Ellis). The stones used are all of Yorkshire origin. They are of selected and crafted to be of varied length, breadth and depth, and rocks of different compositions have been chosen. The precise dimension and shape of each stone, and its density, combine to determine the pitch and timbre of its sound. The stones are arranged in a scale of 5 notes per octave.

Future musical plans for the Church Orchard

A second musical installation is envisioned for the future, with long stone bars suspended vertically, arranged to be visually reminiscent of the pipes in an organ case facade.