This composer wrote new music using ancient percussion instruments discovered in Colorado

In The NOCO

Denver composer Nathan Hall’s new album of percussion music focuses on some unique instruments: They’re hand-carved from stone and date back several millennia.

Lithophones are polished, resonant rocks shaped like baguettes. Archaeologists say that Indigenous people used the stones somewhere between 2,000 and 6,000 years ago near what’s now Great Sand Dunes National Park.

Nathan wrote a series of pieces to be performed on the stones and recorded the music with a Colorado group called Perc Ens. The resulting album, called Gentle Worship, is out now.

Nathan talked with In The NoCo's Erin O’Toole about collaborating with Marilyn Martorano, the Colorado archaeologist who studied the lithophones. The music he wrote combines the ancient stone instruments’ sounds with modern instruments like woodblocks and timpani.

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Host and Producer: Erin O'Toole
Executive Producer: Brad Turner
Theme music by Robbie Reverb
Additional music by Blue Dot Sessions
In The NoCo is a production of KUNC News and Community Radio for Northern Colorado.