Prof Lise Autogena’s Foghorn Requiem holds Guinness World Record

A REQUIEM FOR THE FOGHORN, PERFORMED BY SEVENTY FIVE BRASS PLAYERS, A FOGHORN AND AN ARMADA OF SHIPS A project by Danish artist, Lise Autogena, in collaboration with Joshua Portway and composer Orlando Gough. Ships horns from an armada of vessels off-shore, seventy five brass players on-shore and the Souter Lighthouse Foghorn performed a Foghorn Requiem, an ambitious musical performance to mark the disappearance of the sound of the foghorn from the UK’s coastal landscape. Conducted and controlled from a distance, ships at sea sounded their horns to a musical score, that will took into account landscape and the physical distance of sound. The performance took place by Souter Light House by South Shields, UK with 8-10.000 spectators and more than 50 ships off-shore.

Foghorn Requiem, a landscape-interactive musical composition by artists Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway and composer Orlando Gough, has been selected for the Guinness World Records. It holds the record for Most ship horns in a piece of music. The piece was performed by three brass bands, 60 ships at sea and Souter Lighthouse Foghorn.

The Guinness World Records entry reads:

On 22 June 2013, a total of 55 ships gathered on the North Sea to perform a musical score called the “Foghorn Requiem”. This piece of music was written by artists Lise Autogena and Joshua Portway in conjunction with composer Orlando Gough to mark the end of the use of foghorns in the UK.
The “Foghorn Requiem” was performed by three brass bands, 55 ships at sea and the Souter Lighthouse Foghorn – the last Foghorn in the UK to sound off before being decommissioned. Conducted and controlled by computers connected to each ship’s GPS, ships sounded their horns to a score taking into account the landscape and the physical distance of sound. Their parts in the musical score were timed according to how long it would take for the sound from the ship’s horns to reach the Souter Lighthouse and Brass Bands. The composition, performed live to audiences on the coastal cliffs, was played across a space of several miles around Souter lighthouse.
This is the first time a foghorn has played as an integral part of a brass band, and the first time a brass band has played with tuned ships horns”.
Foghorn Requiem was the flagship event for the Festival of the North East in 2013 and was viewed by an audience of more than 8000 people.
“When people were told that the foghorns were being turned off, they were quite emotional about it, and we realised that the foghorn has a huge meaning to a lot of people. It’s very connected to the landscape where we live. So we decided we wanted to create a Requiem for the Foghorn. It’s like a portrait of a region.” Prof Lise Autogena
A REQUIEM FOR THE FOGHORN, PERFORMED BY SEVENTY FIVE BRASS PLAYERS, A FOGHORN AND AN ARMADA OF SHIPSA project by Danish artist, Lise Autogena, in collaboration with Joshua Portway and composer Orlando Gough. Ships horns from an armada of vessels off-shore, seventy five brass players on-shore and the Souter Lighthouse Foghorn performed a Foghorn Requiem, an ambitious musical performance to mark the disappearance of the sound of the foghorn from the UK's coastal landscape. Conducted and controlled from a distance, ships at sea sounded their horns to a musical score, that will took into account landscape and the physical distance of sound. The performance took place by Souter Light House by South Shields, UK with 8-10.000 spectators and more than 50 ships off-shore.

A Requiem for the Foghorn, Performed by 75 brass players, a foghorn and an armada of ships. Lise Autogena, in collaboration with Joshua Portway and composer Orlando Gough.

An image showing the positioning of the vessels taking part in the performance off the coast of Souter

Positioning of the vessels taking part in the performance off the coast of Souter. Image: Lise Autogena

A documentary about the making of Foghorn Requiem can be viewed on Vimeo here:

 

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