- Who
- Foghorn Requiem
- What
- 55 total number
- Where
- United Kingdom ()
- When
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.
