Blackpool High Tide Organ, Tidal organ on Blackpool Promenade, England
The Blackpool High Tide Organ is a 15-meter tall metal and concrete structure installed on the seafront that combined eight intake pipes connected to eighteen organ pipes. Wave action pushed seawater through the intake pipes to create sound within the organ's pipes.
The installation was built in 2002 as part of The Great Promenade Show series to merge art with natural forces. After years of exposure to seawater, it was dismantled in 2021 due to structural wear and environmental damage.
The organ represented the intersection of art, engineering, and nature, joining similar installations in San Francisco and Croatia as examples of tidal-powered musical instruments.
The best time to hear the sounds was roughly two to three hours before or after high tide, when wave movements were at their strongest. Visitors could enjoy the constantly changing music, as different wave patterns created different notes.
The instrument played notes in a B flat harmonic series without any human input, and was one of the few works to use seawater directly for sound creation. Each tidal cycle brought a different musical composition, since waves never moved identically.
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