the foghorn

[Diane]

Well, it's definitely 'other music'!

It's marvellous to know one is not alone in one's eccentricities. We have a foghorn on the coast here, not used for navigation since the mid 90's. Even imagining the sound of the foghorn makes me smile. And now musicologist Jennifer Lucy Allan has written a book about it that has just come into my possession: The Foghorn's Lament. She says, "I had thought of the foghorn as a lonely sound, a big melancholic beast echoing into the vastness of the open sea, often to nobody at all. But it isn’t. This heaving machine is the sound of somebody else…” Just like Mr Cohen said, "Leave to the foghorns our lonesome story". Laurie Anderson, who covered Leonard Cohen at the Hal Wilner Dublin tribute, enthuses on the back cover that this has become one of her favourite books.

Naturally a video clip cannot convey the depth, volume or reach of the sound, but here is the Sumburgh foghorn on Shetland, with a nice lead-in showing the measured mechanical preparations:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHCmzvzCmhI

And here's a review of the aforementioned book:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/ ... in-a-sound

[LisaLCFan]

I very much enjoyed that! Thanks! Having lived my life nowhere near a coastline, the sound of a foghorn is a pleasure I have had only rarely, and while on vacations. Nonetheless, I have always found foghorns be so compelling, in a rather haunting sort of way (i.e. memorable and evocative), as if the sound reaches to the greatest depths -- of the sea, of the soul, of the universe. There is a physical quality to the sound, as well -- it is not just heard, but felt, as if its deep rumbling voice vibrates the very molecules of one's being. One can almost imagine the sound going on forever, continuing to be heard (or felt) somewhere, by someone, perhaps as little more than a faint echo in the distance (or a tiny tremor), barely noticeable, but enough to cause the individual (wherever they may be) to wonder what it was and where it came from.

I had no idea that a foghorn had such massive and intricate machinery -- very interesting, indeed! I also ordered a copy of Allan's book: musicology is a passion of mine, the way sounds affect us, and all of the history surrounding it -- I love to read non-fiction books on those interconnected subjects, and thus, her book sounds very intriguing!

Cheers!