Music in the key of sea
Poet records tone of the waves
Published:
THE next time you head to the coast for a stroll, you can leave your MP3 player behind.
For the waves at your nearest North-east port may be singing to a variety of tunes.
According to poet John Mackie, the sound of the sea at Banff is tuned to the key of A.
And along the Moray Coast at Spey Bay, the waves are in harmony with the key of D, he claims.
Some might say the findings are slightly discordant, admits John, who lives in Banff.
But he fed the sounds directly into a hand-held computer with its own built-in tuner to guarantee the accuracy of his coastal experiments.
And he hasn’t ruled out trying to find out where in the musical spectrum other North-east ports are.
Mr Mackie realised the musical value of Spey Bay when he visited while writing an alternative version of Shakespeare’s Macbeth for the National Theatre for Scotland.
He then continued his sound experiment in Banff.
He said: “People think I’m crazy, but I’m not the first – Mendelssohn, Vaughan Williams and Debussy have all used the sea as their inspiration.
“I’ve lived around Banff bay for around 13 years and I’m fascinated by it. I recorded lots of ambient sounds and the dominant key of incoming waves is A or A minor.
“I got up at 4am to record the sound of the waves during June and July.”
John now aims to bring out a CD of the project by using photographs, sound recordings and verse sequences he has written.
He is hoping that musicians will add backing tracks to the sea recordings.
The 61-year-old already has a history in the music business.
In his 20s, he contributed lyrics to songs for the 1969 LP Piece Of Mind, by Roger Bunn, which has a cult following.
He is now urging musicians to go down to their local port and see what key they think it is in.
