The Hyattsville Horns: Are those sax bells rising from the ground, or are you just happy to see me?
When I saw this interesting sculpture on Flickr, I was smitten. I absolutely love this collection of saxophone bells protruding colourfully from the ground, like some kind of spring flowers.
Hyattsville Horn Section: An Urban Musical Instrument
Photography by Elvert Barnes Source: Flickr
This sculpture is part of Christopher Janney’s Urban Musical Instruments series. According to Janney’s website, the Hyattsville Horns are located in the Hyattsville, MD. The piece was installed in 2004, and was commissioned by Prince Georges County Art in Public Places Program.
Besides looking really interesting, this piece is also interactive. Here is how the artist describes the Hyattsville Horns:
This interactive performance sculpture creates a “sonic portrait” of Prince George’s County. It is composed of 5 colorful independent 9ft horn instrument forms spaced so people can walk among them. A map of the County is embedded in the instruments. There are a series of “hand plates” that when touched illuminate and the instruments play a sound or group of sounds from a “sound bank” — a combination of environmental, historical and melodic sounds significant to the County and its impact on the region. A County-specific riddle is engraved on a stainless steel plaque at the center of the sculpture. When the riddle is deciphered and “hand plates” are touched in the correct pattern, the instruments will play a saxophone “short” in reply. The sculpture is lit from dusk to dawn.
Source: janneysound.com
Elvert Barnes took some great detail photos of the Hyattsville Horns. Check out the maps that Janney mentioned are on the bells…
Photography by Elvert Barnes Source: Flickr
Photography by Elvert Barnes Source: Flickr
Here is a shot of one of the tone holes, which must contain one of the speakers which emit the sounds made by these bells when activated by the “hand plates”.
Photography by Elvert Barnes Source: Flickr
To give you a bit more perspective on the scope and size of the Hyattsville Horns, here are a couple more pics of these beautiful bells…
Photography by Elvert Barnes Source: Flickr
Photography by Elvert Barnes Source: Flickr
Barnes has written about his trip to visit the Hyattsville Horns. You can read about it in his blog post of February 7, 2007.
In case you’re wondering about the artist, he is very interesting. Christopher Janney is trained as both an architect, and a jazz musician. In his work we often see these two very divergent disciplines become fused together in rather stunning ways.
The biography provided on his website reads as follows:
CHRISTOPHER JANNEY is an artist, architect, and practicing jazz musician. He received a BA in architecture and visual arts from Princeton (magna cum laude), and a Master of Science in Environmental Art from MIT. He has taught at the Rhode Island School of Design and the Graduate School of Design at Harvard, and has been a visiting professor at Cooper Union in New York City since 1991.
To find out more about Christopher Janney, check out the About page on his website.
