A symphony of boat horns around the world will play O Canada in unison to mark the country’s 150th birthday — that is, if Chris Donison’s vision goes according to plan.
The executive artistic director of Music by the Sea, an annual festival in Bamfield, said he’s optimistic after an initial test of the technology Saturday. And with a two-year lead on the event, he said there’s time for Canadians across the country and beyond to get involved.
“The idea, in a nutshell, is to connect all Canadians at home and abroad,” Donison said.
“It has immense goosebump factor.”
The project is tentatively dubbed “Canada 150: From C to C to C.”
Since the vessel’s actual horns can’t be tuned, Donison said the project would see portable horns placed on each boat and tuned to a different note.
Ideally, 25 vessels will be involved at each location, providing a full chromatic scale around middle C.
Using wireless technology developed by Victoria’s Limbic Media, Donison will be able to “play” the horns using a keyboard. In its final iteration, each vessel will light up as its note is played.
“We will be playing O Canada at 8 a.m. from Bamfield, and it will be heard all across the country on rivers, inlets and lakes,” Donison said.
In addition to the horns he hopes to arrange from the Rideau Canal to the River Thames, Donison said a smart-phone application would allow anyone anywhere to play along. The app would download samples of the horns, so users can participate simultaneously.
God Save the Queen and a specially written new piece will also be played.
Donison did a test-run and demonstration of the technology Saturday from a keyboard on an Oak Bay bluff, during a Music by the Sea fundraiser. There were only 11 horns arranged along the beachfront landscape, with one on a Zodiac boat, and they are not yet capable of lighting up.
But soon after the test-run, Donison said it was working as planned.
He is also planning a full performance July 4 at the 10th anniversary opening of Music by the Sea in Bamfield Inlet. The boaters will be predominantly volunteers and community members, he said.
Donison is hoping to get public support for the project and has approached Heritage Canada, but said he will go ahead with it privately in any case.
For a community interested in participating, he estimated it would cost about $25,000 to manufacture and deliver the technology.
“These things can change with economies of scale,” he said.
He said there’s plenty of incentive for the federal government to get on board.
“What does it make Canada look like? I would say we come off looking very technologically robust and innovative and creative — and yet whimsical. Still nationalistic but not jingoistic.
“A real Canadian kind of nationalism with a playful nature and yet a seriousness because of the technology and seriousness in connecting everyone together in one instant.”
