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Join us for a concert at the San Francisco Wave Organ, a wave-activated acoustic sculpture hidden at the end of a jetty and “played” by the Pacific Ocean.
The 1986 installation is the creation of Exploratorium artists-in-residence Peter Richards and master stonemason George Gonzalez.
“The place has a feeling of an ancient ruin, you know, on the edge of the ocean,” Richards said of his work in a 2010 audio slideshow explaining the origins of the organ, adding that finding it is part of the instrument’s mystique.
The installation is made up of some materials found at the site as well as granite and marble cemetery stones from a graveyard bulldozed in the 1950s, recycled curbstones and more than 20 partially submerged PVC pipes. The ruinous stones form a theater-like venue for listeners, while the pipes are responsible for the surreal music visitors hear. Richards, who was raised in Colorado, said he first visited the site when he arrived in San Francisco on June 10, 1970.
The organ is best heard at high tide, when the pipes emit gurgling sounds as waves crash against their sunken ends. But the musical phenomenon at the end of the jetty, which features views of the Golden Gate Bridge and Alcatraz, is only part of the point, according to Richards.
“It’s as much about being there and being comfortable and being able to do whatever you want to do,” he said of his work, which he considers “a study in the interrelationships between weather, tide-cycles, moon phases and seasonal changes.”
