You might remember the Wave Organ, this acoustic sculpture at the end of a jetty near the San Francisco Yacht Club. We had visited before, but our timing always seemed to coincide with the tide going out. This time, we took advantage of the king tide and went back to listen for a bit.
The organ pipes are made of pvc and cement. In the 1940s, when San Francisco’s cemeteries were moved to the suburb of Colma, unclaimed headstones and monuments were reused in various places from Golden Gate Park to this location. This is how the organ sculpture was created, with some of that carved granite and marble.
While the curving pipes reminded us of the “Yellow Submarine”, the waves lapping from below actually sound like a chorus of gurgles and squeaks, even occasionally like a wine bottle being uncorked.
