Singing Ringing Tree
Burnley
August 2015 – The Singing Ringing Tree has been chosen as one of 21 landmarks that define Britain in the 21st Century. Hundreds of structures were voted for by the public with the final 21 chosen by a panel of experts. Organised by The Independent Newspaper and British Airways travel magazine. Read more here. See information on left hand side for directions to SRT.
The Singing Ringing Tree is aptly named. A 3-meter-tall, wind-powered musical sculpture made of galvanized steel pipes, it stands high above the English town of Burnley. The pipes swirl to form the shape of a tree bent and blown by the wind, and produce an eerie, melodious hum as the constant wind on Crown Point drifts through them. The Singing Ringing Tree’s pipes are used for both aesthetic qualities as well as for tuning, with their sound varied according to length and added narrow slits on the underside of specific pipes. The sound produced by these twisted metal trees covers several octaves and is said to be simultaneously discordant and melancholy, and intensely beautiful.
Completed in 2006, the Tree was designed by award-winning architects Mike Tonkin and Anna Liu. The site at Burnley was once that of a re-diffusion transmission station, complete with a run-down brick building and unused telegraph lines. The station was dismantled and the lines cut down to be recycled, to make way for the Tree that was to stand out against the stark, rolling landscape of the Pennines.
In 2007, the sculpture won the National Award of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) for architectural excellence.
Duet No.1 for Synthesizer and The Singing Ringing Tree
John Kesson, originally from the UK, but currently based in Minneapolis, is a musician, composer and sound artist exploring the synesthetic relationships between auditory and optical landscapes. This series of blogs documents his five day recording session and performance series at the Singing Ringing Tree.
Song for the Singing Ringing Tree
East Lancashire Clarion Choir member Henry Peacock wrote a song about SRT after the Choir climbed up there one weekend. Read all about it here.
