Creating a sonic landscape on a highway using grooves and ridges that cause your tires to resonate at a certain pitch; who would have thought to do that?
Recognizable? Yes.
In tune? Sadly, no, but other than enforcing a strict “play speed” there is no way to get around this problem of modulation. We want to try this in Canada to apparently.
“MacDonald has taken his proposal to Whistler council, which has referred the plan to staff for consideration. He has also spoken with officials in B.C.’s highways ministry. MacDonald is also preparing his own feasibility study to convince lawmakers that a musical highway would make the Sea-to-Sky sing. MacDonald believes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (sometimes referred to as Ode to Joy) would be the ideal piece of music for the Sea-to-Sky Highway. He wants the musical stretch of highway to begin at the entrance to Whistler, near Function Junction. For those people who know Whistler, there’s the Symphony Bowl, the Flute Ridge, the High Note Trail,” says MacDonald.
“I’m going to call it the r’Ode to Joy.”
I’m guessing it would be an ‘attraction’ of sorts, but the awesomeness of hearing an out of tune Ode to Joy played by your car tires escapes me for the most part. Also consider the local residents…
bleatmop
Mystro
Dead Wild Roses 
2 comments
August 5, 2014 at 9:32 am
Mystro
I feel nauseated…Let’s take even more steps to get the general public accustomed to bastardized snippets of great music. Like newspeak, after a couple of generations of lowering the bar, musical awareness will slowly degrade until most people can’t even remember what harmony is.
Meanwhile, all those social programs that are hurting for funds? Sorry, we gotta make gimmicky crap sounds on roadways. Priorities.
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August 5, 2014 at 9:52 am
The Intransigent One
The intonation problems here aren’t due to uneven or incorrect speed; for the intervals to be so wrong, whoever did the math for the placement of the rumblies was off by just enough to be jarring and put it in a minor key.
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