The sounds of broken and bullet-ridden horns and bugles fill Tate Britain’s vast Duveen Galleries today (21 November) as part of an installation by the Scottish sound artist Susan Philipsz (War Damaged Musical Instruments, until 3 April 2016).
The artist recorded musicians playing The Last Post—a call that signals the end of a day’s battle—on instruments used in the First World War and other conflicts, including the Battle of Waterloo and the Boer War. Borrowed from museums in Germany and the UK, instruments include the Balaclava Bugle, which “allegedly sounded the Charge of the Light Brigade [during the Crimean War]”, Philipsz says.
The recordings “call and respond to each other” through directional speakers. Several of the brass and woodwind instruments were so damaged that “sometimes just breathing” can be heard on the recordings. The installation was commissioned by 14-18 NOW, which funds new work to mark the centenary of the First World War.
