Musical fountain

A musical fountain is a type of animated fountain for entertainment purposes that creates an aesthetic design and sometimes a three-dimensional image. This is done by using the effects of sound waves and light or laser against water particles, in which the water streams, activated in strategically-timed durations, refract and reflect the light, and in doing so, a three-dimensional image is created.

Many of the more well-known ones are large scale, and use hundreds of water jets and laser emitters, the cost of which runs up into the millions of dollars, although smaller household forms exist where the budget ranges to around a thousand dollars. An example of one is the musical fountain in Sentosa, an island off mainland Singapore.

A number of companies offer software and hardware that cause pumps to turn on and off and lights to change in response to the bass and treble of music fed through the system, causing the fountain to respond automatically without a need for manual choreography.

Fountains that are choreographed to music

These fountains, also generally called musical fountains, appear to respond to music but have been programmed beforehand. The earliest of these were played manually by a live operator, who usually controlled pumps or valves and sometimes lights by way of switches on a control panel. Music was almost always live. Later, choreography could be prerecorded on a punched paper card which was scanned by a computer; and even later, it could be recorded on magnetic tape or, in the most modern shows, on a CD along with the music. Even so, the choreography must still be painstakingly programmed by hand, some types of shows being played live from a control console and connected to a computer that records the operator's actions for later automatic playback.

The earliest choreographed musical fountains

The Bodor Fountain

Péter Bodor was a Hungarian gadgeteer and mechanical engineer (born on 22 June 1788 and died 17 August 1849) who built a musical or chiming fountain in the Transylvanian town of Marosvásárhely (now: Tîrgu-Mureş, Romania) between 1820 and 1822. His fountain (see pictures here) had a round floor-plan, with two arched stairs on the sides, dome roof supported by pillars. The mechanical core was a hydaulic structure driven by the force of water that played then popular chimes at every hour. There was a gilded Neptune (or Apollo) statue on the top, that turned round in 24 hours. The fountain was destroyed in 1836 by a snow storm, and was never restored. However, an almost identical copy was built in Budapest's Margit Island in 1936 that did not operated by hydraulic means, but used electricity instead. This latter was partly destroyed during the Second World War, but restored in 1954 and again in 1997. Now it is a tourist attraction that plays music at every hour during the day.

The work of F.W. Darlington

Prismatic Fountain, Denver, Colorado - May 30, 1908

"Mayor Robert W. Speer and F.W. Darlington, an engineer with the Denver Interurban Railway, dedicate the new marvel in City Park Lake--The Prismatic Electric Fountain. The Fountain features electric lighting effects that have not been seen before by the public. Eleven columns of brightly colored light stream through the dramatic changing patterns of water. High in the north tower of the City Park Pavilion, an operator sits at a roll top desk, moving levers to undulate the twelve sets of water features and make the columns of light change color to the sounds of the Denver Municipal Band."

Denver Municipal Facts--May 22, 1909

F.W. Darlington was a pioneer in electrical fountain control as well as water design.

"Darlington had several signature water feature elements in his fountain designs. The multiple spray rings with "basket-weave" nozzle placement is one that shows up in photographs of several fountains, including some not yet credited to Darlington. The "fan" effect, a complicated triple spray ring with multiple nozzle sizes and angles is yet another water effect seen in several "Electric Fountains."

(from "Friends of the Electric Fountain" -early pictures available)

Garfield Park, Indianapolis, Indiana - 1916

In 1915, the new greenhouses and Conservatory were built. The dedication of the Sunken Garden took place October 29, 1916. In 1916, Darlington was hired to design and build the fountains at the east end of the Sunken Garden. The fountains were the first in the country to be equipped with the mechanics that allowed the changing of the spray and displayed lights, according to the season and holiday. For Memorial Day, the fountain's lights were alight with red, white, and blue, and on other days, gold and white. Today, the fountains are still a popular attraction for visitors. This fountain was restored by The Fountain People in 1997 and with a musical control system by Atlantic Fountains in 2003.

Pool of Industry, 1939 New York World's Fair

An early notable example of a musical fountain choreographed live was the Pool of Industry at the 1939 New York World Fair, where three operators controlled the fountain, guided by a paper program that unscrolled under a glass window like the paper roll of a player piano - rather than controlling the effects directly like a piano roll, it was marked with commands that told the operators when to push the buttons and throw the switches. This fountain was more than just water and lights, however. Besides 3 million watts of lights and a gigantic pool containing 1,400 water nozzles, there were over 400 gas jets with a mechanism that caused colored flames and fireworks were shot from over 350 launchers, creating a nighttime spectacle on a grand scale. Music was played live by the fair's band and broadcast by large speakers to the areas surrounding the display. The updated show displayed at the same fairgrounds in 1964 lacked the colored flames but used punched cards for the choreography, had prerecorded music, and utilized the then-revolutionary system of dichroic light filtering (developed by Bausch and Lomb for the fountain) which now allowed a dark colored lens and a light colored lens to produce the same brightness of light. It was by this process that 700,000 watts of light produced over 3 megacandelas. This show also had single lights with multiple sliding color filters for mixing colors, and arrays of nozzles that could be adjusted, their direction changed by hydraulic or pneumatic actuators.

The Przystawic legacy

In 1930s Germany, Otto Przystawic first conceived the idea of creating a fountain that would recreate the gracefulness and elegance of ballet. His first display was built in the Resi Restaurant in Berlin, for which he was an electrical engineer. Visible through a series of archways, arrays of water nozzles created water sprays that not only rose and fell, but swayed side to side or revolved in a circle, mimicking real dancers. Colored lights bathed the moving water formations in color and made the water sparkle. Diners were enthralled as the water performed to live music, controlled by a single operator sitting at a control console. Przystawic's clever engineering took the fountains to the next level when, after the war, a show was installed on a stage in the rebuilt Resi Restaurant & Ballroom, where it became a local attraction.

While traveling through Berlin with his "Skating Vanities" show, showman Harold Steinman saw the Resi installation and was taken by the idea. Contracting with Przystawic, he went to Leon Leonidoff at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. For the first time in history, Leonidoff booked a show sight-unseen, and what Steinman called the "Dancing Waters" made its American debut in January 1953. Four weeks later, Dancing Waters took another first, being the first show to be rebooked in such a short time. This time, Dancing Waters added its magic to Radio City's famed Easter spectacular. The success of Dancing Waters in the US prompted Steinman to add them to his list of touring shows, and he formed Dancing Waters, Inc. and purchased numerous shows from Przystawic. Redesigned to be portable, the new shows could be disassembled for transport and were supplied with inflatable rubber basins to hold the water. The shows used the best Przystawic engineering - for example, variable-speed pumps and complex valves were many years away, so the fountain's pump motors were connected to large power resistors, adjustable by a row of levers on the control console. By moving these levers, the amount of power supplied to each pump's motor could be varied, which caused the pumps to speed up or slow down and change the water height. In addition, the control console grouped many of its controls into single switches, allowing the operator to play many effects at once with one hand. The Przystawic shows were unique in that water effects danced to the music, either swaying (driven by a motor) or revolving (on a bearing, pushed by water pressure)

While Otto Przystawic and, soon, his son Gunter, continued to improve their shows in Germany, Harold Steinman took the Dancing Waters on a successful tour of the United States and the world. The waters found at least one "permanent home" at the short-lived Royal Nevada Hotel in Las Vegas.

In the early 1970s, Gunter moved the family business to Florida and he, soon with his son Michael, continued to update their shows. Changing the name to Waltzing Waters to show the difference between Otto Przystawic's simpler fountains, the new shows sent out water through perfectly aligned nozzles with almost laser-like precision, creating very precise, orderly patterns that picked up the colored lights. The mechanics that moved the swaying nozzles became more complex, allowing one array of nozzles to move in a number of different ways depending on how the motors that moved them were connected. Abandoning the cumbersome system of resistors, each water effect was given three heights - the method that made this possible used only two pumps, without any valves. The new shows were offered as permanent installations, and those placed on a stage could have overhead lights concealed in the stage's flyloft. Outdoor shows, and indoor installations where overhead lighting was not possible, used submersible lights. The lighting and nozzles were arrayed in ways that allowed one effect to be lit in one color and another effect in front of the first to be a separate color. Each segment of the fountain in odd and even sections, front and back lights separate, in three 'areas' dividing the fountain into thirds, coupled with the various moving and rotating nozzles, provide seemingly endless arrays of effects, all of them exhibiting the high quality of construction and ingeniously simple mechanics the Przystawics are known for. New fountains were controlled by computer, and choreographed shows created by hand at the factory, using a fountain installed there, could be sent to the user on a CD that contained both water and light cues and music. One show using the new effects but still having a live operator can be seen at the Waltzing Waters Theatre in Branson, Missouri.

Waltzing Waters' newest shows are, due to the precision water and lighting effects and the lightning-fast response of the pumps, known by the trademarked term "Liquid Fireworks", and video clips available from their website demonstrate as much. They also provide "Classic" fountains and "Simplicity" fountains, which offer progressively less effects for smaller budgets. Show sizes range from thirty feet up to massive units the length of a football field. Custom shows have been built in separated segments, turned around a gentle corner, even bent sharply into a "U". Waltzing Waters recently purchased the aging Dancing Waters, and has begun renting "Classic" series fountains.

Later water fountains

The Dancing Waters style of water show is a linear display of pumps and lights. In the United States, similar fountains are the Musical Waters. Musical Waters shows use the basic Dancing Waters mechanics. The fountains use single-speed pumps and do not offer variable water heights, and the revolving nozzles are not present since the Dancing Waters design having been prone to jamming. Despite lacking the rotating nozzles that usually define this type of show, the Musical Waters shows are one of the few of this kind that still retain most of the simple elegance that defined Otto Przystawic's first fountains, including the visual attraction of the human element with live "fountaineers" controlling the effects.

Other United States based companies such as WET (Water Entertainment Technologies), Fontana Fountains, Atlantic Fountains, Formosa Fountains, Hall Fountains, and Waterworks International have built fully computer controlled musical fountains since 1980. These include two to six meter wide systems available to the homeowner as well as large corporate, municipal and show fountains in excess of fifty meters in length—and in the case of WET's Fountains of Bellagio, nine acres in size. These include proportional, interactive and audio spectral control that bring musical fountains to a wide audience. Fountain shapes are not limited to linear layout stage shows but include geometric and freeform shapes as well. Moreover, latest technology allows the construction of Floating watershows. Fontana Fountains first introduced the use of Stainless Steel floaters allowing bigger water show applications even in coasts and lakes.

Numerous manufacturers in the Near and Far East, in places such as India and Pakistan, also produce musical fountains. Many of them have updated the look with individually servomotor-controlled nozzles, large water screens on which video can be projected, and laser effects. Shows are built not only in the standard linear form, but in circular, semicircular and oblong shapes, in multiple pools, and many other layouts. In many places in India, a musical fountain is a must-have attraction for any city, and there will often be at least one if not multiple local companies ready to build them. These systems can be complex, with quality varying by manufacturer. Many firms also rent shows.

International Fountain

Built for the Century 21 Exposition in Seattle in 1963, the International Fountain's original design had changing water and light patterns, with a background of classical music (though the patterns weren't specifically intended to be synched with the music.) The fountain was very large, designed as a concrete bowl around a 'moonscape' of broken limestone, at the center of which was a tiled dome studded with pointy black nozzles. The fountain was not originally designed for interaction but was redesigned in 1996 by WET to make the fountain more inviting, interactive and safe. Switching out the multicolored lights for white, WET added fog nozzles, a ring of their Shooters® set into the pavers around the base of the dome, and four large SuperShooters® hidden in the upper surface of the dome. The restored fountains behaves as its predecessor did for most of the day, producing changing water patterns as music plays, but it now marks each hour by bringing out other effects, like fog, and performs a choreographed show.

Fountains of Bellagio Hotel

WET also designed the Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas, which are set in a manmade lake long with an area of nine acres. The fountain is formed as a pair of large concentric rings and a long, curved arc, and two smaller circles are attached to the arc near each end. Shooters® outline all aspects of the layout, allowing for the arc and circles to rise as columns and curtains of water, as well as providing high-speed chase sequences. Re-engineered HyperShooters™ fire jets nearly into the air, and more recently added ExtremeShooters are capable of reaching heights of . Needing a better way to define smoother passages of music, WET engineers developed the Oarsman® nozzle, a robotic water jet that can be moved 120 degrees from side to side, and 90 degrees front to back, grouped with a pod of lights that follow the water stream. With the direction, water height, and light of every Oarsman controllable independently from every other Oarsman, a nearly infinite variety of patterns can be created on the lake. A fog generating device rises from beneath the water to blanket the entire lake with fog, and about 4000 individially controllable underwater lights follow the water patterns' precise movements, sparkling on the water or glowing through the fog. Performing to everything from opera to classical to broadway to pop, the Fountains of Bellagio run every day on the half hour, and every quarter hour during the evening. A team of dive-certified engineers are on-site at all times, maintaining the fountain's complex mechanical, electrical and hydraulic systems.

Despite the scale of such shows as the Fountains of Bellagio, these shows must still be programmed and choreographed by hand. Computers aid the process, but engineers must still spend weeks, sometimes months, on each new performance before it is ready to be placed in rotation with the other shows.

Branson Landing

Branson Landing located in Branson, Missouri features a picturesque boardwalk along the Taneycomo Lakefront. The Landing's center attraction is the Town Square in which the $7.5 million spectacular water attraction, designed by WET, takes center stage. The fountains include dancing and blasting water shooters, blasting water up to in the air, fire, light and music.

Grand Haven

One other notable fountain of the choreographed type is the Grand Haven Musical Fountain in Grand Haven, Michigan. Built in 1963 by volunteers and designed by a local engineer, this fountain was based on a Przystawic show seen in Germany and was the largest musical fountain in the world when it was built. The display comprises a small number of water formations grouped in odd and even segments, with the same formations on each. Augmented by curtains of water at the back and front, a large fanlike array called the Peacock, and three fire hose nozzles - one placed vertically in the center, and the others aimed at an angle from each end - the show produces a simple Dancing Waters style display. Colored lights are arrayed along the front of the fountain in individually controllable groups in red, blue, amber and white, and the back curtain and Peacock sprays have their own lights - green and yellow for the back curtain, and two sets each red, blue and amber for the Peacock. In addition, nozzles called "sweeps" provide the moving effects, swaying side-to-side. A patented drive mechanism allows each pair of sweeps to follow or oppose each other in direction of movement, to move along long or short paths, and to move at any of three speeds, allowing the moving water to follow nearly any kind of music. The original show used punched paper cards, though computers control the new system. The nozzles and pumps have never been changed, only cleaned and cared-for; and shows must still be programmed by hand. Even with the simplest of the many programs used to create shows for this fountain, choreographing one three-minute song can take anywhere from two to four hours. The Grand Haven Musical Fountain, still performs nightly, and is viewable from a grandstand on the waterfront in Grand Haven.

External links

• Fontana Fountains, Water Shows, Floating Water Shows, large gallery of videos and photos of their projects
• WET Design, with details on their many projects
• Friends of the Electric Fountain - F.W. Darlington, with photos
• Waltzing Waters
• Waltzing Waters shows for rental
• Official site for the Grand Haven Musical Fountain, with photos
• Definitive Grand Haven's page about the fountain
• Atlantic Fountains musical projects (includes Garfield Park photos)
• Emotion Media Factory - Musical Fountains and Laser Shows
• LCI Productions - spectacular water shows
• Formosa Fountains
• Exclusive Fountains UK
• Hall Fountains, Inc.
• W.E.T. Dreams
• Craiova Musical Fountain