01
Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Douleurs
Fl W 5s
1 s flash, 4 s eclipse · 19 nM
Active, official aid
one period, 5 s
The first lighthouse on the St. Lawrence, lit in 1809.
The score
Nine staves in the order of Route 132, going down the coast. Six lights still burn and play their real rhythm from the Canadian Coast Guard List of Lights 2026. Three towers have gone dark: their staves are frozen, never played.
Motion is reduced: the score stands still, and the golden bracket on each staff marks one full period of its light.
Sound plays only after you press Listen: each flash becomes a soft note, one pitch per lighthouse, at its true tempo. Cap-des-Rosiers, an occulting light, hums low and falls silent during its eclipse.
The whole score returns to its opening chord every 9 min- flash (note)
- now
- historic, light discontinued
Seconds
02
Rimouski
Characteristic unknown
historic signal not confirmed
Discontinued 1975
rest: characteristic not confirmed
Reinforced concrete on eight flying buttresses, 1909. No reliable record of its signal survives in our sources, so the staff stays silent.
03
Métis-sur-Mer
Fl(3) W 7.5s
three 0.25 s flashes, 1 s apart, 4.75 s eclipse · range not listed
Active, private aid
one period, 7.5 s
Its Chance Brothers lens still floats on a bath of mercury. Flash lengths from a single source.
04
Matane
Fl(2) W 7.5s
historic characteristic of 1907, single source
Light discontinued 1951
one period, 7.5 s
At the entrance to the town. Tower built in 1906, lit in 1907, dark since 1951.
05
Cap-Chat
Fl W 6s
1 s flash, 5 s eclipse · 15 nM
Active, private aid
one period, 6 s
Named for a rock shaped like a sitting cat.
06
La Martre
Fl(4) W 30s
four 2 s flashes, 3 s apart, 13 s eclipse · 17 nM
Active, private aid
one period, 30 s
By day the lens still turns on its original weights and cables, wound by hand. The night light has been automated since 1972.
07
Sainte-Madeleine-de-la-Rivière-Madeleine
Fl(3) W 27s
three flashes every 27 s, timing approximated · 20 nM
Active, private aid
one period, 27 s
Its Fresnel lens is still in service. Flash lengths are not published: the notes are drawn to an approximated timing.
08
L'Anse-à-Valleau, Gaspé
Fl(2) W 10s
historic characteristic of the 1907 tower, single source
Light discontinued 1975
one period, 10 s
Canada's first Marconi maritime wireless station opened here in 1904.
09
Gaspé
Oc W 20s
15 s light, 5 s eclipse · 24 nM
Active, official aid
one period, 20 s
The tallest lighthouse in Canada, 34.1 m, first lit in 1858. Same rhythm since 1903.
Click a lighthouse name to hear its staff alone, click again to bring back the orchestra. Note lengths and silences are the published flash and eclipse durations; Pointe-Mitis uses a single source for its flash lengths, and Cap-de-la-Madeleine uses an approximated timing because only its characteristic is published.
How to read a light
A light's signature is written in a few letters on every chart: the rhythm, the colour, then the period, the time the whole pattern takes before it starts again.
Fl
Flashing
The light is shorter than the darkness: a single flash, then night.
Île-Verte, Fl W 5s
Fl(3)
Group flashing
Two, three or four flashes close together, then a long eclipse. The number in brackets counts them.
Pointe-Mitis, Fl(3) W 7.5s
Oc
Occulting
The reverse: the light burns longer than it hides. Darkness is the signal.
Cap-des-Rosiers, Oc W 20s
Iso
Isophase
Light and darkness of exactly equal length. None of these nine lights uses it.
general example, Iso 4s
F
Fixed
A steady light with no rhythm at all, recognised by its colour and position.
general example
W R G
Colour
White, red, green: the letter after the rhythm. All nine lights on this coast are white.
W white, R red, G green
5s · 19M
Period and range
The period is the length of one whole pattern, here one bar of the score. The range is how far the light carries, in nautical miles.
Île-Verte: 5 s, 19 nM
Cross-rhythms
Put two lights side by side and they drift apart, then meet again. Île-Verte, every 5 s, and Cap-Chat, every 6 s, flash together once every 30 s: exactly one bar of La Martre. Pointe-Mitis fits four of its bars into the same 30 s.
Add Cap-des-Rosiers (20 s) and Cap-de-la-Madeleine (27 s), and the six living lights only fall back into their opening chord after 540 seconds. The coast plays a nine-minute piece, night after night, and no one hears it whole.
Press Start all lights together above the score, and the counter will tell you where you are in those nine minutes.
Île-Verte 5s
Cap-Chat 6s
Pointe-Mitis 7.5s
La Martre 30s
0 s15 s30 s, together again