Poet Don and Class Celebrate International Strange Music Day 24 August

Today on this 24th August and children just like you all
around the world are listening to strange music. …….


Ooooh……


Well we are going to listen to some strange music in our lesson today…….


(I can feel their interest rising……)


Does anyone know what a sea organ is?………


(Blank looks all round……)


As well as teaching you, my other job at FCS is a reporter
(of things of interest and no interest)………


In preparation for today’s lesson I went down to the sea
and video’d the organ playing……..


Can you set up the videoplayer for us Mazie (our tech whiz).
Thankyou Mazie


Well here, straight from the sea to our classroom is our friend the sea organ.


Ooooh.…..


(They’re getting excited. Feel it?……)


Quiet everyone. It’s very shy and plays wrong notes if you are not quiet……


(A hush falls over our little listeners. How nice……..)

What tune is it playing Poet Don?…….


I’m pretty sure it’s Twinkle Twinkle………


Well off you go now and tell your parents about what you have seen today……….

I’m gonna ask daddy to buy a sea organ
so I can play twinkle twinkle……


Me too……


Yay! twinkle twinkle swish swish swish…….


(Ah, the exuberance of youth……)

Parents might like to read more (you decide if it’s Twinkle Twinkle…or Mary Had A…..) :

After the Second World War, much of the city of Zadar – where the sea organ is now located – was in ruins. Reconstruction of the sea wall was little more than a featureless concrete barrier for most of the century thereafter. However, in 2005 an architect called Nikola Bašić designed the sea organ to replace it.

Waves crashing on the shore interact with the sea organ to produce a random, but harmonic siren-song. It appears to drone and quickly dart in and out of different pitches.

Variations on sea organs can be found around the world, with notable examples in San Francisco and Blackpool. Each produces different timbres and tones.




Don Matthews
August 2021