Music for a Found Harmonium - Folk Music (Composer: Simon Jeffes) | Katy Adelson

Here is an exciting tune called, "Music for a Found Harmonium." It was composed by Simon Jeffes (perhaps sometime in the 1980s), and originally performed by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra. I believe the story goes that Mr. Jeffes found an abandoned harmonium in Japan while on tour, and invented this fun little tune on it! It's definitely a tune that's full of energy! I tried to recreate the vibe of finding an abandoned harmonium, but it actually was just a harmonium that I recently bought to add a different sound to my music. =) I really like the harmonium -- it adds somewhat of an accordion sound to music!

This tune appears at the end of the movie, "Napoleon Dynamite."

To me, this tune is quite repetitive to play -- it almost feels like I'm practicing an etude when I try to play it on the fiddle, lol. But it usually goes over well with audiences! There is a fiddle player in Colorado Springs that often plays it in a session, and the whole crowd goes wild. It's pretty neat!

I attempted to play it with an actual harmonium. I'm using a mini Indian harmonium, rather than a big British (or European?) harmonium. I'm brand new to playing the harmonium, although I can squeak out a few things on piano (I've made all of my backing tracks with an electric piano...) -- so the keyboard of the harmonium wasn't foreign to me. However, I set the tempo of this song way too fast for a newbie harmonium player!! :o I had to do so so so so many takes with the harmonium part... =/ I'm still not happy with how it turned out, but I think it's as good as it's going to get for now. We all have to start somewhere. =)

This was filmed during the disastrous fires that burned in Colorado, right before a snowstorm helped dampen the flames. The "fog" in the background of the video is actually smoke that mostly came from the Cameron Peak Fire (Colorado's largest wildfire in recorded history) -- it's supposed to be a clear blue sky the day this was filmed, but it looks cloudy and misty. That's all the smoke! I was wheezing... :o

I hope you are all staying safe during these crazy times! The USA's version of Thanksgiving is coming up soon, and my family and I are going to have a zoom call and eat pizza while staying safe and tucked away in our different houses/apartments. It's going to be a little weird -- definitely not a normal Thanksgiving -- but it's not worth the risk, in my opinion. I'm guessing we'll probably do the same thing with Christmas, but I don't want to get too far ahead of what may happen. I did some rough calculations based on airport travel expectations to estimate what might happen, and started to scare myself. Please stay safe!!

For the last few videos I've made, I also filmed vlog-like "behind the scenes" footage. I'm not sure if people might want to watch stuff like that. I tend to accumulate vlog-like footage, but then it just moves onto a portable hard drive, and is somewhat forgotten.... I have been getting a lot of comments from people saying they like the little behind-the-scenes clips that I've been adding at the end of my videos, so I might try to put a behind-the-scenes-vlog. =) I'm also working on making tutorials for every song in my music book! I'm hoping to release those all at once, and hopefully the music will be fun to learn while staying indoors this season.


I just realized there is a typo at the end... =( Oh well...I had a late night trying to finish this, lol... :/ I think it's close enough. =)

Thank you for watching -- please stay safe and healthy!!! This, too, shall pass! =)

~ Katy

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https://fanlink.to/TuneCollection

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Hashtags:
#FolkMusic #Harmonium #Fiddle #Violin #KatyAdelson #Music

Software and equipment used:

Full list of all my basic violin equipment:
http://www.katyadelson.com/about/viol...

Software used (for Macintosh):
Garageband for attempted sound mixing
Final Cut Pro for video editing
PicMonkey.com for the ending cards

Plugins for sound effects (I have A LOT to learn in this department!):
East West plugins – Goliath Virtual Instrument, Stormdrum II
Best Service Forest Kingdom II by Eduardo Tarilonte (See: bestservice.de)

Camera:
Canon 70D + 18-135 mm kit lens
Sony RX100 V

Microphone for audio recording:
Blue Woodpecker