Instruments of pleasure: (6) Music for a Found Harmonium by Penguin Cafe Orchestra, Patrick Street or Sharon Shannon
January 14, 2025
Updated Jan 2025. Colin Randall writes: I am reposting this edition of the short series on instrumental music in order to present a change of heart. I now agree with my friend Bill Taylor who, in his Comment on the original piece, said the Penguin Cafe Orchestra version was by far the best.
I have now found a live performance from the Royal Festival Hall in 2008 and it is the musical equivalent of a book you cannot put down. I naturally dismiss as wrong-headed Bill's harsh comments about the Patrick Street and Sharon Shannon versions, both of which remain excellent, though he is fully entitled to his view.
Twenty-three years have passed [NB: 27 now] since the untimely death of Simon Jeffes*, co-founder with Helen Liebmann of the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, and 40 since he wrote Music For a Found Harmonium on an instrument he found in a back street of Kyoto.
It is a simple but startling piece of music, much more impressive to my ears than the ensemble's Telephone and Rubber Band, acclaimed by some as its most notable work. The humming effect you hear in this scintillating live performance would not be out of place as the soundtrack used to enhance bee sounds at The Hive in Kew Park Gardens.
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It repeatedly crops up in the repertoire of Irish traditional musicians.
I first heard it played by Sharon Shannon but there are versions galore, including - and here I am indebted to "Claymore" and his reference at the Mudcat folk discussion group many years ago - a "West Va" variant used "as a clogging piece, getting faster and faster" renamed Pandemonium. I assume West Va stands for Virginia not Vancouver.
Someone else in the same Mudcat thread, "Clinical Celt" wrote of the Patrick Street version: 'The rhythm guitar is really brilliant [except that he had a different way of saying really - Ed]! I'm a pretty fair bluegrass/celtic guitar player, but this guy (whoever he/she is) makes me feel like an idiot."
It appears the guitar player may have been either Ged Foley or the late Arty McGlynn, both outstanding musicians, depending on which Patrick Street line-up was being refereed to.
I chose not to include this item in the Cover Story series, mainly because I couldn't locate the Pandemonium adaptation mentioned above.
[Updated] But of the three I featured when this article first appeared in 2020, I preferred Patrick Street. Perhaps readers will know better and think differently. And I am entirely sure others will champion interpretations I have overlooked.
As usual, I am delighted to be able to report my onw change of heart. I now place Patrick Street second behind Penguin Cafe Orchestra while assuring Sharon Shannon that coming third in such company brings no shame.
- In his warm obituary for The Indendendent after Simon Jeffes died from a brain tumour in December 1997, aged just 48, Pierre :Perrone noted that Music for a Found Harmonium was used by the newspaper in a television advertising campaign after its launch in 1987. Other music composed by Jeffes was used to promote Hobnobs biscuits, Eurostar, IBM computers and Mercury One-2-One mobile phones.
Perrone recalled the musician's assessment of his approach to composition: "I want to make music for people capable of enjoying Wilson Pickett, Beethoven, the Rolling Stones, choral music from West Africa, Bach, Stravinsky, Irish bagpipe music and even Abba on the odd occasion".
This is certainly PCO's most iconic piece - I first heard it (and them) when I saw a lovely and much under-rated Australian movie from 1986 called "Malcolm." This was the music from it. Coincidentally, I was in Australia in 1994 and found a cache of Penguin Cafe CDs at a flea market in Fremantle. Grabbed them all. A few years later, the exact date escapes me, Lesley and I saw the band live in Toronto - not exactly the original lineup but still one-of-a-kind and quite wonderful.
Penguin Cafe's original "Music for a Found Harmonium" is by far the best. Patrick Street's version adds nothing and perhaps takes something away. Sharon Shannon's is simply annoying.
Posted by: Bill Taylor | September 14, 2020 at 05:18 PM
Couple of comments.
1. I used the Sharon Shannon version as the intro music for my radio show (I wanted something that sounded folky but which would also grab my mystical listener's attention as he or she drove past on the M1 and retuned their radio at 10.00 am Friday) This might just sound familiar and want them to stay with me for a whole. It's not this you tube version you have on here - and that piano player reminds me of the Premier League referee at a game, who thinks we've all come to see his refereeing skills.
When I gave up the show to Sam Hindley and James Fagan ("Thanks Goodness it's Folk / Friday morning / Sheffield Live" ten years ago now they changed to signature to the Patrick St. version!!
And in case of misunderstanding I love the tune but the PCO version does not have the impact a radio show needs at the very beginning. It is also a perfect length.
https://web.sheffieldlive.org/shows/thank-goodness-its-folk/
2. The other comment is that despite me love for the tune I dread it starting up at a session. Simply because the participants can rarely agree when to stop!!
Posted by: Dave Eyre | January 14, 2025 at 10:10 PM
I must be mellowing with age. Sharon Shannon's version doesn't annoy me nearly as much as it did in 2020. But I'm still not enamoured of it and it seems much longer than 2 minutes 58 seconds.
Patrick Street's rendition still leaves me cold. Unexceptionable, but not at all exceptional.
Penguin Cafe Orchestra? Once again, I'm blown away by their skill and virtuosity.
I'm glad Colin has finally come around to my way of thinking. That doesn't happen nearly enough.
Posted by: Bill Taylor | January 14, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Just to add to this: I stumbled across a version of this the other day by Socks in the Frying Pan—although it’s disguised by a different name.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tN5kbahNVl0&t=4s
Posted by: Andrew Curry | January 15, 2025 at 03:53 PM
Fabulous! Score one for County Clare! So cleverly done, such a good mix of styles and techniques. And wit. Definitely my number 2 after PCO. Socks in the Frying Pan make the tune their own but still very much in the spirit of the original. I think Simon Jeffes would definitely have approved of this version.
Posted by: Bill Taylor | January 15, 2025 at 04:19 PM