Key signature: Dmajor
Submitted on October 31st 2001 by Will Harmon.
This tune has been added to 671 tunebooks.
Also known as Gracie's Favourite, Harmonium, Music For A Found Harmonium, Music For The Found Harmonium, The Rights Of Men , Simon's, Tune For A Found Harmonium, VOTE FOR PEDRO.
Recordings of a tune by this name:
X: 1
T: Music For A Found Harmonium
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K: Dmaj
DE|:FDGD FDDD|FDGD FDDD|FDGD FDDD|EDCD FDDD:|
|:EDCD EDCD|FDCD FDCD|GDED CDGD|1 FDDD D2 DD:|2 FDDD D2 D=F||
K: Cmaj
|:cFEF {EF}GFEF|1 cFEF EE2 F:|2 cFEF EE2 D||
K: Fmaj
|BFDF GFDF|BFDF GFDF|BFEF GEEG|BFEF GEEG|
|^cGEG cGGG|^cGEG cGGG|^cGEG cGGG|^cGEG cGGG|
K: Dmaj
|:FDGD FDDD|FDGD FDDD|FDGD FDDD|EDCD FDDD:|
|:EDCD EDCD|FD=CD FDCD|GDED CDED|1 FDDD D2 DD:|2 FDDD D4||
Music for a Found Harmonium
I have to confess that this isn't my favorite tune. It strikes me as more of a scale exercise than an actual melody, and part of it is not an easy exercise. So it can be less than fun to play, downright boring even, when you're first learning it and it sounds like you've had one pint too many as you slide from key to key.
So...it's a six-part tune, starting and ending in D major, with significant detours into C and F. Despite it's repetitiveness, audiences seem to enjoy it, at least when played with verve and spontaneity, which I've never been able to muster. My cohorts, however, have performed it with great success.
The only real difficult part is fingering the third and fourth measures of the fourth part--getting frtom B flat down to F and E and back, especially at speed. I can't offer much help here--just work at it slowly until you can do it. Or file your fingernails during this part while the bouzouki player carries the lead....
Enjoy!
# Posted on October 31st 2001 by Will Harmon
Check out Patrick Street's rendition--contrary to most tunes, it's a lot more fun to listen to than it is to play.
# Posted on October 31st 2001 by Will Harmon
Err, that's a c, not a C
Sorry...should be a lowercase c on the second ending of the third part. All else is accurate.
# Posted on October 31st 2001 by Will Harmon
Music For A Found Harmonium
I LOVE this tune. I play it on the harmonium. My son plays it on the mandolin.
Alice Flynn
# Posted on November 23rd 2001 by aliceflynn
MFAFH
On line 5 all the second c sharps in the bar should be played an octave below the first one, that is, on the g string. It's like a diminished chord.
This is a hard task unless you switch to 3rd position at the start of the bar. It's well worth doing, by the way.
# Posted on December 2nd 2001 by Kevvyf
I used to play a harmony to this tune when the guitar player in my band carried the lead - and yes, I pretty much filed my nails in the tricky bit. I never quite understood it. I guess it's never too late to try...
# Posted on January 23rd 2002 by Kerri Brown
This is by Simon Jeffis (?) I think. The Penguin Cafe Orchestra played it.
# Posted on June 17th 2002 by The Whistler
Music For a Found Harmonium
This tune was written in the early 1970's by Simon Jeffe,leader of the Pengiun Cafe Orchestra.It was written on an old harmonium that he found.The tune proved to be popular with audiences,and the band had to lug around the harmonium just to play the one tune.The tune was used as the theme music for an arts programme on the BBC,which is where I first heard it.Simon Jeffe sadly died a few years ago,but I think the Penguin Cafe Otchestra are still going.I've seen this tune credited as trad. on a couple of cd's.Has it passed into the tradition?By the way,The Penguin Cafe Orchestra played it slowly. David Meredith
# Posted on March 1st 2003 by dafydd
Harmonium
The most confusing thing about this tune is the sequencing of the parts. Everybody does it differently but for what it is worth most people play the A & B parts twice (AABBAABB) before moving on to the middle bit with its funny key changes. Then AABB before doing the middle bit again. And finish with AABBAABB. Like everything in ITM it's hard to say what's right and what's wrong but uniformity does help the tune get played successfully in sessions.
# Posted on April 28th 2004 by Donough
I really enjoy playin this tune (if it works), i had the pleasure of playin it in a session with the kathryn tickell band when they came out here to play at the Hong Kong Folk Festival. I learnt it off a recording i found on the net where its been played at the Celtic Fiddle Festival where they do a really interesting version using this tune as the main one and then changing throughout to give certain players solos. Anyway if this rings a bell to anyone, i'm dying to find out the tune the guitarist plays as his solo, can anyone help me out?
much appreciated
# Posted on May 26th 2004 by scottyboy
oops sorry forgot to look in the recordings section, my mistake, im still new to this website
# Posted on May 26th 2004 by scottyboy
They have this tune on the movie "Napoleon Dynamite" it is the Patrick Street version. The movie is hilarious thought I would add that.
# Posted on February 12th 2005 by Why Bother?
I don't really like this tune much, I think it's rather silly. But I have learnt it on the whistle just for the challenge. It's good practice.
# Posted on March 4th 2005 by Beheader
that's actally why i was looking for this tune, from napolean dynamite! i was so sureprised when i heard an irish tune on this movie!
# Posted on September 3rd 2005 by leprechaun
music for a found harmonium
can anyone send me or let me know where i can get the tab and chords for patrick streets version of music for a found harmonium please? my pals and i are in an irish band and that tune would be an amazing encore.
# Posted on September 24th 2005 by jaymondo
I heard the Celtic Fiddle Festival live version first and thought it was a really cool set. I still do. Of course, the Harmonium tune didn't stand on its own. It was stitched together with several other tunes and it all came together in a very satisfying whole. Later, I heard the Patrick Street version and thought it was a little disappointing. If I'd heard it first, I might feel differently.
Of course, it's not an ITM tune. We're only discussing it because some folks who play ITM, among other stuff, happened to play it and record it. When I play it on the guitar, it does feel like an exercise, but it's a fun exercise.
# Posted on September 26th 2005 by Bob himself
Crossover
Now a Melbourne (Australia) Greek Rebetica band includes this in one of their encore sets. Quite amusing seeing it played on traditional DAD bouzouki. At Maldon Folk Festival one of the celtic type crowd was scrtaching his head trying to find the name of the well known tune. Context can do that to you. The band's name... Rebetiki.
# Posted on November 4th 2005 by NeilBarr
Napoleon Dynamite
Yes, it's in this movie, but they didn't put them in the credits or pay them. There's a lawsuit going on now, I think.
# Posted on March 20th 2006 by lathacorr
Good exercise.
I am using it to practice 4th finger "D" as a full drone in the A Part. (not much divergence from the drone, admittedly... )
Bl**dy painful, let me tell you!!
|:[FD]D[DG]D [DF]DDD|[FD]D[DG]D [DF]DDD|[FD]D[DG]D [DF]DDD|"A"EDCD "D"[DF]DDD:|!
# Posted on June 18th 2006 by philmoz
Er..
the is almost completely different from the version I know, only the first two lines are the same!
# Posted on August 26th 2006 by the red gig bag
Bowing
help!
can anyone tell me what bowing they use on this tune. i've just started to learn it and its very slow right now. am using all single bows because thats the only way i can make it sound like it should. is this a bad start to this tune? basically, will it be near impossible to play it up to speed this way.
i know i should figure it out for myself but i dont wanna get into a bad habit on it cause i find it hard to break it!
anything would help
# Posted on July 10th 2007 by lanefest rec.
Sharron Shannon
The Sharron Shannon version seems to be an entirely different tune with the same name, at least on the CD listed. Yet she played the proper tune (Simon Jeffe) at the last concert of hers I was at..
# Posted on May 19th 2008 by Stíofán
Harmony Glen
Harmony Glen - the Dutch band who played the 2008 Feakle Festival have a version of this on their CD "Three Wheels"
# Posted on August 18th 2008 by cStu
Question about rights.
This tune is copyrighted.
Are you obliged to pay a royalty to the owners for printing, posting or performing this tune?
# Posted on January 12th 2010 by Robert English
Fingering tip for low C# passages and low D drones
Try using ADAE tuning.
# Posted on May 14th 2010 by Steve Fry
Music For A Found Harmonium
It can be played on a G whistle, though it's pretty tricky....
X: 1
T: Music For A Found Harmonium
C: Simon Jeffe
M: 4/4
L: 1/8
R: reel
K:Amaj
AB|:cAdA cAAA|cAdA cAAA|cAdA cAAA|BAGA cAAA:|
|:BAGA BAGA|cAGA cAGA|dABA GAdA|1 cAAA A2 AA:|2 cAAA A2 A=c||
K:Gmaj
|:gcBc {Bc}dcBc|1 gcBc BB2 c:|2 gcBc BB2 A||
K:Cmaj
|fcAc dcAc|fcAc dcAc|fcBc dBBd|fcBc dBBd|
|^gdBd gddd|^gdBd gddd|^gdBd gddd|^gdBd gddd|
K:Amaj
|:cAdA cAAA|cAdA cAAA|cAdA cAAA|BAGA cAAA:|
|:BAGA BAGA|cA=GA cAGA|dABA GABA|1 cAAA A2 AA:|2 cAAA A4||
# Posted on June 8th 2010 by bogman
Matto Congrio (previous band of Carlos Nuñez) play this tune too in the disc with the same name...
# Posted on November 3rd 2010 by euoar
Original key
The piece was played in C by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra, which Simon Jeffes founded in 1972. Youtube has a video of the PCO playing the piece in a 1989 BBC broadcast. I've only ever heard it played in D - probably because "Music For a Found Harmonium" is rarely ever played on a harmonium these days.
# Posted on January 17th 2011 by Brad Wilson
Sharon Shannon
@Stíofán, sorry I'm late to this party, but the problem you're hearing is that tracks 3 and 4 are the wrong way round on the Sharon Shannon CD. Listen to the one which is called "Queen of the West" and you'll hear this tune, and vice versa.
# Posted on August 5th 2011 by monxton