Kitten on the Keys -- piano duet & 3-hand accordion

[LinearCarp1209]

Thats pretty cool. I love Kitten on the Keys, it may be my favorite ragtime piece. But this is something else. I love the sound of the accordion and the '3 handed' part!

[KawhackitaRag]

I love the eyebrow that Edgar Fairchild gives the audience at 1:33. Does it remind anyone else of Fats Waller?

[pianolasociety]

I'm not surprised the Musical Times called this "four-handed vulgarities" - it is still and always was a snooty snobbish piece of trash with about as much life as a telephone directory. It's full of boring stuff about church music and teaching pieces for prissy old maid teachers and the like - utterly ghastly! Some things never change! LOL

[Keeper1st]

@pianolasociety So it was worse than Etude?

[pianolasociety]

@Keeper1st yup, far worse. In Etude were sometimes interesting articles. I got given a complete run of Musical Times once from c.1950 through to c. 1980. The most interesting thing in 30+ years was an obituary for Ernest Newman. The rest was duller than reading wallpaper. I sold them off in chunks of a decade (as they were so heavy otherwise!). Calling Edgar Fairchild's duets a "four-handed vulgarity" would give a warm fuzzy feeling of sanctimonious comfort to their dead-head readers. Ghastly!

[Cillitpeng]

oO ... wow!

[KenJWC]

Too fast. Faster isn't always better.

[goldeninja]

this is AMAZING!!!!!!!! they're are so syncronized it's amazing i can't stop watching it!!!!!!

[malineck]

This is simply UNIQUE! Thank you fpr upload!

[Fersomling]

Whoever composed this must have had a few extra coffees.

[Keeper1st]

That would be Zez Confrey. One night when staying over at his mother's house, he was wakened by noise from the piano. He got up to find his mother's cat walking on the keys. Thus he was inspired.

[CooDocu]

@Fersomling Maybe that's where the idea of "Novelty" ragtime comes from!

[cillajean]

FANTASTIC! My Mom has an 80+ year old friend who does this to the hilt on the piano!1 I LOVE IT!

[skgorsuch]

Edgar Fairchild was my grandfather. I'm thrilled to find this video!

[KawhackitaRag]

@skgorsuch I'm glad you found it too! Several of Edgar Fairchild's piano rolls can be found on Youtube, if you want to check those out, too.

[Morahman7vnNo2]

Not much faster than correct tempo.

[Keeper1st]

The film is slightly sped up, though. I forget how much, but I think it's at least a whole tone sharp. View the video response to hear it (with slide-show accompaniment) at the corrected speed (it has the entire film clip -- not just the Kitten on the Keys part).

[Keeper1st]

Oh heh... watching my own response, I see that I did note the amount of speed-up on this version. It's a half-step sharp.

[Morahman7vnNo2]

Yes and I was simply point out that the musicians can play pretty fast, because I saw your response and was surprised how fast it actually was, so I thought and typed: "Not mush faster than correct tempo." I see now I should have said "Not much faster than original tempo."

[lachymhor]

WOW

[Keeper1st]

This film plays slightly fast. Watch the video response I posted (using only stills since I could slow down the audio but not the video) to hear it at the speed they actually played. It's still "WOW" though!

[HartfordTommy]

Wonderful stuff. Proof that, yes, life existed before our time :)

[tdub1941]

Hi Ron!

This is phenomenal!

hanks for sending it to me! 5 Stars!

Tom Warner

[rstebelton]

Zez Confrey wrote some fun stuff. These guys looked like they had great fun playing this. What a treat! Thanks for posting!

[larisa0001]

This sounds quite sharp to me; was the video speeded up?

[Keeper1st]

When I try to play some of the held notes I can see Lindholm hitting on the accordion, they seem to be in tune. I would doubt that Pathé mastered the film at the wrong speed.

[Keeper1st]

I spent more time tonight, and you're right -- it is a half-step high. So Pathé did indeed master it at the wrong speed. It's still quite fast even when corrected. I don't know how to slow VIDEO down to match, but I'll post a video response anyway with the audio at the corrected speed.

[idasynco]

This is just a bit too FRENETIC for me...but a gas nonetheless!! LOL

[theragtimefan]

Is that really an old video or was it just modified by modern technology to look like one?

[Keeper1st]

As the description states, this is from 1931.

[theragtimefan]

I didn't read the description. I just clicked on it.

[Keeper1st]

Heh, well, I kinda figured that...! I tend to put a fair bit of information in the descriptions of the videos I post, so try to remember to read 'em.