Enya - The Sun In The Stream (violin cover) featuring Hong Kong Sai Kung

Here is a music video covering one of the most beautiful composition by Enya from the album The Celts. The original features the irish Uilleann pipes which makes beautiful sounds but way expensive to own one!

I used my 30 year-old violin to immitate the sound of the Uilleann pipes and to recapture the colours of the tone, I had to replace all my nickel wound strings with cheap aluminum strings. The bow tension also had to be released in order to replicate the bellow air effect.

The violin was recorded in early 2008 but the piano and MIDI parts were recorded back in 1995. Video clips were recorded in winter 2008 but I just had no time to complete the editing.

MP3 for this song.
http://www.jeremyho.com/hd/Jeremy%20Ho%20-%20The%20Sun%20In%20The%20Stream.mp3

This video features the place where the Music Family (i.e. us) lives in Hong Kong, an area known as Sai Kung. It is by the sea and is famous for seafood and island tourism. Sai Kung is in the New Territories nearer to China, not part of the concrete jungle most people know Hong Kong as.

Due to years of over-fishing and water pollution from fish farms, cities and manufacturing plants in China, we can no longer find any edible oysters, clamps, mussels and fish. The area is infested with seaweeds which choke up water flow and make the beach rather unusable. This is very visible in the wet gap Three Fathoms Cove, near Sai Keng village featured in the video.

Earth friendly volunteers clean up the beach from time to time. Energy conscientious villagers like me invest in wind and solar energy to reduce our use of fossil-based energy.

However the situation is not going to get better unless the government and the people do something positive now. Or else our future generations will never be able to see the original beauty of Sai Kung.

I hope this music video will inspire people to start taking serious actions to save our planet.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• enya
• the sun in the stream
• violin
• Roland
• JV1080
• the celts
• pollution
• water
• sea
• overfishing
• wind
• solar
• renenwable energy
• environment protection
• BBC
• hong kong
• sai kung

[Deslow5]

Beautiful, Jeremy! Thank you for sending me the link. I love both the playing and the video. The only sad part is that now I wish I had included this song in "Fingerpicking Enya".

Larry

[musicfamily]

@Deslow5 Don't worry I am sure you will have part 2, perhaps with title "Fingerlicking Enya"?? :P just a joke!

[Delmontedel]

Jeremy, this is most beautiful. The sound you achieve from your violin is exquisite and you did very well to make the changes in order to emulate the pipes.

This lovely haunting melody will stay in my mind tonight.

Mike

[musicfamily]

@Delmontedel The tune would be just as nice with you playing the accordion.

[Suzze83]

beautifully played! I wanna be able to play it as well, you're so talented.

[musicfamily]

Practice makes perfect, but I have not myself.

[geoff1945]

I love Enya and the music of the panpipes. Your time-consuming effort 'converting' the violin paid off.

I keep on about looking in the sky for the stars you have earned. I just hope it isn't a cloudy night!

[downhill240]

Beautiful!

[AnBuchaillAsEirinn]

As an Irishman, I can honestly say that you do Enya, my country's music and me proud with this wonderful rendition. Absolutely superb...

[7Shil]

Very beautiful, Jeremy!! Hey, could you help me with the music sheets for this theme? Please, send it to me - nbshilova@yandex.ru

I would really appreciate it!

[Mediachance]

Hey, man the voicing on the violin is pretty amazing! I have to learn this song although I suck on high registers.

[litaloulee]

this made me cry (in a good way) :0) Gorgeous.. and the little slides were right on and made it just PERFECT!

[litaloulee]

this made me cry (in a good way) :) Bravo...

[BigChiefLtd1]

Wow... I do NOT like covers of songs that mean as much to me as "The Sun In The Stream..."

That said, I must... MUST make an exception here... you've done a WONDERFUL job on this piece. You've captured, with your violin, the incredible emotion of the Uilleann pipes of the original. Fantastic job... THANK YOU FOR SHARING THIS.

[Deslow5]

@musicfamily Thanks, Jeremy. I'm personally sure there are plenty of Enya songs for a book 2, but unfortunately, I'm not so sure Hal Leonard is as sure as me. (that's a lot of sures, isn't it?)

Larry

[wilzy1992]

Amazing