The Canadian space traveller, Chris Hadfield, has posted a YouTube video featuring the original recording of “Jewel in the Night” from space on Twitter.
The solo space performance is “some of the first original music written for and performed on” the International Space Station (ISS), according to Hadfield’s Twitter feed on Christmas Eve.
“I’m not by any means the world’s best musician, but I love it and I’ve had lots of people to play music with,” Hadfield told Space.com.
Upon a fan’s inquiry regarding the method of recording, he replied: “I used GarageBand to record Jewel in the Night with the iPad’s built-in mic”, he tweeted on December 30, 2012.
This specially composed tune by Hadfield is reported to have a “folk song feel” and was played on a Vancouver created, Larrivée Parlor acoustic guitar with a microcosmic pic.
As motivation for this composition, Hadfield said that as part of following the tradition of pioneers ages hence, this song also marks the progress of humanity as we breach new frontiers across the cosmos.
Hadfield, also a former pilot, updates his Twitter 114,945 followers frequently with photos and news from the milky way.
On Saturday, 5 January, Hadfield spoke to pupils of the Charles P. Allen High School in Bedford, Canada, from the ISS.
Hadfield is currently on a Russian Soyuz rocket, space station borne since December 21, 2012. He will return in May 2013.
He is the first Canadian space commander to control the Expedition 35.
This musical occurrence adds to the list of melodic firsts in space, following the first song played in space: Jingle Bells (1965) by the two Gemini 6 astronauts, Walter M “Wally” Schirra Jr and Thomas P. Stafford, and the first song broadcasted from space, American artist’s will.i.am’s “Reach for the Stars” in August last year.
