[Pam B]

(Well, I thought the English and Duet concertina crowd might want to contact Britannica and set them straight....)

From the:

Britannica Student Encyclopedia

A free-reed musical instrument, the concertina was patented by Sir Charles Wheatstone in London, England, in 1829. Its construction consists of hexagonal hand bellows, fastened between two sets of boards that carry the reeds in braced sockets. Air is selectively passed to the reeds by valves and finger buttons.

The concertina employs “double action,” each note being produced by a pair of reeds, one to sound on the press of the bellows, the other on the draw. The range extends four octaves upward from the G below middle C. After the great days of the 19th-century concertina virtuoso, the instrument was gradually replaced from about 1910 by the accordion.

[JimLucas]

Pam Berardino, on May 11 2004, 04:51 PM, said:

(Well, I thought the English and Duet concertina crowd might want to contact Britannica and set them straight....)
[...]

Sorry, Pam. I have to set you straight.

Their description is essentially accurate, though insufficiently detailed to stimulate most folks' imaginations to produce an accurate picture. And the range of a standard treble is 3½ octaves; what they describe is a 56-button extended treble. The two sets of reeds for push and pull are what make an anglo possible; it just happens that in duets and Englishes the two reeds for each button are tuned to the same pitch.

So it's the anglos and duets (and English baritones, etc.) that are shortchanged by the fact that they don't acknowledge the variety in concertina designs. Oh yeah, and the Chemnitzer folks must be fuming!

Britannica said:

...the instrument was gradually replaced from about 1910 by the accordion.

Overwhelmed, perhaps, but as we all know, it hasn't really been replaced. Not in my house, anyway.

[Helen]

Hey, Jim, when are you going to start playing accordion? Don't you think it is about time? C'mon, c'mon. Do it, do it.

Helen

[sourdoh]

My dictionary's definition is pretty all-inclusive. It's the New Oxford American Dictionary (I bought it because the English edition had too many strange words ).

It defines concertina as - n. a small musical instrument, typically polygonal in form, played by stretching and sqeezing between the hands, to work a central bellows that blows air over reeds, each note being sounded by a button.

This definition could even include accordians. The next entry is concertino - n. a simple or short concerto. This set me wondering, has anyone run across a concertina concertino?

-Keith

[JimLucas]

sourdoh, on May 12 2004, 04:40 AM, said:

The next entry is concertino - n. a simple or short concerto. This set me wondering, has anyone run across a concertina concertino?

Well, there's Erwin, here, but somehow I don't think he's what you had in mind.

[Mark Evans]

Gonna wade in here and hope to survive. I have heard tell of a concerto for English Concertina by none other than Sir Edward Elgar. A young conductor who approached me now some 20 years ago about the possibility of performing it said the work was scored for English treble and string ensemble. I would like to think it in fact exists. However, I have not found it in a catalog of Elgar's published works. Love his concerto for Cello. Fun to dream huh?

Just to muddy the waters a bit more, concertino refers to the larger ensembe that is juxtaposed with the solo instrument (Solo Concerto) or small ensemble (Concerto Grosso). Length is not prescribed, only form (two musical forces contending with one another from the Latin verb concertare).

[Lisa Wirth]

Quote

Hey, Jim, when are you going to start playing accordion? Don't you think it is about time? C'mon, c'mon. Do it, do it.

Be careful, Jim! It's a slippery slope! My button accordion is definetly honing in on concertina playing time.

[JimLucas]

Lisa Wirth, on May 12 2004, 05:40 PM, said:

Helen said:

Hey, Jim, when are you going to start playing accordion? Don't you think it is about time? C'mon, c'mon. Do it, do it.

Be careful, Jim! It's a slippery slope! My button accordion is definetly honing in on concertina playing time.

Not to worry.
In this room at the moment I have a restored old Bb/Eb club system, a Hohner D/G Erica, a cheap but surprisingly playable Chinese A/D, and an old Bb/Eb Hohner in need of serious work, but even my big Maccann gets more attention than all of them put together. I gave away the East German 2-bass 1-row in G to someone I thought might actually use it. Years ago I had a couple of PA's, one playable and one not, but I never could get motivated.

Concertinas, on the other hand... first in line for attention are the Englishes -- my main squeeze for more than 30 years, -- then the Cranes and anglos, then the Maccann and Pitt-Taylor (though when the smaller Maccann is released from the folded-goat clinic I intend to give it some serious squeezes). My whistles have also been getting more attention lately (including a solo on the CD just recorded by Helsingør Sømandsforenings Shantykoret). Come to think of it, the saxophone and trumpet get more play than the button boxes. Some day those may get their turn, but for me the accordions are certainly more resistable than the other instruments at the moment.

This post has been edited by JimLucas: 12 May 2004 - 12:39 PM

[Helen]

Hey Jim,

Where is the tuba in that lineup?

Helen

[JimLucas]

Helen, on May 13 2004, 01:01 AM, said:

Where is the tuba in that lineup?

I sold it when I moved over here.
Too heavy -- i.e., expensive -- to move.
Besides, it was in Db, which was really a problem in sessions.

[Clive Thorne]

Lisa Wirth, on May 12 2004, 11:40 AM, said:

My button accordion is definetly honing in on concertina playing time.

Shouldn't that be 'Hohnering in'

Clive