25 replies to this topic

[Daniel Hersh]

Whereas the Russian "Garmoshka" is unisonoric and diatonic...

Ah, thank you! I keep seeing the occasional Garmoshka on ebay and they generally sell at quite low prices. Now I know what one is I might just be tempted to try and pick one up to have a mess around with!

Careful - some types are bisonoric, at least according to Wikipedia.

[tallship]

Careful - some types are bisonoric, at least according to Wikipedia.

Many thanks indeed Daniel! I'm sure Konzertina-123 wasn't being misleading, just a misunderstanding regarding terminology. I must beware the dreaded and all too common Garmon as a box type then!

[malcolmbebb]

Well, first belated congratulations to Konzertina-123 for completing the box.

Returning to the thread drift, I have heard that the push-pull on bisonoric Garmoshkas is reversed to what we would expect on a "normal" box????

But presumably construction would be similar and flipp-able.

[Konzertina-123]

The standard Tulskaya garmon' or garmoshka has two rows of buttons and is fully unisonoric, the two rows of buttons match more or less the two middle rows of each side of an EC, i.e one row plays, for instance, C E G B D F A C and the other D F A C E G B D, with the same note push and pull of course. There are a few accidentals at the end of each row. It is extremely easy to learn.
There is a different kind of instrument, much smaller, the Saratovskaya garmoshka, which is barely a single-row melodeon,diatonic and bisonoric, with one difference : the C E G etc. are played when pulling instead of pushing. It often has a little bell added on one side.

[Konzertina-123]

The (unclear and erroneous) wikipedia article calls "Hromka" what is really an "Tulskaya garmon'" (invented in Tula). The instrument they call "Tulskaya" is a very old type, the "semiklapanka", which is not played anymore in Russia. The most common type is the unisonoric one, better described here :
http://www.russian-garmon.ru/hromka

Edited by Konzertina-123, 28 May 2012 - 09:24 AM.

[JimLucas]

I'm sure Konzertina-123 wasn't being misleading, just a misunderstanding regarding terminology.

Just like other parts of language, specialist terminology can evolve and can have different dialects. A few examples:

• When I first became interested in concertinas, back in the seventies (I should say the 1970's, in case someone comes across this post more than 70 years from now ), concertinas made with the German style construction were not called "anglo"; they were called "German" (even if of Italian or Czech origin). The term "anglo" was reserved for those made with English-style construction, which pretty much meant instruments actually made in England. But that distinction has long since fallen by the wayside.
• Meanwhile, the default meaning of the term "concertina" in the Chemnitzer-based community is quite different from the default meaning in "our" community, though I don't think either group would argue that the others' instruments are not "concertinas".
• The use of the word "diatonic" for describing an insrument has become something of a touchy issue. The original musical meaning is that the instrument is limited to being able to play the notes of one or at most a few scales of the do-re-me-fa-sol-la-ti-do form. But most bisonoric squeezeboxes are also strictly diatonic in that sense, and nearly all of the rest are extended from a diatonic core, so -- like it or not -- the word has come to have a second widely accepted meaning... as a synonym for "bisonoric". (I, personally, don't like the loss of specificity, but -- as with the loss of the distinction between "anglo" and "German", -- I have to accept the fact that I am not going to be able to force the world to adopt my personal language standard. I myself never use "diatonic" to mean "bisonoric", but I don't bother arguing with those who do.)

Luckily, misunderstandings can usually be resolved by description and discussion, rather than by arguing over which terminology is "right".

[JimLucas]

The (unclear and erroneous) wikipedia article calls "Hromka" what is really an "Tulskaya garmon'" (invented in Tula). The instrument they call "Tulskaya" is a very old type, the "semiklapanka", which is not played anymore in Russia. The most common type is the unisonoric one, better described here :
http://www.russian-garmon.ru/hromka

I'm wondering whether it could be that this isn't so much a question of "correct" or "erroneous", but of local differences in terminology? I know there are such differences regarding the term "melodeon" as a kind of button accordion. (Separately, it is also a term for a kind of reed organ.) In England and much of the US, the word is applied to diatonic instruments of 2 or more rows, where the keys of adjacent rows are separated by a musical fifth. (Instruments with two rows separated by a half step -- B/C, C/C#, etc. -- are not included.) But in Sweden and at least some parts of Ireland the term is normally used to designate a diatonic instrument with only one row... and therefore able to play in only one diatonic key.

A problem with Wikipedia is that articles can be written and edited by multiple persons, who don't have to discuss with each other -- much less resolve -- their differing opinions and understandings.

[Henrik Müller]

Sweet thing!

/Henrik