wim wakker

The concert was recorded in November 1999. I just published it on youtube (public).

This is a live recording of a concert I played in Germany at the "prestigious" Kloster Michealstein. A few months ago I finally received permission to publish this concert. Besides the fact that the Molique Sonata, from a musical and stylistic point of view, is one of the most important compositions for the concertina, this recording also ads an extra dimension to it because it is played on period instruments. This provides a unique 'feel' of the sound and balance between the piano forte and concertina. It is almost like musical time travel.... It also illustrates one of the 'complains' you frequently read in Victorian concert reviews stating that the concertina was sometimes "overwhelmed" by the piano. The concertina I play in this recording is a 1877 Wheatstone extended treble That I restored and 'slightly' altered. The piano forte is a (rare) Graff built in 1839. I will upload the 2nd and 3rd movement later this year. William Wakker https://youtu.be/KNsEXWyuDIc

This is the same recording as the previous version I uploaded a while back, but now with video instead of the score.. I didn't remember this recording existed. This video is of a live television concert recorded in 1999.

Just found an old recording of Oliver Hunt's composition "Song of the Sea" for concertina and piano. The Video is from a live television concert broadcast that I did in 1999. The instrument is a modified Wheatstone from the early 1920s, at least the reed pans and action boards were. William Wakker

I just listened to your Andantino.... very nice! It works very well with guitar. I like the balance better than with a modern piano.. I am looking forward to hear the Cappriccio Mazurka....

Hi James, I am not sure what you mean with 'left justified'. The score is what I received from XLNT for the recording. It is a bit rough around the edges (layout, markings on wrong places, etc.), but at the time I was happy to have an idea of full scope of the piece. I had never heard the concerto, it had never been played. I just got a phone call from James Cohn one Sunday evening, asking if I was available to record the concerto in Riga, Latvia in 6 weeks....Normally they give you 8-12 months, but XLNT music had hired the symphony orchestra for a week to record several other solo concertos, and Jim really wanted this piece to be included. The next morning they emailed me the contract and this score, with a note that said: good luck!

The 'infamous' concerto...... I believe it was funded by the NY arts council. According to the composer, no one was able to play it, so the premiere was cancelled. This is the only recording of this concerto. I premiered it a few years after this recording in NY. James Cohn is one of the great American 20th century composers. I know I am biased, but I think this is one of his best concertos.... 3 movements: Capriccio, Romanza, Rondo William Wakker

I finally started a long planned project I wanted to do; publishing videos of rarely heard concertina music. I have quite a few recordings of concerts, radio/TV broadcasts, CD recording I did years ago, for which I finally received copyright permission. I will also be adding 'new' videos of solo repertoire in the near future. Since this is a concertina forum, I thought there might be some interest in this..... William Wakker

Yes it is... The reason I did not use this format (which is more clear as far as keyboard layout is concerned), is because it doesn't explain the difference between the uni- and bi-directional keyboards, which makes much more sense in the 'up and down' picture. Explaining bellows performance is one of my (almost) daily routines... The bellows performance determines much of a concertinas overall playability, dynamics, and reed response. A mediocre instrument with high end (low resistance) bellows will often play much better than a high end instrument with (new) high resistance bellows. We replace quite a few brand new bellows on instruments send to us because they 'don't play well'. This is a basic explanation of different bellows qualities and how you can evaluate bellows: http://www.concertinaconnection.com/about bellows.htm

I’ve changed the keyboard picture to ‘front view’. I didn’t realize that the ‘from behind’ view was so confusing for some. The Troubadour is a small duet, only 6 1/4” across the flats… reedpan surface is limited. It’s like building a 1000 sq ft. home with 12 bedrooms. We used 97% of the available space. From a technical point of view, the real achievement is that we were able to utilize so much of the reedpan and still were able to have a min. of 50% chamber over pressure reserve, an airflow pattern within a 25% variable, and a max. chamber/reed deviation of 8 cent. This means that the instrument performs really well; fast, even equilibrium (for accordion reeds), LH/RH harmonic consistency, great dynamic range and very limited harmonic distortion. Every small duet has limitations. Deciding which notes the instrument will have is a rational process: The goal is to provide access to the most used tonal and modal keys players at this level will use (worldwide, in all kinds of music). Limiting factors are price and size. The troubadour allows you to play in most major, minor keys, and modes. I would strongly advise any duet player to learn at least the basics of tonal harmony and voicing. There will always be ‘missing’ notes on a small duet, but that should not be a problem. There are always multiple alternatives for every harmonic function and chord. The limiting factor is more with the player than the instrument. During the development stage I designed several models, including a 34, 38, and 40 key. There are so many factors that go into deciding which model would work best: playability, quality, harmonic equilibrium, dynamic range, size, cost, weight, production complexity/time, etc. The number of buttons is only a small part of the decision. As a side note: We have several customers that own both our (Wakker) 46 and 65 key duets. Several of them have told us that they prefer playing the 46 key model because of size, weight, etc. The same is true for english players that have both a 56 key TT and 48 treble. If you want to play a small duet, and are willing to school yourself in harmony and voicing to learn how to deal with a limited compass, I think the Troubadour is a big step up from our Elise as far as sound, dynamics, equilibrium, speed, air economy etc. is concerned. We’re still fine tuning the production, which will take a few months. During this time the availability is limited. Right now, the instrument is only available directly from us. The dealers will get the Troubadours probably late Jan/Feb.

The Troubadour has 36 keys + airbutton= 37. You can easily play in A major without the 3rd (G#) of the dominant in the left hand. If you want to play harmonies (chords) it is always a good idea to play them 'wide' on a free reed instrument because of harmonics. In this case (A major dominant chord: E G# B D), you could play LH: E, B/RH G#. or RH D,G# (E7). or: LH E, B, F#/RH D,G# (E9), etc. Alternatively, when playing melody in the RH and harm. in the LH: play LH E, B or E, B, D (E7) for the dominant function. The 3rd (G#) might or might not be part of the melody. Harmonically it doesn't matter because you do not need the leading note to establish the harmonic function if the dominant 7 is present. In fact, you really want to avoid 3rd intervals under C4.

About the layout pictures.... As I mentioned above the keyboards, it is seen from the players view. This is a common way of showing a keyboard in an educational setting. The view is from 'behind' the keyboard, as when you hold the instrument. The keyboard is the same of course as the Elise.

Later than planned, but we finally added the Troubadour duet to our intermediate model line up http://www.concertinaconnection.com/troubadour.htm The Troubadour is a 36 key Wicky/Hayden duet, 6 ¼” across the flats, comparable to the Minstrel (anglo) and Busker (English). It fills the gap between our Elise and Peacock models. All our duet concertina models (excl. the Elise, but including all the Wakker duets) are available with either a bi-directional or uni-directional keyboard. The final addition to our hybrid duet models will be the Peacock XL, a 50+ key version of the standard Peacock. We built several proto types varying from 54 to 58 keys, but have not decided yet which one will go in production. We expect this last hybrid duet model to be available mid/late 2020. Finally, because of the many requests, we decided to offer the Minstrel also with Jeffries layout. Wim Wakker Concertina Connection Inc. Wakker Concertinas

For sale is our backup (less than 100 hrs) Tunkers variable speed gluing machine, model ‘Liliput 150”. This is an industrial quality machine with a very small footprint (14” x 15” x 7 ½”, weight: 35 lbs). This model is for water based cold glues. It comes with a 2nd glue pan. It is used for applying glue to bellows papers, bindings, and hinges. Both glue film and application speed are variable. Current new price is around $2300 (E.1990) plus shipping from Germany. It’s available for $1200 excl. shipping. Factory brochure (PDF in English) is available. Wim Wakker Concertina Connection Inc. Wakker Concertinas

I agree. The main addition i would like is a mirrored left hand option, but that's proably not in the cards for keeping the price down. ron Actually, all our duet models (Peacock, future Troubadour, and the Wakker duets) are available with a mirrored left side. We don't charge extra for that. Mirrored duets make more sense to free bass accordion players who switch to duet concertina. Bayans also come with both variations for the left hand; the Russian system (bottom low/top high) and the western system (top low/bottom high). The CT referred to ‘Closed Tension’, which was explained earlier in the article I copied the text from. CT stands for Closed Tension, as opposed to OT Open Tension. Bellows tension is one of the subjects measured in a bellows evaluation and was explained earlier in the article (bellows tension (in grams), bellows travel (in percentage), stability (in pressure) and airtightness (airflow per minute)). “Bellows waist” is the difference in circumference between the bellows frames and the bellows. hope it makes more sense now... Wim, I tried to find your article on the web to answer my questions, but failed. Can you advise how I can access it. I did look before I asked my questions otherwise I would not have had the need to show my ignorance. Dave We don't have them on our site yet... I am still editing/organizing them...I have 4 of them finished, out of 10-15. The material comes from articles I wrote for free reed magazines (European), lectures and workshops.