Allen Garvin

I'm primarily a viol player. I've been doing it 17 years, and it's my Instrument For Life. I play all the sizes, pardessus down to violone, in any clef you want to throw at me. I do it weekly with friends and go to 6-7 workshops a year. Also, other early bowed strings: baroque violin, viola, rebec, vielle, lira da braccio. I'm new to the anglo concertina, 4 months, but I tried it before with a terrible Stagi in the mid 90s. I've got a 1922 chemnitzer that needs a LOT of work: I can't play anything but Christmas carols on it. I've dabbled in gobs of other instruments, early and modern, but the only other thing I play regularly these days is harpsichord: I like to entabulate my own editions of 16th century polyphony. Concertina has turned out to be the most fun I've had in years!

I'll make my first post on the site here! November 4, 2 months ago, I saw a clip of someone playing a Wren C/G anglo on XTwitter, did about 20 minutes of research on if it was an instrument worth getting, and ordered one. I'm another serial instrument trier, and I'm the king of impulse music purchases. 2 solid months of playing it and loving it, I'm satisfied I'll stick with it, and will probably upgrade to something decent in the next 3-4 months, perhaps a Wakker. Previously, around 1996, I tried a cheap 20-button Stagi bought from Elderly, when they used to sell things beside guitars. It was a terrible instrument. I eventually took it apart to try to improve it, and failed, and didn't revisit the Anglo until 27 years later. I'm primarily a bowed string player, mainly the viol, which I've got about a dozen, and also rebecs, a vielle, violin family, even a recent lira da braccio... Btw, here's a video from 2022 where Gene Murrow on an Wheatstone English tuned to 415 was accompanying us in a viol consort: [Instgram, VdGSA Conclave] (I was filming, so not shown). I was wondering, when I upgrade, if it's possible to get something custom tuned in 415 in 6th comma meantone, but I'll probably put that off till later! Allen