CheeseNote

I have a Morse Albion. Only once have I reached for an expected note and hit the air button-- I was playing scales! I don't believe you'll miss the missing notes

Actually, 'twas Billings -- William Billings, the composer of David's Lamentation. Born in Boston, 1746 and buried 1800 in the Boston Common Burial Ground in a now-unmarked grave, Billings was probably one of the first professional musicians in North America. In addition to being a composer and singing-master, Billings was a patriot (so we think) and friend of Paul Revere, who engraved the frontispiece of at least one of his tunebooks. Still, Billings need a "day job" and worked as a tanner and was also the Boston hog reeve, I believe. He wrote wonderful tunes in what was an original, American style. He was not shy about his artistic independence: "I don't think myself confin'd to any rules for composition laid down by any that went before me," he wrote in his introduction to The New-England Psalm-Singer, "neither should I think (were I to pretend to lay down rules) that any who come after me were any ways obligated to adhere to them...So in fact, I think it is best for every Composer to be his own Carver." I have sung David's Lamentation, Rose of Sharon, Creation, Easter Anthem, and Boston, among others of his compositions, and they are a joy to sing, a style unlike anything common today. Good to hear them played for us. Thanks.

Just saw this video today, mentioned in someone's facebook posting. We're just returned from a week in Quebec, and I guess viewing videos helps with the withdrawal I, too, was pleased to see the concertina, and the credits list lildogturpy-- a name I recognize from this forum-- as a participant, so I assume it is he playing the english concertina. Looks like great fun, would like to do something similar here.

Check out this site for links to quebecois music and dance links. http://www.spdtq.qc.ca/ danse et musique traditionnelles I've not been able to attend one of the Montreal dances, but the dancers and callers look terrific, and people I know who've attended have really enjoyed them. I have attended dances and sessions in Quebec City, 4 years ago, so can't speak to how current my information is. I attended a great session at a restaurant called "O Patriot" on a weekday evening, and danced at wonderful dance in a historic building on the grounds of a park called "Domaine de Maizerets" The session was held weekly, and the dance monthly. We thought it would be easier to find traditional music and dance than it was, same for our last trip this summer in Southern Quebec. If you find some gem, please pm me. Thanks

I've been following my interest in the West Gallery tradition on YouTube this season, and found this video. You can find the two bass concertinas starting at about 1 minute, and then the camera takes in the serpent, sitting in front of them, as well. (There are actually two serpents, with the second visible in a related video). Everyone appears to be enjoying themselves -- I had a good time at the Christmas Pub Singing I attended here in Boston, earlier in the month.

Today, I played as a member of a West Gallery Quire for a Thanksgiving/Harvest celebration service. We all had to sit in front of the altar, didn't play from the back balcony, as we authentically should have. Usually, it's the serpent and the dulcian that get all the attention at these things, but as we were packing up afterwards, a woman who sat in the first pew box right in front of us asked about the concertina, saying her children enjoyed the "little accordion", and what was it really called? When I told her the name she commented, "That's right, Allen Ginsberg played one when he came to give a reading at my school years ago." Oh???!!! A Google search turns up several mentions of Ginsberg accompanying himself on the concertina, but I've found no pictures: Allen Ginsberg came in looking like a professor out of a 1920s German movie with a little concertina and started a Hare Krishna chant. and Dylan would come over to the house with Allen Ginsberg and we'd all sit around on the floor, chanting with finger cymbals and he had this sort of little concertina that he'd play. He didn't sing very well but he was really into it. Who Knew?? Anybody ever see Ginsberg give a reading with a concertina?

I'll bring to your attention the choice of the well-dressed concertina-playing traveller featured on the cover of the February 2008 issue of Boston magazine. A tour of the manufacturer's catalogue site reveals a cost of at least $3400 US. I trust that it is a Wheatstone in there!

I choose to learn the English concertina because I was a singer in a West Gallery Quire, not terrific at sight-singing, and wanted something I could play to help me learn my part. Also, I felt left out during the interesting symphony parts (West Gallery has instrumental symphonies like the Yorkshire Carols printed in another thread, and arises from the same sources), and I wanted something with which I could join in. Exactly two years ago, a friend came to Christmas dinner and left her treble concertina with me, and I started to learn. I've pretty much accomplished my initial goal, and am able to play well at the monthly meetings of my West Gallery Quire, and the very occasional church services and concerts we give. But being able to play has opened a world -- I now find myself playing many types of music. I attend a couple of beginner-friendly sessions a month: one, an American contra dance music session, and another of Scottish music. I'd like to find a place to be exposed to more Quebecois, English country, and Scandinavian music. I could play with a Renaissance group weekly, if I could improve my reading of unbarred music. I play duets with my companion on fiddle or recorder, and we worked hard on a Telemann Sonata in Canon this summer for a camp talent show. That said, more than two-thirds of my playing time is spent alone, as I need to practice. I'm only adequate at the West Gallery stuff because it accompanies singing, and so is rather slow. I need to work on getting dance music at tempo, and I'm poor at memorization. I'm fortunate to have as many opportunities to play with a group or my companion as I do, and much of what I'm working on now is to improve enough to feel comfortable doing more playing with others. Still, that's not my entire focus: sometimes I'm just happy to have the means to pick up music that's around the house and play it -- for example, I'll just open the hymnal and play and sing. The English has been a great choice. While I don't play with C.net members, I consider keeping up with the forums a social aspect of my taking up the instrument. Thanks.

Funny that the idea of a set of Calliope House in multiple keys should just come up. My fiddler companion and I were talking about the tune before I read this topic, and he mentioned doing just that for a dance he played. He started in Bb, went to C, then D, and ended in E. The band played the tune twice through in each key

I call your attention to The New Policeman, by Kate Thompson, a young adult novel set in Kinvara, which ends every chapter with the music for a tune (many from O'Neills, but two written by the author) and in which concertina playing provides the reason for the protagonist to make a life-changing choice. I initially bought the book for a niece, but decided to read a library copy after sending off her copy, and I thoroughly enjoyed it, ended it by thinking I'd been away on a trip to Ireland. The author has a web site listed below which includes several files of her playing (whether she is on the fiddle or concertina, I don't know) tunes played in the book. My Webpage

I'm sorry, I should have mentioned in the original post that it appears that it will be up for the entire month of January, but also, that what one sees in the link and its detail is all one sees in the display

For anyone with an interest and proximity to Cambridge, Mass, in the U.S., there is currently on display on the Building 14N first floor corridor, Wheatstone's Harmonic Diagram. The accompanying text, while alluding to his optics and physics work, states that Wheatstone is "best known as inventor of the concertina" One can view the Diagram and associated text 24/7, but the nearest door may be locked in the odd hours. By coincidence, the MIT archives and this display are just down the corridor from the Music Library. http://libraries.mit.edu/archives/exhibits...onic/index.html