Stephen Mills

The following versions of Packington’s Pound constitute my first TOTM submission. (They are in fact my first recording ever.) As in the Julian Bream version, he being my original classical guitar hero dating back to the mid ‘70s, I first play the so-called anonymous version, followed by the Francis Cutting setting, recorded later and tacked on. Unlike Bream, I do not repeat the first version. https://soundcloud.com/stephandp/ppfinal The final cadence of the Cutting version kicks my butt a bit, but it’s August now and I wanted to move on. I am playing my Hayden 52 button hybrid duet, made by Bob Tedrow.

I can only echo the praise of the others. I especially love Mazurka à Lucas from your site. It appears that you play often with Jean Banwarth. Son or brother, perhaps? His webpages have been my favorite site for guitar arrangements of Irish and similar music for many years (although I usually change them from DADGAD to DADGBE).

There's a video of this by our cnet stalwart Prof. Rat(face) here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wn0RybTw2d0 , but be prepared for a surprise.

Many years ago I came across and downloaded a set of the most famous 3 Ballydesmond polkas with concertina right out front. It was played by a band from Lemont, which googlemaps tells me is pretty central n Pennsylvania. The band is called Callanish and appears to still be active today. http://www.callanishband.com/meet-the-band.html The concertina player, Patty Lambert, teaches in her home, probably flute, but maybe also concertina on (unlikely) demand. The big question is what system. I have the distinct impression from several years ago that she played English, but the website doesn't say and my memory is just as distinctly unreliable. Just a shot. I've never met Rachel Hall, but what a fine player. You can listen to a few of her tunes on Jody Kruskal's website.

Steve Mansfield is doubtless too modest to mention it, but that same site provides 132 tunes in abc format provided by him, just below the Massif Central mp3s.

Several years ago I bought the wonderful Massif Central books directly from Mel Stevens, who as many of you know, was Alan Day’s bandmate in Rosbif. These books seem to go in and out of print. I don’t know the current situation. I discovered yesterday that all these tunes have been recorded (on piano) and are available at: http://www.hurdy-gurdy.org.uk/ . I didn’t see that the scores were available in any form on the site, but the contents match the books, including the tune number from each book. The mp3s are downloadable, hence usable with a slow-downer so that learning by ear should be easy. I have periodically trolled through these books looking for good tunes. How nice to be able to cull them more rapidly than sight-reading them and having to develop my own feel. Many are by talented recent composers such as Frédéric Paris and Gilles Chabenat.

Kurt Braun introduced me to PitchLab for Android at the Palestine, TX concertina gathering recently. It may not (or may) be as sophisticated for those who tune reeds, say, but it's good for identifying the key of a tune, etc., and I haven't really plumbed its capabilities much yet. It has a variety of display modes (see https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.symbolic.pitchlab) and it is free.

This is a great article and very well-deserved. Congratulations, Frank.

http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/concert.htm takes you to a picture of another former Matusewitch student, Moshe Rubin, in Jerusalem. When I corresponded with him very briefly several years ago, he was a member of the ICA, but not this forum. He told me at that time (2005) that "I was fortunate to have studied under Boris Matusewitch between the ages of 11 and 13 in New York City, thanks to my musically-inclined father, Dr. George Rubin, an American Board of Ophthalmology certified surgeon. My family emigrated to Israel in 1971. Over the years I've played first/second violin with string quartets and performed for the Jerusalem Folk Music group. Although I am a classical music trained concertinist, I enjoy playing folk music on it, too."

From the website of Mary MacNamara: The [E. Clare] style is marked by the sparse use of commonly used ornamentation such as crans, rolls and triplets. A less technical type of ornamentation has developed, for example double octave playing and transmission of rhythm to the bellows through the foot tap in the case of concertina and melodeon players. The style is also marked by the emphasis on rhythm and swing which captures the listener and dancer alike. Dan, Would you say this a fair representation of Ann Kirrane's style or are there other descriptions/distinctions you would make?

I am excited about attending again this year. In past years you have brought in Jody Kruskal, Bertram Levy, Mark Gilston and John Roberts as headliners, as well as other exceptional tutors and members of the community such as Gary Coover, Sean Minnie, Greg Jowaisas and the late Harold Herrington. It will be nice to have a specialist in the music of Clare county this year, as we have little such exposure here in these piney woods. Good job, Dan.

Stephen, you seem to know your share of "erratic" concertina sellers. I recall a member accused of troll-like behavior in his ad-to-sell, but who gave me a good laugh with this posting: "It was particularly pleasing to hear from Stephen Chambers,that grand old man of the concertina, who is the greatest living expert ,having selflessly devoted most of his life to research and propagating the instrument,in all its forms,and glory. He is pushing on in years,but ,apparently ,still has all his facultys ,and can still tell the difference between an anglo and an english,within minutes of taking it in his hand."

My experience is that building up your support muscles prevents a lot of aches and pains. Here is a cheap, brief and, for me, highly effective therapy for my own brand of wrist ailment. The disclaimers are that I am not a medical doctor nor physical therapist and of course your experience may differ. I tore some fascia in my wrist about 5 years ago. It was very slow to heal even with physical therapy and I still had frequent pain as recently as 2 years ago. I missed months of concertina playing (duet) and I thought my river-paddling days were over. At that point, a coworker who is a drummer gave me 2 of her old drumsticks and showed me an old drummer's exercise which I have located here: youtube.com/watch?v=ZDw2qAjv9B4 (0:13" to 0:18" is the essential sequence - apparently no sound). I keep the sticks on my desk and use them about 15 secs per workday - a really minimal investment in time, equipment or trouble. Any item of roughly comparable length and diameter should do. At first I could only do 1 or 2 repetitions without inducing more pain. Now I do 4-6 reps curling one wrist under first, then the same initiated with the other wrist. I've added to this slightly on some reps in that once the sticks have been fully extended, I move my forearms up and down a bit until I get a slight stretch. I have been essentially pain-free in my wrists since.

Hello again, Morgana. I recall you as the inititator of some of the most interesting threads on the forum several years back, including of course your series of interviews (5 questions) with concertina notables. Welcome back.

A scant bit of more detail here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/07/blythe-danner-gwyneth-paltrow-singing_n_832611.html the relevant quote: In fact, Danner said that Gwyneth's career in music started much earlier than most people realize -- it goes all the way back to a film she starred in in 1995. "When they shot 'Jefferson In Paris,' they gave her a concertina to practice on, and she was so good at it, she wouldn't read music, we'd give her music lessons, she wouldn't read the music, she'd just play," Danner revealed. "She was so good, they used her for the score." She would have been about 13 in 1995.

10 buttons and 10 folds! In the first image, he/she even has "concertina face", a nice touch, indeed. Dare I speculate that this is the fabled Woolworth's model, designed for playing along the rows?

Another obituary http://www.ssentinel.com/index.php/obituaries/article/george_c_salley, basically similar to the first, includes a picture and this sentence: "Among his other interests, he learned the concertina, joined a Sea Shanty Group, edited a magazine for concertinas and recorded a Sea Songs album." A look at some of his concertinas appear in an 2003 article by him on this site: http://www.concertina.net/gs_adventures.html George loomed large in the American revival of the concertina, at least from my belated perspective. I communicated with him only a few times, once buying a few concertina records from him. He was in poor health recently. Fair winds and following seas, George.

Ah, but how to finger the golden hexagon? I followed the advice of Inventor, Rich Morse and more recently Wim Wakker, if I remember their advice correctly. While I still respect that advice, my opinion has changed. The following discussion applies only to right hand fingering. The choice of fingering style is IMO the most important step in learning the Hayden. This topic has been debated about 3 times before on this forum with active participation from Rich Morse. While I am an avid fan of the Hayden system, it is still my contention that its fingering patterns shift usage from stronger fingers to weaker fingers more than most other systems, certainly anglo and English. The advocated fingerings are: 234 1234 2 or 123 1234 1 as you play a major scale up the rows, e.g., CDE FGAB C and 1=index, 2=middle, 3=ring and 4=little finger. I practiced a number of scalar patterns when I was first learning and found the 234 system less awkward. I will now illustrate why I have since changed my mind. Even in major tunes, the 234 fingering uses the index and middle fingers less than the 123 system. It is in minor keys, however, that the shift becomes more obvious. Often the index finger is hardly used at all. I offer finger usage patterns of 2 tunes as evidence. The attached graphs below demonstrate typical finger usages in a major and minor key for both patterns. I believe these tunes to be typical of finger usage in most western tunes. (The natural C in Fiery Clockface shifts 1 occurence from little to index finger). I have been retraining myself to use the 123 system for all minor tunes and I hope that I eventually transition to that consistent fingering for all tunes. I play a Tedrow Hayden, by the way.

I came to know Harold from the half dozen or so times we both attended the Old Palestine festival. Harold was a real gentleman, generous with this time and repair services, but I will remember him for his good humor as well. I remember one time we we playing the shape note tune "Evening Shade" and Harold began a lengthy running commentary on how depressing a tune it was, ships going down at sea, the opening up of veins and the like. I appreciated that he volunteered his time during a very busy period for him when I asked him to contribute his reminiscences of Stinson Behlen, who had given him advice on concertina-making when Harold was beginning. Old Pal, indeed - the festival will not be the same without him.

Several videos of Bertram playing concertina or banjo with Kirk Sutphin. This link: will give you a view with respect to which ones have a concertina.

This is also you more visibly hammering frogs here? (Haven't figured out links in the new system yet.)

An excerpt from “The Philosophical Breakfast Club”, which details the contributions to science of 4 friends: William Whewell, John Herschel, Charles Babbage and Richard Jones. Babbage was a friend of fellow polymath Charles Wheatstone – both were interested in ciphers and codes, which were very popular at the time. Of course, Wheatstone invented a code for telegraphy, which eventually lost out to Morse’s code as the de facto standard. “Interest in cryptology extended even to everyday life. Young lovers, forbidden to express their affections publicly, and often prohibited from even meeting, were afraid to send letters that could be intercepted by their parents. Instead, they corresponded by placing encrypted messages in the personal columns of newspapers, called ‘agony columns.’ Wheatstone and Playfair liked to get together and scan the columns, trying to decipher the contents, which were often risqué. One time, Wheatstone deciphered a message from a young man, studying at Oxford, begging his young lover to run off with him to Gretna Green, the village just over the border of Scotland famous for hosting the 'runaway marriages' of parties under 21 years old without parental consent (which was required in England). Wheatstone playfully placed his own message in the next day’s column, written in the same cipher, counseling the couple against taking this rash and irrevocable step. The next edition of the paper contained a message from the young lady, this time unencrypted: ‘Dear Charlie, write no more. Our cipher is discovered!’ ” One might have thought that with this bent, Wheatstone would be known for the layout for the Anglo third row, rather than the English fingering system.

Here's one I spotted last week in Pittsburgh, PA.

OK, one more now that I'm on the scent. Last night I screened the 2003 production of "The Mayor of Casterbridge", with Ciarán Hinds. There is a party early on with a distinct concertina sound, louder than the fiddle. It took 3 or 4 rewindings before I caught a half second glimpse of a bellows to confirm it. Nice bellows papers, but system indeterminate. Later on, at a wedding, the concertina is heard again - clearly the same player, but no visuals. As always, nothing in the credits. Hardy set the novel "before the nineteenth century was a third old."

Filmmakers do seem to like linking concertinas to Hardy's work. I saw the 2005 production of "Under the Greenwood Tree" last night, which contained a lot of screentime for the Mellstock Quire (sic), which the parson is on the verge of replacing with a harmonium for church occasions. One of the characters played a 20 button anglo in several scenes and a concertina is quite clear in the mix of some tunes. The book was published in 1872, but Hardy's preface places it about 50 years earlier, if I recall correctly, lending the usual improbability to the scenes. I read the book a few years ago and am quite sure no concertina was mentioned in the novel itself.