Henrik Müller
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Posts posted by Henrik Müller
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Thank you for the notes. Swedish tunes sounds good on concertina. I enjoied to play the swedish walz in Betram Levy´s tutor and there is "Ganglat fra Appelbo" which is very common in north germany.
Is there a story behind this tune? For exc. what means "Guckulåt"?
Do you have some more tune or the URL of the bagpipe page?
Merry Christmas
Hello, Klaus -
I have just now digitized the LP ("Per Gudmundson, Säckpipa", Giga GLP-8, 1983) and I found a couple of nice tunes that I'd like to play. Eventually, they will end up on Henk's great page.
Here is a literal translation of the sleeve notes for the tune:
"7. Guckulåt efter Joseks Lars 2:27
Mats Rehnberg writes "Even in Nås have several pipers existed. Some of them are known to their name. The foremost is without doubt Gucku Olof Olsson with the soldier name Svedman. The brother was a soldier with the name Sommar and like the father, Gucku Anders, a fiddler. He often played with his sons. In general, it was often pointed out in Nås, that the bagpipe was best heard in combination with the fiddle". (Per säckpipa, Ola fiddle)".
Still doesn't explain what "Gucku" means. A name - a nickname? My wife shook her head when I asked what a "guckulåt" was - "Some tune from Dalarna".
I feel something tugging my sleeve - there is actually a course in Swedish bagpipe for absolute beginners in this very town this week! I should probably have joined...
/Henrik
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Merry Christmas to all! I am so grateful for the connections and friendships, knowledge and information this site has given me.
*Deity-of-choice* bless us every one!
love,
Allison
Indeed!
A Merry Christmas
and
A Happy, Lots-of-Nice-Hanging-Out-on-c.net New Year to you all!
/Henrik
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I was going so say that I could try to force my wife to write it down, but as I write this, I see Henk's answer. Phew - thanks, Henk - less danger for me
./Henrik
Sounds as if I saved a marriage or even saved your wife or you from domestic violence
How merry my Christmas will be!!
Naah - it's not really like that - it's more that it would probably have taken a long time.
I took the first step to learning more Swedish tunes last night - I digitized the backpipe record that I got the tune from. There were a couple more that caught my ear.
/Henrik
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I am happy to see that the tune created such interest. I will have to learn some more over Christmas. I was going so say that I could try to force my wife to write it down, but as I write this, I see Henk's answer. Phew - thanks, Henk - less danger for meWhat a beautiful tune! I would like to have the notes. Is that possible? ./Henrik
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So sad to hear, Peter. I have just bought and is enjoying the "Two gentlemen..."-record, and even had hopes of maybe meeting him next year. Such humour in his playing.I just received an e-mail with the sad news Gerdy Commane has died.I was in Ennis just now and hadn't heard the news, I will post more details when I receive them.
/Henrik
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I am listening - it's getting interesting!......
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One thing to clear up - instruments starting from 18000 upward were made under Edward Chidley, who took
over Wheatstone in the mid 1860s. These instruments have a new type of rivetted reed, as opposed to the older screwed plate type that Lachenal continued with. This style of instrument lasts until Edward's sons take over the business around 1890/1900.
Edit to add: Wheatstone moved to West Street,Charing Cross Road in 1905, so Henrik's instrument probably must have returned to Wheatstone and had the label replaced.
/Henrik
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This is fine detective work Jim. Time to open er' up Ennistraveler. A set of jeweler's screwdrivers can readily be had.
Hear, hear! Let's see the insides. I am a'gitting curious - I have a 56-button thing that looks very much like this. Can't find a serial number, though. It has a (Wheatstone, Charing Cross Road adress) paper label glued on the inside of one end, but no other Wheatstone markings anywhere. The reeds are rivetted to the brass plates. I have it marked up for restoration and sale, when I have nothing better to do, he, he.
Yes, I can make some photographs.
/Henrik
Edited to add "Charing Cross Road adress -
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Henrik, have you done anything with the reeds to produce that beautiful sound you're getting? If not, it's the damndist Stagi I've ever heard!
Interesting question, Mark -
I think the only thing I've done is to play it a lot, and quite hard. I recently heard a clip with Mary MacNamara and Martin Hayes (from RTE new DVD), liked it a lot, sat down to play it... hmmm. Ah - C and F, of course. So - that will take a little longer. I started to listen to the Bb, which I rarely use, since I play very few tunes in F, and those I do play use higher notes that don't exist on this little thaing. Long story short: the Bb sound very different from the other notes ( I will have to provide an example after this, I am sure
). The only explanation I can come up with is of course that the Bb reed has been used very little and the others abused very much. To paraphrase Eurythmics:
"Some of them want to be used, some of them want to be abused"
So I guess reed abuse is good
Someone said recently that the Stagi miniature was "sharp" - playing a phrase on the 1909 Wheatstone metal ends and then the same phrase on the Stagi makes the latter sound flat and dull. Still, it has something (yeah, cheap accordion reeds) that can be forced into sounding sweet, sometimes.
/Henrik
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See the discussion going on right now in the "Morris Music" thread. The angle the instrument is held at often depends upon whether or not it is supported by anything other than the hands (knee, neck strap).
Thanks, David (?!) - for making me realise that I kept forgetting to add one comment to the Stagi surgery series: it changes the playing position to "sit down" - classical EC "wave-the-thing-around" is off.
Since I focus solely on ITM, the main goal was to improve playability when sitting down. It probably looks fairly Anglo-like.
/Henrik
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Do you have more detailed photos or descriptions?
regards, respi
Yep - here they come, and:
...Am I the only pro-wrist-straps-man on concertina.net?
Nils
no, Nils, you are not (though I confess to never having tried a, say, Wheatstone, with straps - only studied the photo of you from Arran). See the following:
Here is the basic idea of the change to the Stagi:
1) Parts of standard size sides are made with 3 mm plywood and some 15x20 mm wood. This fakes part of the sides on a real instrument.
2) The size/vertical position of the fake sides basically moves the vertical instrument center (as I define here as the center of the b on my 48 button Wheatstone) up so the new center is a line touching the top of the a.
3) The thumbstraps are waaaay down compared to my Wheatstone, where the top of the thumbstrap (metal) aligns with the center of the G. Here it aligns with the center of the low G (right side). That one of the major changes.
4) In the picture, I have pointed out the dummy buttons - small paper dots for the buttons I miss.
5) The angled hand rest is clearly seen (I have unscrewed the hand strap)
Next photos: a bottom shot, an "inside" shot, and finally the thing in action:
I now consider needs for further explanations of the word "brutal" ended
/Henrik
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Hi everyone
I've just updated my Concertina Recording Review page to add over 60 new listings (including English, Australian and South Africian music). At this stage a lot of them are just listings of the artist/album but I hope to include track listings, mising album art and review them as I track them down.
Cheers
Morgana
Cooooool!
/Henrik
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Hey, I had just the same problem with the Stagi miniature (though my hands are rather large...). So: How did you fix the "brutal change"? Do you have more detailed photos or descriptions?
regards, respi
I can certainly make a small photo series that shows better what I did. When I say "brutal", it means that I didn't put any effort into doing it with precision or adding any finishing, laquer or cosmetics on the job. The goal was to find out if it worked (and hence use the idea for a "real" instrument).
Give me a couple of days and I'll come up with something.
The basic idea was to add more "size" to it, so that the bottom part (closest to the player) had the same dimensions as a "standard" concertina (6 1/4" across the flats), and then place the handrest and the hand straps on that. Click on my card and you can see it played.
Regards,
/Henrik
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And here is Simon's own description of what he does and how he came to do it.
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YES!!! Thanks, Jim - I have read it before and was looking for it for my answer, but couldn't find it (or find time to find it
)/Henrik
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I did what came natural and anchored my pinkies on the wood (see picture).
Is this going to get me into trouble once I start playing? I am wondering if any of you have the same problem and how you get around it. Is it okay to not put pinkies in the finger rests?
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Allright! A (good) can of worms. A can I have comfortably lived in for quite a while.
I have small (old) fingers, my little fingers are small, and around 2001-2... I found that I was getting pains in them, pains in the joints. I also realised I wasn't always using the pinkie rest, sometimes just placed the pinkie and, if possible, the ring finger on the metal end, like your photo.
Cutting a long story short: I bought a Stagi miniature, played it a while, and then (brutally) modified it, until it felt good:
(It has been modified a bit more = "real", comfortable thumb straps).
The important stuff here it the addition of a hand strap and a handrest - the latter is tilted at an angle (about 17 degrees). The result is that I play slightly across the rows - again like your photo. I'll see if I can come up with a photo of my hands, playing.
I am very, very comfortable playing this way - I can get low (though there isn't anything to press at the Stagi miniature
) and I can do the cross-fingering and all the "illegal" stuff necessary for me to play Irish music.I should stress that this is in no way "the right way to do it" - what is comfortable for one person can be useless for another. But this works for me.
A note about the thumb straps: they are placed so that my thumbs go all the way through - contrary to when I play my Wheatstone, where I "carry" the instrument on the first part of the thumb. It seems to work like this:
With pinkie rests: my thumbs are just inside the straps (and I was getting thumb pains as well)
Wihout rests and with a handrest that encourages playing at an angle: the thumbs can go all the way through and thus carries the instrument better. Not that that is so important here - the Stagi is ridiculously light.
Take a look at this man:
http://www.simonthoumire.com/gallery.htm
See? Playing at an angle across the rows...
Needless to say, the concertina I am attempting to build, is based on this idea.
/Henrik
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Henrik, you can just mail the files to me at william.mchale@gmail.com.
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Sigh, I noticed no one complimented me on my playing.. LOL. Oh well better practice more
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Bill
Hi, Bill - I was in a hurry answering (and converting at work)...
I was going to say (what I thought when I read the title): First time I've heard Jim Ward's played on concertina - you keep it flowing; I always fall off somewhere
I'll send you the files tomorrow. Feel free to use the "converting service" -
/Henrik
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Lovely pictures, Bill. You wouldn't be able to save the sound files as MP3, by any chance? WMA is a Windows proprietary format that some of us can't easily play on their computers...
I have converted Bill's tunes to MP3 - where do you want them? (On my HD so far).
Bill?
/Henrik
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A feature of the lachenal design is that the arms pivot through a slot or appeture in their respective pivot posts. ...
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So, What do others do???????
Dave
I've never given it a thought, but looking into an Edeophone wreck of mine, I see the problem.
I would probably sit down and replicate a new arm and a new post - replace the whole thing. A tedious*) job, and in the long run it doesn't fix the problem (which is the design) but I guess it takes a fair amount of time to wear down that much. If "keeping the original design" isn't too important, a (new) arm rivetted to a post would be better?
/Henrik
*) I am at the moment sawing away on my 28 individual-size arms of 1mm brass plate - I am now very sure I know the meaning of the word "tedious"
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If anyone is interested in a little concertina history research....
... etc. There are concertina references in this paper going back to the 1840s.
Thanks Dan. Is it me, or is only the search free? I can't get to any articles
There are some Regondi reports as early as 1833 which could be very interesting!You need to create an account with The Scotsman - email & a password. You then "subscribe" to a service (costing £ 0.00) - meaning the use of the archive until Dec. 7. Click carefully
I found two articles about Regondi (1840) - in one the concertina is described like this:
"The concertina may briefly be described as the accordion brought to perfection."
/Henrik
Happy searching -
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If anyone is interested in a little concertina history research, this week the Scotsman, one of the older newspapers in Scotland, is offering free access to their digital archives (1817-1950). The search routine is quite amazing. You can search on a word like concertina and, as usual, all uses are listed. But the hits are for digital scans of the images, not a re-type...so you can see the original advertisements, etc. If it is a rainy afternoon where you are, its worth a brief try. There are concertina references in this paper going back to the 1840s. The free period is from noon on 30th November and for one week only.
The Scotsman:
I've finished working for today!! Thanks, Dan, for drawing our attention to this amazing achievement. Most fascinating.
/Henrik
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Can you retrofit it to earlier models of your Concertinas Frank? And if so can you mount mine reversed ... I it will be easier to honk of the bulb is on the outside.
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Bill
Come on guys! What's that rubber thing on the horn used for? You've got lots of nice air pressure on the machine - add an extra button
. Let's see some development here!/Henrik
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Beautiful work with the pics that are posted Hendrik! I sense that like myself, the project itself can be the most entertaining of all. I would like to add a little opinion of my own, if i might. Mr. Edgely has posted here many times and has explained his type of action in some detail, and although you are committed to the post and rivet style, in the future you might consider his work on this topic. I have played one of his boxes for about 3 years now, and don't really see many improvement that could be made, and it's so simple. 14 gauge stainless steel bicycle spokes, bent to enter the posts from the sides, no felt required except under the unturned delrin button for quiet. a self locking ring secures the spoke lever to the button. threaded brass wire rod with a short loop on the end takes the place of a riveted action. you'll have to buy an Edgely to see the spring style and all the rest, but it is pure simplicity, and nothing to wear out! Very Quiet. I just shake my head when I hear all the fuss about replacing worn out rivets and such. i'm rebuilding a Lachenal now with the flat staple-like posts, and if i don't care for the action when it's done, i'll just replace the whole thing with the Edgely action. BTW, stella is a french bicycle i seem to collect and my 'tina has 24 buttons. so no not female. i should register with my given name.
Hi, Stella, and thanks, nice to hear!
I gave the action a lot of thought. I suspect that the choice - tricky, expensive (but good) was made partly to see if I could do it.
So - it's out! I admit!
Because from a production point of view it is too complicated. The action is really a field for innovation: combining simplicity with smooth functionality and silent movement - I'd love to get my eyes and hands on one of Frank's machines - if he is at Éigse Mrs. Crotty next year, I may have a chance./Henrik
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Absolutely, follow Jim's advice! Most Irish tunes appear (to me) to be made up by bits of other tunes - I think you have composed a new tune "in the tradition" and should proudly present the tune for us all to hear!
Aooollright - it's coming up tonight.
"Most Irish tunes appear (to me) to be made up by bits of other tunes".
True - compare B part of "The Bank of Ireland" with the B part of (the two-part) "Spike Island Lasses"...
/Henrik
Right, folks - here it is. I did a new version, close enough to the original.
Got to stop this, or get a web hotel - my measly 10 Megabytes are almost worn down...
/Henrik
P.S. We need a Swede to explain what a "guckulåt" is... my wife, traditional Swedish fiddler, is not at home (probably wouldn't have approved the recording anyway - when the cat is out
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Absolutely, follow Jim's advice! Most Irish tunes appear (to me) to be made up by bits of other tunes - I think you have composed a new tune "in the tradition" and should proudly present the tune for us all to hear!
Aooollright - it's coming up tonight.
"Most Irish tunes appear (to me) to be made up by bits of other tunes".
True - compare B part of "The Bank of Ireland" with the B part of (the two-part) "Spike Island Lasses"...
/Henrik
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...Sounds lovely (my wife says so), but the traditionalists would turn away in horror, could they only hear me......realised that I had done what I often do: used the tune as a skeleton, and ended up with something far from the original. Trust your wife (unless she is planning to buy stuff she knows you will not approve
) - you are obviously doing it well! So I don't think the traditionalists would be horrified, unless they see traditional music as something deep-frozen at a certain period in time.What bothered me in the specific instance was when I was surprised to find how much of the tune I had made up
and that I was on my way putting it on the web./Henrik
Scandinavian Squeeze
in General Concertina Discussion
Posted
Send a mail to Pontus - he knows the exact date, I believe it is different this time, a week or so.
/Henrik