Jim Bayliss

As mentioned above, I'll be organizing the concertina aspect of Old Pal this year. Jody is a great and inspiring player and has a lot of musical knowledge of benefit for players of all levels and systems. And when the concertinas aren't playing, there will be a lot of music and learning opportunities going on at the festival, and Palestine will be in spring with the dogwoods blooming. The festival fee runs about $80, and the concertina fee is $30 to help defray expenses. If you plan on attending or have any questions, contact me at jmbayliss@juno.com. I hope to see you there.

In the letter, he also discussed getting together with Inventor about possibly building a square, double reeded box based on the Hayden fingering system, "the most sensible keyboard I've seen so far for a duet by a long way".

I have a letter from Pat Robson dated 1982 (two typed pages, single spaced!) which he wrote in response to an inquiry about bandoneons, Chemnitzers, and duet concertinas. In it, he states that he built a "square box with the same keyboard as a 30 key Anglo in C & G. Main voice octave deeper though and buttons further apart & 3/8" dia". His return address was in Aldershot. I saved this letter because it had a lot of interesting information and commentary on bandoneons, "Chemmies", and duets.

The hand rests on my 46 key Wakker, parallel rowed, "Wicki" model Hayden duet are about 50 mm from the center of the buttons on the lower C rows. This works very nicely and the straps aren't over my knuckles at any time. I'm 6'1". There is still plenty of room for considerably smaller hands to reach the uppermost rows.

Post cancelled.

yes

1 Crane, 1 Maccann, 2 Haydens, 3 English, 9 Anglos, I think.

I would definitely be interested in a midi-Hayden. Roland is doing very well with its electronic accordions.

The main reason for not having the slant is that it seems unnecessary, arbitrary, and complicating. The only reason I've seen for justifying the slant is that it, theoretically, makes the enharmonic notes on the treble side of the instrument the same distance from the hand rest. However, the slant just exaggerates the disparity on the left hand side. You've mentioned that it seemed easy to get lost on the 82 button Hayden, and I believe the slant is a major factor in this. The slant crowds the little finger and makes the pinky have to stretch further to reach the top. I suspect that Stagi's odd, asymmetric button arrangement came about as a reaction to the slant. Both arrangements work, but I prefer the simpler "no slant" option.

I've tried out the Beaumont and would offer these comments. First of all, it's great to see Morse getting a Wicky-Hayden on the market. They are solid, skillfully crafted instruments and I think it's good that they come without the slant. I would offer two criticisms. First, I really missed the D-sharp button on the left. The many fully chromatic tunes I've learned on the 46 key can't be directly transferred to the Beaumont without having to change the fingering to pick up the D-sharp as an E-flat. This is going to be a problem in going to this instrument from a 46-key, and it effectively trades the key of E for the key of B-flat. The second criticism is that the hand rest seems to me to be too close to the lowest button row. I'm ~6 feet tall, and I guess my hands are larger than average. My Wakker W-W1 duet has the hand rest about 5 mm further from the center of the buttons on the lowest row (~48 mm), and this is more comfortable for me.

I also participate with my Hayden duet in a "Rise Up Singing" singalong, which is a joint effort of a Unitarian and a Quaker congregation, currently being done twice monthly. It's a great opportunity to play and/or sing along.

If you're looking for a gathering of concertina players, you might consider coming to the Palestine, TX Old Time Music and Dulcimer Festival in late March every year, where a group of us holds forth. This isn't too far away from Arkansas.

A couple of weeks before Palestine, I attended the National Accordion Association convention in Dallas and heard this fella play this great song, "Palesteena", on accordion.

I've taken to using a "Humistat" (with hygrometer) in the case of my large duet during the hot, dry central Texas summers. Otherwise, there can be a bit of air leakage between reed chambers.

Just a note to let people in the Texas area know that Niall Vallely will be performing and giving an Irish concertina workshop at the Austin Celtic Festival, Nov. 5-6. John Williams is also on the schedule. For more information, go to <http://www.austincelticfestival.com>.

This is very sad. I was looking forward to seeing her again at Palestine. One of the more interesting gigs she spoke of doing was playing concertina at book store celebrations for new Harry Potter releases.

I own an 81 key Hayden, and, for the beginning duet player, I would recommend the smaller instrument. The larger you go, the more you lose some of the dynamics of the instrument. And part of the joy of concertinas is getting a big sound out of a small instrument. Most of my playing is done on 46 key Haydens, and I go to the 81 key instrument mostly for playing in other keys and increased range.

As I understand it, Wicki had the bandoneon in mind for his keyboard arrangement. And with the possible exception of the Gabla (with its keys slanted to the front), bandoneons are generally considered to be a form of the concertina. I also suspect that this instrument is one of the square Bastaris. If any Wicki bandoneons were ever made, I suspect that they might have either been destroyed in one of the wars or shipped to Argentina. From an overview of his patents, Wicki had his hand in a lot of pots and probably didn't get any made.

This is potentially of great interest since there is a big question as to whether Kaspar Wicki was ever able to get any instruments built based on his 1896 patent. So far as I know, none of these pre-Hayden instruments are known to exist.

As you know, David, I'm a psychiatrist. Maybe there's something about the orderliness of the Wicki-Hayden fingering system that appeals to physicians.

In general, I deal with this by either shortening or taking notes out of the left hand side. You can also lengthen and/or add chordal notes to the right side.

It was great to get together with other concertinaphiles and see what folks have been up to. I very much enjoyed the ensemble playing, and hopefully we can do this again next year and I'll be more practiced on these tunes. I've long been a fan of Roberts, Barrand et al and have most of their recordings, so it was great to have John Roberts there, get his advice, and hear him play, and, of course, sing. John did a concert in Austin on Sunday, and, despite limited publicity, played to a near full house. Hopefully, his second visit to Texas will come a lot sooner and he can bring his musical cohorts. I also picked up a copy of Dan's book The Anglo-German Concertina, nearly 600 pages of interesting information on a topic we love dearly, and a remarkable accomplishment.

I own this, and it is 82 keys and 10 3/4" across.

Of my 3 quality Hayden duets, the one I usually reach for first in practice is the no-slant Wakker 46. I've been unable to find any advantages to the slant, and the no slant Wicki design is easier on the little fingers and, I think, feels more natural. I think it is a big advantage of the Wicki-Hayden button arrangement to have a built-in, flexible, semi-systematic fingering system (call it "correct", "home", "scale", or whatever). I've been able to get fairly comfortable with going back and forth between my Wakker 46 and my slanted Wheatstone 46 by adjusting my wrists and mind.

Grock plays the English concertina starting at about 21 minutes of this clip. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb_our5nLn4