Becky Nankivell

The entire documentary is available online (in the U.S., at least), here: http://www.itvs.org/films/between-the-folds . I'm looking forward to it. ~ Becky

That link, which was published in the latest EDS/English Dance & Song, is apparently defunct. Derek Schofield kindly sent me this one, which works: http://www.asaplive.com/archive/detail.asp?id=D0100100 ~ Becky in Tucson

The other bit of info that I forgot to include is the range: the lowest note is C, an octave below the low C of my treble; the highest note is also C, four octaves above the lowest (the same high note as my treble). ~ Becky

Thanks, Ken. Tucson dancing is going fine. I'm now part-time over in the L.A. area and struggling to find time in the back and forth schedule to get some dancing in... I'm playing the instruments a bit more, though! ~ Becky

As a biologist, I have to say that it doesn't really look like real, organic tortoiseshell to me, but then I haven't seen much tortoiseshell not on the tortoise... ~ Becky

So sorry for the cross-posting, but please check this post for some restoration questions about my new old concertina. (Originally posted under General Discussion, now moved to History -- the link is correct.) ~ Becky in Tucson

Hmm. Meant to post that to the History forum... can it be moved?? ~ Becky

Well, the concertina that inspired the cake (click) now has a sibling in the house: a 56-key tenor-treble Aeola. It's 8-sided, and has raised tortoiseshell ends, with gold-plated buttons and pinky props. Pics are up at Flickr, here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/7182565@N05/s...57615595330586/ Questions: 1) Is there any reason that I shouldn't believe that this is the concertina with serial no. 31649 shown at the bottom of this Wheatstone ledger page ("August 2, 1928 Shell, octo, 56 keys, gold fittings")? http://www.horniman.info/DKNSARC/SD02/PAGES/D2P0760S.HTM I was told there was some confusion and overlap in the numbering and that the concertina might be more recent, but I haven't seen anything myself about problems with this number, and the notes in the ledger appear to match the instrument. Also, the sound and quality of the instrument is comparable to my other concertina, which is (by all appearances) a 1924 instrument (thus the cake in 2004). 2) The tortoiseshell isn't really tortoiseshell, right? 3) It's in very good shape, I'd say, for its age. There's some chipping of the "tortoiseshell", mostly on the sides, but there are only cracks and no holes in the fretwork (so to speak). Is there anything I should know about care of this material, other than avoiding radical temperature changes and not banging it about? 4) In the pictures of the reedpan, you can see that the valves for the highest reeds do not entirely cover the holes. Is this something that needs repair? 5) Any thoughts on replacing the wrist straps? Are there Wheatstone replacements available? One of them has some leather spliced on the end from having broken. For my other EC, the Button Box folks were able to put lovely new Wheatstone thumbstraps on... 6) There's some wear on the bellows; it looks like a previous user (who had much larger hands than me) used to play standing up and rubbed the bellows on his belly. This is visible in the first two bellows pictures. Does it look like that may be patched, rather than doing a wholesale replacement? Otherwise, the bellows are beautiful... The leakage is not awful, but it's more of an issue with the low notes, which need more air, of course -- and the low notes is what I got this for. 7) Any thoughts on cleaning the brass (of the labels and the thumb and wrist strap screws)? 8) Any thoughts on cleaning dust from the interior, and the slight green fuzz of oxidation on the brass of the reed holders? (I think I'll post a cross-ref in the "Repair" forum...) Misc other notes: - Of the leather gaskets on the reed chambers, all but one piece is there (one of the small bits at an end of one of the high reeds on the left side -- so not pictured). However, some of it is loose and will need re-gluing. - It seems to me that the quality of the tone is more uniform throughout this instrument than my tenor. The high notes are not as piercing, I think I'll get more use out of them. And, I believe that on the other instrument the lowest notes are more rumbly and somewhat different than the midrange. I wonder if it's the overall bigger size that makes the difference with this instrument. - It's great to have the case cover for this instrument. My tenor has its original leather-covered box, but it's pretty worn (and has no latch). I carry it in another bag, but need to make a proper cover, because the canvas bag is putting some wear on it. This one's cover is worn through on the top corners, and the zipper is defunct, so I'll have to decide whether to patch it, or make a cover for the cover! Any other insights or comments will be greatly appreciated. ~ Becky in Tucson

"Fab Girls of the West" appear to be a contra dance megaband, though playing in concert here, with an EC front and center in the video: Anybody know who that is? ~ Becky Nankivell Tucson, Arizona

Also, Rhomylly, I know of two Arizona ec players who check in here at least occasionally... ~ Becky

Well, I was looking at the music lying here in the mess of my desktop and I thought, "I never got an answer to that question!" Then I realized, "I never checked to see if the question was answered!" Thanks for the replies and further details. After my post I did guess that the extra music must be an instrumental interlude. (I sing shape note music and am at least acquainted with west gallery music.) re: "transponder" -- it might have been less confusing if I'd written "trans-Pond-er", meaning in the US, rather than UK. ;-) And, another "yes, please" on the carol transcriptions. I hope next year to get some folks together for something different (for our area) in seasonal song. Rhomylly, I occasional call contras in Albuquerque... ~ Becky

Dave, it looks like we are madly downloading your pdf (51, at the time of this post). Thanks! I'm a transponder and not familiar with this song. I've been trying to figure out how it scans, and thanks to the Village Carols site (http://www.villagecarols.org.uk/Words/gtgtas.html) found that the 2nd and 4th lines of each verse repeat (the 2nd is sung twice, the 4th is sung 3 times). That helped a lot! Two questions: - In the final five measures (before "SYM"), I assume that (for the first verse) the two syllables "Jesus" fall on the two half notes. How do the rest of the words fit in? "is" in the following measure; and "is" repeated, making the last three notes fall on "is the King"? - What is the function of the "SYM" section? ~ Becky, in Tucson, Arizona

Nifty! What's the story behind your collection? ~ Becky in Tucson

This question has undoubtedly been addressed before at http://www.mudcat.org/threads.cfm , the Mudcat Cafe discussion forum, more often for lists of songs, words than notes, but you could add the inquiry if necessary. I suggest using the forum Filter (rather than the Search) that you'll find near the top of the screen. Caution: I find that to reach the site you need to be persistant: if at first you don't succeed (you get a server timed out error, like I've been getting this morning), try again later. ~ Becky

There's a nice review of the book by Andy Turner on the Musical Traditions web site: Musical Traditions review ~ Becky

Hmm! Southwest of what?? New England?? Southwest of the original 13 colonies?? Sounds nice, though. :-) ~ Becky, in Tucson (the real SW deal)

Yes, it did taste pretty good, too! (Lots of butter and chocolate involved; a high icing to cake ratio overall.)

Oh, and there were various concertina naive folks who had not heard much before the event who didn't realize that there weren't two real concertinas on the table (since the once was not being cut...).

O.k., it's nearly a year later, but here it is. My Wheatstone tenor English concertina has its birthday on April 30, one day before mine. The concertina was born in the same year as my mother, however, 1924. That meant that last year was its 80th birthday, so I threw a party, to which some concertina friends came (Dan Madden and David Cornell) as well as others. And I made a cake. Here are the pics. I must confess that the cake did not get cut until after midnight, much to the disappointment of the kids at the party, who wanted it cut as soon as it appeared. The party was at 7:30 pm, and that's just when the cake was finished, having been started some 7 or 8 hours of labor (and one day) before. It had four sponge cake layers with natural colored mocha mousse frosting between (this is what shows through the cutwork). The sculpted outer frosting was colored chocolate buttercream frosting. The thin cutwork layer, thumbstrap, and "metal hardware" were sculpted from colored packaged rolled fondant. (If I hadn't been running so late, I would have made the cutwork more lovely...) The buttons are "Tic Tac" mint candies. I also made a big trifle and had strawberries to dip in the leftover icing, so the folks who didn't stay up 'til midnight singing did get something... also leftover cake (yes there was some!) was consumed the next day. ~ Becky in Tucson, Arizona

I play EC, mostly right frame on right thigh, but I vary it somewhat - if it's legs crossed, rather than foot propped up, I switch between right & left leg, and (rarely) left frame on left thigh if I'm playing a lot and my left arm/wrist is getting tired of the bellows work. When I started I was a little more conscious of trying to share the bellows work left and right, but I guess I've given up on that. To summarize, I'm right-handed tenor EC mostly contradance, Irish, English, etc. mostly right frame, right thigh I briefly played PA... that might have influenced me ~ Becky

Hi, Ken, I sporadically look in on concertina.net and may be back more frequently now that the forum is more user friendly. I'm an English player (should have been in the Pinewoods Folk Music Week photo last year, but didn't get there on time). I've been playing since taking John Roberts's concertina workshop at Pinewoods in 1998. Don't know that my progress is proportional to the time elapsed, but... The Copper family was at Folk Music week in 1999, the second time I attended, and I was very lucky to be there that year. I think that the first time that they came to the States was to come to Folk Music Week, a number of years earlier, where they were bowled over to find a group of folks that could join right in on their songs. (Folks, you should check out the programs at www.cdss.org.) And to my further great good fortune, Bob and the family came west twice in the next couple of years, for the Folk Alliance meeting in Albuquerque, and the Summer Solstice Festival outside L.A.. ~ Becky

Among the many accomplishments of Bob's are that he took up the English concertina at age 70. He started during his wife's final illness, and used to practice with the instrument inside the leg of a pair of sweatpants as a mute. An inspiration on so many fronts. ~ Becky in Tucson