Sebastian

Some years ago I purchased a double reeded 20 button German 'tina from Oliver Stoffregen (diatonie.de). It was a Silvetta model with some important improvements (limited button travel, equal temperament). After years of use it has become a bit unreliable, and I wonder if it is possible to get a similar instrument. Silvetta has ceased production. Stagi makes the C-2 & C-3 models, but I don't like their key lever mechanism, especially their wobbly buttons. Does anyone know where I could receive a double reeded 20 button concertina with limited button travel and equal temperament in new or as-new condition?

Yes. PC reached concertina.net, and I personally, I don’t like NPCs. Toodeloo! ??

Who is the 'us' in your question? It’s not important to me, but it seems important to you. (Now searching the 'unregister'-option.)

I am under the impression, that these were essencially two-row concertinas with only one reed per note (the instrument on the photograph most likely is). Those were easily replaceable by the more pricey anglo-german three-row conertinas, when people got a bit wealthier, because with these you could still play in the old way but had some new possibilities and still the thin sound of single-reeded instruments. For the irish playing style (= fiddle imitation, devoid of chord playing) the anglo-german concertinas with one reed per note may indeed have been a somewhat useful expansion. With regard to zulu music I lack enough knowledge and don’t know, whether the two-row concertina with two reeds per note could have made any impact. But until some information to the contrary comes up, I would be sceptical. South african boer music is really the only music I know of where the "german double reeded concertina" with its typical rich sound could attain at least some sort of to some extend established position.

I think the only muscial culture they were able to put little mark on is the southafrican boremusik. https://youtu.be/zeMfpcAkXA0

It is an anglo-german concertina without the "anglo"-part, that is, without the accidental-row, but with two reeds per note, tuned an octave apart. Inicidentally, it’s the concertina I am playing. You may take a look at it in my YT-clips, if you want to see it 'in action'.

Do you mean the flowery ornation? Yes, it’s a bit exuberant. :) I would like to know on what occasion this picture has been taken. :)

Hm. What is stranger on this postcard than on others? ?

Yes, from the harmonica. It is common for any wind instrument (in the cultural context of western music) that you blow into them instead of sucking through them. So the first free reed instruments where all-blow instruments, and even later the blow reeds constitute the basic, the tonic chord. (There is for example the traditional one row accordion in the region of Saratov, which has the inverted push-pull pattern.)

»how do i make a song playable on concertina?« 40 buttons are far to many to get a good understanding of the concertina. You should consider a 20 button concertina.

They may be younger than you and thus still a bit untamed …

Yes, this are the dots from the YT video as ABC notation. I did this for @mathhag (and for myself ;) ), it doesn't take much time. What can you do with it? You can copy and past it on http://www.mandolintab.net/abcconverter.php to render it again as normal musical notation. You can let the computer transpose it for you from the key of A minor to E minor or another key which is maybe better suited for your concertina. You can make the computer play it for you at a speed you like and in a key you like. I don't play anglo, so I can't help you with playing advice (but I'm sure someone else can). I can only say how I would play it on a 20 button concertina.

X:1 T:Kashiwas Thema M:3/4 L:1/8 K:Am E>F E/^D/E/c/ | "E7" B6 | z2 E>F E/^D/E/B/ | "Am" A6 | "A7" z2 A>_B A/^G/A/[eg]/ | "Dm" [df]2 z[df] [df]2 | "G" [df]z [eg]z [df]z | "C" [df]z [ce]4 | z2 zc de | "E7" e3 d d2- | d2 zd ed | "Am" d3 c c2- | c2 z2 AB | "F7" c3 d c2 | "E7" Bz ez cz | "Am" A6 | z4 A/B/^c/d/ || "A" e3 A A2- | A2 ^c2 e2 | "Dm" g2 f3 e | f6 | "G" d3 G G2- | G2 B2 d2 | "C" f2 e3 ^d | e6 | "F" A3 B c2 | "C" G4 e2 | "E7" f3 e B2 | "Am" c6 | "F" A4 a2 | "F7" a3 ^g a2 | "E7" b4 ^g2 | e6 | "A" e3 A A2- | A2 AB ^cd | "A7" e6 | e3 e fg | "F" [ca]6 | "G7" [Ba]4 g/a/g/f/ | "C7" [_Bg]4 (3fgf | "A7" [^ce]6 | "Dm" [Ad]3 e f2 | "E7" [^Gf]2 e2 d2 | "Am" [Ac]4 [Bd]2 | [ce]2 a2 c'2 | "Dm" [db]4 a2 | "E7" [B^g]3 ^f g2 | "Am" [cea]6 | "D" [d^fa]6 | "Am" [cea]6 | H[cea]2 |]

Bastari is today Brünner in Italy. They sell mostly under the brand name 'Stagi'. You can look at their actual range of concertinas here. Your model is a classical 20 button 'german' concertina, much like they are produced since the 1840's. I play a 20 button 'german' concertina too, and here is one example of what you can do with it: https://soundcloud.com/weltsauerstoff/im-a-pirate

Druck is "push" and Zug is "pull". You need only the numbers from 1 to 5. Above the horizontal line is the right hand and below is the left hand. The digits on the right of each D or Z show the buttons to press: The superscript digits denote the outer row (C row), the subscript digits denote the inner row (G row). The button numbering goes from left to right (1 = deep sound, 5 = high sound).

What kind of tabulature? There are many different. The ones I had to learn at university were the New German Organ Tabulature which Bach used and the German Lute Tabulatur from the Renaissance epoch. Later I learned some more for different instruments and different times in history. If you want access to the music you like, learn the dots. For a collection of tunes notated in tabulature and PDF for your type of concertina, visit https://konzertinanetz.de and click on "Melodien".

I have the abc for the tunes I recorded for yt (and some more) if you think that could be interesting.

When I started to venture into concertina-land, I was interested in taking a new approach. I mean, I pressed keys for all my life, and I know this one-key-one-note-thing. A bisonoric instrument was interesting for me, because it combined key pressing with something new (bellows direction). In the beginning I tried a 30b anglo-german concertina too, but neither did I like the sound nor did the layout make much sense for the 'harmonic style' I'm used to think in. I think you should begin somewhere (maybe with a fairly standard english concertina), and if you later don't find it to your liking, you could sell the instrument and switch to a different kind of concertina (a duett). A concertina has a resell-value, so not all of your investment would be lost. And you can't ponder on everything before you have gathered enough first-hand experience. There will always be surprises.

It depends on what you want a concertina for and why you want a concertina. I'm a "classically trained" organist, and the instrument that turned out as "the best fit for me" is a 20-button german concertina.

It depends on the playing style. For me the base note in this position is indeed very helpfull, whereas I have no real use for the third note of the scale in this position.

I listened to your playing on YT and the layout seems normal (besides the first button of the inner row on push of course). I put it on my watch-list on eBay, but need to think it over a little.

Lovely! And in the right keys. Would you send it to Germany?

Yes, they are indeed tuned an octave apart (more or less), and the second set of reeds sounds one octave below the normal register of an anglo-german concertina (à la bandoneon or Orgelstimmung). I am not shure whether Puppchen would sound acceptable or not on a single-reeded 20-button concertina, because it makes frequent use of the highest notes of the G-row. The same may apply to the Marino Waltz. Single-reeded german concertinas shouldn’t be tuned in C/G in my opinion, but a bit lower, e. g. in A/E or G/D. Even on the double-reeded C/G concertina the Puppchen-melody sounds a bit high pitched. Therefore it is advantageous to underpin the high melody notes by some lower notes from the current chord (normally a third or a sixth below the melody note), I think.

Yes. In German it's called "nuns' trumpet". ? But I wonder: I never encountered monks using horns!? (Maybe it relates to cornetts? But still ...) Thank you, I'll take a look at them.

Very nice! I toyed a bit with Paulstretch filters when a tune was to simple. What kind of filters did you use? @wunks A tromba marina, or how is it called in English?