CrP

Having made a couple of cases for my concertinas -- two "gig-bag" nylon carry cases and a custom-made basketry case, handmade to order by a fine basketmaker/craftsman, I can tell you a couple of my solutions. One fabric that has worked very well is ultrasuede. Yes, I found it difficult to sew, since it's pretty dense. However, it has some advantages, in that it seems to wear well; stands up to the abrasion that comes with frequent insertion & removal of instrument. It's supple, and gradually adapts/conform to contours of an instrument. I found it was easy to glue it to foam or to other materials. Available in colors, too. I don't think it emits any gaseous fumes that might harm a fine wooden finish, but that's a question worth asking. I've used some cotton napped cloth that once was part of an L.L. Bean "chamois" cloth shirt, also with good results. If you know anyone who works with upholstery fabric, you might seek his or her opinion about suitable properties for something that will need to stand up to a lot of abrasion from wooden ends; wooden handrests; metal ends; screw heads; and so forth. However, in this department, there must be more than a few experienced cases-makers who can weigh in on the subject who also are members of C-net.

I'd like to make a contribution to C.net in appreciation of its worth to me and squeezers everywhere. How do I do that?

Thank you for pointing this out. Nice selection of tunes!

I found the tribute to Pete written by fellow folk musician and singer Tom Paxton in today's "Washington Post" to be a fine evocation of the spirit of music making that both Pete and Tom have championed for these many decades.

Elderly Instruments in Lansing MI has one. See: http://elderly.com/accessories/items/ACC-CONC.htm

I've had a couple of wooden-ended Lachenals bushed with felt to help the feel of the buttons and really liked the results. In case you might want some practical advice about doing itself then I'd recommend contacting Greg Jowaisas to ask for advice or help.

How about "Where do you plug it in?"

In "Anna Karenina" (released last year, with Keira Knightly), there's a brief pass across the stage during the opening sequence by an actor carrying an anglo concertina. If memory serves me right, there was no sound audible on the soundtrack because there was way too much noise from all the other activity going on.

Since I suffer something like withdrawal-from-a habit-forming substance if I go more than a couple of days without playing my concertina, I'll take it with me on a cruise that begins next week in Oslo (Norway) and ends in Iceland. Does anyone know of music stores or concertina-playing activity in those places? Thanks for any advice or suggestions.

The video I keep listening to/watching is this one -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wcmkm5MevI&feature=related "Waltz for Hendrik" by Mannie Erasmus. To my mind, it's a lovely, understated demonstration of graceful music-making by a totally comfortable, mature artist. Does anyone by any chance know of sheet music for this piece? I'm not musician enough to transcribe it off the video. As close as I can figure it, he's playing in the key of G# !

Allow me to add my satisfaction with the work that Greg has done for me on a Jones, a Lachenal, and some very nice work on my old 44-key Jeffries (circa 1885-1890).

Mr. Bailey: As it happens, I'm in NYC once or twice a month and often go from there (or through there) to visit my son, who lives a couple of miles from the Button Box. If you're inclined to discuss this, please call me [ 301 933-9834 ]or write via private E-mail. I'll gladly take your instrument there for no charge and leave it in their care.

I have a modest amount of research on players in Russia (and E. Europe -- but let's leave that for another thread), being a student of Russian music (strictly amateur) and Russian language & lit (as an academic) starting waaay back in college in the 60s. I can't lay my hands on my previous stuff, but I can send some beginnings here. For instance, there's this that appeared a couple of months ago on a musicians' list called Forum: "Russian accordion", written by Viktor Livanov: >>On it [concertina] there are all of a few people who play [these days]. In Moscow I know of one guy with an English and two with anglos and that, in all likelihood, is all. In Petersburg, nobody plays anglo any more at all or it's really unlikely.<< Then, there's Nikolai Bandurin, a specialist in chastushki (very hard to describe; it's kind of like vaudeville/music hall or a major specifically Russian urban folk tradition involving improvised (or seemingly improvised on the spot) satirical verse commentary on -- well, you name it -- with concertina riffs or choruses or show-off brief interludes between the jokes/verses. Often done by a pair of comedian-musicians. See: http://www.nikolaybandurin.ru/news/index.php/2009/08/13/intervyu-zhurnalu-oficery-rossii.html More later, if there seems to be interest, since this is kind of out of the mainstream (speaking, I admit, from a Western-centric viewpoint).

Hoping I haven't missed someone else's posting about a sighting, here goes: There's a concertina -- an anglo, I recall -- being carried across the stage from upstage L to downstage right by someone in the recent "Anna Karenina." It comes very soon after the opening of the film, as the camera gradually moves onto the stage from the hall; onstage, there's lots going on and much confusion and movement. I didn't hear any music coming from the soundtrack (the pertson carrying looked as if he were playing) and it had all of 2-3 seconds of fame. My hat off to the person who thought of including it in the film, since there most definitely is a concertina tradition in Russia, mainly anglo, though to the best of my knowledge there's virtually nothing written about it (the tradition) that I've found during cursory research of my own. The instrument tended to be used by comedians who played brief interludes or riffs in between jokes, satirical comments, and that sort of thing. There were a couple of virtuosi who played it well, even up into the 1960s. Now there's a topic for a research paper!

Greg: Could you contact me off-list about your anglo concertinas for sale? (301) 933-9845 gajdas_cp@verizon.net Thanks

I've always thought that the concept of drone can include a repeated or held note above a melody, e.g., the 5th or the high tonic. As has been discussed, the most common drone, viz. organ, most bagpipes, hurdy-gurdy, is the note played/held below a melody on the tonic in the mode or scale of the melody. Certainly there's a richness that comes from the drone on the 5th of the scale in Northumbrian smallpipes, other bagpipes, and 'gurdy that allows for musical complexity (and dissonance). So why not concertina? I can think of a couple of tunes that work well on anglo that use an "above the melody" drone [for want of a better term]. There's the beginning of "Flatworld," for instance. As for holding down a tonic by using the thumb-operated button on the left-hand side of the anglo 'tina, I find it difficult to make it sound musical without, as several others have noted, becoming too insistent or intrusive. The effect sounds good on a some Greek dance tunes, especially those in the hijaz mode.

Craig! Happy to see you here. I do have a full sound system, if you're ever in need. You know where I am! THis Roland, suggested by Jody Kruskal, is also very nice. I chose the Eurolive because of the diminutive size and the way it fits on a mic stand. My son recommended the Roland (if I were able to find it locally at, let's say, Chuck Levins' music store). However, the "fits-on-a-mikestand" feature of the Eurolive I think would be particularly useful.

Thanks for the fix. Great to see you, your better half and your unusually appointed Morse instrument. We can't go acoustic because we can't get any kind of balance; the sax, trombone, drums, etc, would overwhelm the concertina and maybe even the accordion.And certainly the bouzouki, which is the engine behind this band. Soundmen groan when they see us coming because of the difficulty of getting a good mix. And the reality is that younger dancers want it to be loud and expect it. A new generation of contra dancers is being weaned on "techno contras," which use DJs and incredibly loud techno music. Not my cup of tea, but it's drawing lots of new dancers into the contra world. I've been playing for Shepherdstown Mayday and for the two MOrris teams there for a lot of years, so I should know the tunes! Thanks, Jim for some good real-world advice. My wife and I played for a wedding this past weekend that wound up needing two portable amps instead of one -- one for announcements, reading of the ceremony, etc., and one for the musicians, so I had to cobble together at short notice a second set-up. My old (vintage 1980s) "Mighty Mouse" battery-operated portable did well, but I could surely find something better and more technologically up-to-date than that. I'll certainly take your endorsement of the "Eurolive" unit as high praise. Craig

That exhibition sounds fascinating. I've been to the Brussels museum and found it fascinating, so I shall make a point of going next year, when I'll be in Europe. Thanks for posting.

If I may suggest a possible solution to the "too big gig bag" problem that Shas mentions, here's what I did with a thinly padded black nylon case, for use at those times when a gig-bag-type case with shoulder strap is the best choice for carrying (as oposed to, let's say, a hard box-like case with only a carrying handle). At the local hardware store, I found some jute matting, sold by the yard from a roll, so I paid a couple of bucks for a yard thereof, took it home, cut it to fit neatly inside the gig-bag and thereby succeeded in decreasing the diameter by about an inch or so. The matting rolled nicely -- fiber side inside, towards the instrument. I ran the matting piece through the washing machine a couple of times to remove the smell, and then covered it with some fairly sturdy canvas, stiched on by hand (needle & thread), added a couple of end pieces of packing foam (also covered in canvas) and made my concertina a safer, happier instrument. Is that not a owrthy goal? Yes, it did take a a couple of hours of the "measure twice, cut once" approach, but I'm pleased with the results. I even excavated in the two end inserts a cruved space for the button rows, so that all the weight of the instrument rests on the frame & end plates rather than on the buttons. Now, if I were ever to buy -- and master -- a digital camera, I'd take photos. Alas, I'm a fan of old technology, and old instruments, besides, hence, no photos.