Anglo playing The lost years

[michael sam wild]

I, like others I'm sure, have been having a lot of pleasure reading Dan Worrall's two books

 

The Anglo was massively popular across the world and yet, apart from a few recordings and written reports we don't have much to go on as to how the music sounded.

 

We do have existing traditions where there will be continuity of style and repertoire and recordings of people who listened amd knew older players.

 

As far as popular music of the day, Dan shows the use of the Anglo tailed off quite quickly in the early part of the 20th Century as other types of chromatic tunes, and instruments that ordinary people could play it on, came in.

 

Here are a few questions that interest me.

 

1 Can we assume that piano, guitar etc and written arrangements can give us a clue to chording and song accompaniment?. I'm sure Anglo players would grab a bunch of chords when accompanying singing

 

2 Woud the simple three chord tricks taught to the salvation army have become wider spread for popular music and vice versa? We hear of hymns being sung and accompanied

 

3 When were the use of chord names above the tune introduced , as in the guitar books a lot of us learned from. Were they used for other songs and tune books, or was it that the dots were placed on the stave and not given names?

 

4 How did music hall and minstrel songs get circulated so that tunes could be learned with accompaniment

 

5 Does anyone think the fairground steam organ or 'player piano with paper rolls' would have had an impact on oompah style playing. On Barry Callaghan's Hardcore English CD there is a piece by a barrel organ taken on board ship by Arctic explorer Wm Ed Parry in the 1820s. One is Speed the plough , at speed!

There's a link here

http://www.answers.c...-s-barrel-organ

and a nice piece from an instrument from 1830 on YouTube

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oRm1Dx5rDI&feature=related

 

that must be the sort of earliest 'live recordings made' Unless we have harpsichord pieces on automata

 

 

6 wouldn't the English and Duet players of classical and band pieces have influenced people with the 'poor man's duet -the Anglo in the days before records and radio? wax cylinders might have been quite widely available

 

Any ideas welcomed

Mike

Edited March 11, 2010 by michael sam wild

[TomB-R]

Some very interesting questions Mike, I hope some equally interesting answers will be forthcoming. I had the mechanical music point very much in mind during a recent visit to "The World of Mechanical Music" at Northleach, Glos, where you get a guided tour with many instruments demonstrated. (Highly recommended for a visit.)

http://www.mechanicalmusic.co.uk/

 

I've had a few tries at imitating the overall style on Anglo(nothing technical or analytical.) To me it pointed towards playing very much on the row, as you'd expect, and mostly pressing lots of keys at once with the tune "in there somewhere," much like a harmonica player who hasn't learnt to play single notes!

[Jody Kruskal]

The concertina is such a niche instrument. Aside from Irish pure drop music and perhaps the South African traditions, it is really a matter of using your ears and trying to make it sound right in whatever cultural context you are working in. That is to say, I believe that unless you are playing in an existing concertina tradition, the best thing is to listen to other instruments in the genre of your interest and try to do what they do. The spirit of what they do can be translated to your instrument if you pay attention to the details.

[michael sam wild]

Thanks Tom that was a great link . That 'Whistling Rufus' sounds like a minstrel tune that a keen concertina player could try to emulate with a portabe instrument that allowed tune and chords at the same time . They were still playing it in trad jazz bands during the craze in the 50s .

 

Before that 'tina players would have had keyboards and ensembles to go on.

The little model banjo player indicates the context it relates to.

 

A nice place to look in on for a weekend break methinks

Jody, I agree with yo about listening and emulating if that;'s the sound you want. I'm sure players in the States must have gone for the sound you go for. Full bands in the hands!

 

Mike

[Boney]

Thanks Tom that was a great link . That 'Whistling Rufus' sounds like a minstrel tune that a keen concertina player could try to emulate with a portabe instrument that allowed tune and chords at the same time.

Eh,

.

[michael sam wild]

Thanks Tom that was a great link . That 'Whistling Rufus' sounds like a minstrel tune that a keen concertina player could try to emulate with a portabe instrument that allowed tune and chords at the same time.

Eh,

.

 

 

Exactly, my bad English, I meant a player hearing it on a barrel organ etc at the time and trying to emulate it . But it shows how the two sounds can achieve the same thing.

 

Nice playing there . It's a pity you weren't on Anglo International CDs

 

 

I think your playing shows what probably went on in that 'lost' period. Your YouTube clips are an eye opener as to the potential of the Anglo

 

 

I've been thinking a lot about this and I reckon , that in the absence of hard evidence in the form of reordings or detailed stylistic descriptions , we are in the same position as experimental archaeologists, where a hands on approach can yield a lot of information. Practical flint knapping tells us a lot more than academic supposition I reckon.

Edited March 13, 2010 by michael sam wild