Sally Army lassies up in arms

[Dan Worrall]

Not completely on topic (!), but perhaps of interest to some. I ran across an interesting old motion picture snippet from 1904 (

) that shows a militant group of Sally Army lassies staging a rally in front of a London pub. They circle around with their timbrels, singing all the way. I do not see a concertina, but would not be surprised if there were one there. The pertinent part of the clip lasts only a few seconds.

 

I included a number of written descriptions of just such temperance protests in my book, in the chapters on England, Australia and the US, so it is nice to see it in the flesh. One could easily see a publican a bit nervous at this display (and going back to business a little while later!).

 

While on this topic, here is an interesting bit of film showing the massive funeral for William Booth in 1912. Few leaders today would get this sort of send-off.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmVqoGzp3-o

Again, I don't see a concertina, but the image quality isn't great.

 

Cheers,

Dan

[michael sam wild]

It's only a a short step from timbrels to tumbrils Dan, no wonder he looked nervous!

[Ardie]

No concertina to be seen...

Isn't it a bit strange that while the concertina no doubt has been one of the major musical emblems of SA it still has been so little exposed officially? Compare with the enormous publicity and promotion of SA brass bands,SA having had its own production of instruments, established tuition and a band almost at

every chorps around the World,regular band music publications,magazines

like "The Musician", widespread recording activities, "Regal" label and so on.

There were lots of Concertina bands but very few recordings, nothing similar to the interest for the brass music. Books about the history of music in SA hardly mention the concertina.My impression is that the status of the concertina has been fairly low publicly in SA while on a personal basis much more appreciated and sometimes almost having a devoted position as part of sacramental routines.

If my impression is correct maybe it partly is something similar to the common contempt regarding free reed instruments among symphonic musicians?

[Irene S.]

I'm mystified by the use of the archaic word timbrel - the instruments they are playing in that clip are tambourines. My aunt used to play one as a Salvationist at Sunday services . The timbrel or tabret was actually a predecessor of the modern tambourine.

 

As to the ubiquitous nature of the concertina in the Army, I have to say that having been brought up in a family who were Salvationists on my mother's side, and many of whom were musicians in their local corps, it's not an instrument that I ever heard mentioned. My grandad played euphonium in the local corps in North West Surrey for many many years - to the best of my knowledge they didn't have any concertinas. (Sadly Mum is no longer around to ask.) In fact until three years ago, I had no knowledge of concertinas being used in the Army at all. (My grandfather had a box in the loft, but it's actually a melodeon!) Was it perhaps a regional thing? I wonder if Hallelujah Al is still around - maybe he could shed some light on the subject.

 

T

[Dan Worrall]

I'm mystified by the use of the archaic word timbrel - the instruments they are playing in that clip are tambourines. My aunt used to play one as a Salvationist at Sunday services . The timbrel or tabret was actually a predecessor of the modern tambourine.

 

As to the ubiquitous nature of the concertina in the Army, I have to say that having been brought up in a family who were Salvationists on my mother's side, and many of whom were musicians in their local corps, it's not an instrument that I ever heard mentioned. My grandad played euphonium in the local corps in North West Surrey for many many years - to the best of my knowledge they didn't have any concertinas. (Sadly Mum is no longer around to ask.) In fact until three years ago, I had no knowledge of concertinas being used in the Army at all. (My grandfather had a box in the loft, but it's actually a melodeon!) Was it perhaps a regional thing? I wonder if Hallelujah Al is still around - maybe he could shed some light on the subject.

 

T

Irene,

 

Timbrel is pretty much the same instrument (see Wikipedia for timbrel). Although tambourine has become a more popular term in general usage, most in the SA use the term timbrel, perhaps because of its association with King David in the Bible. For example, this SA youth site has a "timbrel instructional video" http://www.sayconnect.com/Timbrel_Instructional/Home.html

If you google "timbrel Salvation army" you will find lots of timbrel brigades and the like.

 

The use of the concertina in the SA is not a matter of conjecture. Among others, I have documented its prior use in the SA with dozens of photos and scores of historical accounts from all parts of the English-speaking world, and especially in England, in my book on the anglo's history (www.angloconcertina.org). If you don't have a copy, you can at least see some of its story in the US Sally Army in an earlier article at http://www.concertina.com/worrall/anglo-in-united-states/

 

The reason your family may not recall its use is that the Anglo (and a bit later also the English) concertinas were being phased out by the early 20th Century...at 110 years ago, that is pretty much out of living memory now. I dare say many if not most folks in the SA itself are unaware too.

Cheers,

Dan

Edited May 10, 2010 by Dan Worrall

[Ardie]

Dan, as I said the quite common use of concertinas in SA IS apparent and not least known by the early inspiration from users in the Booth family itself.

What intrigues me a bit is the kind of ambiguous status it seems to have (had)compared firstly to the enormous brass band activities.The popularity of the later is not surprising at all and the impact from a big brass orchestra is a lot greater than from squeezeboxes.The proportions of interest are exposed in

the various SA publications.Concerning phasing out I think there is more to it.

There were still large orders for new concertinas from SA in the 1930s and tutors were reprinted.The "Triumph" ( Crane duet) was introduced 1912 I think

as a particularly useful model for SA use.The "transition" from Anglo to English may be a bit misjudged since the Anglo likely has been more common among soldiers and the English (and Duet) among officers and the later use being more documented. Keep in mind the enormous difference in production numbers and not least the prices, and salvationists have not belonged to the most wealthy...

[Dan Worrall]

 

What intrigues me a bit is the kind of ambiguous status it seems to have (had)compared firstly to the enormous brass band activities.The popularity of the later is not surprising at all and the impact from a big brass orchestra is a lot greater than from squeezeboxes.The proportions of interest are exposed in

the various SA publications.Concerning phasing out I think there is more to it.

There were still large orders for new concertinas from SA in the 1930s and tutors were reprinted.The "Triumph" ( Crane duet) was introduced 1912 I think

as a particularly useful model for SA use.The "transition" from Anglo to English may be a bit misjudged since the Anglo likely has been more common among soldiers and the English (and Duet) among officers and the later use being more documented. Keep in mind the enormous difference in production numbers and not least the prices, and salvationists have not belonged to the most wealthy...

Ardie,

 

The glory years of the Anglo in the SA were in the beginning--from the days of Booth's Christian Mission in the 1870s to about 1900 or 1910. There were still some Anglo players as late as the 1950s in a few concertina bands. I have some old War Crys that show that the SA itself was trying to phase out the Anglo and emphasize the English concertina, in the first decade of the 20th C (As you say, the Triumph came later).

 

The thing to remember about the Anglo's status relative to brass bands and the like is its time in the earliest days of the Mission and the Army. In those first years, the Army was not the warm cuddly organization we know today, with its nearly universal support and esteem. Early SA groups would go out into the street in an aggressive, in-your-face way to pull converts out of the gutters and pubs. Drunks and publicans hated them, and they were regularly pelted with eggs and clods of mud by "Skeleton Armies" of the poor--with the support of publicans who did not want to lose their sales. Police considered them a nuisance, and they were regularly pulled in to the magistrate for obstructing traffic or making noise with their street music and sermons. They had no government support back then, and press articles by elite-leaning journalists were typically disparaging--not only in England, but in the US, Australia, and New Zealand. It was at this time that they used the Anglo as a key piece of equipment, along with timbrels and the occasional trumpet. Perfect for small groups in the street, where their "War" was being fought agains drunkenness and poverty. Their target with the music was the poor themselves...it was being used to proselytize, not to collect funds. The poor could identify with the Anglo, as they played it themselves (or at least, the German concertina).

 

Later on, as royalty and governments realized that the SA were doing good and were not to be dismissed, the SA began to be less in-your-face, and the music began to be raised up a notch...fine, well-supplied brass bands. It was at this time, too, that the switch to English concertina was instigated, consciously, by the SA. They started to expand their mission to not only temperance and salvation but also to disaster relief and to relief of soldiers on the battlefield (WWI), and this took money. The bands (brass as well as English concertina) and the higher quality music allowed them to connect better to the upper and emerging middle classes for this financial support.

 

Documentation from period articles for most of those thoughts is in my book.

 

Hope this helps.

Cheers,

Dan

[michael sam wild]

As a kid in Manchester in the 40s the 'folk memory' still associated SA with concertinas and tambourines and militancy as well as brass instruments an carols.

 

We sang 'And Sister Anna will carry the banner' as we folowed them around. By that time they were generally welcome in pubs and people chipped in even if they said 'keep the money' when offered a 'WarCry' paper. people recognised and respected their work even though they ( the boozers) were still boozing!

[Ardie]

Dan,

Thanks for your comments.I still think the picture is a bit more complex and I wonder if it is possible at all to get a complete view.

 

"There were still some Anglo players as late as the 1950s in a few concertina bands"

 

The SA concertina bands existed almost exclusively in Britain and a change as you say to English obviously took place but what about the use of concertinas in general? Instruments don't disappear but certainly many where worn out in field service and in SA the remaining ones use to be turned over to the next generation. Since anglos likely have outnumbered englishes if counting the use among officers AND soldiers I wonder if they actually were "phased out". The size of orders to the major makers would be interesting.

 

"The thing to remember about the Anglo's status relative to brass bands"

 

What I meant was the low or ambiguous status of the concertina in general considering its obvious place in the field but that may be the answer - the later ambition in the brass bands to play symphonic music.

[Dan Worrall]

Ardie,

 

Sounds like you have a research project on your hands! What material I was able to find--a considerable stack of documents and photos--is in my books. I suggest you start there and branch out. The SA Archives are an obvious source--they keep great archives in all major branches. As you seem to be in the UK, they cannot be far. If you are near London, my book is at the library at Sharp House.

 

Good luck with your digging,

Dan

[Anglo-Irishman]

My impression is that the status of the concertina has been fairly low publicly in SA while on a personal basis much more appreciated and sometimes almost having a devoted position as part of sacramental routines.

 

Ardie,

I suppose many of us have our personal, anecdotal perceptions of the Salvation Army and its music. Mine is interesting in the context of brass-band v. concertina music.

As a child, aged between about 5 and 7, (roughly 1950 - 1953) I was taken regularly to Sunday morning services at the SA. My parents were not Salvationists, but they were very evangelical and both very musical, and wanted my first experiences of institutionalised Christianity to be cheerful and musical.

This was in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, an industrial town with a large Salvation Army Citadel, where there was a full brass band and a large Songster corps, complete with timbrels. These led the congregational singing and played the voluntaries and sang anthems on Sunday mornings, and the band played at parades and open-air meetings.

 

And the Captain had a concertina. It was indubitably he who awakened the hankering in me to play the concertina when I was a bit older. His instrument - the little black box with the silver buttons and the handstraps - imprinted itself indelibly on my mind, so that I can say now with hindsight that it must have been a Crane/Triumph duet.

The concertina, if I remember rightly, only came into play in small gatherings like prayer meetings, when those very intense, spiritual Gospel choruses were called for spontaneously. The steady timbre of the duet concertina kept things fom sliding into the sentimental, and worked a strong magic in my childish mind.

 

So, in that Citadel at that time, brass band and duet concertina co-existed, but covered different musical situations. With the brass band for loud music, there was no need for a concertina band, and for quiet, devotional music, the duet was superior to a reduced brass ensemble, like a couple of solo cornets. And in those days, we didn't have guitars in Ireland - perhaps a very important aspect!

If the Captain who happened to be in charge of the Ballymena Citadel at that time had not been a concertinist, I don't know what the musical landscape would have looked like. Would one of the Soldiers have been encouraged to take up the concertina, for the purpose described? I don't know.

 

So just take my recollections as anecdotal evidence of what could happen in the time between WWII and the advent of the guitar-wielding Joy Strings!

 

Cheers,

John

[Ardie]

My impression is that the status of the concertina has been fairly low publicly in SA while on a personal basis much more appreciated and sometimes almost having a devoted position as part of sacramental routines.

 

Ardie,

I suppose many of us have our personal, anecdotal perceptions of the Salvation Army and its music....The concertina, if I remember rightly, only came into play in small gatherings like prayer meetings, when those very intense, spiritual Gospel choruses were called for spontaneously....

Cheers,

John

 

John,

That is exactly what I meant by "sacramental routines" and like yourself I have similar personal experiences and this again raises the question about the status and use of the concertina.It may have had low status as a musical instrument publicly but at the same time having had a really worthy part at the bench of penance and due to that been kept away from the "official" SA musical activities.As I said before I mean that the actual distribution of concertinas in SA and numbers of anglos vs englishes may be misjudged due to these circumstances.In the book on SA musical history - "Play the music,play!" 230 pages - the concertina is mentioned for instance in just a couple of lines,

[Guest HallelujahAl!]

Forgive me for coming in late to this discussion - it's been many months since I was last over here The Salvation Army has been, throughout the years, a remarkably stupid organisation. I say this as a serving officer who has a deep, deep love, nonetheless for my Army and what it stands for. It is well documented that William Booth was profoundly opposed to the use of brass bands and songster brigades. He, with remarkable clarity of vision, predicted that brass-banding and choral singing would inevitably lead to musical elitism. His key concern was that the music would end up being more important than the message. Sadly he was not listened to, and the rest is simply a matter of history. How many of you have fond, memories of SA bands playing on your street corner? But how many people can remember with equal clarity the message that the SA came bearing? After Booth died, brass banding, became elitist and hierachical, often the most powerful local officer was the 'Bandmaster' (to whom even most officers were forced to kowtow to). Sadly brassbanding also became a guranteed route for many officers to achieve advancement within the organisation. Musical publishing and recording structures and departments were put in place - and the ad hoc nature of early army music making was paralysed by prescription. There's much more I could say, suffice to say, that there is nowadays a significant movement to return to early day SA ethos. More and more corps around the world are now adopting newer musical methods that enable the gospel message to take centre-stage again. I use the concertina, melodeon, ukulele, guitar, clarinet etc in leading worship. More and more SA corps are utilising worship groups that express the gospel in a contemporary way (which is all that William Booth ever wanted to do!) - guitars and drums predominate of course - but there will always be room and space for other styles too. It's interesting isn't it that the English Concertina in particular was used by many early 20th Century evangelical groups, particularly in Scotland, Ireland and Wales. I'm kind of hoping for a revival - both spiritually, and in concertina terms

 

BTW - the SA's use of the term 'timbrel' is a bit of an archaic anachronism, more a Victorian convention than anything else I believe. I insist on calling it a tambourine - it really winds some folk up...tehee!

AL

Edited July 1, 2010 by HallelujahAl!

[Dan Worrall]

Al,

 

Very interesting thoughts. I hadn't thought of brass bands as "hierarchical and elitist", although I must admit that my only reference point with the British brass band tradition was via the movie 'Brassed Off' of 10 years or so ago--about some coal miners who struggled to keep their brass band alive during the coal mine closures of the Thatcher era. That band was hardly elitist, but I see your point. Certainly the SA street corner groups of the late 1800s, which used instruments like the Anglo that were well known to the people to whom the SA ministered, were more 'of the people' than a huge brass band with shiny instruments and impeccable uniforms. Food for thought.

 

Since my Anglo history book was published, I've become aware of more SA concertina bands with Anglo concertinas. Neil Wayne kindly sent me photos of several. So now I know of at least six of them:

 

Bristol Citadel, begun 1882 or 1884. This was the first SA concertina band of any type.

Weston-Super-Mare

Plymouth Congress (begun 1892)

Norwich Citadel (1907 photo, see photo,attached)

Sheffield (begun 1888; 1908 photo and newspaper article)

Unnamed (early 20th C. photo)

 

It becomes apparent from these documents that the early forms of SA concertina bands were Anglo concertina bands. Moreover, some of them even started with German concertinas, as the 1908 article on the Sheffield band mentions:

 

"The Sheffield comrades started twenty years ago with concertinas costing eighteenpence apiece! They were good enough to practice on, but they must have partaken very much of the "constant screamer" character. They were played by brothers only. When the sisters took up the campaign, they took good care to have much sweeter-toned instruments!"

 

The "sisters" and "brothers"--it was a mixed group--are shown holding Anglo-German concertinas in the photo, along with a big bass drum.

 

The article mentions the relationship of the Anglo concertina band with that same citadel's brass band:

 

"The fact that Sheffield Citadel has a good Brass Band did not keep our Concertina comrades from rendering joyful service. When not required "at home", they are in great request with the various Corps in the Division; but except on Sunday morning, the Band always has an "open-air" as a Brigade. Also, when at home, they play for the second song on Sundays, at the Soldier's meeting on Tuesdays, and at the open-air on Wednesdays. When specialling, they are a great attraction, and invariably see good results, financially, and what is far more important, at the penitent-form.

 

The instruments are of the Anglo-German make; and among the most successful pieces played are the "Swedish" March, "Reign, Oh, reign my Saviour!" and various medleys in march time. The lasses, for the most part, play the melody, and the brothers put in their own harmonies. "

 

I have many other photos of smaller groups, usually mostly women, who used Anglos and German concertinas--with timbrels, of course! They appear to have been largely vocal groups, and the concertina was used for song accompaniment. Most documents that I have found of late-nineteenth century SA street musicians mention one or two concertinas, timbrels, drums, and maybe a cornet. They were loud and aggressively proselytizing in areas with pubs and the like, and were sometimes arrested for things like impeding the flow of traffic, or becoming a noisy public nuisance. In a famous encounter, Eva Booth angled to get herself arrested (in Torquay, Devon) in order to get a day in court to protest a town ordinance limiting the SA musical groups from performing on the streets on Sunday. It seems that they were a bit unseemly for proper churchgoing town members! Eva successfully got the ordinance knocked down.

 

The move from Anglo concertina bands to brass bands seems to have been contemporaneous with the move to English concertinas in the concertina bands. Both were considered more 'respectable', I suppose--and in keeping with your comments, Al, more 'elitist.' In my book I made the point that the SA at this time was moving from a focus on individual salvation of the destitute and wretched--using aggressive street tactics in a day when the powers that be were not at all concerned with the welfare of "ne'er-do-wells" in the street--to one of things like disaster relief and support of soldiers' needs in the field and the like, with Royal and full government support. Thinking of Al's comments in this respect, I would guess the Royals and the Government bureaucrats must have rubbed off on the SA a bit?

 

Cheers,

Dan

 

Edited July 1, 2010 by Dan Worrall

[michael sam wild]

The Sheffield Citadel is still there Dan but threatened by development. I'll get a picture to you ASAP.

[Guest HallelujahAl!]

The Sheffield Citadel is still there Dan but threatened by development. I'll get a picture to you ASAP.

Indeed the old Citadel is still, just, there. But thank goodness the Sheffield Citadel Corps is still very much alive and kicking with a wonderful new premises on Psalter Lane (appropriate name don't you think?). There is still a retired lady officer who sometimes plays the concertina (English) at Sheffield Citadel sometimes.

 

Thanks Dan for your comments, I'm fascinated by your research and will have to get hold of your books. Kind regards, AL.

[michael sam wild]

Al, Psalter Lane was a Victorian whim to change the name from Salter Lane which was the old packhorse salt way from Cheshire. The packhorse men , or jaggers, weren't too likely to seek savation from what I've read. They did like fiddlers and singsongs in moorland pubs..

[Guest HallelujahAl!]

Al, Psalter Lane was a Victorian whim to change the name from Salter Lane which was the old packhorse salt way from Cheshire. The packhorse men , or jaggers, weren't too likely to seek savation from what I've read. They did like fiddlers and singsongs in moorland pubs..

 

Thanks for this info Mike - wasn't aware of the area's history. It seems a very 'nice' area nowadays - though I don't get to go there very often. Spend most of my time when in Sheffield at the hostel on Charter Row (which I sure has an equally interesting story).

Regards

AL