Successful And Varied Meeting

[Mikefule]

Midlands Concertina Group met today at a church hall in Arnold, Nottingham, UK. The group meets approximately every six months at one of two locations in the Nottingham area and is open to all concertina enthusiasts.

 

Today's meeting had a lower turnout than usual - 13 of us. Usually we get around 20 or so players.

 

With 13 players present, we had a total of 25 instruments from 9 different makers. Concertinas ranged from a 20 button Lachenal Anglo to a 72 button McCann-system duet. (Or maybe 71 buttons - we debated whether to count the air button!) The smallest concertina was a miniature Anglo with 2 rows and 8 fold bellows. It had unusual and delicate engraving on the ends. The largest instrument was the duet, made by Crabb, although there was also a pretty large baritone Anglo with a lovely deep and rich sound. There were plenty of Anglos in a variety of keys and keyboard sizes, and some lovely English concertinas. At least two of the Anglos had novelty musical hall effects as well as the standard notes.

 

With 13 very different musicians present, the music included Morris dance tunes, Irish traditional music, Northumbrian tunes, Playford, ragtime, show tunes, American square dance tunes and some Handel as well as at least one self-penned number. One player sang as he accompanied himself. There were two duos - one well established and one formed on the spot. The resident trio (Anglo, English and baritone Anglo) played twice. In the interval, some spontaneous chorus singing broke out as one of the group played some well known folk songs.

 

It was great to see so much enthusiasm and skill on display.

 

An interesting question that we all avoided considering in too much detail: was the average age of the instruments higher or lower than the average age of the musicians? Instruments ranged from about 1885 to about 2005, and the musicians ranged in age from 50 er... upwards.

 

If anyone is interested in contacting the group, you can use me as a point of contact. Private message me or reply to this post.

[David Barnert]

And greetings from Denmark, where I am on vacation and met last evening with two concertina.net members (Jim Lucas and Frosty) for tunes and talk. A fine time.