Anglo-Jedcertina ??

[conzertino]

I was offered in interesting instrument, which has a diatonic anglo layout on the left side ( 2 x 5 Buttons ) and a chromatic jedcertina type piano layout with 10 white and 6 black buttones on the right side.

It is a typical cheap German-style instrument.

Any ideas??

( I can post pics later, as I'm not home right now )

 

[Stephen Chambers]

Yes, I've seen them in the past Robert.

[Anglo-Irishman]

You mean, something like this?

Here's some advertising material:

 

I'd love to try one out some time  ...

 

Cheers,

John

[JimLucas]

On 1/21/2020 at 9:01 PM, Stephen Chambers said:

Yes, I've seen them in the past Robert.

 

I'm pretty sure they've been discussed here before.  Maybe somebody can find the old topic?

[conzertino]

Anybody interested - say at 200€ ( I was asked to help with the sale- but havn't seen it yet in person ;-)? 

[Daniel Hersh]

On 1/22/2020 at 12:27 PM, JimLucas said:

I'm pretty sure they've been discussed here before.  Maybe somebody can find the old topic?

 Here's the old thread: 

 

 

[Anglo-Irishman]

Daniel,

Thanks for the link! Just goes to show what magnificent conversation pieces these instruments are!

 

In the linked thread, the question was asked, whether these piano-style concertinas are played nowadays, and the succinct answer was "No!"

Which begs the question, why did manufacturers go to the trouble of making the things, in that case?

Now, in a parallel universe, I am a banjoist. And as such, I know that there was an epoch of popular music in which the banjo was cool. It was the E-guitar of the period both sides of 1900, so to speak. Even the Prince of Wales took lessons on it. BUT the banjo had 4 long and 1 short string, and the strings were tuned quite unlike the familiar guitar, mandolin or violin family. So banjo plaing, though cool, was arcane. Much as those guitarists, viola players and mandolinists would have liked to play the banjo (above all, because of its volume and cutting tone) they would have had to learn a new instrument ...

... until someone had the idea of stringing a banjo ike a viol (we call that the tenor banjo) or like a guitar (we call that the guitar-banjo) or like a mandolin (the banjo-mandolin). The banjulele was a small banjo with ukulele strings, and gave rise to George Formby.

My belief is that the same thing happened with the concertina. There was a time - pretty much concurrent with the banjo - when it, too, was mega-cool. People wanted to have one in their dance band. But whether it was the Anglo, English or Maccann in England, or Carlsfelder, Chemnitzer or Bandoneon in Germany, the concertina was an instrument unto itself, with an arcane fingering system that had to be learnt before you could even play a scale. So someone hit on the idea of building a concertina - with its cool sound - with a piano button layout, so that the band's pianist could sight-read the concertina parts in the band arrrangements. No great range or dexterity would be required - this would be band work, not virtuosity. The main thing would be to find the notes and play them with concertina timbre.

 

Interestingly, the first piano-concertina I ever saw was in the Museum of German History in Bonn. It had belonged to a famous clown of the post-war period. In Germany, the (small, hexagonal) concertina is a typical attribute of the circus clown - so possibly, the clown in question had had piano lessons, and made use of them as a short-cut to playing the concertina.

 

Cheers,

John