Symphonium video!

[Daniel Hersh]

I think this is the only time I've seen or heard a symphonium played.  It was Charles Wheatstone's predecessor to the English concertina. The video is from 2017, but I don't think I've seen it mentioned on c.net before.

 

[Stephen Chambers]

You'd have heard one if you ever came to a concertina history talk that I gave Daniel, I've got four of them!

 

I saw that one when it got auctioned in London, but wasn't in the market for yet another one at the time, even though it still has a very early feature intact on it - what I can only describe (thinking in harp terms) as a "fourchette" lever that presses a tangent against a reed to make it play a semitone higher. You can see the metal button for it sticking out beneath the faceplate on the right side, and the other end of the lever sticking out of the top, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' photo (follow link, below) - but I guess it wasn't working properly, or the player was unfamiliar with it, in the video (for that matter that very interesting feature, which was quickly done away with on later models, doesn't even get a mention in the Museum's catalogue description - maybe they're not even aware of it?)

 

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/51484/mouth-organ-symphonium?ctx=7d5507ee-a3c6-424f-bbd0-3fe3b311fb16&idx=22 

 

 

 

Edited May 3, 2020 by Stephen Chambers

[Daniel Hersh]

5 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

You'd have heard one if you ever came to a concertina history talk that I gave Daniel, I've got four of them!

 

I saw that one when it got auctioned in London, but wasn't in the market for yet another one at the time, even though it still has a very early feature intact on it - what I can only describe (thinking in harp terms) as a "fourchette" lever that presses a tangent against a reed to make it play a semitone higher. You can see the metal button for it sticking out beneath the faceplate on the right side, and the other end of the lever sticking out of the top, in the Boston Museum of Fine Arts' photo (follow link, below) - but I guess it wasn't working properly, or the player was unfamiliar with it, in the video.

 

https://collections.mfa.org/objects/51484/mouth-organ-symphonium?ctx=7d5507ee-a3c6-424f-bbd0-3fe3b311fb16&idx=22 

 

I would love to come to one of your talks, but I haven't been on your side of the Atlantic since around 1982 when I came to your house in London and bought a concertina that you had restored.

[Stephen Chambers]

11 hours ago, Daniel Hersh said:

... I haven't been on your side of the Atlantic since around 1982 when I came to your house in London and bought a concertina that you had restored.

 

1982, that seems like a lifetime ago Daniel! ?

 

Coincidentally another video that features a symphonium got re-posted the day before you posted this one - it's the 1961 Pathe "Concertina Factory" newsreel, which has my late friend Harry Minting playing one that was in the Wheatstone Collection at the time (at 2.35), followed by "the first concertina that was ever made" (at 2.45) that is in my keeping, and my avatar here since I joined. 

[John Wild]

I have a photo which was taken at the West Country Concertina Players' annual weekend at Kilve Court in (I think) 2009.

It shows Colin Dipper demonstratinga symphonium. Those looking on are Brian Hayden, John Kirkpatrick, Stephen Rowley, and Alistair Anderson.

[JimLucas]

4 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

1982, that seems like a lifetime ago Daniel! ?

 

Having nothing to do with symphoniums, but I've just celebrated the 25th anniversary of my moving from the US to Denmark.  8^D

[David Barnert]

6 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

Harry Minting playing one that was in the Wheatstone Collection at the time (at 2.35)

 

I hate to say it, but it sounds like he was trying to play “Rakes of Mallow” and realized that for whatever reason it wasn’t going to happen, so he just cut it short and ended with a flourish.

[Stephen Chambers]

3 minutes ago, David Barnert said:

I hate to say it, but it sounds like he was trying to play “Rakes of Mallow” and realized that for whatever reason it wasn’t going to happen, so he just cut it short and ended with a flourish.

 

Yes, it does sound rather like he "fluffed" it, though the director of the film wouldn't have wanted him to play anything for long anyway. Mind you, playing on one is not as easy as you might think - they take a lot of breath and the buttons are closer together than on an English concertina. Whilst, as I've already hinted, it sounds like there's a discordant note in the Museum's video too.

 

But you try and find an experienced, and well-practiced, symphonium player these days! 

[David Barnert]

On 5/3/2020 at 8:29 PM, Stephen Chambers said:

Whilst, as I've already hinted, it sounds like there's a discordant note in the Museum's video too.

 

The instrument seems to be tuned  to a B major scale, but for whatever reason (fourchette issues, reed fracture, etc.) the low C# is sounding as C natural. I doubt the player is hitting the wrong button. Would the instrument even have a button to play a semitone above the key note?

[Stephen Chambers]

4 hours ago, David Barnert said:

The instrument seems to be tuned  to a B major scale ...

 

It's about 40 cents sharp of B, or rather, 60 cents flat of C - which would be A-425 pitch, and that original tuning would be meantone.

 

Quote

... for whatever reason (fourchette issues, reed fracture, etc.) the low C# is sounding as C natural. I doubt the player is hitting the wrong button. Would the instrument even have a button to play a semitone above the key note?

 

It has only one semitone on it, presumably C# (which is the case on a very early French accordion that I have too), but to use that would require the player using their right thumb to press upwards on the button projecting underneath the right-hand side of the faceplate to bring the "semitone blade"/"fourchette" in contact with the reed to sharpen it, and pressing the C button to play C#.

[David Barnert]

20 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

It has only one semitone on it, presumably C# (which is the case on a very early French accordion that I have too), but to use that would require the player using their right thumb to press upwards on the button projecting underneath the right-hand side of the faceplate to bring the "semitone blade"/"fourchette" in contact with the reed to sharpen it, and pressing the C button to play C#.

 

So you’d agree it’s the reed that’s out of tune (most likely fractured)? Curious that the guy playing doesn’t seem to notice or be bothered by it. 

Edited May 6, 2020 by David Barnert
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