English System Players In Seattle?

[snohomish]

Greetings all. I enjoy Scandanavian music and would like to be able to practice this on an instrument portable enough to take to work(no, you can't have my job) . Yes, this traditional music is generally played on (sigh) violens and button accordians however neither is practical whereas a compact concertina would be. Additionally, the range scale of the treble English is comparable to that of a violen so it would be my hope to play alot of these beautiful lilting polskas. Anyone out there and wadayathink?

Peter

[Jeff Stallard]

I don't know Scandanavian music, but I give you a resounding HELL YEAH! Grab that EC and go to town!

 

Hey wait, is the Boda Waltz Scandanavian? I don't think you'll find a more portable CHROMATIC instrument anywhere. I take that back...there are chromatic harmonicas. The English concertina is better though.

[Chris Timson]

I know a couple of Swedes who play Scandinavian music on the concertina, notably the co-organisers of the Scandinavian Squeeze In, Pontus Thuvesson and Louise Lundberg. Pontus play C/G anglo while Louise plays EC. Pontus in particular is a superb player and can make a polska sound as if it was intended for the anglo - mind you he has been playing the music since childhood on the fiddle.

 

So it's possible, and a very reasonable thing to do on either system..

 

Chris

[molad]

Although its not traditional, I've found that the EC works great for Scandinavian fiddle music. The main reasons I went with the EC rather than an Anglo or a button accordion are that I find it easy to mentally convert tunes that I already know from the fiddle, the EC is fully chromatic, and its not too loud (a lot of fiddlers seem to hate accordions because they easily overpower the fiddles and are often played in a heavy-handed style). One advantage the concertina has over the fiddle is that its easy to fill in more of the chords/harmony.

 

A treble should have all the range you'll ever need. My instrument is an extended-treble, but I've never needed the extra notes at the high end. Sometimes I think the ideal instrument would be a tenor-treble in order to get the extra notes for harmonizing at the low end.

 

Enjoy!

 

Paul

[David Barnert]

Hey wait, is the Boda Waltz Scandanavian?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

"Bodawalsen" (called "Boda Waltz" in The Waltz Book, where it apears with dreadfully incorrect chords, in my opinion) was collected in Boda in Sweden by Cammy Kaynor. Yes, it is definitely Scandinavian.

 

And for the chords, try a C in measure 9, followed by a D and a G in the 10th and 11th measures. I still have the tape from the session at Ashokan in 1983 where Cammy's cousin, Dave Kaynor taught the tune, and you can clearly hear Dave calling out the chords.

[Bruce McCaskey]

As to the topical heading of this thread, I know about eight Anglo players in the Seattle area, and have seen one English player at a Seattle area session once but I don't know that person's name. I fear I know of no other English players in the Seattle area, but that doesn't mean they aren't around.

 

Perhaps Tom Lawrence might have some insight on the matter, though I don't know if he's been active on C.net recently. Are you out there Tom?

[snohomish]

Greetings

Thank you for your replies. I did e-mail Tom Lawrence and though an avid player, he runs with the Anglo crowd and had known of only one other English player in the Seattle area.

In regards to the "Boda Waltz", I believe there is also a "Boda Polska" which my wife and I have pleasured dancing together.

Additoinally, there will be Folklife Music Festival here later this month of May.

I'm gonna look for the squeezers.

regards

Peter