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Russian boot-concertina


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3 hours ago, David Barnert said:

Of course it’s not a concertina! The keys are pressed  towards the chest, perpendicular to the axis of the bellows. That makes it a melodeon. Or a boot.

 

It's a variety of cherepashka (="turtle" in Russian), the miniature Russian diatonic accordion, and used for novelty - much as miniature concertinas would be.

 

 

Semyon Shtyrkhunov, who posted these videos on YouTube, and is playing it, makes cherepashkas and has figured on melodeon.net (making and selling them) in the past. The Russian text reveals that this is "The first harmonica-boot in modern Russia. The creation of the hands of the Shtyrkhunov family."

 

 

Edited by Stephen Chambers
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On 2/13/2022 at 9:53 AM, David Barnert said:

Of course it’s not a concertina! The keys are pressed  towards the chest, perpendicular to the axis of the bellows. That makes it a melodeon. Or a boot.

 

It's the start of a definition, but I have several instruments that challenge it - for example here's a 20-key German-system concertina that was made by Kalbe in Berlin, but "the keys are pressed  towards the chest, perpendicular to the axis of the bellows":

 

003-5.jpg

 

Whilst, in light of today's invasion of Ukraine, "the Russian boot" in the title of this thread strongly reminds me of (the Ukrainian port-city of) Odessa where my Ivan Blagin Melharmonium concertina originated:

 

post-436-1111121153.jpg

 

 

 

 

Edited by Stephen Chambers
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2 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

"the Russian boot" in the title of this thread strongly reminds me of Odessa where my Ivan Blagin Melharmonium concertina originated:

 

post-436-1111121153.jpg

 

Ah! This reminds me of the Seven Dwarfs' utterly incomprehensible "concertina":

 

concertina1.jpg.4d7a01f86d7349eb165a736f7e7551cc.jpg

 

Seeing the "melharmonium" almost makes this one make sense, though from what I can tell, the D*sney instrument doesn't have buttons at all, just holes.

 

2 hours ago, Stephen Chambers said:

Whilst, in light of today's invasion of Ukraine [...]

 

I'm sure we're all wishing for an end to this violence. I hope everyone reading this is somewhere safe.

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