Bellows and bowing.

[wunks]

As a fiddle player, I tend to think of the draw as the down bow equivalent but then, I do a lot of up bow/lift accenting.  How do you think of it (if at all)?

[Paul_Hardy]

As a former cello player, I also think of the bellows of the concertina as equivalent to the bow of the cello, and change bellows direction on phrase boundaries, or to stress particular notes. I feel the initial bellows pull is slightly stronger sound than the push, though there is not a lot in it.

[Luke Hillman]

When I picked up a fiddle for the first time about two weeks ago, I found my brain trying to map Anglo bellows direction onto the bow direction. Great job, brain! Very helpful! 🥲

[Takayuki YAGI]

The words "bellows" and "bowing" reminds me of Cécilium. But this is off-topic.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/504434

[Luke Hillman]

8 minutes ago, Takayuki YAGI said:

The words "bellows" and "bowing" reminds me of Cécilium. But this is off-topic.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/504434

 

WHOA, this is such a wild instrument! Thank you for the share. Here's a video of one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7Fqqjm9n88

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I also think bellows is close to a woodwind player's use of breathing points during performance, considering where to take breathe between notes phrases etc...

[wunks]

1 hour ago, Takayuki YAGI said:

The words "bellows" and "bowing" reminds me of Cécilium. But this is off-topic.

https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/504434

My topic.  This is fascinating!  Have at it.

[wunks]

Who maintained these things?    

[Stephen Chambers]

I'm reminded of "Signor" Alsepti's bowing valves: Signor Alsepti and “Regondi’s Golden Exercise”

[wunks]

1 hour ago, SIMON GABRIELOW said:

I also think bellows is close to a woodwind player's use of breathing points during performance, considering where to take breathe between notes phrases etc...

 

25 minutes ago, Stephen Chambers said:

I'm reminded of "Signor" Alsepti's bowing valves: Signor Alsepti and “Regondi’s Golden Exercise”

It's getting complicated but still on topic I think.  So with a reed instrument ( including the human voice) there's single action push, ( is there single action draw?), unisonoric push/pull (two reeds) and bisonoric push/pull.  An air or bowing valve may be included 

[Mike Franch]

Well since bowing valves have been introduced: I've always been curious how they were used and what they sounded like. I know that some were replaced with air valves, but what's the difference? I once played a Lachenal New Model that had levers on both sides (something rarely seen) but I couldn't make them perform any different from air valves. Maybe that's all they were by then.

 

Are there any recordings of a playeer using the bowing valves to their intended effect?

[Anglo-Irishman]

9 hours ago, wunks said:

is there single action draw?

Yes. Harmomiums (reed organs) are of two types: pressure and suction. However, the player interface is the same on both; you simply push the pedals down alternately.

Cheers

John

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

I think with Anglo system there's two things you have to keep considering in bellows ( 'bowing').. and that is that sometimes you have to form a note with bellows in one direction, and also consider forming a particular sound quality at nearly the same time ( perhaps vibrato of note or loud or quiet) etc... I suppose that is also similar to use of bow in violin to form sound.

[Yuxin Ding]

I assume there is one difference between the bows and bellows, that is the folds of bellows can be freely adding or reducing within an acceptable numbers, but the bows are usually come with fixed length(s), or should say the bows have to match the size of the instruments.

[Steve Schulteis]

2 hours ago, Yuxin Ding said:

I assume there is one difference between the bows and bellows, that is the folds of bellows can be freely adding or reducing within an acceptable numbers, but the bows are usually come with fixed length(s), or should say the bows have to match the size of the instruments.

 

I suppose you could make a bow as long as you want. You just need to find a musician with long enough arms to use it. 😛

[wunks]

7 hours ago, Steve Schulteis said:

 

I suppose you could make a bow as long as you want. You just need to find a musician with long enough arms to use it. 😛

The hurdy gurdy comes to mind, with with an endless wheel/bow equivalent....😊

[Anglo-Irishman]

On 12/16/2022 at 5:29 AM, Mike Franch said:

Well since bowing valves have been introduced: I've always been curious how they were used and what they sounded like. I know that some were replaced with air valves, but what's the difference?

As I understand it, "bowing valves" were an optional feature of some English-system concertinas. I suspect that they were copied from the Anglo-German air-button (which is an essential feature of a bisonoric instrument), but the bourgeois buyers of ECs would have been put off by a term borrowed from the proletarian Anglo. "Bowing" sounds nice and 

classical - it's what violin virtuosos do!

Of course, any association between bellows and bow is metaphorical, and one must be careful not to overstretch one's metaphors. In a sense, I see more analogy between the bellows of my concertina and my lungs when I sing or play the mouth organ. More pressure=loud, less pressure=soft, varied pressure=crescendo/decrescendo/sforzando.

However, someone who has never had the pleasure of playing the mouth organ might be pardoned for thinking that wind instruments are only blown - and might find the "bow" metaphor useful to address the bi-directionality of bellows movements.

Where the bellows/bow comparison falls down becomes apparent when a violinist (or fiddler, which I used to be) finishes a downstroke and immediately shoots his bowing hand upwards to start a new downstroke. Fast bellows movement without making a sound is just not possible on a "normal" EC, so perhaps it's this aspect of "bowmanship" that is referred to in the term "bowing valve." 

 

Admittedly, even the Anglo's air-button does not permit fast bellows movement, but it does allow (more or less) silent movement. It does not allow the great gulps of air that I take before singing a run in a Handel aria, or that a fluter takes before a long phrase. It's more like a mouth-organ-player's nose.

Interestingly, the air valve on the Bandonion and other Large German Concertinas does allow you to inhale or exhale a bellows-full of air very quickly. It facilitates the Bandonionistas' favourite ploy of playing long phrases on the draw only. Analogous to the fiddlers quick transition from one downstroke to the next.

 

Cheers,

John

[Mike Franch]

Thank you, John. So, I take it that "bowing valve" is essentially just an air valve. That makes sense. You've got me thinking of the virtuosi doing all sorts of dramatic things. Maybe that's why the New Model I tried had an air lever on each side, which for simply closing the bellows from an open position would be unnecessary.