Endangered Free Reed Crafts

[aeolina]

Free reed instrument making - Heritage Crafts | https://share.google/VFgV0u1oHPsl4CyiG

[Stephen Chambers]

Interesting, but the history page is full of errors and misunderstandings. 🙄

[Lappy]

This presentation reminds me of a student’s attempt at a book report without having read the book .

Edited April 2 by Lappy

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

If it is a genuine organisation in itself it's aims are quite good in themselves; as goes the idea of encouraging perceived rare crafts. ( Of which I myself also possess)..

Of course these various skills have not died off, nor have they become endangered, they are simply  little known of by many laymen, or little encouraged in many ways by the  modem world.. the skills are still there however, because everywhere,  beavering away there is an abundance, of skilled people still existent, those skills never went away, and not particularly are they endangered; as long as the skills are passed on taught, or preserved as cultural heritage for now and into the future🌝.

 

[alex_holden]

9 hours ago, SIMON GABRIELOW said:

If it is a genuine organisation in itself it's aims are quite good in themselves; as goes the idea of encouraging perceived rare crafts.

 

It is a real charity. King Charles III is their patron. They give grants to British craftspeople to help sustain all kinds of endangered traditional crafts. I believe Jake Middleton-Metcalfe (Wolverton Concertinas) was one of the recipients:

https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/our-stories/announcements/nine-new-grants-awarded-to-help-save-endangered-crafts-from-extinction/

[jkmelb]

Yes, according to his website, he is working with & learning from Steve Dickinson (Wheatstone), building English concertinas...

https://wolvertonconcertinas.com/wheatstone-aeola-project-available-in-2025/

Edited April 3 by jkmelb

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Thanks for that information on this craft charity..I have never heard of it before. Until now.. I could do with some of that contact info and opportunities myself, as there are few opportunities these days to get the skills of a lifetime seen and to benefit others🌝🌝🌝

[aeolina]

Bellows Bagpipes too:

 

https://heritagecrafts.org.uk/craft/bagpipe-making-northumbrian-pipes-smallpipes-and-bellows-blown-pipes/

[SIMON GABRIELOW]

Craftsmen and artists of the Country - and entire British Isles  - let them know you are existent and still making the goods; as the strangely titled presentation on this site stating 'endangered" motf [ which is to me, more like a title for a wildlife project than people] ..seems to signify [ I think rather falsely myself] a belief in total redundency of all hand skills! 

 

[Jake Middleton-Metcalfe]

Yes, they did fund some of my training with Steve Dickinson. I was amazed really, they are the only organisation which I have known to help a concertina maker recently. 

 

The only other organisation I reached out to was "The Royal Commission for the Exhibition of 1851" on the grounds that C.Wheatstone and co was an exhibitor in the original exhibition, but honestly that was always a bit of a tenuous idea of mine, it was my wife who pointed out the HCA were a better bet. Thank you Chloe.

[aeolina]

French Accordion:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/oct/05/squeezed-out-last-accordion-maker-in-france-to-close-shop-after-105-years

 

https://www.thetimes.com/world/europe/article/squeezed-out-french-accordion-maker-maugein-closes-after-105-years-v9jqqpdmx

[4to5to6]

Interesting. Thanks.

[Anglo-Irishman]

Intersting thread!

When I'm not squeezing my concertina, I like to take a plucked stringed instrument on my knee. I have several different stringed instruments, but my favourite for accompanying German folk-songs is the Thüringer Waldzither.

This is not a zither as we understand the term today, but rather a cittern, one of a large family that was played all over Europe in the Renaissance and Baroque period. It is a close relative to the English Guittar (not a guitar as we understand the term today, but also a cittern) and the guitarra portugues (also not a guitar as we understand the term today, but also a cittern). 

The surviving German member of the great cittern family developed in the province of Thuringia, and is still made there. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a craze for the Waldzither, which was started by an industrial instrument maker of Thuringian origin by the name of Böhm in Hamburg. The German youth of those days enjoyed hiking and singing folk-songs, and the Waldzither became their thing. (This youth movement, the "Wandervogel" (Bird of Passage) was later outlawed by the Nazis, and the Waldzither fell into disuse. I bought my first one in a junk-shop in Essen.) Böhm used a particular type of tuning mechanism on his Waldzithern, which was based on the English Guittar's "Preston's Machine," in the version used on the guitarra portugues.

 

The building and playing of  the Waldzither has now been recognised by the UNESCO as part of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage, first of all as part of the heritage of the state of Thuringia, and now in Germany as a whole. 

What repercussions this will have for the luthiers who make the instrument I do not know. Perhaps I will learn more at the biennial Cittern Symposium in Suhl, Thuringia, this autumn. 

 

Is something of this kind in the pipeline for the English-built concertinas?

 

Cheers,

John

 

[aeolina]

The UK government (but not the devolved Scottish one which has no such power) has long resisted ratifying the 2003 UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage but eventually did so in 2024, committing to identify and protect "living traditions". A national inventory is being created to recognise practice and musical traditions and related crafts are being considered for recognition. Each ratifying member develops its own approach and policies and we do not yet know how the UK will respond and work to "protect".

 

In the Republic of Ireland, intangible cultural heritage (ICH) regarding musical instruments has focused on tradition, craftsmanship, and performance, and two areas have already been inscribed on the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity: Irish Harping (inscribed 2019) and Uilleann Piping (inscribed 2017).

 

It will be interesting to see how the concertina "tradition, craftsmanship and performance" fares in both the UK and in Ireland, if ever recognised to the extent of being inscribed.

[aeolina]

1 hour ago, Anglo-Irishman said:

Intersting thread!

When I'm not squeezing my concertina, I like to take a plucked stringed instrument on my knee. I have several different stringed instruments, but my favourite for accompanying German folk-songs is the Thüringer Waldzither.

This is not a zither as we understand the term today, but rather a cittern, one of a large family that was played all over Europe in the Renaissance and Baroque period. It is a close relative to the English Guittar (not a guitar as we understand the term today, but also a cittern) and the guitarra portugues (also not a guitar as we understand the term today, but also a cittern). 

The surviving German member of the great cittern family developed in the province of Thuringia, and is still made there. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a craze for the Waldzither, which was started by an industrial instrument maker of Thuringian origin by the name of Böhm in Hamburg. The German youth of those days enjoyed hiking and singing folk-songs, and the Waldzither became their thing. (This youth movement, the "Wandervogel" (Bird of Passage) was later outlawed by the Nazis, and the Waldzither fell into disuse. I bought my first one in a junk-shop in Essen.) Böhm used a particular type of tuning mechanism on his Waldzithern, which was based on the English Guittar's "Preston's Machine," in the version used on the guitarra portugues.

 

The building and playing of  the Waldzither has now been recognised by the UNESCO as part of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage, first of all as part of the heritage of the state of Thuringia, and now in Germany as a whole. 

What repercussions this will have for the luthiers who make the instrument I do not know. Perhaps I will learn more at the biennial Cittern Symposium in Suhl, Thuringia, this autumn. 

 

Is something of this kind in the pipeline for the English-built concertinas?

 

Cheers,

John

 

John

 

You may find this of interest.

 

Stuart

 

https://robmackillop.net/guitar/18th-century-wire-strung-guittar/

[aeolina]

1 hour ago, Anglo-Irishman said:

Intersting thread!

When I'm not squeezing my concertina, I like to take a plucked stringed instrument on my knee. I have several different stringed instruments, but my favourite for accompanying German folk-songs is the Thüringer Waldzither.

This is not a zither as we understand the term today, but rather a cittern, one of a large family that was played all over Europe in the Renaissance and Baroque period. It is a close relative to the English Guittar (not a guitar as we understand the term today, but also a cittern) and the guitarra portugues (also not a guitar as we understand the term today, but also a cittern). 

The surviving German member of the great cittern family developed in the province of Thuringia, and is still made there. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a craze for the Waldzither, which was started by an industrial instrument maker of Thuringian origin by the name of Böhm in Hamburg. The German youth of those days enjoyed hiking and singing folk-songs, and the Waldzither became their thing. (This youth movement, the "Wandervogel" (Bird of Passage) was later outlawed by the Nazis, and the Waldzither fell into disuse. I bought my first one in a junk-shop in Essen.) Böhm used a particular type of tuning mechanism on his Waldzithern, which was based on the English Guittar's "Preston's Machine," in the version used on the guitarra portugues.

 

The building and playing of  the Waldzither has now been recognised by the UNESCO as part of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage, first of all as part of the heritage of the state of Thuringia, and now in Germany as a whole. 

What repercussions this will have for the luthiers who make the instrument I do not know. Perhaps I will learn more at the biennial Cittern Symposium in Suhl, Thuringia, this autumn. 

 

Is something of this kind in the pipeline for the English-built concertinas?

 

Cheers,

John

 

John

 

You may find this of interest.

 

Stuart

 

https://robmackillop.net/guitar/18th-century-wire-strung-guittar/

[wschruba]

3 hours ago, Anglo-Irishman said:

Intersting thread!

When I'm not squeezing my concertina, I like to take a plucked stringed instrument on my knee. I have several different stringed instruments, but my favourite for accompanying German folk-songs is the Thüringer Waldzither.

This is not a zither as we understand the term today, but rather a cittern, one of a large family that was played all over Europe in the Renaissance and Baroque period. It is a close relative to the English Guittar (not a guitar as we understand the term today, but also a cittern) and the guitarra portugues (also not a guitar as we understand the term today, but also a cittern). 

The surviving German member of the great cittern family developed in the province of Thuringia, and is still made there. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a craze for the Waldzither, which was started by an industrial instrument maker of Thuringian origin by the name of Böhm in Hamburg. The German youth of those days enjoyed hiking and singing folk-songs, and the Waldzither became their thing. (This youth movement, the "Wandervogel" (Bird of Passage) was later outlawed by the Nazis, and the Waldzither fell into disuse. I bought my first one in a junk-shop in Essen.) Böhm used a particular type of tuning mechanism on his Waldzithern, which was based on the English Guittar's "Preston's Machine," in the version used on the guitarra portugues.

 

The building and playing of  the Waldzither has now been recognised by the UNESCO as part of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage, first of all as part of the heritage of the state of Thuringia, and now in Germany as a whole. 

What repercussions this will have for the luthiers who make the instrument I do not know. Perhaps I will learn more at the biennial Cittern Symposium in Suhl, Thuringia, this autumn. 

 

Is something of this kind in the pipeline for the English-built concertinas?

 

Cheers,

John

 

 

I have to admit, I have an intense soft-spot for old instruments.

 

Surprisingly, many of them are still made (cheaply) in Pakistan!  While most of the world moved on, their craftspeople have continued making instruments as diverse as the "shepherd's flute" (proto-recorder, still played in folk music of the Middle-East), the Shawm/it's various families, lutes, harps, etc.  Roosebeck instruments are largely made there, for instance.  Not high-end by any stretch, but reasonably good, inexpensive, and enough to know if you want to spend real money on one.

 

The Hurdy Gurdy (NB, better known as a "Lira" in medieval parlance) still has a place of some respect in Eastern European folk music, and there are continued development of the instrument still taking place there (I've seen some that have fretted mouche strings, that you can actually play as a secondary melody in lieu of the paired chanterelle.  I personally find the sound enchanting, particularly the trompette, with the hair-trigger buzzing sound that you create by adding impulse to the wheel.  It adds a (not historically correct) dimension to playing Medieval music that they would have loved.  I actually purchased a rather interesting one-off build by a gentleman who built-in a small portativ organ into the Lira, while still being (mostly) portable.

 

We own a couple of "Traumflöte" recorder models from Mollenhauer, and they are rather interesting, too, in that they are Renaissance bore recorders (wide bore, big finger holes) that also have Baroque fingering, to facilitate easily playing accidentals.

 

My general experience is that people who continue to develop/play with old instruments tend to also make copies and reproductions of them, because they allow them to better understand them.

[sven6side]

The Scandinavian Psalmodika  is now also  recognised by the UNESCO as part of the Immaterial Cultural Heritage, 

 

And lately I've been listening to this often:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4Y5YYSP-TM&list=RDy4Y5YYSP-TM&start_radio=1