Uhlig Developmental Bandoneon

[Stephen Chambers]

In the General Concertina Discussion forum I've just announced the launch of a new Bandoneon website: http://bergenmuseum.uib.no/nettutstillinge...neon/flash.html and coincidentally, on Saturday I was delighted to receive an early (developmental) 88-note Bandoneon by C. F. Uhlig (inventor of the German concertina) in the post. It's my first instrument by Uhlig, and a very interesting addition to my collection. Harry Geuns dates it to around 1860.

 

Here are three of the eBay sellers photos of it:

 

[stuart estell]

The rake of the buttons in the third photo is very reminiscent of the left hand of my Jeffries duet!

 

I do like the inlays around the sides.

[Theodore Kloba]

I was delighted to receive an early (developmental) 88-note Bandoneon by C. F. Uhlig (inventor of the German concertina) in the post.

I also have an 88-note (44 button) bandoneon (a bit newer than yours) and I've found that this is a nice balance between size and flexibility. How is your instrument voiced? Typical octave-tuned double reed, or just single? What's its playability?

 

My instrument has the typical metal edges rather than the colorful inlay visible on yours and the bellows also has two intermediate frames, metal staves and metal corners. The air opening grille also has the word "BANDONION" in the stamping.

Edited March 9, 2007 by Theodore Kloba

[Stephen Chambers]

I do like the inlays around the sides.

Stuart,

 

Do you mean the nickel edging strip, or the decorative band between the bellows frames and the sides? If it's the latter, then it isn't inlaid, but a printed paper strip to cover the join between the maroon leather-covered bellows frames and the rosewood-veneered sides.

 

How is your instrument voiced? Typical octave-tuned double reed, or just single? What's its playability?

Theodore,

 

It is single-reeded, and the early double-reeded ones that I've seen have been tremolo-tuned. But as Band died as early as 1860, he probably had little to do with features that today we might regard as "typical Bandoneon" anyway, indeed there is a school of thought that he didn't invent the system but only marketed it.

 

Some of the reeds still speak with an amazingly rich full tone, but it is not playable.

 

My instrument has the typical metal edges rather than the colorful inlay visible on yours and the bellows also has two intermediate frames, metal staves and metal corners. The air opening grille also has the word "BANDONION" in the stamping.

Those would all be later construction. Did you notice the "U" (for Uhlig) in the stamping of this one's grille? Uhlig may well have been the originator of that feature (long before the "doble A"), amongst others.

[Theodore Kloba]

It is single-reeded, and the early double-reeded ones that I've seen have been tremolo-tuned.

Considering the age, is it possible that those double-reeded instruments were just out of tune?

[Stephen Chambers]

It is single-reeded, and the early double-reeded ones that I've seen have been tremolo-tuned.

Considering the age, is it possible that those double-reeded instruments were just out of tune?

No, it was uniform and very deliberate, not forgetting being an octave lower than a piccolo reed!