Concertina Revival?

[Alan Day]

Recent requests for Tutors,active manufacturers and newbie posts increase on this site would point to a concertina revival.Only the manufacturers and suppliers would be able to confirm this and I wondered if this was the general trend with this instrument.?

Al

[Guest Mick Diles]

Recent requests for Tutors,active manufacturers and newbie posts increase on this site would point to a concertina revival.Only the manufacturers and suppliers would be able to confirm this and I wondered if this was the general trend with this instrument.?

Al

Al

 

I'm not a supplier or a manufacturer.. I'm only a smart observer and from my position I can confirm this revival. IMHO people like Wim Wakker are the main reason for this.

 

Mick D.

[pugwash]

Recent requests for Tutors,active manufacturers and newbie posts increase on this site would point to a concertina revival.Only the manufacturers and suppliers would be able to confirm this and I wondered if this was the general trend with this instrument.?

Al

 

You may be right. My son was watching channel five morning TV yesterday, he saw a kids band performing(five alive, if I remember correctly) a couple of members of the band were playing concertina's, so thats a good sign, encouraging the kids to play.

 

Richard

[DerekR]

I take great delight in the fact that my 7 year old daughter is trying to get to grips with one of my anglos - its way too big for her tiny hands yet, but she's mastered the scales, singing doe ray me so far etc.. her face when she managed it backwards was a picture!

 

She seems determined to learn to play it, as her peers who watched her do it thought it was awsome.

 

Now my duet is another thing entirely......

 

Get those children playing boys and girls.

[asdormire]

Shame someone doesn't build a small anglo that would be affordable for the smaller child.

 

Alan

[Chris Timson]

I've said before that the golden age is past, but we're definitely seeing the start of a silver age, and I agree, it's the makers who are driving it.

 

Chris

Edited May 11, 2007 by Chris Timson

[Alan Day]

Shame someone doesn't build a small anglo that would be affordable for the smaller child.

 

Alan

There is a childs melodion on the market and very good they are too.I had to be dragged out of the toy shop by my wife after picking one up and having a go.

Al

[Peter Brook]

I don't know if we are going through a revival. A couple of years ago (2005 I think) Dave Townsend said that the Concertinas at Witney was the largest ever with over 100 players. I haven't been since due to work commitments so I don't know if it has maintained that level of interest.

 

I was surprised the other night to see so many concertinas down in Hastings, I know that it had been publicised on this web site, but 9 or 10 concertinas is an excellent turnout for a session. The most I have ever seen before in a session before that is one or two other players, other than myself.

 

I think there are lots of reasons for more visible activity - this wonderful website for one is a fantastic resource and an excellent way for the relative novice like me to learn, understand and make contact with more experienced players.

 

There are lots of other factors too but I also think the ICA deserves at least some credit for promoting concertina playing over the years and sponsoring places on courses, alongside the stewardship of the music and sound archives. Let's not forget as well, all achieved on a shoestring and with the dedication of volunteers.

 

In addition we have some wonderful professional musicians (and concertina tutors) who are very enthusiastic about the instrument and have been for 30 to 40 years I'm personally thinking about people I have met like Alistair Anderson and John Kirkpatrick in England, but there are many others across the Irish Sea as well such as Noel Hill and Mary MacNamara who take education of others very seriously.

 

Barriers to learning concertina do exist, you can go into a high street music shop and buy a banjo, guitar, mandolin, violin etc for under a hundred quid to see how you get on with it. A little more expensive but thanks to the Jack, Jackie and Rochelle there is now at last a decent entry level concertina as well, with an upgrade promise built in if you like it.

 

We've never had it so good

Edited May 11, 2007 by Peter Brook

[Robin Madge]

I hope that it's not just a case of all of us established players having more time to be visible because we're part of the baby boom and more of us have retired and have the time to be seen out and about!

 

Robin Madge

[geoffwright]

The Royal Hotel @ Dungworth sesh usually has 6 to 8 anglo players and we have seen up to a dozen on a guest night.(Sadly our numbers have recently been cut by 2 of our stalwarts)

 

The Swaledale Squeeze must be the next largest gathering to Witney. It's on next weekend. SEE YOU ALL THERE !!!!!!!!!!

(details cnet passim)

[stuart estell]

The Royal Hotel @ Dungworth sesh usually has 6 to 8 anglo players and we have seen up to a dozen on a guest night.(Sadly our numbers have recently been cut by 2 of our stalwarts)

 

The Swaledale Squeeze must be the next largest gathering to Witney. It's on next weekend. SEE YOU ALL THERE !!!!!!!!!!

(details cnet passim)

 

I'd been thinking of posting up a "roll call" for next weekend actually. Looking forward to it immensely as always. It must rank as my most sleepless weekend of the entire year

[bill_mchale]

I hope that it's not just a case of all of us established players having more time to be visible because we're part of the baby boom and more of us have retired and have the time to be seen out and about!

 

Robin Madge

 

Well, I can't speak about concertinas outside of Irish Music, but I would say that it is more than just baby boomers having more time. At the Catskills last year, there were at least several young women taking concertina classes, and there was at least a couple of people within spitting distance of my age, and while I aint a teenager any more, I certainly am too young to be a baby boomer. In any case, when you look at the average age of the concertina faculty at Irish Arts Week this year, I think it is clear that the concertina is alive and well in Irish Music.

 

--

Bill

[Woody]

Shame someone doesn't build a small anglo that would be affordable for the smaller child.

 

Alan

Wwwweeeeeellllllll - there is this one - though if you read the details it seems to be pretty much the kids Melodeon put into a Concertina shaped box. Size wise - 8.5" L x 7" W x 6" D - it doesn't seem to be taking small hands into account.

Edited May 11, 2007 by Woody

[Dan Worrall]

Recent requests for Tutors,active manufacturers and newbie posts increase on this site would point to a concertina revival.Only the manufacturers and suppliers would be able to confirm this and I wondered if this was the general trend with this instrument.?

Al

Al,

Interesting question. If by revival you mean interest is increasing, the answer is certainly yes. No need to poll the makers...just list them. For example, there were none based here in North America until 10 or so years ago...now there are half a dozen or more of them. When I began to play here in the middle 1970s, I could find few to no regular workshops or events for the instrument (though the problem might have been that the internet wasn't there to help).

 

If however, you mean revival in the sense thast we are approaching past heydays of popularity, I'd say no...not even close. My gauge would not be the makers, but the uses of the instrument. In the heyday for the anglo (in the US, that was 1850s to 1870s), they were played in every type of popular music of the day, which included everything from minstrels to variety shows to Mormon hymns to dances to songs. By that measure, you'd want to see the instrument today played in hip hop, country and western, rock and roll, etc. This of course is not happening. The vast majority of us are closet antiquarians of one sort or another...Morris, Irish, folk, shanties, 'traditional'. Even the most popular genre for us concertinists, Irish music, is not quite mainstream in its own home, as witnessed by a tour of radio stations there.

 

The 'traditional' music we play today was what was played on the instrument as normal mainstream popular music in its heyday, as I'm sure you know. The concertina most allied with popular music (and the most numerically numerous) was the anglo, more specifically the Anglo-German. At the end of the 19th century, the anglo-german instrument parted ways with popular music. My opinion is that that occurred not only because of changing tastes and the arrival of recorded professionally made music, but also because popular music, in America at least, became more chromatic (vs simply diatonic as in most 'traditional' music) with the impact of large numbers of Eastern European immigrants (as well of course by African-Americans freed after the Civil War)....giving us tin pan alley and George Gerschwin, Broadway show tunes, jazz, rock, etc. The effects became global, as we all know. Players of English and Duets could in theory keep up with this newer music, but although significant in the music halls here they were really in much smaller numbers in the US (England might have been different with the concertina bands and all...not something I could guess about). With the two row anglo, the numerically most prominent form, there was not a chance. Once the anglo parted ways with the music people listened to most, it could not evolve with popular music, and hence the situation today. We play fringe music (quite happily, I might add!).

 

Another reason worth considering is that the underlying force that gave us the heyday of concertina playing was the arrival of huge numbers of mass-produced cheap concertinas from Germany...not the higher end instruments, at least not here in the US. These were the first broadly available inexpensive factory-made musical instruments (after the harmonica), and because of that swept through the homes of the emerging middle class in the same way that guitars are owned today...very large numbers. Once other types of relatively cheap factory-made instruments became widely available...guitars, ukes, pianos, piano accordions, etc....the anglo was out-competed on the popularity front. It is worth noting that all of these later popular home instruments were much more chromatically able than the common two row anglo.

 

If you are gauging popularity by makers, it would be good to include the numerous German factories that churned these out for exportin the heyday...they were the backbone of the global concertina craze if one is just looking at sheer numbers of players. Their output for concertinas seems to be down precipitously from the days of yore.

[Alan Day]

Thanks Dan for your very interesting posting.

You are correct of course about the concertina popularity in the 1900 -1935 .The Concertina being a cheap and portable instrument became very popular. I have been getting very excited about the early Concertina Bands, Ashton under Lyne,Heywood,Premier,Bolton,Mexborough etc and I have some truly wonderful recordings of this era."Times Gone By".

The Music Hall was also responsable for the increase in popularity with some fantastic players working the Halls and many like Tommy Elliott still playing on Radio in the sixties.

Sadly as you say the popularity of the concertina dwindled.Rock and Roll,Juke Boxes killing off the Pub Sing Songs,The popularity of the Guitar for youngsters dreaming of stardom.The once expensive brass instruments being rapidly reduced in price by better manufacturing techniques.

Thanks to a few, a revival started of Folk music and Morris,Rapper,Clog sides were springing up all over the place.Folk Clubs also were drawing in big crowds.Many Concertina players started at about this time,including myself,but few seemed to follow,leaving a void,older players (also including myself) but very few young ones.My posting really was to say that I think there is now an upsurge in the interest of the instrument.It is not just ticking over like the last twenty years,but moving faster. I am not sure that it will ever reach the popularity of past years, but it only takes a massive hit featuring a concertina to keep the pot boiling.

I get emotional when I see a wonderful young player,all is not lost and there is the future sort of thing.

The manufacturers have been mentioned and certainly, low price beginners instruments, good mid range affordable Concertinas and of course the top range Concertinas are all available, a wonderful choice and an increasing selection of suppliers to choose from.New manufacturing techniques incorporating computers keep the price at a reasonable level without detrement to the quality of the instrument.

We have sites like this offering help and advice and most important enthusiasm and support.Players have shaken off inhibitions regarding sending in their recordings for others to listen to.There is no critisism no whispering,but unanimous thanks to contributors.This enthusiasm rubs off on others and more join up.

We now have the platform for the future.

Al

[Musical Sore]

What makes a revival? More people playing concertina for other people to hear.

 

A few months ago I stumbled across a folk session in a country pub. It was the day after a night at the opera and I'd just stopped for Sunday lunch on my way home.

 

Within a fortnight I was teaching myself to play the English Concertina.

[hjcjones]

Surely another factor is the wider availability of teaching materials.

 

When I started out I was effectively on my own. I had a totally inappropriate and outdated tutor book which only covered single-line melody playing. I had to figure out what to do from listening to records and sitting as close to the front as possible when John K was on at my local folk clubs. I got a few pointers from one or two players such as Colin Cater, but apart from the occasional workshop festival there was no other help.

 

Now there are workshops, gatherings and summer schools, and a wealth of instructional material and advice, in books, DVDs and on the internet (including of course, concertina.net). There is now even a degree in folk music.

[Angie Burn]

There is a definite revival in the Newcastle area, as Newcastle University is now offering some sort of new folk music degree, and many students are choosing concertinas as their preferred instrument.

 

My local music shop owner is able to sell every concertina he can get his hands on, and he often has a waiting list for them.......So who knows, we might soon have a whole new generation of concertina enthusiasts!