Bass Concertina - Bass Baritone Concertina

[squeezora]

I would like to point out that my new CD includes an entire disc of Bass Baritone concertina being played. This is connected in a way to the thread that appeared here some time ago about a FOOT BASE concertina being played along with a treble concertina. The difference is that i am playing the base parts along with the upper melodies and chords at the same time and on only one instrument without a foot base. I believe there is no other recording in existence of a bass baritone concertina being played in this way. Actually i think there are only a few of these bass baritone concertinas that were ever produced.

 

You will find that the sound of the bass baritone is very unusual and, I think, unique.

 

You can find it here: <www.juliettedaum.com>

 

Juliette

Edited October 7, 2007 by squeezora

[Robin Harrison]

Actually i think there are only a few of these bass baritone concertinas that were ever produced.

I have long been interested in this but I wonder if the question is "how many of them have survived?"

If you look at the old pictures of concertina bands they seem common there and there were plenty of bands in the North of England.

In the post -band era,a bass or bass baritone would not have been a particularly instrument to have.Where could you play one if there is no band to play in..........I could imagine these large instruments just being put out with the junk.

Regards Robin

PS Lovely playing Juliette.

[Alan Day]

Actually i think there are only a few of these bass baritone concertinas that were ever produced.

I have long been interested in this but I wonder if the question is "how many of them have survived?"

If you look at the old pictures of concertina bands they seem common there and there were plenty of bands in the North of England.

In the post -band era,a bass or bass baritone would not have been a particularly instrument to have.Where could you play one if there is no band to play in..........I could imagine these large instruments just being put out with the junk.

Regards Robin

PS Lovely playing Juliette.

Interesting this posted itself without me typing anything,hence the modified post.

There was on Anglo International John Kirkpatrick double tracking with the base Anglo and on English International (still being processed) ,apart from the two old band numbers,mentioned by Robin, we will have John Nixon and Bernard Wrigley both playing Base/Baritone instruments. I know of no other concertina player playing full chords etc on the base, so well done Juliettte.

Charlotte Oliver plays a good base concertina, not sure about the chords though.

Al

Edited October 7, 2007 by Alan Day

[JimLucas]

I believe there is no other recording in existence of a bass baritone concertina being played in this way.

There was on Anglo International John Kirkpatrick double tracking with the base Anglo and on English International (still being processed) ,apart from the two old band numbers,mentioned by Robin, we will have John Nixon and Bernard Wrigley both playing Base/Baritone instruments. I know of no other concertina player playing full chords etc on the base, so well done Juliettte.

Charlotte Oliver plays a good base concertina, not sure about the chords though.

I -- and I believe also Charlotte, Bernard, John, and Lester Bailey (who plays for Aldbury Morris) -- play "bass" concertina. Juliette plays a "bass-baritone", which is subtly different. (Every note is on the opposite end of the instrument from a standard "bass".) But there's nothing "base" about either.

 

As for recordings, on Henk's Recorded Tunes Link Page is a link to me singing a verse of the Russian Song "Letyat Utki", imitating a 3-part choral arrangement as accompaniment. But that's on a bass, not a bass-baritone. And besides, it's nowhere near as challenging as Bach's "Chaconne".

 

An interesting thing about Juliette's bass-baritone is that it's relatively small. It has the same number of buttons and the same size body as my own baritone-treble, though it sounds a fourth lower. It's significantly smaller than my own bass. If that has an effect on its timbre, it certainly doesn't seem to do any harm. Lovely sound!

[squeezora]

Actually i think there are only a few of these bass baritone concertinas that were ever produced.

I have long been interested in this but I wonder if the question is "how many of them have survived?"

If you look at the old pictures of concertina bands they seem common there and there were plenty of bands in the North of England.

In the post -band era,a bass or bass baritone would not have been a particularly instrument to have.Where could you play one if there is no band to play in..........I could imagine these large instruments just being put out with the junk.

Regards Robin

PS Lovely playing Juliette.

 

Hi Robin,

 

Thank you very much for the nice compliment.

 

I don’t think the Bass-Baritone that I play was ever a band instrument. Bass, Bass-Baritone band concertinas usually had many fewer buttons. This concertina was formerly owned by a certain Mr. Herbert Ayers, who was a professional accordion/concertina musician during the first half of the twentieth century. It is a 64 button Aeola and I’ve never seen a photo of such a concertina. This type of instrument is not listed on any of the old Wheatstone price lists that I’ve seen. We carefully searched each and every page of the Wheatstone records and could only find one other 64 button Bass-Baritone made and 2 examples 56 button Bass-Baritones, so it seems that it was not a common instrument and it is possible that not all the four examples have survived. I think that this might have been a custom order for Mr. Ayers.

 

I am including several photos so that you can see the size and configuration of the instrument. It is a little difficult to play, but I love the sound very much. It feels like playing several instruments at the same time.

 

Juliette

[Alan Day]

I have a lovely photo Juliette of The Heywood English Concertina Band (All in uniform)and I will Email it to you.This photo will be in the booklet of E. I.

Al

[Boney]

Thanks very much for those pictures, Juliette. And your comments in the other threads. I'm off to order some CDs now, I have to hear that thing!

[Ptarmigan]

I don’t think the Bass-Baritone that I play was ever a band instrument. Bass, Bass-Baritone band concertinas usually had many fewer buttons. This concertina was formerly owned by a certain Mr. Herbert Ayers, who was a professional accordion/concertina musician during the first half of the twentieth century. It is a 64 button Aeola and I’ve never seen a photo of such a concertina. This type of instrument is not listed on any of the old Wheatstone price lists that I’ve seen. We carefully searched each and every page of the Wheatstone records and could only find one other 64 button Bass-Baritone made and 2 examples 56 button Bass-Baritones, so it seems that it was not a common instrument and it is possible that not all the four examples have survived. I think that this might have been a custom order for Mr. Ayers.

 

I am including several photos so that you can see the size and configuration of the instrument. It is a little difficult to play, but I love the sound very much. It feels like playing several instruments at the same time.

 

Juliette

Hi,

 

I'd just like to say, thank goodness indeed that this rare & gorgeous sounding instrument ended up in the hands of an excellent musician like yourself Juliette. Lucky us!

 

It could so easily have ended up gathering dust in some collectors grotty little glass case!

 

Instead, you are keeping it alive & promoting the wonderful sounds of these huge beasties, so well!

 

Fair play, ya girl ye! Keep her lit!

 

Cheers

Dick

[PeterT]

Instead, you are keeping it alive & promoting the wonderful sounds of these huge beasties, so well!

And of course you have seen the videos:

 

http://www.youtube.com/user/juliettedaum

 

[PeterT]

I'd just like to say, thank goodness indeed that this rare & gorgeous sounding instrument ended up in the hands of an excellent musician like yourself Juliette. Lucky us!

Do you think that if we asked really nicely, Juliette might put up some more recordings for us?

[Hereward]

I'd just like to say, thank goodness indeed that this rare & gorgeous sounding instrument ended up in the hands of an excellent musician like yourself Juliette. Lucky us!

Do you think that if we asked really nicely, Juliette might put up some more recordings for us?

 

I'd like to add my voice to the call for more recordings from this talented player.

 

Ian

[Sid Wayne Goldsmith]

On 10/8/2007 at 1:35 PM, squeezora said:

 

Hi Robin,

 

Thank you very much for the nice compliment.

 

I don’t think the Bass-Baritone that I play was ever a band instrument. Bass, Bass-Baritone band concertinas usually had many fewer buttons. This concertina was formerly owned by a certain Mr. Herbert Ayers, who was a professional accordion/concertina musician during the first half of the twentieth century. It is a 64 button Aeola and I’ve never seen a photo of such a concertina. This type of instrument is not listed on any of the old Wheatstone price lists that I’ve seen. We carefully searched each and every page of the Wheatstone records and could only find one other 64 button Bass-Baritone made and 2 examples 56 button Bass-Baritones, so it seems that it was not a common instrument and it is possible that not all the four examples have survived. I think that this might have been a custom order for Mr. Ayers.

 

I am including several photos so that you can see the size and configuration of the instrument. It is a little difficult to play, but I love the sound very much. It feels like playing several instruments at the same time.

 

Juliette

Hi all

 

I was very lucky to come across the other one of these while in America recently and bring it back home to the UK. It had just been sold by 'vintage instruments' in Philadelphia to Ed Stander the week before I visited and the shop were kind enough to put us in contact for me to convince him to sell it on. I was over there playing in a theatre show in Princeton and drove for 7 and a half hours to try it out and buy it before doing the show in the evening. 

It's in brilliant restored condition. I've had to replace a few valves and seat some of the reeds better in the pan. There's a few more notes to tinker with yet at the dusty end but for now I'd rather be playing it than taking it apart. I'm a far less refined and more folky player than Juliette and I'm excited to begin sharing this wonderful instrument out in public.

Here's a post of me getting to grips with it

https://www.facebook.com/sidgoldsmith/posts/pfbid02iK7eNzJS3N3cpbcNX3748rw7uNFz71KjWpWoSwrMBnX7D2nL3EZcUWeLzBaWEhZLl?notif_id=1684759832755705&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif

https://www.instagram.com/p/Csi2WUbPmkE/

[d.elliott]

On 10/7/2007 at 3:12 PM, Alan Day said:

Interesting this posted itself without me typing anything,hence the modified post.

There was on Anglo International John Kirkpatrick double tracking with the base Anglo and on English International (still being processed) ,apart from the two old band numbers,mentioned by Robin, we will have John Nixon and Bernard Wrigley both playing Base/Baritone instruments. I know of no other concertina player playing full chords etc on the base, so well done Juliettte.

Charlotte Oliver plays a good base concertina, not sure about the chords though.

Al

 

Bernard Wrigley plays a bass concertina. I repaired and serviced the instrument last year.

Edited May 22, 2023 by d.elliott
justification of statement

[d.elliott]

On 10/8/2007 at 1:35 PM, squeezora said:

 

Hi Robin,

 

Thank you very much for the nice compliment.

 

I don’t think the Bass-Baritone that I play was ever a band instrument. Bass, Bass-Baritone band concertinas usually had many fewer buttons. This concertina was formerly owned by a certain Mr. Herbert Ayers, who was a professional accordion/concertina musician during the first half of the twentieth century. It is a 64 button Aeola and I’ve never seen a photo of such a concertina. This type of instrument is not listed on any of the old Wheatstone price lists that I’ve seen. We carefully searched each and every page of the Wheatstone records and could only find one other 64 button Bass-Baritone made and 2 examples 56 button Bass-Baritones, so it seems that it was not a common instrument and it is possible that not all the four examples have survived. I think that this might have been a custom order for Mr. Ayers.

 

I am including several photos so that you can see the size and configuration of the instrument. It is a little difficult to play, but I love the sound very much. It feels like playing several instruments at the same time.

 

Juliette

 

Can you please explain what you mean by Bass-Baritone?

 

There are two types of Bass, a 'G' bass, and a 'C' Bass. There are baritones that extend down below the 'G' at the bottom of the Bass clef, and baritones that extend up above the 48k compass. There are bass instruments that are 'Short', typically only going up to say middle 'C', or may be a note or two less. Some baritones were also 'Short' not having the full 48 keys either.  

 

The main trick to all this is that the treble has it's middle 'C' on a line with the centre of the thumb strap on the left hand side, and the 'D' above middle 'C' level with centre of the thumb strap on the right hand side. The Baritone has the same but one octave down; the bass has the same configuration but two octaves down from  the treble. Everything else is either an extension up, or down, or is a short compass. 

 

Juliette, can I assume that you have a bass extended through the baritone range?

[Alan Day]

Dave Prebble made a base concertina using harmonium reeds and called it his "Fart o Phone".

Sadly I have never heard him play it.

Not sure, but the X "Folk on Two" Radio presenter Mike Harding  played one.

Al

[Ken_Coles]

5 hours ago, d.elliott said:

Juliette, can I assume that you have a bass extended through the baritone range?

 

I don't believe Juliette is active here - she last logged in over ten years ago.

Perhaps Sid can post some pictures for you.

 

Ken

[Sid Wayne Goldsmith]

16 hours ago, d.elliott said:

 

Can you please explain what you mean by Bass-Baritone?

 

There are two types of Bass, a 'G' bass, and a 'C' Bass. There are baritones that extend down below the 'G' at the bottom of the Bass clef, and baritones that extend up above the 48k compass. There are bass instruments that are 'Short', typically only going up to say middle 'C', or may be a note or two less. Some baritones were also 'Short' not having the full 48 keys either.  

 

The main trick to all this is that the treble has it's middle 'C' on a line with the centre of the thumb strap on the left hand side, and the 'D' above middle 'C' level with centre of the thumb strap on the right hand side. The Baritone has the same but one octave down; the bass has the same configuration but two octaves down from  the treble. Everything else is either an extension up, or down, or is a short compass. 

 

Juliette, can I assume that you have a bass extended through the baritone range?

It's going from C2 to G6. I'm using Bass Baritone as that's what it says in the ledgers. I guess it's Baritone with an extension up and down. Or a tenor/ext treble but an octave lower.

Bass baritone wheatstone.docx

[Sid Wayne Goldsmith]

14 hours ago, Alan Day said:

Dave Prebble made a base concertina using harmonium reeds and called it his "Fart o Phone".

Sadly I have never heard him play it.

Not sure, but the X "Folk on Two" Radio presenter Mike Harding  played one.

Al

Would love to hear this