Dallas' Tutor For The Anglo Concertina...arranged And Carefully Fi

[Perry Werner]

Howdy:

Just ran across this in my searching for books online.

Thought the group would be interested in the description given by the seller.

If any is interested in grabbing this item (and according to the description, I would grab with gloves on) here is the URL below.

First come first served!!!!!!!

Have fun,

Perry Werner

 

PS: Now that I see the bookseller's name I would definitely think about the gloves!!!!!!!!!

 

http://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetail...x%3D48%26y%3D13

 

 

DALLAS' TUTOR FOR THE ANGLO CONCERTINA A New Method Containing The Rudiments of Music Progressive Lessons and Exercises Together with a Large Selection of Popular Melodies and OPERATIC, CLASSICAL and SACRED PIECES Arranged and Carefully Fingered

W. SEYMOUR

Bookseller: Big Moo Books

(Middlesex, GL, United Kingdom)

Bookseller Rating: 4-star rating

Price: US$ 52.82

[Convert Currency]

Quantity: 1 Shipping within United Kingdom:

US$ 6.87

 

Book Description: John E.Dallas & Sons Ltd., London. Paper Covers. Book Condition: Very Poor. Dust Jacket Condition: No DJ. 4to - over 9¾" - 12" tall. In very poor condition. Covers browned, front cover detached, back cover attached for one inch, else detached. 5 inch crease tail edge corner front cover and pages, beginning to end, creased to the width of 1 inch at this corner. Pages browned, one and a quarter inch long foxing mark last two pages, a rust mark tail edge one page. Some mild tearing head edge front cover. THIS TUTOR WOULD HAVE BEEN DISCARDED WERE IT NOT FOR THE SUBJECT MATTER. IT APPEARS TO BE COMPLETE , THE PRINT IS CLEAR THROUGHOUT....AND PERHAPS IT IS UNLIKELY THAT THERE ARE MANY CONCERTINA TUTORS STLL IN EXISTENCE. OF COURSE, I MAY BE WRONG ABOUT THIS..BUT I REGARD THIS TUTOR AS A RARITY..AND THERE ARE PROBABLY A FEW CONCERTINA PLAYERS LEFT. Bookseller Inventory # 001866

[groeswenphil]

Hi,

I just bought that.

 

I'm thinking about PDFing it and making it available for all.

Perhaps someday I'll be rewarded with a smile.

 

Phil

[groeswenphil]

I'm getting even more interested in this book. I just received this story from the lady that's selling it.

 

Your message has given me an attack of very acute nostalgia. My

father, who died in 1963, was a gifted concertina player, not at all

of the oompah variety. Family legend had it that in the early

1900's, my dad would have been eight or nine years old at the

time, there was a procession of the townspeople of Charters Towers

(an old gold-mining town in North Queensland) to meet the Governor of

the State. Leading the procession, my dad playing the

concertina. The Town Clerk and his wife who had no children wanted

to "adopt" my dad and give him a good musical education but of course

his mother wouldn't part with him.

 

In my childhood for part of the time we lived in a very small town

(no more than twentyeight houses) and occasionally there would be a

dance held in the one-teacher school room. I can still see my dad,

the concertina swinging around his head, as he played waltzes,

schottisches etc. He played another sort of music, also. Mostly

songs I think. He played a Wheatstone Chromatic Concertina mostly,

but in later years he had a much larger instrument, I seem to recall

the name English Duet Baritone, but I may be imagining the name.

 

When I first came to England in 1959, I spent a lot of time trying to

track down Alexander Prince records and I did find a few for my

dad. I must say though, that when I heard Alexander Prince,

although my dad admired him I didn't think Alexander Prince was a

patch on my dad!

 

So you see I grew up with a concertina player.

 

I'll get the tutor off to you as soon as I can, probably to-morrow or

the next day. (I don't get out of the house very much and have to

depend on someone else doing the posting).

 

the tutor did not come from him but somewhere in the muddle of

books etc. in my house I think I might have one or two concertina

pieces which I can let you know about IF they ever come to light!

 

His "party

piece" which he would play to amuse people was "Old Black Joe", the

Stephen Foster song. My dad would tell the story of a man who could

play only one tune which was "Old Black Joe" ....at a concert, this

man (my dad doing the playing of course) would play it as a straight

song, for a dance he'd play in the different appropriate

rhythms...the one I always liked best was "Old Black Joe" as a

funeral march. I wish I could remember exactly to tell you but the

funeral march was lovely...so sombre with a repeated deep key.

 

Treasured memories.

 

Sincerely, Mary Chapman. (Big Moo Books)

[Dirge]

Gosh isn't that fascinating stuff?

[groeswenphil]

And there's more.

 

Can anybody here do this?

 

A final memory. When my dad played for the dances and my mother and

my sister and I were there also, my dad would always have a dance

with his wife. He did this by putting his arms around her and

continuing to play the concertina behind her back as they moved

around the floor. We went to the dances over a period of years, I

suppose I must have been aged nine, ten, eleven, something like

that. I know I was always SO IMPRESSED by my dad's ability to keep

the music going in this fashion.

 

Sincerely, Mary Chapman.

[asdormire]

And there's more.

 

Can anybody here do this?

 

A final memory. When my dad played for the dances and my mother and

my sister and I were there also, my dad would always have a dance

with his wife. He did this by putting his arms around her and

continuing to play the concertina behind her back as they moved

around the floor. We went to the dances over a period of years, I

suppose I must have been aged nine, ten, eleven, something like

that. I know I was always SO IMPRESSED by my dad's ability to keep

the music going in this fashion.

 

Sincerely, Mary Chapman.

 

 

Sounds romantic, doesn't it.

 

Alan

[Greg Jowaisas]

And there's more.

 

Can anybody here do this?

 

A final memory. When my dad played for the dances and my mother and

my sister and I were there also, my dad would always have a dance

with his wife. He did this by putting his arms around her and

continuing to play the concertina behind her back as they moved

around the floor. We went to the dances over a period of years, I

suppose I must have been aged nine, ten, eleven, something like

that. I know I was always SO IMPRESSED by my dad's ability to keep

the music going in this fashion.

 

Sincerely, Mary Chapman.

 

My wife is also "surrounded" with concertinas. Somehow I'm not getting the same romantic results!?

 

Lovely anecdotes.

 

Greg

[bushlass]

There is a bloke from Nariel Creek in NE Victoria Australia who regularly has the last waltz with his Mrs who also plays in the band whilst playing his concertina and keeping strict dance tempo! I have a pic of this somewhere but I suspect it is on my old computer. There may be people on this board who have a pic of it.

 

Maybe waltzing with the Mrs while playing is an Oz thing? Yet I thought a lot of the older players did it.

 

Nariel creek have a great Festival over Xmas/New Year with bush camping, lots of dances and sessions that go until sunrise. A very friendly small festival for dancers and musicans. A great time to visit Oz too....leave the family and blews behind and come and have fun with us!

 

http://www.narielcreekfestival.org.au/index.html

[groeswenphil]

I have a pic of this somewhere but I suspect it is on my old computer.

 

PLEASE DIG THAT ONE OUT !!!!

Phil

[morganj]

Can anybody here do this?

 

 

Iheard of it being done by a female accordion and male melodeon player to great comic effect at the revels. The singer was singing a sad song of parting lovers, when the light came up to reveal the players embracing while playing behind each others back.

And of course there are the "stupid melodeon tricks" at the midwest morris ale - players playing their each other's melody line, and many other variations.

 

Of course melodeons are easier than concertinas. ;-)

[Warren Fahey]

I too enjoyed this personal account and thought I should add a comment about the custom of playing the concertina whilst dancing. In 1973 I recorded the repertoire of a wonderful anglo player - Mrs Susan Colley of Bathurst, NSW, who had played at the local bush dances. She was 92 when I recorded her songs, tunes and poems. On the tape (Warren Fahey Oral History Collection: National Library of Australia) Mrs Colley talks enthusiastically of playing the 'Arse-over-Anna' while playing her anglo behind her partners back. I said it must have been difficult but she just smiled and said, "yes, but it was lovely and tight'. Maybe it is an Australian custom since our dances were sometimes a bit 'rough and tumble' (like our environment). Incidentally, it was the anglo that was most common for bush dance accompaniment and in nearly forty years of collecting I rarely found an English being used for dance, although there were certainly thousands of Wheatstones and Lachenels (and some lesser brands) imported to the colonies. Now that I have joined concertina.net I plan to put up some of my findings and images of Australian concertina history. The site is very enjoyable. I play English and have a Wheatstone Aeloa and Lachenel.

[Warren Fahey]

By the way...... is it possible for me to get an email contact for Mary Chapman. I would like to ask her a bit more about her family's time in Australia. Is she in fact Moo Books?

[Bob Bolton]

G'day,

 

I see a fair amount of discussion of concertina players dancing, while playing their conc. behind their partner's back. This certainly was done here in Australia ... and I made a lot of use of circa 1900 illustration from a "Larrikin" * (* larrikins were members of "street gangs" in Australia's larger cities late 19th / early 20th centuries) magazine of "the Larrikin Schottische" - showing a trim and flashily dressed 'Larrikin' playing cancertina thusly while dancing with his large and flamboyantly dressed "Donah"* (* A larrikin's girlfriend). However, I know that the Hohner company had an old graphic on one of their posters of a (~)peasant couple dancing while the man played a small melodeon behind his partner.

 

Victorian (Aust. state, that is) concertina maker Ian Simpson often demonstrates this dancing style with his wife ... and I have heard of (but did not see, back in the '60s, when I worked on the nearby Snowy Mts Hydro Scheme ... and attended the Corryong Saturday Dances, with the Nariel Creek Band...) their band member who also did this. Somewhere in my photo archive, from (Australian) National Folk Festivals I have some shots of folklore collector / + concertina-button accordion player Rob Willis dancing with a lady concertinist ... while each plays Anglo-concertina behind the other's back!

 

Regards,

 

Bob

Edited November 8, 2007 by Bob Bolton