Earliest Concertina's In California

[Hooves]

I tried to do a search for this, but the flood control is on:

 

Anybody have information on when the first concertina in California arrived?

 

I'm askign because recently a co-worker was playing his fiddle with accompianment from his wife on English Concertina for "Gold Rush Days" in old Sacramento - I pointed out that the concertina may not have been in California at the time.

 

I suppose its concievable a concertina may have been in California in 1849, but I doubt it.

[Hooves]

I tried to do a search for this, but the flood control is on:

 

Anybody have information on when the first concertina in California arrived?

 

I'm askign because recently a co-worker was playing his fiddle with accompianment from his wife on English Concertina for "Gold Rush Days" in old Sacramento - I pointed out that the concertina may not have been in California at the time.

 

I suppose its concievable a concertina may have been in California in 1849, but I doubt it.

 

 

On the sister site Concertina.com, there is an article about the history of the concertina in the U.S. It appears Concetina's were in the U.S. in the 1840's, so I suppose it is possible that an English box could be in California in 1849-1850.

 

Still, anybody have any definitive records of such?

[asdormire]

Dan would be the best person to ask, as he wrote the article and did the research, but I think it would be far more likely for a cheap german box than an english to be there at that time.

 

Alan

[MUTT]

Dan would be the best person to ask, as he wrote the article and did the research, but I think it would be far more likely for a cheap german box than an english to be there at that time.

 

Alan

 

I can imagine no particular reason why a concertina player (of either german or english) would have been any less susceptible to gold fever than a fiddler or flute player, and both of those two were evident in California. Remember, we're not talking cultural diffusion here; it was a "rush" from all corners of the globe. And a concertina would have been so easy to take along. But I'm happy to wait on Mr. Worrall's opinion, too.

[Daniel Hersh]

I tried doing some Dan-style research myself and came up with this, from the newspaper Daily Alta California, June 20, 1855:

"San Francisco Hall -- The new management has commenced under favorable auspices at this popular place of amusement...Mr. Hooley, another new acquisition, made a favorable impression. His violin and concertina solos were received with great favor."

You can see the article for yourself at http://cbsrfs.ucr.edu/batches/batch_ca_200...062001/0672.pdf -- it's near the bottom of the second column under "Musical - Theatrical". Your guess is as good as mine as to what type of concertina Mr. Hooley played.

 

Daniel

 

Dan would be the best person to ask, as he wrote the article and did the research, but I think it would be far more likely for a cheap german box than an english to be there at that time.

 

Alan

[Hooves]

I tried doing some Dan-style research myself and came up with this, from the newspaper Daily Alta California, June 20, 1855:

"San Francisco Hall -- The new management has commenced under favorable auspices at this popular place of amusement...Mr. Hooley, another new acquisition, made a favorable impression. His violin and concertina solos were received with great favor."

You can see the article for yourself at http://cbsrfs.ucr.edu/batches/batch_ca_200...062001/0672.pdf -- it's near the bottom of the second column under "Musical - Theatrical". Your guess is as good as mine as to what type of concertina Mr. Hooley played.

 

Daniel

 

Dan would be the best person to ask, as he wrote the article and did the research, but I think it would be far more likely for a cheap german box than an english to be there at that time.

 

Alan

 

 

Thanks, thats the kind of info I was looking for.

 

at first I doubted the concertina would be there, but after reading Dan's article (and I agree it would be easy enough to carry), I think it could have been there at that time. Ultimately it doesn't really matter, just being a bit of a historical-stickler.

 

Plus, it was "gold rush days" festival, so a few years after the 1849 date would still qualify.

 

Since most people can't tell one concertina from another the type of box would certainly go unnoticed by the patrons of the festival.

 

Now I'll have to find out if they had a Bodhran player too...

[Anglo-Irishman]

Plus, it was "gold rush days" festival, so a few years after the 1849 date would still qualify.

 

Since most people can't tell one concertina from another the type of box would certainly go unnoticed by the patrons of the festival.

 

Now I'll have to find out if they had a Bodhran player too...

 

Hooves,

Bodhran is highly unlikely. Until well into the 20th century, I believe, use of the bodhran in Ireland was restricted to certain ritual processions in country areas, and was often played by small boys. Seems it didn't move over into entertainment and dance music until the mid-20th century folk revival. So it would be unlikely to have accompanied the fiddles, flutes and concertinas to the New World that early.

 

This is just hearsay, FWIW - I haven't researched it scientifically, and I'm not old enough to know from personal experience

 

Cheers,

John

[Dan Worrall]

I tried doing some Dan-style research myself and came up with this, from the newspaper Daily Alta California, June 20, 1855:

"San Francisco Hall -- The new management has commenced under favorable auspices at this popular place of amusement...Mr. Hooley, another new acquisition, made a favorable impression. His violin and concertina solos were received with great favor."

You can see the article for yourself at http://cbsrfs.ucr.edu/batches/batch_ca_200...062001/0672.pdf -- it's near the bottom of the second column under "Musical - Theatrical". Your guess is as good as mine as to what type of concertina Mr. Hooley played.

 

Daniel

 

Dan would be the best person to ask, as he wrote the article and did the research, but I think it would be far more likely for a cheap german box than an english to be there at that time.

 

Alan

 

 

Thanks, thats the kind of info I was looking for.

 

at first I doubted the concertina would be there, but after reading Dan's article (and I agree it would be easy enough to carry), I think it could have been there at that time. Ultimately it doesn't really matter, just being a bit of a historical-stickler.

 

Plus, it was "gold rush days" festival, so a few years after the 1849 date would still qualify.

 

Since most people can't tell one concertina from another the type of box would certainly go unnoticed by the patrons of the festival.

 

Now I'll have to find out if they had a Bodhran player too...

Sorry not to have answered sooner; I've been out and about. Chris asked me about this offline, and I sent him this picture which I'll post here, from late 1855, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin. Concertinas were arriving by clipper ship. Although it mentions a French maker for these various musical instruments, the concertinas were likely to have been German.

Thanks for the article from the Alta paper, also in 1855. Because the player was Irish (Hooley), they were dancing jigs in a middlebrow setting, I'll guess it was a German concertina; they were well flooding England and Ireland and the States by then, from all available information.

Cheers,

Dan

 

[Hooves]

I tried doing some Dan-style research myself and came up with this, from the newspaper Daily Alta California, June 20, 1855:

"San Francisco Hall -- The new management has commenced under favorable auspices at this popular place of amusement...Mr. Hooley, another new acquisition, made a favorable impression. His violin and concertina solos were received with great favor."

You can see the article for yourself at http://cbsrfs.ucr.edu/batches/batch_ca_200...062001/0672.pdf -- it's near the bottom of the second column under "Musical - Theatrical". Your guess is as good as mine as to what type of concertina Mr. Hooley played.

 

Daniel

 

Dan would be the best person to ask, as he wrote the article and did the research, but I think it would be far more likely for a cheap german box than an english to be there at that time.

 

Alan

 

 

Thanks, thats the kind of info I was looking for.

 

at first I doubted the concertina would be there, but after reading Dan's article (and I agree it would be easy enough to carry), I think it could have been there at that time. Ultimately it doesn't really matter, just being a bit of a historical-stickler.

 

Plus, it was "gold rush days" festival, so a few years after the 1849 date would still qualify.

 

Since most people can't tell one concertina from another the type of box would certainly go unnoticed by the patrons of the festival.

 

Now I'll have to find out if they had a Bodhran player too...

Sorry not to have answered sooner; I've been out and about. Chris asked me about this offline, and I sent him this picture which I'll post here, from late 1855, San Francisco Daily Evening Bulletin. Concertinas were arriving by clipper ship. Although it mentions a French maker for these various musical instruments, the concertinas were likely to have been German.

Thanks for the article from the Alta paper, also in 1855. Because the player was Irish (Hooley), they were dancing jigs in a middlebrow setting, I'll guess it was a German concertina; they were well flooding England and Ireland and the States by then, from all available information.

Cheers,

Dan

 

 

 

Thanks for the information, that works great, just the type of info I knew I would get from Concertina.net.

 

I was just kidding about the Bodhran.