Why Did The Concertina Lose Popularity?

[James Plamondon]

Gentlepersons,

 

Why did the English concertina, apparently once so popular in Victrorian times, lose so much popularity that its players became nearly extinct?

 

Before investing serious time and money in learning to play the instrument, it seems only reasonable to ask.

 

Was it easy to play poorly, and hard to play well, so that it became the mark of a dilettante? Was Victorian England so racist that the concertina's domination by an Italian virtuoso doomed it? Was it simply too expensive, so that its popular support -- despite becoming large -- was not able to reach critical mass?

 

One can't help but wonder why the saxophone -- invented about the same time -- continues to thrive as a mainstream instrument, while the concertina has become a curiosity (relatively speaking). Perhaps the saxophone was assisted by the rise of jazz, for which it was so well-suited. Is the concertina demonstrably ill-suited to the styles of music that rose to popular prominence during the concertina's decline? Or was it so strongly associated with the older styles of music that it became a badge of uncoolness (as the accordion still is, from the mainstream perspective)? Or, what?

 

I'm not sure that this is the right forum for this, but it can't hurt to ask. At worst, asking exposes my ignorance -- but that's too vast for me to hide in any case. :-)

 

Thanks! :-)

 

--- James

[Rhomylly]

The only thing I can think of, which is probably lame, is that maybe its popularity with sailors made it less-than-pristine ideal for genteel Victorian ladies?

[Tom Hall]

For Victorian ladies, the English concertina was an ideal instrument, and much of its marketing was aimed toward them. In those good old days, ladies' instruments were the piano, harpsichord, harp and violin, and not martial brasses or suggestive woodwinds. And the connection with sailors may actually be more recent than is commonly thought.

 

The decline in popularity was due to many factors. During WWII, production all but ceased. And the post-war Wheatstones were not always the highest quality. The growth of radio and then television cut deeply into the popularity of live and homemade music. And when it began to resurface, people wanted guitars and, to a lesser extent, banjos. As was suggested, concertinas were not "cool," except to we few who persist in our free reed madness -- Tom

[Chris Timson]

There was never any association with sailors that I am aware of for the English concertina. The anglo concertina was a working class instrument, undoubtedly, and would not have been acceptable in more "refined" quarters ever. But I think the English suffered in different ways.

 

First, the musical establishment never really warmed to it. In fact, as I think of it, the classical music establishment never really warms to new instruments. I'm thinking here of things like the saxophone or the ondes martenot, which either make their way in other forms of music (the sax) or sink without trace (the martenot). Allan Atlas's book "The English Concertina in Victorian England" is quite enlightening on this - apparently Hector Berlioz absolutely hated it.

 

Second, the Concertina, and especially the English concertina, was (as it is now) an expensive piece of kit. In the early years of trhe 20th c the piano accordion basically out-competed it. Imagine yourelf looking in a shop window at a big PA, all mother of pearloid and rhinestones, and then realising that the tichy little all black concertina cost more and you'll have some idea of the problem. Have a look here at my page on the Accordiaphone, for some detail on one maker's response to the PA and why it bankrupted them.

 

Against all this, the concertina has refused to die. It took the Folk Revival of the 60s onward for it to find a music it could find a fashionable home with, and from that people, mostly on an amateur basis, could start to take it back into classical music (though so far with only limited success, in the Uk at any rate - the establishment again).

 

Chris

[Alfred C Dobbs]

Television (and radio) help to starve the "Concertina Culture". South Africa had a thriving concertina culture up untill the early 1980's which is about the same time they got television. I think that the diminished social interaction brought about by global popular mass media (included in this, a change in music taste) is a, if not thee, primary factor.

[allan atlas]

DEAR TOM AND FOLKS: just a very brief note. . . . .in fact, amateur female musicians were NOT drawn to the violin in great numbers. . . . . . . .not until the end of the nineteenth century, i think, did the violin become a respectable instrument for young ladies. . . . . . .George Gissing's The Whirlpool (1897) is instructive in this respect. . . . . .the heroine, Alma Frothingham, is castigated for two reasons: she plays the violin and she wants to play it professionally. . . . . .no less instructive: two novels by Wilkie Collins, Basil (1852) and Man and Wife (1870). . . . .in both there are husband-wife pairs who, significantly, play violin and piano, respectively. . . . . .that is, the husband plays the violin, the wife plays the piano. . . . . .moreover, the couple in Man and Wife was almost certainly modeled after Collins's close friends, the Lehmann's, where, again, the husband played violin, the wife played piano. . . . . . . .

 

can we confirm all this in real life: the records of the Royal Academy of Music are extant and have been published. . . . . .once could check the lists of students and the instruments they played. . . . . . .

 

when, in the 1840s, Madame Neruda, a virtuoso violinist, made a big splash in England, she was considered something of an innovator. . . . . .. .

 

i might point out that i am currently working on a topic of which the working title is "Gendering the Concertina in Victorian England". . . . . . .allan

Edited August 29, 2003 by allan atlas

[John Nixon]

Hi Friends,

I can assure you that the English Concertina was not only played by sailors during the 19th century, many of them were taken to Australia by sailors & some of those in custody having been found guilty of stealing a loaf of bread or some other trivial item.

When I was recording a program for the BBC called "Nimmo in Australia" in 1980, the producer, who had spent some time in OZ researching the program, told me that there seemed to be more English Concertinas in OZ than in the U.K.

During the 20's & 30's (and possibly earlier) there were English Concertina bands in most of the large towns of the industrial North of England. My father was a leading member of the Bolton English Concertina band at that time , & I joined the same band in 1933 @ the age of 6. The WW2 requirements for many men to move jobs for the war effort caused the break-up of most of the bands & they were not reformed after the war. ALL THE PLAYERS THAT I CAN REMEMBER WERE VERY MUCH WORKING CLASS PEOPLE. My father was an Iron Moulder until death in 1964.

The advent of the PIANO Accordion, which allowed dance band pianists to play Tangos

without the recourse to learn a fresh keyboard undoubtedly contributed to the reduction in the number of people wishing to learn to play an instrument that appeared to be more complicated than most others, particularly those with Linear

keyboards - Piano-Guitar-Reeds etc.

JOHN NIXON

[Rex]

Just my opinion, but I think the question is why have so many acoustic instruments waned in popularity. I play concertina, but I also play nylon strung guitar and the mandolin, which is another instrument that was threatened with obscurity but has been making a nice comeback in recent years. While listening to the radio today I heard an electronic keyboard that sounded a lot like a concertina. Music today has become a boring formula of electric bass, electric guitar, electric keyboards, and drums (often also electric!). I like many combinations of instruments, but this particular combination has been overdone. I think the electronic keyboard has replaced the concertina, accordian, bowed string instruments, wind instruments, and many other good instruments.

 

I also agree about people not making their own music as much today as in the days before radio and tv and cable and cds. Back then people gathered on the porch and brought different instruments into the mix and entertained themselves and had a good time with neighbors. My dad remembers those days and also remembers an uncle who would sit on the porch and play concertina and it was heard for blocks on a quiet night and people were drawn to that sound.

 

I feel that homegrown acoustic music is making a comeback and I think the concertina will be part of that. I have already seen some being played at old time music festivals, mostly in Irish or Cajun styles. I play in a bluegrass/Gospel band and we have used the concertina a few times. Especially when we play holiday music at Christmas time. I know the concertina is not a bluegrass instrument, but we break a lot of rules. LOL.

[rabennett]

I know the concertina is not a bluegrass instrument, but we break a lot of rules. LOL.

The concertina is not a bluegrass instrument?! Oh, no! That slick talking, door to door concertina salesman led me astray!

 

Regards,

Dick