Concertina Players In China?

[Alan Day]

There must be hundreds of Chinese Concertinas sold Worldwide, are there any Chinese players of the instrument ?

Al

[stuart estell]

I would think that at the very least some of the workers must have taken factory-second instruments home with them and messed about with them. I suppose the question is how on earth we would find out...

Edited June 20, 2007 by stuart estell

[Alan Day]

I would think that at the very least some of the workers must have taken factory-second instruments home with them and messed about with them. I suppose the question is how on earth we would find out...

Exactly Stuart ,there have been a number of hits on my site from China, but never any contact, there could be thousands of players there for all we know ,some brilliant.I wonder if the concertina lends itself to Chinese music? I have had contact from Japan, but that was an English person working there.

For all we know they may be amongst the Lurkers on this site that creap in and out and never say anything,

but sometimes if you listen quietly you can hear their Ghostly playing.

Al

Edited June 21, 2007 by Alan Day

[Chris Timson]

I have had contact from Japan, but that was an English person working there.

There are Japanese players for a fact. There's forum member Wakasaobama for a starter. There's Maki and Masayoshi Koizumi, who have a lovely Dipper G/D and play in the Jabara Home Party, a Japanese band who play mostly English dance and morris music. They've stayed with us and they are nice people. There are others I have corresponded with over the years but I can't remember their names offhand. So I don't know about China but the concertina is certainly present and played in Japan.

 

 

Chris

[stuart estell]

Exactly Stuart ,there have been a number of hits on my site from China, but never any contact, there could be thousands of players there for all we know ,some brilliant.I wonder if the concertina lends itself to Chinese music?

 

I suppose another question might be whether, like the Zulu players, any Chinese players have customised the layouts of the instrument to make it suit the requirements of their music. That'd be really interesting.

[Takayuki YAGI]

I don't know about China neither.

 

But yes, there are tens of or more concertina players here in Japan, at a moderate estimate.

As far as I know, in recent years the popurality of the concertina players here is growing.

 

In my thought, some of Japanese players (including me) see this forum, maybe as a guest.

For me it is much much more difficult to make what I meant to say in English than reading , so I often hesitate to make a post and see here as a silent participant...

 

I love playing concertina and would like to thank all people here .

 

--

Taka

[Robin Harrison]

Hi Taka...........don't be silent,we'd all love to hear from you and have you participate .You would all be such valued members.

Regards Robin

[Alan Day]

Hallo from me as well Taka and Welcome.

What sort of music are you playing and is anyone in Japan using the concertina for accompaniment with singing or modern music?

Al

[yankeeclipper]

Hi Taka - Wakarimasen nihon-go, so your English is much better than my Japanese! Please don't hesitate to post your questions, ideas, or information about concertina playing in Japan - everyone here would love to hear from you. And no one would criticize your English, which is surprisingly good! Domo arigato gozaimasu!

[paperpunchr]

There must be hundreds of Chinese Concertinas sold Worldwide, are there any Chinese players of the instrument ?

Al

 

 

We had the opportunity while stationed in Japan to go to Beijing in 1994 for a St Paddy's day celebration and play a bit of Irish there at the Great Wall Sheraton...I hit one of the music shops in Beijing and was astonished at the low prices for anything you could imagine...console and Baby Grand pianos, accordions, all the conventional western instruments...I wasn't interested in (indeed only barely aware of the existence of) concertinas, so I don't recall seeing any, but I'd not be surprised if there were even concertina orchestras there. I'm sure there are players there, and probably some very good ones. As for adapting it to Chinese music, it wouldn't surprise me if they played English, Irish, and any other western music including classical concertina...from what I could see someone there either made or played every instrument in the western catalog, in every style and type of music that would fit on the instrument. (Of course, I understand the free reed instrument family is believed to be largely based on or developed from the operating principles of the Chinese "sheng", a few of which found their way to Europe back in the 1700's...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sheng_(instrument) )...So concertinas in China could be considered "bringing it all back home".

 

Bought a child size piano accordion for about $8...still play it now and then, and picked up a couple of other traditional Chinese instruments (sort of a wood topped banjo and a chinese violin) to hang on the wall. Didn't have enough room in the suitcase for a piano. :-)

 

...there were mandolin orchestras in Japan, and I thought those had pretty much died out years ago. I taught conversational English as a sideline while in Japan, and one of my students' daughters played in a mandolin orchestra, so we went to her groups concert/recital. Amazing.

 

There were Irish and English sessions in Japan back then, as well as Japanese session players and even Irish bands and duos...the music has a very wide appeal, and western styles of classical and folk music have parallels/adaptaions into Japanese, and probably Chinese, music as well, from what I could see and hear. Our little Irish band (two yanks, an Ozzie, and two Irish) was well received at events in Tokyo and Yokohama and even took fourth place at a bluegrass festival while we were there. We played at several Tokyo Celtic or Irish festivals up til 1994....then I retired and left Japan, and the rest of the group more or less went their separate ways.

Edited June 21, 2007 by paperpunchr

[asdormire]

...there were mandolin orchestras in Japan, and I thought those had pretty much died out years ago. I taught conversational English as a sideline while in Japan, and one of my students' daughters played in a mandolin orchestra, so we went to her groups concert/recital. Amazing.

 

There are still mandolin orchestras here in Ohio. I know the one in Dayton does a couple of concerts a year. And my wife is in a classical mandolin quartet here. She also played mandolin in the concertina band at the New England squeeze in this past fall.

 

Alan

[Takayuki YAGI]

Hi Taka...........don't be silent,we'd all love to hear from you and have you participate .You would all be such valued members.

Hallo from me as well Taka and Welcome.

What sort of music are you playing and is anyone in Japan using the concertina for accompaniment with singing or modern music?

Hi Taka - Wakarimasen nihon-go, so your English is much better than my Japanese! Please don't hesitate to post your questions, ideas, or information about concertina playing in Japan - everyone here would love to hear from you. And no one would criticize your English, which is surprisingly good! Domo arigato gozaimasu!

 

Thank you for the warm greetings ! . I will try not to be a silent participant.

 

My main interest is Irish music, particularly the style of elder players in Co. Clare. I usually play C/G anglos.

But recently I got a G/D and sometimes play tunes in lower key.

 

As I live in a not-so-big town, I usually play music for me, and when go to large city like Tokyo, Osaka... I join a session and/or play for dancers. That is also good fun for me.

 

Unfortunatelly I haven't met a Japanese musician using the concertina for accompaniment with singing ( but I think there are ). I once heard of some Japanese concertina players who plays original/modern compositions.

 

Regards

 

--

Taka

[Jim Stetson]

There must be hundreds of Chinese Concertinas sold Worldwide, are there any Chinese players of the instrument ?

As for adapting it to Chinese music, it wouldn't surprise me if they played English, Irish, and any other western music including classical concertina...

Though these aren't concertina players, it looks like adapting the music is not that much of a stretch, really. In this excellent video, Mongolian musicians jam on a rooftop in Beijing with the likes of Bela Fleck and Abagail Washburn:

. To me, this would be the ultimate. To be an accomplished musician and be able to travel the world and play with other musicians looks like so much fun. Ah, well, maybe in another life.

[Dan Worrall]

I would think that at the very least some of the workers must have taken factory-second instruments home with them and messed about with them. I suppose the question is how on earth we would find out...

Exactly Stuart ,there have been a number of hits on my site from China, but never any contact, there could be thousands of players there for all we know ,some brilliant.I wonder if the concertina lends itself to Chinese music? I have had contact from Japan, but that was an English person working there.

For all we know they may be amongst the Lurkers on this site that creap in and out and never say anything,

but sometimes if you listen quietly you can hear their Ghostly playing.

Al

 

As it happens, I've been in China with my family the last week and a half. Today I'm staying in our hotel; my son has a stomach bug and I'm watching over him.

I didn't get to look around for music in Beijing, but did look at an instrument shop in Tai 'an (a Houston-sized city south of Beijing), where they had some small piano accordions but no concertinas. The shopkeeper, who had no more English than I have Mandarin, indicated that no one played concertinas in his area, although he knew what they were.

In Shanghai, a city of 21 million people, I went to two musical instrument shops...no free reed instruments for sale. One of those shops was dedicated to traditional Chinese folk instruments. Another was more focused on classical western music and guitars. The shopkeeper looked at me with amusement when I asked about accordions. Our Shanghai-based guide knew of no other such stores with accordion potential, but you know how that goes.

I did see a sheng in performance, however. It's owner was part of a traditional Chinese ensemble of about 12 persons. Unfortunately it was a theatre setting, so I didn't get to get a closer look at it.

 

From what little I have seen, free reed instruments are not particularly linked to their traditional music, at least in this part of eastern China. Marching accordion bands were part of the socialist Mao thing, and if there is anything modern Chinese want nothing to do with, it is anything associated with Red Guards and the Cultural Revolution. This place is skyrocketing into the future.

 

Obviously there could be players around in nooks and crannies here; it would be difficult for a casual short term visitor to find a concertina player even in Britain. But I have the feeling that any who might exist are a rare breed indeed....and they are more likely to be playing some sort of popular or western music (Irish perhaps) rather than Chinese traditional material. The factories are likely exporting most of the concertinas made. I could easily be wrong!

[Alan Day]

I would think that at the very least some of the workers must have taken factory-second instruments home with them and messed about with them. I suppose the question is how on earth we would find out...

Exactly Stuart ,there have been a number of hits on my site from China, but never any contact, there could be thousands of players there for all we know ,some brilliant.I wonder if the concertina lends itself to Chinese music? I have had contact from Japan, but that was an English person working there.

For all we know they may be amongst the Lurkers on this site that creap in and out and never say anything,

but sometimes if you listen quietly you can hear their Ghostly playing.

Al

 

As it happens, I've been in China with my family the last week and a half. Today I'm staying in our hotel; my son has a stomach bug and I'm watching over him.

I didn't get to look around for music in Beijing, but did look at an instrument shop in Tai 'an (a Houston-sized city south of Beijing), where they had some small piano accordions but no concertinas. The shopkeeper, who had no more English than I have Mandarin, indicated that no one played concertinas in his area, although he knew what they were.

In Shanghai, a city of 21 million people, I went to two musical instrument shops...no free reed instruments for sale. One of those shops was dedicated to traditional Chinese folk instruments. Another was more focused on classical western music and guitars. The shopkeeper looked at me with amusement when I asked about accordions. Our Shanghai-based guide knew of no other such stores with accordion potential, but you know how that goes.

I did see a sheng in performance, however. It's owner was part of a traditional Chinese ensemble of about 12 persons. Unfortunately it was a theatre setting, so I didn't get to get a closer look at it.

 

From what little I have seen, free reed instruments are not particularly linked to their traditional music, at least in this part of eastern China. Marching accordion bands were part of the socialist Mao thing, and if there is anything modern Chinese want nothing to do with, it is anything associated with Red Guards and the Cultural Revolution. This place is skyrocketing into the future.

 

Obviously there could be players around in nooks and crannies here; it would be difficult for a casual short term visitor to find a concertina player even in Britain. But I have the feeling that any who might exist are a rare breed indeed....and they are more likely to be playing some sort of popular or western music (Irish perhaps) rather than Chinese traditional material. The factories are likely exporting most of the concertinas made. I could easily be wrong!

 

It sounds Dan as if you are right ,certainly for the area you visited.You in fact did a little marketing survey and found no market at all. The Chinese will make anything in large quantities at the right price if they understand exactly what you want and it seems that concertinas form part of their export and wonder what ever we do with them.

A little concertina playing cultural visit would not go amiss.

Al

[Leo]

I wonder if anybody from the Chinese Irish Cultural Academy could have any information?

http://www.cicaireland.com/

 

At least one group went to China in the mid?? 80's, I think as part of the cultural exchange program, but I couldn't find if thay had any influence there to promote their style of music any further. They did not have a concertina among them.

http://members.shaw.ca/chieftains/china.html

 

Thanks

Leo

[Jim Stetson]

At least one group went to China in the mid?? 80's, I think as part of the cultural exchange program, but I couldn't find if thay had any influence there to promote their style of music any further. They did not have a concertina among them.

http://members.shaw.ca/chieftains/china.html

Wow, I know the Chieftains record with all kinds of other music groups but I never considered they might have done something Chinese. That's cool!

Last year, Hanneke Cassel (fiddle) and Zhao Lei (erhu) recorded a beautiful piece called Jasmine Flower based on a traditional Chinese tune. It's another example of how well Chinese traditional music can meld with western traditional music. http://cdbaby.com/cd/hanneke3

 

A preview of the Sparrow Quartet documentary has been posted to YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i-EGSNdHblA There are a couple of chinese accordion players shown briefly, but still no concertinas.

 

Sorry if this is veering off-topic a bit, but I've got to cite this link too. The video quality sucks but the audio is decent and they're all just such inspirational performers. Abigail sings in Chinese:

[Dan Worrall]

A footnote to my above posting.

 

Just back from Shanghai. I didin't see any more of free reeds there, but a friend did. He was visiting a park in Shanghai (Lu Hxun (possibly Lu Hsun) Park) on Sunday afternoon, and reported thast there were numerous small amateur musical groups there, playing traditional and popular music as well as singing songs...just relaxing. Perhaps a dozen or more of these small groups scattered throughout the park.

 

Instruments did not include concertina, but four of these groups had button (not piano) accordions. Other instruments included fiddles, Chinese flutes, and the Chinese upright lap fiddle (cannot remember its name). The music and singing was described to me as 'modern and melodic' as opposed to the ancient type played for example in Chinese traditional opera. My non-musical friend reported an oom-pah like sound, with boisterous singing in Chinese. Unfortunately, I didn't hear of this park musical scene until the following day, or else I would have checked it out.

 

So...there is a lead for the next person off this forum who visits Shanghai. Head to that park on Sunday afternoon, and tell us more!