Concertina : Ireland musical instrument

A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like different accordions and harmonica. More distantly related, though still in the same family of instrument are the harmonium and the American reed organ.

source of picture: musicwithease.com

The musical instrument has a bellow, and buttons on both extremes of the instrument. When pressed, the buttons move in the same direction as the bellows, unlike the buttons of an accordion that travels specifically to the bellows. Each button on the musical instrument manufactures one note, while accordions typically manufacture chords with a single button.

The concertina was fabricated in England and Germany, most likely independently. The English version of the musical instrument was fabricated in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, who filed a patent for an upgraded version of the musical instrument in the year 1844. Carl Friedrich Uhlig publicized the German version of the musical instrument in the year 1834.

The word concertina denotes to a family of hand-held bellows-driven free-reed musical instruments carved according to different systems. Strictly speaking: the concertinas have six sides, Aeolas have eight sides and the Edeophones have twelve sides. The system varies in the; notes and ranges that are available, the position of the buttons on the instrument, the sonoricity of the notes, the ability of the instrument to manufacture sounds in both bellows directions, the size and shape of the musical instrument and the style needed to hold the musical instrument, the type of reed that is found on the instrument, which could be steel, brass, nickel silver tongue; or then mechanical action that closes and opens the valves to the reed chambers of the musical instrument.

Because this musical instrument was invented nearly at the same time in Germany and England, patterns can be broadly divided into German, English and Anglo-German versions. To any player of the instrument who is good with any of the versions of the instrument, a concertina that is carved to different system may be hard for him to perform.

The English version of the musical instrument is a fully chromatic musical instrument, with buttons in a rectangular organization of four stunned rows, having the short side of the rectangle addressing the wrist. Sir Charles Wheatstone was credited with the invention of the musical instrument, his earliest invent of a like musical instrument was granted in December 19, 1829, no 5803 in the Great Britain. The two deepest rows of the layout comprise of a diatonic C major scale, dispersed interchangeably between the two sides of the musical instrument. As such, in a given range, C-E-G-B-d is on one side of the musical instrument, while D-F-A-c-e is located on the other side of the musical instrument. The two outer rows are made up of the sharp and flats needed to complete the chromatic scale. The distribution of scale notes between sides of the instrument enhances rapid melodic play on the instrument, though it can make the chords more difficult to learn than scales.

A virtuoso player and composer on this musical instrument and the guitar, Giulio Regondi, helped in making the English version of the musical instrument more popular during the 19^th century. In his book, ‘The Wheatstone Concertina in Victorian England’, Allan Atlas identifies 6 popular concertos written for the musical instrument.

The English version of the concertina is characteristically held by placing the thumbs via the thumb straps and the tiny fingers on metal finger rests, leaving three fingers of the hand free for the playing of the instrument. Alternatively, both the tiny fingers of the hand and the 4^th finger support the metal finger rest, leaving two fingers of the hand free for the playing of the musical instrument. In the classical pattern of Regondi, the tiny finger of the hand is used together with the other three fingers of the hand, and the metal finger rests are used only very rarely. This permits all eight fingers of the hand to gradually play the musical instrument so large chords are possible.

English-system treble concertinas and the tenor-treble concertinas often span 3 ½ or 4 octaves. Baritones are analogous but transpose down one octave. Bass version of the instrument transpose 2 octaves down and the piccolo versions of the instrument perform one octave. The keyboard stud arrangement and spacing is the same in all the versions of the instrument, so the band players of the musical instrument can all perform from music in treble clef, and it is straightforward to move from the smaller version to a bigger version of the musical instrument.

The musical instruments constructed to different duet systems are the last development step in the history of this musical instrument and less common than other versions of concertinas. The duet version of the musical instrument aims to simplify the playing of a melody with an accompaniment. To this juncture, the different duet systems feature single note button layout that gives the lower notes in the left hand and the higher notes in the right hand, often with some overlap.

This version of the musical instrument is held by placing the hands through a leather strap, having the thumbs outside the strap and the palm of the hand resting on the wooden bars. The largest duets perform bass notes down to C below the stave and an experienced player of the instrument can perform solo piano music with little or no compromise.

Frequently, the german versions of the concertina also use more than one reed for each note to manufacture a fuller tune. Depending on the producer, each note can have about 5 reed stretched across 3 octaves. Sometimes, these reeds are somewhat out of tune with each other in order to manufacture a vibrato effect that is known as the Chicago tuning, wet or musette. With dry tuning or the Minnesota tuning, the reeds of the instrument are in tune with each other and do no manufacture this effect. Also there is a traditional tuning of an octave stretched as established by Herr Lange in the 19^th century.

The Anglo-German concertina historically is a hybrid between the German version of the instrument and the English version of the musical instrument. The button layouts are commonly the same as the traditional 20-button German version of the concertinas that was fabricated in 1834 by Uhlig. Hithin a few years of that date, the german version of the musical instrument was a prominent import in some countries like the North America, England and Ireland, because of the ease of use of the instrument and relatively the low price of the instrument. English producers responded to this popularity of the hgerman version of the concertina by offering their own versions of the instrument using traditional English pattern; concertina reeds rather than the long-plate reeds independent pivots for each button of the instrument, and hexagon-shaped ends. Initially, the name Anglo-german only applied to the versions of the instrument constructed in England, though as the German producers adopted some of these styles, the term came to apply to all versions of the musical instrument that used Uhlig’s 20-button style.

The Anglo-German musical instrument is typically held by placing the hands via a leather strap, with the thumbs of the finger outside the strap and the palm resting on the wooden bars of the instrument. This arrangement leaves four fingers of each hand free for the playing of the musical instrument, and the thumb free to control an air valve or a drone. This version of the musical instrument is usually linked with the music of Ireland, but they also used other musical contexts, especially in music for the English Morris dance and Boeremusiek. Popular English players of the musical instrument are Scan Tester, John Spiers, William Kimber, and John Kirkpatrick

The Franglo system concertina was fabricated by generally respected luthiers C and R Dipper, in co-operation with Emmanuel Pariselle, known for his expertise as an experienced and skilled player of 2 ½ row diatonic melodeon. This version of the musical instrument has the building and reed work of a concertina but has the button layout of a melodeon. The name given to the musical instrument is derived from the two words French and Anglo.

In the mid-1830, the musical instruments were produced and sold in Germany and England, in two versions that are specific to the country. Both system continued to grow into the current forms as the popularity of the musical instrument increased. The difference in the prices and the common uses of the German version and the English version led to something of a class differences between the two versions of the musical instrument. German and Anglo-German versions of the musical instrument were seen as lower-class musical instruments, and the English version of the musical instrument had an air of bourgeois respectability. The English version of the musical instrument was most prominent as parlor musical instrument for classical music, while the German versions of the musical instrument were most linked with popular dance of the day.

In the 1850s, the ability of the Anglo-German version of the instrument to perform both melody and accompaniment led English producers to start fabricating different duet systems. The popular Maccann system was fabricated toward the end of the century. Besides, German producers were manufacturing some musical instrument with more than 20 buttons for their local sale.

The musical instrument was popular all through the 19^th century, the Salvation Army in England, New Zealand, America and Australia generally used the musical instrument in their bands and other concertina bands and players performed in all parts of the English speaking countries. The German emigrants took their Chemnizters and bandonions with them to the United States and Argentina where they were regionally known.

In the early part of the 20^th century, this popularity of the instrument started to decline. Reasons included rising relative attractiveness and popularity of the accordion, mass production of some other musical instruments like piano, accumulative chromatic and less tonal form of music like the jazz and the blues and the general debility of amateur musical performance because of the radio and phonograph. By the middle of the 20^th century, few producers of the musical instrument still remained, and most of those forms of the instrument survived in some regions.

The folk revival movement of the 1960 saw to the modest revival in the popularity of the musical instrument, especially the Anglo-German version. More recently, the popularity of the musical instrument seems on the rise, especially the Anglo-German version of the instrument in the traditional music of Ireland. Renewed interest in tango since the 1980s has seen to the increased interest in the bandonion.

Traditional music performing continues in several part of the United Kingdom in the 21^st century, normally using the English versions and the Anglo-German versions of the musical instrument. The revival of the concertina band is inspired by constant weekends and meetings for the players of the instrument to make music together and get tuition, folk festival workshop and passionate group meetings monthly.

Currently, there are at least 11 producers of traditional hand-made musical instrument in Europe, North America, Australia and South Africa. The commonly use traditional styles and hand-made reeds, and commonly offer several options for the kind of instrument, materials, ornamentation, button layout, the tuning and some other customization on the musical instrument. Quality traditional instruments need labor and good skill to manufacture, so the price of the instrument can be high and waiting lists long. Cheap mass produced accordion-reeded musical instruments are less reliable than the concertina that is hand made. Since the mid-1970s, the hand-made accordion-reeded versions of the musical instrument have become a high quality cheaper substitute. They are primarily manufactured using traditional constructing styles, and some are carved customized to order, though the traditional design is adapted to use mass-manufactured accordion reeds to meaningfully minimize production cost and time. They are generally known as hybrids, but some producers object to the term.