New Challenges for the New Year

Over the Winter Holidays, both the baritone Geordie by Morse Concertinas arrived and the Fantini chromatic melody bass arrived.

I'm thrilled with both. The Geordie is a flawless piece of craftsmanship. Bellows are impeccably constructed and the ends and frames have joints so tight they are hard to find and the finish glows. It's tuned and voiced so that it speaks easily through most of the range (the two lowest notes (F and F# 2 octaves below middle c are slow to speak, but that's true with  low free reeds, and these notes are not typically on the Geordie.) The bellows need a little breaking in, but doing so will be a pleasure. I've found some nice Bach pieces that take advantage of nearly the full range of the instrument (F to a'' in Helmholtz notation).


The Fantini is everything I hoped for except it seemed the converter mechanism was mildly bungled in shipping. It has a date with a repair man next week. In the meanwhile, I can still play it in free bass mode, which is my objective! I have successfully worked through the Suzuki Piano 1 book. The basslines in that book are heavily patterned, so were not too difficult. I started working on some of the book 2 of the Suzuki Piano series and it will prove to be a good learning experience, much more challenging. The basslines require a lot more movement on the keyboard, so I will surely learn my way around the bass as I work though that book.  On the other hand, my right one- that is, things are moving along quite well. I am comfortably using 4 of the 5 rows of buttons for ease of fingering and am developing a bit of an intuition for the larger jumps. I play in front of the piano, so it's easy to check my self.

My interest in the free reed as a method of sound generation is growing. I did some experiments with plastic drinking straws without much success, more on that to come...

Also in the spirit of curiosity, I placed a modest bid on this project on ebay. I'll need something to experiment with as my curiosity grows.

Out of my league!

The musty bellow-less MacCann Duet went for over $130 USD. Amazing. Hopefully the insides are in good enough shape to fix up for the person who's out the money!

My free bass Fantini will be here Monday if FedEx delivers on time. Hopefully it will arrive in one piece with all the buttons working properly. 

This week my husband surprised me with my early Christmas present: A piano! I nice clean looking low-profile spinet. It is ironic, because the reason I got into concertina and accordion was that I had to liquidate my upright piano and harpsichord in order to move into his small house. I always grew up with keyboard instruments, as my Dad tunes and repairs pianos. Letting those instruments go was extremely difficult. Fortunately I was able to get a handsome price for the harpsichord, but the piano I had to give away.  When I moved in, I did get an electronic keyboard, but it is a sadly poor substitute for a real instrument. Electrons will never replace levers, hammers, plectra, and the delightful mechanical wonders that make instruments  beautiful, temperamental, fragile, and full of personality.

I decided that I needed to learn a small instrument that would play in tune on its own (a reference to my cacophonous experience as a cellist). I needed to be able to accompany my son on his trumpet, and play some Bach melodies. The English Concertina was a great fit. I'm learning that, but I also hunger to play my own accompaniment or bass line, so I tried a duet concertina (Hayden system). The Stagi Duet that I could afford was not a very fun instrument to play: sluggish action and I thought it sounded like a toy compared to the Morse Baritone. I then got the Bayan, started this blog, and moved up to the much anticipated Fantini. In my quest for the perfect compliment of accordions and concertinas, I have had at some time and in order of possession:

• Full size Italian piano accordion- no brand (sold)
• Jack English Concertina (sold)
• Jackie English Concertina (sold)
• Morse Albion Baritone EC (ready to exchange when the Geordie is done being made)
• Kirov Rubin 7 Bayan(sold)
• And on it's way here, the Fantini.

At least there is a flux of instruments and not a stack of accordions and concertinas in my office. I will have to learn how to repair accordions before starting a store (I am joking here, but sometimes the unintended is exactly what happens). When the dust settles I should have only the Geordie and the Fantini, and... finally the piano I have been sorely missing.

Curiosity kills

After promising my my dear spouse that I would not buy any more accordions, this neglected Lachenal MacCann Duet (?) popped up on eBay and in the US. I bid really low since it's in such rough shape, but maybe it will make a nice project.

The bellows are completely deteriorated, but I can't tell much about the mechanism and condition of the wood, except that it seems to be hanging together with a roughly concertina-shaped geometry.

Concertina.com has a great page about the MacCann Duet configuration with samples of tutors and arrangements for the instrument (MacCann Duet Page). It seems to have been the dominant duet configuration in the later 1800s and first half of the 20th century. The Robert Gaskins article mentions that MacCann Duet 'tinas are increasingly rare because they are no longer being made. My thoughts are that this is because the demand is in decline and the new Hayden Duet system is now the preferred configuration. Here's another Gaskins article comparing the configurations.

Why paper cutters were the best thing for Concetrina manufacture since the evolution of folded cows.

An in-progress concertina bellows by Bob Tedrow

Here's a great photo essay about the intensely precise effort that it takes to turn some cardboard and hide into a beautiful bellows. Bob Tedrow is a Concertina Maker extraordinaire in the SE US.
Link: Bob Tedrow makes some bellows

A couple nice free arrangements

These were arranged by Nikolai Ryskov and posted on Free-scores.com. Mr. Ryskov has nearly 50 free arrangements of tunes through the Free-scores site so if you like one you might investigate his other arrangements. It's great that people share so much work so freely.

The famous Habanera from Bizet's Carmen
Love is a gypsy's child,
it has never, ever, known a law;
love me not, then I love you;
if I love you, you'd best beware!

Bizet, Georges Habaneta ''Dat's Love'' from Opera ''Carmen'' Accordion Classical / 1875 Powered by Free-scores.com

 
and also:
Offenbach's Can-Can from Orpheus in the Underworld.

Offenbach, Jacques Can-Can + MP3 (human interpretation)Accordion Classical / 1858 Powered by Free-scores.com

New family member

It just happened to be on eBay, at an unimaginable price. It's a smaller B-system converter accordion by Fantini. It has 3 sets of reeds in the treble and 4 in the bass.


It will be a couple weeks before it arrives, maybe sooner. Depends on how DHL ships.  I put the Bayan up on State College Craigslist. Any takers? (UPDATE: After only three days on craigslist I found a taker on the Bayan. Who'd a thunk it would be so easy!)

Some musical progress and getting to know the Bayan's good points

I am having a lot of fun with the bayan.  I'm doing much better at scales. I can do them with modest fluidity with both hands. I can sight read things without too many sharps and flats on my right hand.  I am working through the Palmer-Hughes basic accordion books. I am just over half way through book 2. I use the standard bass for those. Playing simple arrangements for standbys like "Coming 'round the mountain" and "The Merry Widow Waltz" is surprisingly more rewarding than I expected. I have noticed that when I keep a light touch on the base, the accordion sounds happy and light. If I dwell on the bass and chords, the music gets heavy very quickly, perhaps because of the amount of sound generated. If I get one down well, maybe I will summon the courage to put a video up for prosperity. It's on the edge of awful right now thanks to my poor- but developing skills.

On the Bach, the one that I presented the fingerings for, below, I can play slowly with the free bass. The bass is great for the deep notes, but it is easy to see that the action is a little sluggish and the voicing is uneven. I am completely spoiled by my current English concertina, which is like lightning (Morse Albion Baritone, soon to be traded in for a Geordie Morse Baritone).