Concertina time

I've been learning a little bit about concertinas lately. Many readers will associate the word with a small hexagonally shaped instrument. A smaller number will associate it with the larger boxy Chemnitzer or German concertinas, and Portuguese readers might associate it with the triple-row diatonic button accordion - all different instruments. This isn't the place to go into a great deal of detail about the differences and similarities in all these instruments, and in any case, I'm just a diatonic button accordion player and not an expert on the various concertinas.

I thought it might be fun to make some posts featuring the music of the various concertinas. I've made a a couple posts in recent months which refer to or feature the chemnitzer concertina, if you'd like to check them out.

Today, I'm going to post some videos featuring the Anglo Concertina. If I have it straight, the Anglo is like the Chemnitzer in that it is bisonoric (different note for each button on the pull and squeeze) and based on the diatonic scale in a couple keys (plus some helper notes).

Here's a fellow named Jeff Leff playing a cakewalk called Whistling Rufus.

Very nice indeed!

The right hand side of the Anglo looks is set up like this:


And here is the left side:


The last video is Mark Davies playing an English tune:


Here is A brief history of the Anglo concertina in the United States.