Cultural Associations

The Anglo concertina is a bellows-driven, free-reed aerophone of the British people. The Anglo concertina pictured and described here was made in Italy but bears no maker’s name. In England “[i]n the late nineteenth century, concertinas were to be found everywhere where working and middle class people lived - in the streets, in the pubs, in churches and Salvationist revivals, on board British ships at sea, and … at dances in houses, at village festivals, in taprooms, and in public halls” (Worrall, Chapter 9). In the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries it became a popular folk dance accompaniment instrument in the British Isles (audio #1 and audio #2). At some point the concertina (and the folk music and dance traditions in which it was utilized) was introduced to maritime culture (audio #3) and through this mechanism of cultural encounter it was introduced to and integrated into distant, non-European music cultures throughout the world (audio #4 is of a Zulu adaptation from South Africa, and audio #5 is from Madagascar). The Anglo concertina is today most frequently heard being performed by English and Irish folk music and dance groups at festivals and on recordings. 

Description

The Anglo concertina pictured on this page consists of a bellows with hexagonal-shaped reed cases attached to its ends, each with ten plastic buttons in two rows of five each (twenty buttons in all). The reed cases (detail #1) are made from thin plywood that, on their exposed exterior sides, is veneered with red Pearloid plastic. Each reed case has an enclosed chamber about ¾-inch deep the inside wall of which is a thin, hexagonal-shaped board. One side of this board—the one facing the interior of the bellows—has screwed to it a reed block which is about 4-inches long, 1-inch wide, and 1.5-inches deep (detail #2, in which one of the reed blocks is seen from inside the bellows). Each reed block has ten metal reed plates attached to its long sides, five plates on each side (detail #3). Each of these plates serves as one wall of a rectangular reed cavity that is articulated with thin wooden partitions inside the reed block (these cannot be pictured without compromising the instrument). Each reed plate (detail #4) is about 1.25 inches long, .5 inch wide, and 1/8 inch thick and has two thinly-shaven and tuned free reeds attached to it, one to its exterior side and the other to its interior side. The visible reed on the outside of these plates sounds when the bellows are being pushed together; the other reed on each plate (not visible because it faces the inside of the reed block) when the bellows are pulled apart. One of the reed openings on each side of the plate is covered with a thin and flexible leather flap/valve that blocks the airflow from exciting its reed. The basic operation of the instrument involves the performer being able to select the specific reeds and reed cavities through which the airstream created with the bellows passes. This is done with the buttons protruding form the outside walls of the reed cases. These buttons are connected by spring-loaded levers to pads that cover small entry holes to the reed cavities in the reed block (detail #5 and detail #6, in which one pad has been raised by depressing its button). These levers and pads are located in the ¾-inch deep reed-case chamber where they are attached to the back side of the board to which the reed block is attached. When air is sucked into or expelled from the bellows, the resulting airstream passes over (and excites into sound) only those reeds whose reed cavities have been opened by the performer by depressing their associated button or buttons. Connecting the two reed cases described above is an airtight bellows made of folded cardboard--twelve folds in three groups of four folds each separated by stiff hexagonal rings--that when pulled/stretched sucks air from the outside through opened reed cavities in the reed blocks and into the bellows. Squeezing/pushing the bellows forces air in the bellows to escape through opened reed cavities in the reed blocks. One additional button, operated by the right-hand thumb, is for an air valve that when opened allows the performer to expand or squeeze the bellows without sounding any reeds (this button can be seen in detail #1, just to the left of the strap).

Player - Instrument Interface and Sound Production

The Anglo concertina can be played either while standing or when seated. Straps running across the face of each hexagonal reed case are adjusted to secure the player’s hands, palms down, against the ends of the instrument, allowing the player both to operate the bellows (by moving their hands apart or bringing them together) and select pitches to be sounded by depressing and releasing the reed-buttons with the four fingertips of each hand. All buttons are single action, meaning that when depressed different pitches are sounded with the pulling out and pressing in of the bellows (similar to inhaling and exhaling on most harmonicas). Thus, to get a desired pitch to sound you must not only depress the correct button but also be moving the bellows in the correct direction. The outside row of buttons on both reed cases produces notes in the diatonic C major scale over a range from C3 to E6, while the inside rows produce a G Major scale from G3 to B6. Thus, the instrument is designed to play in only these two major keys (C and G). More than one button can be depressed simultaneously on either or both sides of the instrument, making it possible for the performer to play a single melodic line, a harmonized melody, or provide a harmonic accompaniment to a voice or another instrument. In this provided link the performer can be seen playing a melody with an arpeggiated accompaniment. Occasionally, the need arises to quickly adjust the degree to which the bellows is stretched; this is done by pressing the air valve button with the right thumb, as can be seen (and heard) several times during this video.

Origins/History/Evolution

The Anglo concertina is a mid-19^th c. British adaptation of the 1830s diatonic German Konzertina (or “Chemnitz concertina”). The twenty-button specimen pictured here represents its simplest form. More advanced players might play on models with thirty or forty keys, but the basic layout--two rows of five buttons on each reed case—will always be present even on models with many more buttons.

Bibliographic Citations

Atlas, Allan W. 2014. “Concertina.” NGDMI v.1: 673-675.

Eydmann, Stuart. 1995. “The Concertina as an Emblem of the Folk Music Revival in the British Isles,” British Journal of Ethnomusicology 4/Special Issue: Presented to Peter Cooke: 41-49.

Worrall, Dan. 2017. House Dance: Dance Music Played on the Anglo-German Concertina by Musicians of the House Dance Era. Reproduced on the Concertina Journal website, accessed April 14, 2021: https://www.concertinajournal.org/House_Dance_Text/