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The Elise Hayden duet concertina is a very lightweight free bass concertina type.
Its about 3 lbs or 1,36 kilogram, having a range of some 2,5 octaves
pics and information are here:
http://www.concertinaconnection.com/elise.htm
The keyboard layout is based on the 1896 patent by Kaspar Wicky-Müller:
http://www.concertinaconnection.com/elise keyboard.htm
This layout is logical and ergonomical. It is based on a whole tone interval, and on the block principle, keeping the naturals close together, making triads and fifths very easy to grasp.
Here is a 10 pages pdf document with biographical information and photos of the Swiss Wicky familie, with photos of the concertinas. The concertina pics are on pages 7-8.
The inventors short biography is on page 1.
This layout has been used by Brian Hayden, Wim Wakker, and others for a duet concertina. This is a type of unisonoric concertina, and classical / polyphonic music is possible to a certain level.
Other duet concertina types of the isomorphic/uniform/ type were invented, eg: Charles Wheatstone (1844) double duet concertina, Francis Stanhope Pitt-Taylor (1916-1923) 6+6 duet concertina, Zademack/Micklitz/Ernst Kusserow chromatic bandoneon (1921-1926), Hugo Stark (1925) chromatiphon, and a few others.
The chromatiphon layout has also been applied to the concertina:
http://www.wakker-concertinas.com/C-2.htm
Free bass accordions can be quite heavy, often over 10 kilos or more. Concertinas have the advantage of being very small in size and very lightweight. Making them ideal for travel and busking.
Top quality fully chromatic duet concertinas are handmade and quite expensive.
Thats why I am thinking of adapting a small Elise Hayden duet concertina to make it more chromatic. This concertina is made in China, but is a very decent quality starters concertina.
If you have a look at the keyboard:
http://www.concertinaconnection.com/elise keyboard.htm
you can see the bass side (left hand side) has a number of buttons in double with the right hand side, eg the left top row + d1. All I need to do is to retune these buttons to make it almost fully chromatic for 2,5 octaves.
I am thinking of retuning:
d1 to d#1
g1 to g#1
and changing two (actually four, its unisonoric) reeds:
f1 replacing by d#2
a1 replacing by g#2
Its a compromise, the gain would be an almost fully chromatic superlightweight duet concertina. The disadvantage being breaking the perfect symmetry (whole tone intervals) on the left hand bass side.
The only notes I would still miss in the bass are C#, D# and G#, but I think them being bass notes, I can do without them when I stick to common tunings.
One could off course also try to change the order of all the buttons, but in my experiment I would only have to change the reeds of 4 buttons. A small operation for greater benefits.
Any other accordionists playing also concertina ? Or playing free bass bellows instruments?
Its about 3 lbs or 1,36 kilogram, having a range of some 2,5 octaves
pics and information are here:
http://www.concertinaconnection.com/elise.htm
The keyboard layout is based on the 1896 patent by Kaspar Wicky-Müller:
http://www.concertinaconnection.com/elise keyboard.htm
This layout is logical and ergonomical. It is based on a whole tone interval, and on the block principle, keeping the naturals close together, making triads and fifths very easy to grasp.
Here is a 10 pages pdf document with biographical information and photos of the Swiss Wicky familie, with photos of the concertinas. The concertina pics are on pages 7-8.
The inventors short biography is on page 1.
This layout has been used by Brian Hayden, Wim Wakker, and others for a duet concertina. This is a type of unisonoric concertina, and classical / polyphonic music is possible to a certain level.
Other duet concertina types of the isomorphic/uniform/ type were invented, eg: Charles Wheatstone (1844) double duet concertina, Francis Stanhope Pitt-Taylor (1916-1923) 6+6 duet concertina, Zademack/Micklitz/Ernst Kusserow chromatic bandoneon (1921-1926), Hugo Stark (1925) chromatiphon, and a few others.
The chromatiphon layout has also been applied to the concertina:
http://www.wakker-concertinas.com/C-2.htm
Free bass accordions can be quite heavy, often over 10 kilos or more. Concertinas have the advantage of being very small in size and very lightweight. Making them ideal for travel and busking.
Top quality fully chromatic duet concertinas are handmade and quite expensive.
Thats why I am thinking of adapting a small Elise Hayden duet concertina to make it more chromatic. This concertina is made in China, but is a very decent quality starters concertina.
If you have a look at the keyboard:
http://www.concertinaconnection.com/elise keyboard.htm
you can see the bass side (left hand side) has a number of buttons in double with the right hand side, eg the left top row + d1. All I need to do is to retune these buttons to make it almost fully chromatic for 2,5 octaves.
I am thinking of retuning:
d1 to d#1
g1 to g#1
and changing two (actually four, its unisonoric) reeds:
f1 replacing by d#2
a1 replacing by g#2
Its a compromise, the gain would be an almost fully chromatic superlightweight duet concertina. The disadvantage being breaking the perfect symmetry (whole tone intervals) on the left hand bass side.
The only notes I would still miss in the bass are C#, D# and G#, but I think them being bass notes, I can do without them when I stick to common tunings.
One could off course also try to change the order of all the buttons, but in my experiment I would only have to change the reeds of 4 buttons. A small operation for greater benefits.
Any other accordionists playing also concertina ? Or playing free bass bellows instruments?
