Concertinas

BBC report on the history and construction of concertinas.

A BBC report about the concertina, a small, accordion-type instrument developed in the 1820s by English scientist and inventor Sir Charles Wheatstone. Opening with a singer and concertina quartet performing Mexborough Memories - a ballad about the Mexborough English Prize Concertina Band from Yorkshire - the film moves to the Suffolk workshop of Steve Dickinson, who makes concertinas under the Wheatstone & Co. brand. Construction methods including hand-sawn patterning and reed placement are shown, before Dickinson explains the operation of this unique instrument and its use to perform brass band and parlour music. The segment concludes with a parlour performance by Dickinson's own concertina quartet.

Keywords

Music; Musical Instruments