Concertina 78rpm recordings

Subject: Concertina 78rpm recordings
From: Guran
Date: 16 Oct 16 - 02:07 AM

In c.net forums 13 October a question came up regarding the background of a Victor - in swedish labeled - 78rpm record re-release 1915 of some Alexander Prince Zonophone recordings from 1908. See also http://www.78rpmcomm...7/35/why-sweden
The label text presents translations in swedish of the earlier english titles of the music pieces - and evenmore intriguing the saying: "Swedish concertina"

It has been suggested that the recording(s) were meant for the swedish market. That is partly true BUT for the "swedish" market in USA, or maybe Minnesota rather, where the bulk of swedish immigrants had settled. In Sweden itself it was not not until 1910-11 that common accordions had been presented with more advanced professional performance and british concertinas were known only in Salvation Army environment while cheap german instruments were sold like toys rather.

There were some connections however between the swedish accordion pioneers (the brothers Bernhard, Hugo, Oscar and Ragnar Sundquist) and Alexander Prince.The later three brothers visited England and USA and brought both instruments ( accordions and concertinas) and music back to Sweden and possibly met Alexander Prince in person.

The text "Swedish concertina" is more dubious. There was never any concertina instruments being built or any related music being presented in Sweden at this time and the recorded tunes on the record have no relation to Sweden either. This must likely have been merely a false marketing gimmick.