The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #116671   Message #2510057
Posted By: Guran
08-Dec-08 - 01:17 PM
Thread Name: Who plays a Tenor Treble Concertina?
Subject: RE: Who plays a Tenor Treble Concertina?
Hi again guys, some more comments:

Ptarmigan,
send me a 'private' mail and I will keep you informed the day I will reduce the stock of baritones.. irresistable offers (excluding Anglos...) are welcome anytime..:-)

Bernard,you said:
"It was a 'transposing instrument' because the only note that didn't play 'normally' was the B - it sounded Bb instead"

Well, yes and no, it may be regarded as 'transposing' as long as you play a diatonic scale imaginary in C and it will sound in F but for a chromatic instrument to be "transposing" do you not expect ALL notes in this case to sound a fifth down? That means my said D# will have to sound C# instead to correspond to G# being transposed a fifth down.

So- maybe you don't remember whether it was 'completely transposing' or rather arranged only to "transpose" diatonic key of C to F?
Compare the Anglo situation - a G/D is (usually) transposing all over the keyboard a fifth down from a C/G model.

You said: "Steve Turner's Wheatstone Aeola is a 64 key Bass/Baritone/Tenor"

I don't want to sound picky about it but if you - as often is done - give different range instruments their names after the lowest note that would make it a *Bass* and nothing else.With concertinas it is a bit extra messy since we have got these differences between "normal" treble-like keyboard layout (analagous to common baritones) and the
variants that are a) transposing to other 'natural' keys than C and b)
that have keyboard variants which are based on the normal treble layout but extended either upwards (like 56,64,72 key trebles) or down-wards (like tenor-trebles or baritone-trebles, bass-trebles)
One feature that is determining is in what position the thumbstrap is located."Normally" middle C is level with the centre of the left hand thumbstrap and a "normal" baritone will have its C an octave lower at the same place.A baritone-treble is expected to have its middle C like the treble but often hasn't, since it may have the F a fifth down there instead!And there are "normal" (treble-fingered) baritones
which are extend upwards having 56,64,72..keys)
There isn't much to do about this historically settled confusion.In my world it would be preferrable to name englishes a) firstly after the lowest note b) after the total span = number of keys c) keyboard layout indicated by the note being at level with left thumbstrap d)the natural key they are playing in

If so - that "bass/baritone/tenor" might make some sense if it was either a 'bass-baritone' meaning a baritone extended downwards or a'baritone-bass'meaning a bass extended upwards considering that a "double-bass" (running down to G two octaves below the low treble G)is played like a treble and then transposing two octaves down...
Puuh....

At last, you said:
"the bottom four buttons on the left hand side are 'Anglo tuned'.."

That expression I have never heard, so it makes me curious. What do you mean by it in real?

Goran