3/24/2023 0 Comments Concertina accordion![]() Like the Anglo, this gives two different notes for each button, one when the bellows are pulled, the other when pushed. Layout of buttons on the standard squashbox. The button board of the standard squashbox (as built by Stagi) is laid out as follows (see Figure 1):įig. 5 And though the action on these instruments is less than fast, it is astonishing to hear what a good player can accomplish. This gives a full sound, ‘a dense texture that resembles the broad sonority of a Sotho male-voice chorus’, as David Coplan describes it. ![]() ![]() The concertina most often used by black musicians (and by some Boeremusiek players, as well) is based on the twenty-button ‘Anglo-German’ system, and usually has two riveted accordion-type reeds per note, tuned an octave apart. In fact, Zulu speakers sometimes call the concertina ‘iBastari’, 4 though it is commonly known as the ‘squashbox’. In recent times, Bastari (now Stagi) have been the main suppliers. From the start, the concertinas were the cheap German or Italian models, as the mineworkers’ main aim was usually to provide for families back in their sometimes far-distant villages and rural communities (not that they could have afforded the superior English-made instruments even had they been available). One of the ways in which this need was filled was by the mine shops, which sold musical instruments, in particular guitars, violins, harmonicas, and, of course, concertinas. Moreover, it quickly became obvious that entertainment was needed for the miners and other workers. And since it was not possible for whole families to move into this raw, new environment, a workforce was quickly built up of rural black males of varying ethnic backgrounds and cultures who were brought into the cities by the chance of paid work. 3įrom the early 1880s on, then, labour was required as the mines and dependent industries opened up. On the other hand, the reservoir of cheap rural labour (called upon as needed to work the country’s urban industries) meant that, despite the untold misery, there was an on-going social and cultural interchange-including a musical cross-fertilisation-between races and classes, countryside and city. ![]() In fact, many social divisions were reflected in distinctive musical traditions. In the twentieth century, for example, songs were strictly censored, 2 and white and black musicians were discouraged from playing together. That the black majority was limited in terms of both economic and musical-cultural opportunities goes without saying. 1īefore beginning our narrative about the concertina in South Africa, a few words are necessary about that nation’s racial, political, and economic structures. In the second half of the 19th century, young people were leaving rural areas and moving into the cities … The same went for the concertina in the newly developing mining towns of South Africa, the bandoneon in the tango music of Buenos Aires and Montevideo … people from different districts, regions and countries, with different skin colours, religions, languages, dialects and needs met each other.Īnd finally, he talks about the development of ‘new-style forms of musical expression’. As Christoph Wagner notes, the global spread of mass-produced free-reed instruments ‘offered everyone active participation in the practice of music …’. And with the realization in the 1880s of South Africa’s underground resources, there began the great rush for gold and diamonds in the areas around Kimberley and Johannesburg, as well as the formation of the country’s mining towns. Among these was South Africa, which fell under British administration in 1814. Second, the combination of exploration and burgeoning of capitalist trade opened up Africa, Asia, and other ‘distant lands’ hitherto unfamiliar to Europeans. First, the Industrial Revolution made possible the mass production of consumer goods-including musical instruments-at greatly reduced costs to the consumer and among these instruments were the concertina, accordion, and other squeezebox relatives of the free-reed family. Two important developments in the nineteenth century bear directly on our topic.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |