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Kettle Bridge Concertinas

Concertina group based in Maidstone, Kent, UK

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Horniman Museum  -  Sun 28th June 2015

 
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Intense preparations
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Written by Sue Walsh

On Sunday 28th June 2015, we travelled to the big smoke to visit the Horniman Museum and Gardens on the occasion of one of their Community Music days. The day started with coffee, of course, while we waited for everyone to arrive. We could find no reference to tea at the museum at all, except in the café of course, of which we took full advantage.

All met, we were then greeted by Margaret Birley, Keeper of Musical Instruments. After locking our own instruments away and washing our hands, we were led to a “secret place” where a selection of beautiful concertinas awaited us. The instruments we had the privilege of playing/trying to play were:

  • Single action bass concertina. Lachenal & Co. London, 1885-1913
  • MacCann duet system Ćola. C. Wheatstone & Co. London,1922
  • Anglo-German system concertina by George Jones, circa 1860?
  • Bassoon bass edeophone by Lachenal & Co. London, circa 1910?
  • Wheatstone 56-key English-system Ćola, circa 1901, with long-scale reeds.
  • Lachenal baritone concertina. English system, tuned by R. Whitten (1873-1933)
  • Wheatstone English-system 64-key treble tenor aeola, 1926, ex Gordon Cutty
  • Wheatstone 48 key ebony ended treble pin hole Ćola
.... and a great time was had by all. We even produced some tunes!

After lunch, sheltering under umbrellas from the rain forecast by MF-D, we managed to fit in half an hour’s practice before most of us took up the offer of a guided tour of the musical instrument collection, focussing, of course, on the wonderful array of every type of concertina you could imagine, including Wheatstone’s symphonium (click here to see a picture) and some of Wheatstone’s other inventions.

By this time, the sun had appeared and we made our way through the gardens to the beautiful bandstand for a “sound check” – a first for us! It was decided that we didn’t need to be amplified (was this because we were loud enough or because they didn’t really want to hear us, I wonder!). With the appearance of the sun, the deck chairs began to fill and we had a fair audience for our half-hour performance.

Our music was well received, especially the well known tunes – Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Policeman’s Lot and Liberty Bell. By the time we got to our last piece – The Ringwood Tree – we were experiencing some gusty wind (we’d had a good lunch), and at one point this was affecting one side of the bandstand so badly that we completely lost Treble 2 for a while! Barbara (wearing a skirt) at one point couldn’t decide whether to save her music or her dignity!

After a debrief over ice cream, it was time to head home. A great day! Hope we can do it again!