Anglo Musings
Many of you know that I have been working off and on for about five years now on a history of the Anglo concertina. That work is now finished; The Anglo-German Concertina: A Social History is now out, at Amazon.com. There are two volumes, with 620 pages, over 440 illustrations, and 28 transcriptions. The book concentrates on the people who have played both German and Anglo-German instruments from the time of Carl Uhlig’s invention of 1834 to the present, and includes chapters on England, Ireland, Africa (both Boers and various African ethnic groups), Australia, New Zealand, and North America, as well as concertina use at Sea.
A final chapter deals with the fascinating evolution in playing styles from Victorian times to today in these various locales, including note-for-note transcriptions of many early recorded players from around the globe. More information, including downloadable copies of the Table of Contents, Summary, and Acknowledgments as well as reviews (as they become available), is at my website at www.angloconcertina.org , where there are also links to the retail sales site at Amazon books–or one can easily search the site http://www.amazon.com/ (the US version) for the books.
I’ve submitted the books to PICA for review, as well as to a group of traditional music journals in England, Ireland, Australia and South Africa. Copies have been placed in the following libraries: US Library of Congress (Washington), Center for the Study of Free Reed Instruments, CUNY Graduate Center (New York); Vaughan Williams Memorial Library at Cecil Sharp House (London); Irish Traditional Music Archive (Dublin); National Library of Australia (Canberra), and the National Library of New Zealand (Wellington). My deepest thanks to all the scores of people around the world who helped me on this effort, including many ICA members.
Dan Worall