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concertina
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concertina

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A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front.

Key facts

Instrument.name
Concertina
Instrument.image
Wheatstone English Concertina.jpg
Instrument.image_capt
Wheatstone English concertina, produced c. 1920
Instrument.background
other
Instrument.hornbostel_sachs
412.132
Instrument.hornbostel_sachs_desc
Free-reed aerophone
Instrument.developed
1829, 1834
Instrument.inventors
Sir Charles Wheatstone, Carl Friedrich Uhlig
Instrument.related
Accordion, harmonica, melodeon
Instrument.sound sample
Scotch reels

via Wikipedia infobox

~11 min read

Encyclopedic overview

16 sections
Contents
  • Systems
  • English and Duet concertinas
  • German concertinas
  • Chemnitzer concertina
  • Bandoneon
  • Anglo concertina
  • Franglo
  • Gallery
  • History
  • 19th century
  • Early 20th century
  • Folk revival and present
  • See also
  • Notes
  • References
  • External links

A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It consists of expanding and contracting bellows, with buttons (or keys) usually on both ends, unlike accordion buttons, which are on the front.

The concertina was developed independently in both England and Germany. The English version was invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, while Carl Friedrich Uhlig introduced the German version five years later, in 1834. Various forms of concertina are used for classical music, for the traditional music of Ireland, England, and South Africa, and for tango and polka music.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “concertina” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (18)