For this week's review, I searched through the pile of CD's sent to me for review, for something unusual, something - with difference, and decided that this recording "Concertina Landscape" is what I was looking for. "Concertina Landscape" features traditional English dance tunes and some classical miniatures performed by Dave Townsend on the English Concertina. I found the information supplied by Dave about the actual English Concertina most interesting and thought I would share it with our readers: "The English Concertina differs from other hexagonal or octagonal squeeze-boxes in the layout of the keys - the notes of the scales alternate from the right hand end of the box to the left-hand, so that the notes written in the spaces of the music stave, high and low, are all played by the right hand, and those on the lines by the left. The system was invented by the physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone and patented in 1829, with the first production of instruments appearing in the early 1840's. Of all the instruments developed in the 19th century to utilise the newly discovered principle of the free reed, the English Concertina remains the most agile, subtle and sweet-toned. The "Tenor-Treble Aeola" featured on most of this album has a fully chromatic range of 4 octaves...." Dave Townsend is a full time musician and singer, playing mainly English Concertina, plus accordion and violin. Dave performs traditional and classical music on the English Concertina. He is also involved in a wide range of music activities including music for television, film, theatre, recording, composition and research. I was totally amazed to hear the artist achieve such a level of sophistication on the concertina, especially in the classical miniatures. In Dave's performance I heard some aspects of musicianship which are not often heard on the concertina: refined sound-creating, different kinds of touch, simple polyphony, etc. Dave is no doubt a very skilled and knowledgeable concertina player, with a high standard of musicianship. At times his concertina sounds so mellow, sweet, even nostalgic, and at other times it could sound firm and solid. Sound wise I especially liked the combination of concertina and cello. The sound they produce together is very 'renaissance like'. Dave's sound producing and general sound control is very skilful as is his playing technique. This is a most interesting recording. |
