Maccann Duet Concertina

Directory

Maccann Duet concertinas are designed to play a melody along with accompaniment or to play multiple parts at the same time—so a single concertina can “play a duet with itself”. Maccann Duet concertinas combine many of the advantages from both of two earlier types (called “English concertinas” and “Anglo concertinas”) and can be played in the style of either of those as well as in many additional musical styles, either by ear or from music notation.

Concertinas are small and light (but loud) bellows-powered free-reed acoustic musical instruments invented by the English physicist Sir Charles Wheatstone about 1830 as a high-tech innovation in musical-instrument design. Unlike accordions (invented about the same time), on a concertina each button plays one note at a time—no chord buttons. Despite the fact that the earliest “English” concertinas were intended to play only a single musical part, much like a violin, they were very popular in parlour ensembles and became something of a fashionable craze in the mid-1850s. Wheatstone and others worked on and patented a number of ways to extend his design so as to make a Duet instrument, but none was widely used.

The first successful design for a Duet concertina was patented in 1884 by a young performer, “Professor” John Hill Maccann. Maccann based his design on an earlier Wheatstone & Co. model, but licensed his patent to Wheatstone's competitor Lachenal & Co., and wrote both a tutor for his new instrument and a more-general “Concertinist's Guide” to promote it (his patent and both of his publications are available in full on this site). Fine-quality Maccann-system instruments were also made by Wheatstone & Co. after Maccann's patent expired in 1898, but Wheatstone never used Maccann's name to describe them.

Maccann had great success performing with his new concertina, including a command performance before HRH the Prince of Wales and a North American tour in 1890–1891, and his “Improved Duet Concertina” became the instrument widely used by professional performers in the late-Victorian music halls. Its popularity continued until 1939 but did not survive the interruption in production caused by World War II, and the art of playing the Maccann Duet had become almost lost by mid-century. During its production, a total of a few thousand instruments were manufactured. Today there are perhaps fifty people world-wide who play antique Maccann Duet concertinas.

Maccann Duet concertinas remain admirable and ingenious personal music-makers; they can be played in many musical styles, from simple to complex, and are excellent to accompany singing. The chief barrier to their wider popularity is that there are no new instruments, and refurbished antique instruments are now both scarce and expensive.

Robert Gaskins

 

Instruction

Music

History

Technology

Research

Contents

• Directory: Maccann Duet Concertina

• Instruction

• How to Play Chords on Any Maccann Duet Concertina by Robert Gaskins
• A Beginner's Set of Duet Concertina Arrangements by David Cornell
• New Method of Instructions for the New Chromatic Duet English Concertina ... &c. by John Hill Maccann
• A Practical and Comprehensive Tutor for the Duet Concertina by Ernest Rutterford
• Maccann Duet Chords Tutor Manuscript by Anonymous (Jeffries?)
• Stanley Manuscript Maccann Duet Tutor by Henry Stanley
• All-Systems Duet Workshop Tutor by Brian Hayden
• Garland Films Presents: “Reuben Shaw—Duet Concertina Player” by Barry Callaghan
• Which Duet Concertina—Hayden or Maccann? by Robert Gaskins

• Music

• A Beginner's Set of Duet Concertina Arrangements by David Cornell
• New Arrangements for the Maccann Duet Concertina by David Cornell
• Arrangements of Music for Maccann Duet Concertina by Henry Stanley

• History

• Improvements in Concertinas (1884) by John Hill Maccann
• The Concertinist's Guide (1888) by John Hill Maccann
• How to Play the Concertina (1902) by John Hill Maccann
• Wheatstone Duet Concertina Pricelists from Chris Algar
• Lachenal Concertina Pricelists from Chris Algar
• Wheatstone Concertina Ledgers Horniman Museum
• Prof. Maccann’s North American Tour (1890–1891) by Robert Gaskins
• Professor Maccann: “America’s Champion Concertinist” by Robert Gaskins
• Professor Maccann Performs in Plymouth by Robert Gaskins
• Directory: John Hill Maccann

• Technology

• Baffles for Maccann Duet Concertinas by Robert Gaskins
• A Chat with Brian Hayden by Wes Williams
• Fingering Systems for Duet Concertina by Brian Hayden
• The 'Duet' System, discussed by K. V. Chidley by Kenneth V. Chidley
• Photographs of Jeffries Maccann Duet Concertina, serial No. 6 by Robert Gaskins

• Research

• Instruction Manuals for the English, Anglo, and Duet Concertina: An Annotated Bibliography by Randall C. Merris
• A Wheatstone Twelve-Sided 'Edeophone' Concertina with Pre-Maccann Chromatic Duet Fingering by Neil Wayne, Margaret Birley, and Robert Gaskins
• History of the Duet Concertina by Phil Inglis
• Memoirs of a Concertina-Playing Man: Reuben Shaw as told to Phil Hopkinson, with an introduction by David Cornell