A CRANE SYSTEM DUET CONCERTINA -- SOUNDS AND IMAGES
Recordings:
Joy of Man's Desire, J. S. Bach 561 KB
Minuet, J. S. Bach 336 KB
My Country, 'Tis of Thee 252 KB
My Creole Belle 493 MB
Mairzy Doats 454 KB

The two Bach pieces are examples of what a duet can do with guitar transcriptions, note for note with no modifications.

My Country 'Tis of Thee is an example of  run-of-the-mill four part harmony rendered on the duet.  Other examples could come from hymnals or books of christmas music.  One would be hard put to find another instrument as portable as a duet concertina capable of this.  It is no mystery why the Salvation Army once liked the Crane duet.

My Creole Belle and Mairzy Doats are examples of playing from a fake sheet and "faking" everything but the melody with chord symbols provided.  This was my original idea of what a duet would be good at and is pretty much where I live on the concertina.  I have a large fake book filled with tunes and songs collected over many years from which I play and sing. The idea is that if one can not play well, at least be able to play a lot of songs. It has also been very enjoyable just to collect tunes and songs. Here is a play list of selected pieces.

The recordings and the playing both fail to capture the best qualities of Mr. Crabb's instrument which sounds sweeter, richer and more musical than portrayed here.

 Crabb 10555
Mr. Crabb playing 10555.jpg Crabb 10555 was built in 1950 by Henry Crabb for his own personal use. The aluminium tops were used to reduce the weight as he always played standing. It is eight sided (Æola) with and an eight fold bellows.   It uses a Crane fingering system, which is different from either of the considerably more common English and Anglo systems.  Crane system duets are fully chromatic and capable of playing melodies with accompaniment and polyphony, though not on a scale of larger instruments such as pianos and organs.

Five columns of keys or studs are used.  The innermost three columns are natural notes and the outermost two columns are flats and sharps.  The studs of this particular instrument are slightly closer together than most other Crane concertinas.  In addition , Mr Crabb added a single stud B-flat on a sixth column on each side under the little finger.

The left side range is from F just below the bass staff extending upward two octaves and a second to the G on the second line from the bottom in the treble staff.  The lowest F# was modified by Mr. Crabb to play the C, two octaves below middle C.  

The right side of the instrument has a range of two octaves and a fifth or from the Bb below the treble staff to the F on the third line above the treble staff.

As one might imagine, this is a very fine instrument and I'm very fortunate to have it.

Recording the Concertina
10555 Recordings of duet concertinas are not common.  A key purpose of this site is to entice others to create mp3 or other sound files of their duet playing.  There was some work involved and mistakes made that others could benefit from.  The sum total of my recording expertise comes from this project.

The songs were recorded in a 20 by 20 foot room using a single Shure SM57 microphone attached to an Audiophile 2496 sound card through an inexpensive Behringer mixer used as a microphone amplifier. Each recording is a single, and obviously unaltered track.

The hardest part of this was learning about recording on a computer.  It took a while to give up on getting recordings that sounded like the concertina I play.  It took another while to give up on being able to play as relaxed and as well as one does when the microphone is not “armed.”

After some reading and shopping, it seemed prudent to stay away from mini discs and other such technology that will eventually need to be connected to the computer anyway.  With this, you just plug the microphone into the computer.  Well, not quite.
                                        
The microphone used here is unidirectional and cost $80, new.  The microphone was placed close to the concertina.  The performance boost over the freebie that came with the computer seemed worth it.  When you add all the trouble, however, it may be a draw.  You might try the one you have before going any further.

A better than average sound card was also used.  For what was done here, it was probably overkill and whatever you have now might work just as well.  An extra $40 went to a cheap mixing board.  Surprisingly, that little input that works on cheap microphones, won't take the signal from the even moderately priced microphones.  Go figure.  Also, an inexpensive, four channel mixing board costs less than half the cost of the cheapest microphone amplifier.  Again, go figure.

For software, try Total Recorder Standard Edition  at http://www.highcriteria.com.  If you are trying to create mp3 of your duet playing, I'm happy to help in any way that I can.
  
Concertina Links
Concertina.net  
This is the center of concertina on the internet.  The forums are interesting and everythning is worth checking out.  There is an excellent article by Roger Digby on the Crabb company.  This site covers all things concertina with much of interest on the more common Anglo and English systems as well as Duets.
 
Maccann Duets
This is a stellar site.  The emphasis is on Maccann system duets with historical and scholarly information.  It has a good bit of Crane items as well.  Best of all, it is the repository of David Cornell's very well crafted and free arrangements for duet concertinas.

About Me
Kurt Braun I grew up in Wisconsin and Arkansas.  At the age of thirteen I took up the saxophone.  I was a very avid and serious saxophone student through high school and three years of college as a Music major.  I also played oboe and recorder in college.  Before finishing my degree, I joined the United States Air Force as a Bandsman playing saxophone and oboe.  After a 4 year tour, I returned to college and finished in History.  I now live in Baton Rouge, Louisiana with my wife and two children.

I became interested in the concertina in while in graduate school.  During the summer of 1977  I visited with Neville Crabb in the Crabb shop in Islington.  After about an hour of trying several concertinas and talking, I decided that a Crane system was most suited for what Iwanted to do.  In the fall I wrote Mr. Crabb and ordered the best available used instrument that could be found within my meager budget.  The instrument, a Lachenal, 55 key Triumph, did not arrive until May of 1978.  By 1987 the instrument was unplayable due to leaks in the bellows and ends.  I acquired my current instrument, also from Mr. Crabb, in 1988.

Kurt Braun