Concertina

Concertina

Wheatstone English concertina, circa 1920
Other instrument
Hornbostel–Sachs classification	412.132 (Free-reed aerophone)
Inventor(s)	Sir Charles Wheatstone, Carl Friedrich Uhlig
Developed	1829, 1834
Related instruments
Accordion, harmonica, melodeon

A concertina is a free-reed musical instrument, like the various accordions and the harmonica. It has a bellows, and buttons typically on both ends of it. When pressed, the buttons travel in the same direction as the bellows, unlike accordion buttons, which travel perpendicularly to the bellows.

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

The word concertina refers to a family of hand-held bellows-driven free reed instruments constructed according to various systems, which differ in terms of keyboard layout, and whether individual buttons produce the same (unisonoric) or different (bisonoric) notes with changes in direction of air pressure.

Because the concertina was developed nearly contemporaneously in England and Germany, systems can be broadly divided into English, Anglo-German, and German types. To a player proficient in one of these systems, a concertina of a different system may be quite unfamiliar.

The English concertina and the Duet concertina bear similarities in history and construction. Both systems generally play a chromatic scale, and are unisonoric, with each button producing the same note whether the bellows are being pushed or pulled. Both these English-developed instruments are smaller than German concertinas, and tend to be hexagonal, though occasionally having 8, 10, or 12 sides. The English system alternates the notes of the scale between two hands, enabling rapid melodies. The Duet system places the low notes on the left hand and high on the right, facilitating the playing of interlaced harmonies and melodies.

The English concertina is credited to Sir Charles Wheatstone, who first patented such a design in 1829 in Great Britain. Wheatstone was also the first to patent a Duet concertina, in 1844.