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[malcolmbebb]

Out with Bourne River at Wight Bells Day of Dance, someone told me to look at the melodeon collection in the rafters. I don't know the publican's name but he is or was a Morris musician. I don't think I've got them all - included were at least two Liliputs and a Preciosa. Just gazed in wonder...

[malcolmbebb]

and more... easily 50...

[Winston Smith]

Looks a bit like every room I've seen in a certain fettler's house!

[Graham Spencer]

A very impressive collection - but I can't help feeling it's a great shame they're not out there being played.......

Graham

[Sage Herb]

A very impressive collection - but I can't help feeling it's a great shame they're not out there being played.......

Graham

Indeed - rather depressing.

Steve

[Lester]

I was asked not to play one I plucked off a rafter. The guy who owns them all used to be on melnet but can't remember his name.

ps This is just his more scrappy collection.

[Ken Watson]

The Dairyman's Daughter @ Arreton Barns, and the melodeon collection, is owned by Andy Gibbs (aka Bargeman).

My Marc Savoy Acadian in 'D' (now owned by Bob Ellis) came from him.
He now mostly plays Anglo Concertina.

[Prestidigitator]

The Dairyman's Daughter @ Arreton Barns, and the melodeon collection, is owned by Andy Gibbs (aka Bargeman).

My Marc Savoy Acadian in 'D' (now owned by Bob Ellis) came from him.
He now mostly plays Anglo Concertina.

I bought a Castagnari Mignon from him, in 2008.

[Chris Ryall]

Sad.  I 'force' myself to sell on boxes that don't get played, and my DG Lilly is out on long term loan to a debutante

[David J]

It was my second visit to Arreton Barns on Sunday (with Mayflower Morris) and I too gazed in wonder at this collection. I do hope they will all eventually find a good home (baggsy me the Pressed Wood).

[Mike Carney]

Yep. Felt a bit sad to see the photos of melodeons as decoration. Doesn't make me want to go there.
M

[Ebor_fiddler]

It's probably only part of Pikey's overflow collection ..

[John MacKenzie (Cugiok)]

I'm with Mike Carney on this one. melodeons stacked as decoration, isn't what they are meant to be used for.
Don't think that it will be doing them any good either.


Sir John

[pgroff]

Hi all,

I understand the last few comments. We musicians are often emotional and romantic and tend to love instruments almost as if they are alive. We respect them and want to cure their ills and we may even imagine that they love us back, or love to be played, because we love music and we love making music and we love when instruments are responding to our efforts. Yes, we love the instruments. This concern for musical instruments can sometimes (I think) go beyond ordinary materialistic joy of ownership, or feelings of custodial responsibility toward land, homes, books, antiques. Mea culpa, I love instruments irrationally and have made extraordinary personal commitments and sacrifices on their behalf.

But let's balance that perspective. A reality check:

Many musical instruments (including many accordions and other free reed instruments) can long outlive their owners. I have some here from the mid nineteenth century that have outlived multiple generations. Even if the first owner of my 1850 Scates english concertina cared and played it daily and exclusively for a lifetime, he or she is long gone as may be the next generation or three. Meanwhile, each of those subsequent generations of players may have bought their own new instruments which also could well still exist. Then, we know that in the past the human population was smaller than it is today. But the population of musicians for some instruments and some styles has diminished, sometimes drastically. Thus except for some very rare and desirable examples and types of instruments, it's very common now for there to be many, many more instruments of a particular type than there are players in our time, who will make a commitment to play one regularly.

There has often been overproduction of many types of instruments, once that type becomes popular, and over time a great residuum of excess instruments has accumulated (usually in unrepaired or at least no-longer-ideally-playable condition).

Why then do musicians sometimes feel there's a scarcity?

Because good musical instruments are expensive (up to vastly expensive) to make, to a high standard of quality. Instrument makers love making instruments and almost all of them are paid less than the income their skill would command if applied to some other field. So if you can pay a great instrument maker to make you the instrument you want, in general you'll be getting great value. But still this will seem very costly to many musicians unless they make their living in music.

The perception that good instruments are scarce is really not honest. It's only that they often cost much more than many musicians hope to pay for one.  Many musicians have champagne tastes and beer budgets.

And that huge global inventory of leftover unplayed musical instruments (going back over a century for accordions) can only help modern musicians if they are willing to invest in restoring them. That costs a lot in time and materials if you do it yourself, and although the professional repairmen / restorers work too cheaply (like the instrument makers), paying their rates can also seem expensive to a hopeful musician.

Today due to a small population of players and a huge volume of used instruments, there are going to be piles of accordions around the world that are unplayed - unless we destroy them.

Such used instruments can be purchased any day and any of us can choose to invest in restoring one, or in paying a pro to do that. But the wise among us realize that for many of the accordions, the market value of a restored old accordion is often less than the restoration cost.

That's because there's limited demand today for accordions that actually play, at market prices that would encourage much more production or much more restoration of the old ones.

So if you see a large collection of unplayed instruments, rather than criticizing the owner perhaps it would be more fair to respect that s/he has preserved them from destruction. 

If you think "instruments should be played" then by all means, invest in one or more, restore them if needed, and play them! 

But there are not enough players alive to be playing all the surviving accordions, and surely not enough who would pay a fair wage to insure that all of them are restored.

Just my perspective.

PG

[John MacKenzie (Cugiok)]

Who are you calling a musician? 
I'm not a musician, I'm a melodeon player 

Sir John

[Nick Collis Bird]

I'm not a musician either, but a player of music.
However, bravo Paul you've certainly made sense of the topic.

[Howard Jones]

I don't think it's so much a question of scarcity, and in many cases these would not be especially desirable instruments for a player. However musical instruments are more than just physical objects, they were first and foremost created to make sound - not just noise* but sound of a particular quality which can stir the emotions. So to see them silenced is, for me, a little sad.


* not even melodeons

[malcolmbebb]

At least these have been saved from scrap, and one hopes will re-appear on the market one day.
In this particular case, most seemed to be mid 20th century Hohners and some here would very happily find homes for them.