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[Mike Hirst]

I have recently come back to listening to my collection of Alfred Montmarquette recordings. I first enjoyed these as an extension of One Row playing.

There are very few publicly available images of Montmarquette, In the one that is most commonly shown he is holding a 10 key spoon bass one row instrument.

Over the past couple of days I have been playing a selection of Montmarquette compositions on my B/C accordeon. Many are a perfect fit on the semitone system in a variety of different key positions.

I've not tested this yet, but if irrc the source recordings are not always in the same key. I remember struggling to play along with second/third generation tape copies, from 78rpm originals ,which could have been anywhere from F through to A.

It crosses my mind that he may have been using a chromatic instrument on some of these recordings. Is there any conclusive proof to support this?

[Tone Dumb Greg]

I can't help you with your query, Mike, but I would love to hear what he sounds like, just to give context.

[Pearse Rossa]

Some old recordings on this site.

[tirpous]

Montmarquette is reputed to have played mostly on a one-row in A.  I have a book of his music, transcribed from the recordings, and out of about 100 tunes the vast majority are indeed in A, about 25 are in D, a handful in G, 2 or 3 in E (but with no D#) and a single one in Bb.

So between that and the few pictures available where he always has a one-row,I would think it's safe to assume his regular boxes were one-rows in A and D.

https://quebecfolklore.qc.ca/livre-alfred-montmarquette 

[Grape Ape]

Just listened to quite a few more of those than I intended.... He takes the one row places I’ve never heard before, and man is he fast!

[Grape Ape]

Can’t really answer the question, but my thought on the second tune posted by Pearse was that it sounded like an old chromatic- but then I gave it a harder listen and it really seems he is only using a couple of basses and you can hear the whole the back and forth of it all- still he does seem to be defying something at least- thanks for these

[tirpous]

Many recordings here : https://numerique.banq.qc.ca/ressources/details/SONORES  Search on 'Alfred Montmarquette'.

And also here : https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/films-videos-sound-recordings/virtual-gramophone/Pages/alfred-montmarquette-bio.aspx

[Grape Ape]

Thanks! I’ll be listening.  He really sounds like he IS playing a chromatic at times- but the back and forth of the basses give it away I think-  I know it may be off topic-  but I would love to be pointed towards more one row playing like this

[Tone Dumb Greg]

Some old recordings on this site.

Thanks Pearse

[Mike Hirst]

Thank you for the many replies this query has generated. There are some useful resources referenced here.

The recordings I have were taken from 78rpm discs in private collections in Canada and sent to me via musician friends in France. There are as I said earlier second or third generation cassette copies. Some 25+ years back I learned a selection of waltz tunes. These included Valse Florida, Valse du Peril, Valse Bebe(?) and valse de nations. I remember finding it difficult to play along with the recordings, so i laearned them one phrase at a time, slowly arriving at a rough approximation of the original. Since that time i have had opportunity to play the melodies with other musicians whose knowledge of the Quebecois repertoire I respect. No one's told me that I'm doing it wrong, so I guess that I must have been somewhere close to the spirit of the originals, if not exactly precise in execution.

Over recent months I have been working with the B/C accordeon, putting particular emphasis on finding working patterns for bass accompaniment. I now have a selection mostly waltzes and jigs that I play in the keys of C, G, and A, with a smaller number number in F, D, and Dm. As I say, the aim has been to develop a musically convincing style with bass end accompaniment. The other day I was looking for new tunes to play and tried out some of the Maontmarquette tunes that I had played on the one row. The fitted very neatly on the B/C instrument. Florida Valse played very neatly in both G and C, with passable options for playing it in A.

In light of the useful replies received in this thread it would seem that Montmarquette played only one row instruments. Perhaps then what I have learned here is that Montmarquette's deep understanding of the instrument and his ability to push the instrument hard up against it's apparent limits has left us with a repertoire that can shift key without losing any of it's impact and because it was born of the instrument will sit neatly on any other diatonic instrument without loss.

[Pete Dunk]

Interesting info about Alfred Montmarquette on this website. A search around will lead to a number or recordings.