Concertina arrangements from early-1900s Chicago music books, from the scans in the Tomiak Chemnitzer manuscript archive. Each piece was transcribed into MIDI by Claude Opus 5.5 and played back on the Tomiak Chemnitzer digital instrument. The melody is read from the printed staff. Where the book gives the left hand only as button numbers, the bass and chords were worked out from the harmony.
—Lysander
“Cikanka” means “Gypsy Girl”. This is a lively polka in D major from one of W. H. Sajewski’s Milwaukee Avenue concertina books. It has the classic oom-pah left hand (bass note, chord, bass note, chord) under a bright melody, and ends with a trio section. It was the first piece in this project.
“Napiszę karteczkę do Rzymu” means “I’ll Write a Little Note to Rome”. It is a G-major polka with a louder second strain in D. After a return to the opening, a long trio in D finishes the piece. Unlike Sitek’s #184 and #185, this book marks the bellows pull with a small ^.
The “National Polka”. It opens with a strain in D major and a second strain in A major, then returns to the opening. A lead-in carries it into a trio and a final repeated strain. Sitek’s books don’t mark the bellows direction, so each bar was matched against the printed notes.
A Lithuanian polka in four short strains: G major, a darker E-minor strain with a little turning figure, a low-lying trio in C, and a last strain in G. It finishes with the trio once more.
A D-major polka with a second strain in A. It returns to the opening and then moves on to a long trio in G. This book gives the left hand only as button numbers, so the chords were worked out from the melody.
A Polish soldiers’ song, written out by hand in pen on Patek’s manuscript paper. It is a 48-bar tune in G major, followed by a short section in C major that is played twice.
“Żytniówka” is rye vodka. This is a bright A-major polka with a middle strain in E. A trio in D follows, with its own strain in A, before the trio returns to close.
Strauss’s great waltz, with all five of its waltz themes and the coda, set for concertina. It travels through D, A, B-flat, C and G major before closing in A. This is the longest piece here.
A 1929 popular song arranged as a concertina waltz in A major. Silberhorn’s books print chord names under the left-hand part, so both hands here come straight from the page. Only the exact voicing of the chords was chosen for playback.
A 1933 song, arranged as a waltz. After an opening strain, the refrain is in D major and is played twice. The second ending modulates into a trio in C major, which also repeats before the close.
“On the Waves of the Danube”, Ivanovici’s famous 1880 waltz, in a Sajewski concertina setting. It moves through three sections, in D and B minor, then G, then back to D and B minor. The page marks the loudness, from soft to very loud, and the recording follows those markings. The melody is played exactly as printed on the page. One printed note sits just above the top of the instrument’s range, so the whole piece is moved down a whole step (from D to C) to fit.
J. S. Zamecnik’s “Oh, Nights of Splendor”, a 1925 hit, in a G-major concertina waltz setting
from Patek’s Music Co. on Milwaukee Avenue. This book marks the bellows pull with a small
^ over the button numbers instead of the usual wavy line, and prints the chord
names for the left hand.
The 1894 parlour song in a D-major concertina waltz setting. A 32-bar verse is followed by the refrain, which is played twice. This sheet has no chord names, so the left hand was worked out from the button numbers.
A “Special Song and Dance Arrangement” of the 1867 music-hall song in G major. The verse and chorus are followed by a dance section (marked for violin), a strain in A, and a “Guitar or Whistle” strain in E. Chord names are printed, so both hands come from the page.
The German drinking song, written out by hand as a “Waltzer Lied” in D major. A 40-bar verse opens with the famous tune, and a louder refrain follows, played twice. To make it livelier, it is played fast and “one-in-a-bar”: beat one of each bar gets a strong bass and accent, the two off-beat chords are light and short, and the second beat comes a hair early, Viennese style. The bar then feels like one big swing instead of an even oom-pah-pah.
Four 16-bar strains, each played twice: two in G, one in D and a last one in G. The scan is missing its final page, so the ending was composed to fit, and one torn bar was filled in.
The only handwritten score here so far, in pen over faint pencil staff lines. A margin note cites Brunswick record 6779. There is a short intro, then a 32-bar chorus in C major that is played twice. The notes were read mostly from the button numbers, because the handwritten note heads are only roughly placed.
The Dubin and Warren song from the Warner Bros. film Broadway Gondolier, arranged in cut time. The chorus is in G, followed by a verse in A minor. The chorus then comes back a fourth higher in C. This recording is played with a light swing.
A 1934 song in cut time. The 32-bar chorus is played twice in G and then twice more a step higher in A, because the sheet’s second page carries on in the new key. It is played with a light swing.
Shelton Brooks’s 1910 hit. The chorus is doubled in octaves, a verse in a dotted rhythm follows, and then comes a syncopated “Jazz Chorus”. Patek’s books print the chord names, so both hands come from the page.
A handwritten arrangement of the 1932 song. A verse in D leads into the chorus, which is played twice. The second page repeats the chorus a step lower in C.
A novelty foxtrot in C major, written out by hand. An intro and one strain lead to a 32-bar trio that is played twice, with a little “exotic” passage in E minor. It is played with a light swing.
“Our Beloved Kościuszko” (the sheet also gives the title “Bartoszu! Bartoszu!”) is a krakowiak, a quick Polish dance in 2/4 from the Kraków region. It moves from D major to A major, back to the opening, and on to a three-part trio in G. Then the trio’s first two parts come back to finish on the fermata.
A set of four short Polish dances, all in 3/4. A kujawiak is slow and swaying, a mazur is lively and proud, and an oberek is fast and spinning. A few torn bars, mostly in the oberek, were filled in.
“He Sold the Oxen at the Fair.” An oberek is the fastest Polish village dance in 3, and it whirls. The scan is a torn single page, so the last strain and the ending were composed in the style of the rest.
Two short mazurkas in G major on one page, each in the form A–B–A. The mazurka is a Polish dance in 3 with a strong “long–short” step.
“Beyond the Forest.” A quick oberek in A major, in two long strains that are both played again before the final held chord.
“From Greater Poland.” A kujawiak that opens with held octaves and moves between A major and A minor. Its trio is in C, and the piece ends back on a bright A-major chord.