Britain's What's On Event Guide
Artistic Temperaments | Dave Townsend and the English Concertina
A presentation exploring the English concertina from Dave Townsend of the Mellstock Band.
As ever, Artistic Temperaments Festival 2025 investigates different ways of tuning keyboards. This year we explore the English concertina, invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, and intended to rival the violin as a serious solo instrument.
Dave Townsend, founder of the Mellstock Band, is one of the great exponents of English concertina. He gives us a tour of its possibilities, including virtuoso pots-pourris from the young Sydney Smith, Victorian England’s most successful piano composer.
And, temperament Ahah! The English concertina has separate buttons for D sharp and E flat, G sharp and A flat – the only instrument designed for unequal temperaments from the very beginning. Wheatstone was a scientist, who went on to give his name to the ‘Wheatstone bridge’, still very much part of electrical engineering.
Programme:
Sydney Smith/Richard Blagrove virtuoso pot-pourris
As ever, Artistic Temperaments Festival 2025 investigates different ways of tuning keyboards. This year we explore the English concertina, invented in 1829 by Sir Charles Wheatstone, and intended to rival the violin as a serious solo instrument.
Dave Townsend, founder of the Mellstock Band, is one of the great exponents of English concertina. He gives us a tour of its possibilities, including virtuoso pots-pourris from the young Sydney Smith, Victorian England’s most successful piano composer.
And, temperament Ahah! The English concertina has separate buttons for D sharp and E flat, G sharp and A flat – the only instrument designed for unequal temperaments from the very beginning. Wheatstone was a scientist, who went on to give his name to the ‘Wheatstone bridge’, still very much part of electrical engineering.
Programme:
Sydney Smith/Richard Blagrove virtuoso pot-pourris
Saturday 15 February
Turner Sims, Building 52, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire SO17 1BJ
11:00Tickets
£10 (£9 Friends)
Buy all three paid-for Artistic Temperaments events and get 15% off
Spread the word
Similar Current Events
Welsh National Opera Orchestra | Summertime Soirée
Thursday 10 July Turner Sims, Building 52, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton
Thursday 10 July Turner Sims, Building 52, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton
Chloë Hanslip and Danny Driver | Bach and Beyond III
Thursday 20 Nov 25 Turner Sims, Building 52, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton
Thursday 20 Nov 25 Turner Sims, Building 52, Highfield Campus, University of Southampton, Southampton