Randall C. Merris and Wes Williams
John Hill Maccann’s duet patent (British Patent No.4752) was applied for by Provisional Specification (12 March 1884) and Complete Specification (18 November 1884). 1 While numerous articles use this year for the invention and availability of the system, this brief note reveals that this system was actually invented in 1880, and had become available before the end of 1881.
On 9 December 1881, an advertisement for a concert in Plymouth Guildhall appeared on the front page of The Western Morning News:
The Organ Fund, and concerts to finance the organ upkeep, had been a moot point with local correspondents, and on 5 January 1882 on page 3, the same newspaper published nearly a full column of arguments relating to the organ and its funding. One correspondent wrote:
Only one professional musician of the Three Towns has played the organ at an “Organ Fund Concert” this season, Mr. Faull; and to make up for these deficiencies “Organ Fund Concerts” have been given with the organ silent, German concertinas being heard in its stead.
On 6 January, page 3, the newspaper published this letter:
SIR – In a letter on the 5th in your paper on the Guildhall organ, the gentleman mentions that the organ had been silent, and in its stead German concertinas. I think those gentlemen who have played did their best to further the organ fund, not to keep the organ silent, but to assist the funds, so that we might hear a little more of that instrument; and only on one occasion has there been German concertinas played in that hall, and those being the English make. Out of the nine that played there on Saturday, December 10th, only three were Anglo-German concertinas, the remainder being duet English concertinas; and on that occasion there were present quite as large an audience as when there had been an organ concert. – Yours truly,
J. H. MACCANN
Professor of the Duet English Concertina
37, Morley Place, January 5th 1882.
On 9 January, page 3, the newspaper published this letter:
THE GUILDHALL ORGAN MYSTERY
From the reports of committee meetings, and the correspondence in your paper, there seems to be a very mysterious cloud hanging over that noble instrument erected in the Guildhall, but Mr. Maccann has, in his letter today, mystified me with regard to the names he has given to an instrument commonly known as the “concertina”. I am a modest performer on one of Wheatstone’s English concertinas (such as Regondi, Blagrove, and others have played) but I am at a loss to know what instruments your correspondent refers to when he speaks of “German concertinas, English make”, “Anglo-German concertinas” and “Duet English Concertinas”. Do these instruments possess the chromatic scale? If not I can well understand the remarks of a former correspondent to which Mr. Maccann replies. If they do then one adjective would have sufficed, viz., “English” , and everybody would be clear as to the kind of music they would be likely to hear from “nine” English concertinas – Yours truly,
INQUIRER
January 6th 1882.
On 10 January, page 3, the newspaper published Maccann’s response:
Mr. Maccann writes, in answer to “Inquirer” – ” There are two descriptions of German concertinas, those made in Germany and those made in England. Some of the latter have 20 keys, others 22 up to 30; the 30-keyed have a full chromatic scale. The Duet concertina was invented in the year 1851 by Charles Wheatstone; it had 24 keys, and was double action, but at that time was only capable of playing in two keys, C and G. In 1880 I added a full accompaniment of sharps and flats, with other improvements, which has made it quite as perfect as the ordinary English. The compass of the 38-keyed is from G below the stave to first D above, with further extensions if required.”
We can determine the availability of Maccann system duets at this time from an advertisement in the London and Provincial Entr’acte (a theatre newspaper) on the 25 February 1882, page 13:
LEARN the new Chromatic Duet CONCERTINA, the most simple and perfect of Concertinas. Mr. J. H. Maccann, the inventor, can be heard perform on the above every evening, at the MARYLEBONE and ROYAL CAMBRIDGE MUSIC HALLS.
Price List free. – 24 Manor Road, Walworth.
Agent – THOS. HOLMES.
The 10 December 1881 concert was not the first ‘Penny Concert’ in aid of the organ fund where Maccann had performed. The Western Morning News of 13 March 1880, page 4, advertises a concert to be held that evening, and item three of that concert is described as ‘Operatic Selections on Two Concertinas by Mr. Maccann’. This performance is probably that referred to in Maccann’s letter quoted above, dated 5 January 1882, where he states:
… and only on one occasion has there been German concertinas played in that hall, and those being the English make.
Finally, the date of invention goes some way towards an explanation for an unusual four-sided Maccann system instrument auctioned in Cumbria April 2021.2 This instrument is numbered 57473, and the current estimate from the database of Lachenal instruments for this number within the Lachenal Anglo number series is approximately 1880. The keyboard layout is exactly the same as that shown in the Maccann Patent Complete Specification, showing an extra button on each side (unspecified as to function) outside of the normal layout. A photograph of a rough internal handwritten inscription in the auction entry has the date of 1883, but names the maker as ‘Lachnal’ rather than Lachenal, so not entirely accurate, and the date could refer to when the instrument was acquired by a later owner.
- Both 1884 Patent Specifications are available at www.concertina.com/maccann-duet/Maccann-Concertina-Patent-No-4752-of-1884.pdf.
- From Eighteen Eighteen Auctioneers. The catalogue entry is available at www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/1818-auctioneers/catalogue-id-sr1810458/lot-94ff6842-2284-47b2-8349-acfb00ede64c.