Heinrich Band (1821-1860)
Heinrich Band lived at Krefeld(Rheinland/Westfalen)West Germany.
He was a music teacher, musician and publisher.
Band had his instruments made to the order, most probably at Saxony (perhaps by
Zimmermann or Uhlig).
Contrary to the Konzertina he later expanded the lay-out by adding more rows of
keys instead of lengthening the already existing three rows, like Zimmermann and
Uhlig were doing.
Band`s intention was to simplify the change from a small instrument lay-out to
the larger instruments as players improved their musical skills.
Picture: from my collection
100 tone Heinrich Band (1860 or older)
Reedplates zinc ,reeds "German Silver",
keys "German Silver",G-dur
(< a > sounds as < g >).
Original tuning at a1 425 Hz.
coll.H.Geuns
This instrument had already a very complete range containing all the
tones of the chromatic scale.
The "mushroom" buttons at the top are stops.
A small lever behind the air valve, operates a mechanical
<tremolo>device which gives the playing air a pulsating effect by means of
a
complicated bellow system inside.
It is surprising to see in how short time, the bandonion has developed in
such short time.
Picture :original Heinrich Band company
label,
from
the carrying case belonging to the
bandonion shown above
Band improved the sales of musical notes by adding numbers besides, and later
over the notes corresponding with the keys at the instruments.
This made the selflearning process of playing easier (most people didn`t
have any knowledge of musical notes neither could they pay for a music teacher).
Also bandonion&concertina tutors were published.
This way of learning bandonion was, and still is very popular in Germany today.
The way the early bandonion/concertina range was expanded.
By Uhlig (Chemnitzer Tonlage) from
56 tones -60 -64 - 76 tones (and stays almost unchanged till 1900)
By Zimmermann (Carlsfelder Tonlage) 56- 58 - 60 - 72 - 80 - 88 - 94 - 96
- 100 - 102 and finally 104 tones.
By Band(Rheinische Tonlage) 56 - 64 - 88 (four key-rows)- 100(five
key rows)
I think that the larger lay-outs of these instruments were made in very short
time, probably around 1860.
I own a Heinrich Band bandonion with 100 tones which must be dated at least
1860, because this was the year H.Band died.
Probably the extention of the konzertina lay-outs went as fast to.