The Aeola Concertina

The golden era of the Concertina was from about 1900 to 1930. The roaring twenties saw the best top quality Concertinas being produced. Made by C. Wheatstone & Co. they were called the “Aeola,” named for Aeola, the Greek goddess of Wind. Aeolas have reeds that sound sweetly and clearly, and a mechanical action is quiet and smooth, they are a pleasure to play.

Like many things the concertina market and production was destroyed both by the Stock Market Crash of 1929 and WWII. Although I have two wonderful Wheatstone concertinas made in the late 1930’s, the true Aeolas haven’t been produced in quantities since the 20’s. A few of the top quality instruments being made today have some of the Aeola’s wonderful characteristics, but the modern concertinas can be even harder to come by than a vintage Aeola. The Wheatstone Company produced numerous Aeola concertinas in the 1920’s and many people were very well off at that time. These moneyed people often bought Aeola and Wheatstone concertinas simply because they were beautiful. Some of these concertinas have been passed down through generations for no other reason than their beauty and obvious quality. Concertinas, virtually un-played, emerge from grand children’s attics and closets.  Usually one only has to replace the leather valves and pads to have a concertina that can play like new only with the sounds of decades past emanating from them. 

Juliette Daum 2008

The “Aeola”

-From The Price list of “Wheatstone” English Concertinas and Aeolas 1929.

“This charming little instrument, now attracting such favorable notice in the musical world, has been placed before the public by Messrs. C. Wheatstone & Co. (the inventors and sole makers) for several years past.

It is universally admitted to be the finest toned musical instrument of the present day, possessing as it does, in so large a degree the grand qualities of the tone proper to a Stradivarius violin, together with a marked resemblance to the human voice.

The recent performances of Madame Amy Rowbotham, Miss Edith Drake, The Fayre Four, Mr. John C. Ward, Mr. Richard Blagrove, Mr. Charles Rutterford, Mr. G. Matusewitch, Mr. Ernest Rutterford and other leading Professors have demonstrated the capabilities of the Aeola concertina to be far in advance of those of any other portable instrument, and have a conclusively proved that whilst it possesses an individuality of tone that is inimitable, it is thoroughly capable of producing and sustaining most of the effects peculiar to stringed instruments, as well as other effects that cannot be produced save by a combination of two or more instruments of other kinds, or by an organ.

The solos and concerted pieces of the great masters written for the violin, Flute etc., can be rendered upon the Aeola concertina with greater effect and precision than is ordinarily possible upon their proper instruments, whilst as the keyboard of the Aeola concertina is identical with that of Wheatstone’s English Concertina, the whole of the important repertoires of the latter is of course available to the player.

The resonant character, and the extreme mellowness and purity of the tone of the Aeola concertina together with its delicate and expressive touch combine to recommend the instrument at once to the musical connoisseur as a really sympathetic and legitimate member of the wind instrument family, and one calculated to well repay the trouble of taking up; more especially as at the outset it presents to the student incomparably fewer difficulties to overcome that does any other kind of instrument that can be named. For so simple is the arrangement of the keyboard, and so easy the fingering, that with but slight knowledge of music a beginner who can devote no more than say half-an-hour a day, may become able to perform fairly well on the concertina in the course of a few weeks – an achievement utterly impossible with the Violin, Flute, etc. The concertina is invaluable to vocal students when practicing, as well as for the rendering by themselves obbligato accompaniments to their own performance of songs.

The Aeola concertina is made with a compass either of three and a half, four, or four and a quarter octaves, and only in one quality, namely, the very best. All Aeola concertinas are fitted with Messer. C. Wheatstone & Co.’s. latest (Concertina and Aeola) improvements, including their perfected duplex screwed notes, spherical keys, and new steel reads. They are tuned to any pitch required, and with ordinary care remain in tune many years.”

C. Wheatstone & Co. 1929