Accordions the facts
The accordion is played by compression & expansion of a bellows, which generates air flow across reeds; a keyboard controls which reeds receive air flow & therefore the tones produced.
Physical description
Modern accordions consist of a body in two parts, each generally rectangular
in shape, separated by a bellows. On each part of the body is a keyboard containing
buttons, levers or piano-style keys. When pressed, the buttons travel in a direction
perpendicular to the motion of the bellows (towards the performer). Most, but
not all modern accordions also have buttons capable of producing entire chords.
The related concertina differs in that its buttons never produce chords & travel parallel to the travel of the bellows (towards the opposite end of the instrument); there are also differences in the internal materials, construction, mechanics, & tone color, but the basic principles of sound production are similar.
History
The
accordion is one of several European inventions of the early 19th century that
used free reeds driven by a bellows; notable among them were:
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The Aeoline,
by German Bernhard Eschenbach (and his cousin, Caspar Schlimbach), 1810. It was
a piano with an added aeoline register. Similar instruments were the Aeoline Harmonika
& Physharmonika. Aeoline & Aura were first without bellows or keyboard.
The Hand Physhamonika, by Anton Haeckl, 1818 a hand type mentioned in a music
newspaper 1821.
The flutina, by Pichenot Jeune, ca. 1831.
The concertina,
patented in two forms (perhaps independently): one by Carl Friedrich Uhlig, 1834
& the other by Sir Charles Wheatstone, of which examples were built after
1829, but no patent taken out until 1844.
An instrument called accordion was
first patented in 1829 by Cyrill Demian in Vienna. Demian's instrument bore little
resemblance to modern instruments; it only had a left hand keyboard, with the
right hand simply operating the bellows. One key feature for which Demian sought
the patent was the sounding of an entire chord by depressing one key. His instrument
also could sound two different chords with the same key: one for each bellows
direction (press, draw); this is called a bisonoric action.
At that time in Vienna, mouth harmonicas with "Kanzellen" (chambers) had already been available for many years, along with bigger instruments driven by hand bellows. The diatonic key arrangement was also already in use on mouth-blown instruments. Demian's patent thus covered an accompanying instrument: an accordion played with the left hand, opposite to the way that comtemporary chromatic hand harmonicas were played, small & light enough to for travellers to take with them & use to accompany singing. The patent also described instruments with both bass & treble sections, although Demian preferred the bass-only instrument owing to its cost & weight advantages.
The musician Adolph Müller described a great variety of instruments in his 1833 "Schule für Accordion". At the time, Vienna & London had a close musical relationship, with musicians often performing in both cities in the same year, so it is possible that Wheatstone was aware of this type of instrument & may have used them to put his key-arrangement ideas into practice.
Jeune's flutina resembles Wheatstone's concertina in internal construction & tone color, but it appears to complement Demian's accordion functionally. The flutina is a one-sided bisonoric melody-only instrument whose keys are operated with the right hand while the bellows is operated with the left. When the two instruments are combined, the result is quite similar to diatonic button accordions still manufactured today.
Further innovations followed & continue to the present. Various keyboard systems have been developed, as well as voicings (the combination of multiple tones at different octaves), with mechanisms to switch between different voices during performance, & different methods of internal construction to improve tone, stability & durability.
The Manufacturing Process
The inside of an early 20th century button accordion
with a closeup of the reeds.The manufacture of an accordion is not a completely
automated process. In a sense, all accordions could be called handmade, since
there is always some hand assembly of the small parts required. The general process
involves making the individual parts, assembling the subsections, assembling the
entire instrument, & final decorating & packaging. [1] However, the best
accordions are always hand-made, especially in the aspect of reeds; completely
hand-made reeds have a far better tonal quality than even the best automatically-manufactured
reeds.
Musical genres
The instrument was popularized
in the United States by Count Guido Deiro who was the first piano accordionist
to perform in Vaudeville.
Accordion is the main instrument in the musette style of ballroom music in France (a style now largely out of fashion) & in the 1950s chanson singing, which has a revival in the form of neo-realism.
Mexican Norteño music also relies heavily on the accordion. The instrument was introduced into Northern Mexico by German immigrants during the 19th century. Mexican bands like Los Tigres del Norte & Ramón Ayala y sus Bravos del Norte have made very successful musical careers out of their lively riffs.
The accordion is an important instrument in Dutch folk music, & often the only melodious instrument when clog dancing. It is also significant in Scandinavian folk music, with notable performers including Finnish accordionist Maria Kalaniemi. Scandinavian-influenced British folk music has, in recent years, also featured accordionists such as Karen Tweed.
Accordion is also a central instrument in Zydeco from Cajun & African-American traditions in Louisiana in the United States, & in Polka, heard in Europe & North & South America. It is also widely used in 'ceilidh' dance music of Scotland & Ireland. The accordion gained popularity in the 1990s when Jaleel White portrayed an accordion-playing nerdy neighbor (Steve Urkel) on Family Matters. It is often seen as the epitome of the "uncool" instrument children are forced to learn by their parents in lieu of a different, "cooler" instrument such as the guitar; however three popular rock music acts, "Weird Al" Yankovic, They Might Be Giants, & The Arcade Fire incorporate the accordion in their distinctive sound.
In northeastern Brazil, the accordion, along with the triangle & the zabumba, is the main instrument used in forró, a traditional style usually played by trios.
In Colombia, the instrument was first introduced by European immigrants & merchants mainly of German origin through the Antilles Islands in the early 20th Century, where local troubadours from the Caribbean Region used it as an instrument to accompany their sang messages. This form of music developed into the musical genre called Vallenato, representative of Colombia.
Argentina experienced an influx of Italian & German immigrants near the turn of the century, which is why the accordion is so common in tango music typical of the region.
It is also extremely widely used in Eastern Europe, especially in Klezmer music.
Button
accordions
Chromatic button system (type C)
Chromatic button system
(type B)
Garmon' playerOn button accordions the melody-side keyboard consists
of a series of buttons (rather than piano-style keys.) There exists a wide variation
in keyboard systems, tuning, action & construction of these instruments.
Diatonic button accordions have a melody-side keyboard that is limited to the notes of diatonic scales in a small number of keys (sometimes only one). The bass side usually contains the principal chords of the instrument's key & the root notes of those chords.
Almost all diatonic button accordions (e.g.: melodeon) are bisonoric, meaning each button produces two notes: one when the bellows is compressed, another while it is expanded; a few instruments (e.g.: garmon') are unisonoric, with each button producing the same note regardless of bellows direction; still others have a combination of the two types of action: see Hybrids below.
A chromatic button accordion is a type of button accordion where the melody-side keyboard consists of uniform rows of buttons arranged so that the pitch increases chromatically along diagonals. The bass-side keyboard is usually the Stradella system, one of the various free-bass systems, or a converter system. Included among chromatic button accordions is the Russian bayan. Sometimes an instrument of this class is simply called a chromatic accordion, although other types, including the piano accordion, are fully chromatic as well. There can be 3 to 5 rows of treble buttons. In a 5 row chromatic, two additional rows repeat the first 2 rows to facilitate options in fingering. Chromatic button accordions are preferred by many classical music performers, since the treble keyboard with diagonally arranged buttons allows a greater range, & often far greater speed, than a piano keyboard configuration. There exists an accordion with 6 rows in the treble side. It is commonly played in Serbia & throughout former Yugoslavia. The rows are based on the B system. The natives refer to it as "dugmetara".
The Janko keyboard is used for the treble side of some accordions.
Various cultures have made their own versions of the accordion, adapted to suit their own music. Russia alone has several, including the bayan, Garmon', Livenka, & Saratovskaya Garmonika.
Hybrids
Various hybrids
have been created between instruments of different keyboards & actions. Many
remain curiosities, only a few have remained in use. Some notable examples are:
The
Schrammel accordion, used in Viennese chamber music & Klezmer, which has the
treble keyboard of a chromatic button accordion & a bisonoric bass keyboard,
similar to an expanded diatonic button accordion.
The schwyzerörgeli
or Swiss organ, which has a (usually) 3-row diatonic treble & 18 unisonoric
bass buttons in a bass/chord arrangement (actually a subset of the Stradella system),
that travel parallel to the bellows motion.
The trikitixa of the Basque people
has a 2-row diatonic, bisonoric treble & a 12-button diatonic unisonoric bass.
In Scotland, the favoured diatonic accordion is, paradoxically, the instrument
known as the British Chromatic Accordion. While the right hand is bisonoric, the
left hand follows the Stradella system. The elite form of this instrument is generally
considered to be the German manufactured "Shand Morino", produced by
Hohner with the input of the late Sir Jimmy Shand.
Stradella
bass system
Stradella bass layoutThe Stradella Bass System uses rows of
buttons arranged in a circle of fifths; this places the principal major chords
of a key in three adjacent rows. Each row contains, in order: A major third (the
"counter-bass" note), the root note, the major chord, the minor chord,
the (dominant) seventh chord, & the diminished seventh chord.
All chord buttons sound 3 note chords. Early attempts to create 4 note seventh & diminished chords were hampered by mechanical difficulties. Consequently, modern Stradella systems drop the 5th from these two chords. This has the side benefit of making the preformed chords more versatile. For example, an augmented chord can be created by using the dominant seventh button & adding an augmented 5th from the piano keyboard or from one of the bass or counterbass buttons.
Depending on the price, size or origin of the instrument, some rows may be missing completely or in different positions. In most Russian layouts the diminished seventh chord row is moved by one button, so that the C diminished seventh chord is where the F diminished seventh chord would be in a standard Stradella layout; this is done in order to achieve a better reachability with the forefinger.
Common configurations are:
"12 Bass" goes from
B? to A, (the third to eighth column in the picture above), & only has root
note & major chords.
"24 Bass" goes from E to E, & has root
note, major & minor chords
"32 Bass" goes from E? to E, &
has root note, major, minor & seventh chords
"40 Bass" goes
from E? to E, & has root note, "counter-bass" note, major, minor
& seventh chords
"48 Bass" goes from E? to E, & has all
six rows
"60 Bass" goes from D? to F?, & has root note, "counter-bass"
note, major, minor & seventh chords
"72 Bass" goes from D? to
F?, & has all six rows
"80 Bass" goes from C? to G?, & has
root note, "counter-bass" note, major, minor & seventh chords
"96
Bass" goes from C? to G?, & has all six rows
"120 Bass"
goes from B?? (i.e. low A) to A?; — that's 20 columns — with all six
rows.
"140 Bass" has the same 20 columns as the 120 bass configuration,
but adds either a row for augmented chords or a second counter-bass row.
Free
bass systems
Free bass systems allow the player to construct their own chords
as well as to play bass melodies in several octaves. There are various free bass
systems in use; most consist of a rotated version or mirror image of one of the
melody layouts used in chromatic button accordions. One notable exception is the
Titano line of converter bass, which repeats the first two bass rows of the Stradella
system one & two octaves higher moving outward from the bellows. New York's
Dr William Schimmel, who composes & performs in many genres, is a leading
exponent of this particular bass system & uses it extensively in tandem with
the standard stradella system. In the United States, Julio Giulietti was the chief
manufacturer & promoter of the free bass accordion that he called a "bassetti"
accordion which was mass produced from the late 1950s onward. Giulietti accordions
with free bass capability often had a "transformer" switch to go from
standard pre-set chords to individual free bass notes.
Skillful use of the free bass system enabled the performance of classical piano music, rather than music arranged specifically for the accordion's standard chorded capability. Beginning in the 1960s, competitive performance on the accordion of classical piano compositions, by the great masters of music, occurred. Although never mainstreamed in the larger musical scene, this convergence with traditional classical music propelled young accordionists to an ultimate involvement with classical music heretofore not experienced.
Within the United States, several noted instrumentalists demonstrated the unique orchestral capabilities of the free bass accordion while performing at the nation's premier concert venues & encouraged contemporary composers to write for the instrument. Included among the leading orchestral artists was John Serry, Sr.- a noted concert accordionist, soloist, composer & arranger. Mr Serry performed extensively in both symphonic & jazz ensembles as well as on live radio & television broadcasts. His refined poetic artistry gained recognition for the accordion among many prominent conductors & musicians of the twentieth century.
Recently Guy Klucevsek has built a reputation on combining folk styles with classical forms & makes extensive use of the free bass. In Europe today, free bass accordion performance has reached a very high level, especially in Finland, Denmark, Russia, Italy & Germany. It isn't uncommon for music conservatories in Europe to consider the free bass accordion an acceptable instrument for serious study.
Many modern & avant-garde composers (such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Mauricio Kagel, & Magnus Lindberg,) have written for the free bass accordion & the instrument is becoming more frequently integrated into new music chamber & improvisation groups.
Squeezeboxes
Concertina
Bandoneon
Flutina
Digital Accordions
Roland Virtual Accordion
Other free-reeds
Harmonica
Harmonium
Melodica
Sheng
Khene
Trivia
Players
of the accordion include:
Polka stars Lawrence Welk,
Angelo DiPippo, Myron Floren, Frankie Yankovic & "Weird Al" Yankovic
Venezuelan accordionist Roberto Ruscitti, Yann Tiersen
Rock musicians
Bruce Hornsby, Rob Hyman of The Hooters, Joseph Byrd, John Linnell of They Might
Be Giants, Dennis DeYoung of Styx, Neil Cicierega of Lemon Demon, David Hidalgo
of Los Lobos, Michel Martin host of new NPR show Rough Cuts, Zach Condon of Beirut,
Patrick Wolf, Tré Cool of Green Day, Rick Wright of Pink Floyd who used
one on live versions of "Outside the Wall" with Pink Floyd in 1980 &
1981, Sheryl Crow & Danny Federici of the E Street Band, Sweet Jonny V (Arabella)
of Analog Arts Ensemble
Zydeco musicians Stanley "Buckwheat" Dural
of Buckwheat Zydeco, John R. Capozello of jazz combo "The Blue Notes"
& he played in US Air Force Band, Beau Jocques, Flogging Molly, Kevin Hearn,
Jason Webley, Billy Joel, & Boozoo Chavis, & also Yuri Lemeshev of the
band, Gogol Bordello. Jenny Conlee of The Decemberists. Ian Accord of Bombs &
Beating Hearts.
Cajun musician Steve Riley of Steve Riley & the Mamou
Playboys, & Flaco Jimenez of the Texas Tornados.
James Fearnley of the
Pogues should not be overlooked as an agent in the resurgence of popularity of
the accordion during the 1980's.
Lisko Mäkinen & Antti Laurila incorporate
accordions in metal music in the Finnish band Turisas.
Those Darn Accordions
is an accordion-based rock & polka band.
Supposedly, John Lennon played
the accordion when he was young.
Some musicians have a love-hate relationship
with the accordion. Famous anti-accordion comments include: "A gentleman
is a man who can play the piano accordion... & doesn't", "The best
way to play the piano accordion is with a pen-knife" (attributed to Christy
Moore) & "An instrument in harmony with the sentiments of the assassin"
(From Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary).
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