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Accordions (from 19th-century German language Akkordeon, from Akkord—"musical chord, concord of sounds") accordion, entry in Online Etymology Dictionary are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free reed aerophone type (producing sound as air flows past a reed in a frame). The essential characteristic of the accordion is to combine in one instrument a melody section, also called the descant, usually on the right-hand keyboard, with an accompaniment or Basso continuo functionality on the left-hand. The musician normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand side (referred to as the Musical keyboard or sometimes the manual), and the accompaniment on bass or pre-set chord buttons on the left-hand side. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist.
The accordion belongs to the free-reed aerophone family. Other instruments in this family include the concertina, harmonica, and bandoneon. The concertina and bandoneon do not have the melody–accompaniment duality. The harmoneon is also related and, while having the descant vs. melody dualism, tries to make it less pronounced. The harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family, but are typically larger than an accordion and sit on a surface or the floor.
The accordion is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or Musical keyboard, causing pallets to open, which allow air to flow across strips of brass or steel, called reeds. These vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instrument's reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block.For the accordion's place among the families of musical instruments, see Henry Doktorski's Taxonomy of Musical Instruments ( The Classical Free-Reed, Inc.) Also on this page is Diarmuid Pigott's The Free-Reed Family of Aerophones
The accordion is widely spread across the world because of the waves of migration from Europe to the Americas and other regions. In some countries (for example: Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, and Panama) it is used in popular music (for example: Chamamé in Argentina; gaucho, forró, and sertanejo in Brazil; vallenato in Colombia; Merengue music in the Dominican Republic; and norteño in Mexico), whereas in other regions (such as Europe, North America, and other countries in South America) it tends to be more used for dance-pop and folk music.
In Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is used in Cajun music, zydeco, jazz music, and klezmer music, and in both solo and orchestral performances of classical music. Many conservatories in Europe have classical accordion departments. The oldest name for this group of instruments is harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning "harmonic, musical". Today, native versions of the name accordion are more common. These names refer to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, which concerned "automatically coupled chords on the bass side".Dyremose, Jeanette & Lars, Det levende bælgspil (2003), p. 133
The accordion is one of several European inventions of the early 19th century that use free reeds driven by a bellows. An instrument called accordion was first patented in 1829 by Cyrill Demian in Vienna.A summary and pictures of this patent can be found at [5] (The Classical Free-Reed, Inc.)
The earliest history of the accordion in Russia is poorly documented. Nevertheless, according to Russian researchers, the earliest known simple accordions were made in Tula, Russia, by Ivan Sizov and Timofey Vorontsov around 1830, after they received an early accordion from Germany.Mirek, Alfred. Garmonika. Proshloe i nastoiashchee. Nauchno-istoricheskaia entsyklopedicheskaia kniga. Moscow, 1994. p. 50 By the late 1840s, the instrument was already very widespread; Etnograficheskii sbornik Russkogo geograficheskogo obshchestva. Vol. 2 , Saint Petersburg, 1854. pp. 26, 162. together the factories of the two masters were producing 10,000 instruments a year. By 1866, over 50,000 instruments were being produced yearly by Tula and neighbouring villages, and by 1874 the yearly production was over 700,000.Mirek, Alfred. Iz istorii akkordeona i baiana.'' Moscow, 1967. pp. 43–45 By the 1860s, Novgorod, Vyatka and Saratov governorates also had significant accordion production. By the 1880s, the list included Oryol, Ryazan, Moscow, Tver Governorate, Vologda, Kostroma, Nizhny Novgorod and Simbirsk, and many of these places created their own varieties of the instrument.
Cyrill Demian's instrument bore little resemblance to modern instruments. It only had a left-hand buttonboard, 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 could also sound two chords with the same key, one for each bellow direction (a bisonoric action). At that time in Vienna, mouth 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 used on mouth-blown instruments. Demian's patent thus covered an accompanying instrument: an accordion played with the left hand, opposite to how contemporary chromatic hand harmonicas were played, small and light enough for travelers to take with them and used to accompany singing. The patent also described instruments with both bass and sections, although Demian preferred the bass-only instrument owing to its cost and weight advantages.German Text: "Mit den Dekel des Balges, läßt sich das ganze Instrument verdoppeln, so daß man dadurch die Accorde vermehrt, oder auch mit einzelne Töne spielen kann, in diesem Fall, muß ein zweyter Einsatz mit Federn, und auch eine 2te Claviatur dazu kommen, der Blasebalg bleibt in der Mitte, jede Hand dirigirt abwechselnd, entweder die Claves, oder den Balg. Durch eine obengenannte Verdoplung des Instruments oder durch Vermehrung der Accorde, würde niemand etwas verbessern, oder was neues liefern, weil nur die Bestandtheile dadurch vermehrt, das Instrument theurer und schwerer wird." Translation of this snip: With the Cover of the bellows the instrument can be duplicated, so the number of Chords or single notes can be enlarged, or one can sound single notes, in this case, a second part with springs (free reeds) and also a second keyboard must be added, the bellows are in between these two parts, both hands push buttons and push and pull the bellows at the same time or alternatively. Through this doubling or increasing of chords within the instrument nothing new is invented or improved by someone else, because only the amount of similar parts is increased and the Instrument is heavier and more expensive. German full text
The accordion was introduced from Germany into Britain in about the year 1828. The National Cyclopaedia of Useful Knowledge, Vol I, A–Arcesilaus, London, George Woodfall and Son, 1847, p. 107. The instrument was noted in The Times in 1831 as one new to British audiences The Times, Thursday 9 June 1831; p. 5; Issue 14560; col A: (Review of a performance by a flautist, Johann Sedlatzek) "At the close of the concert Mr. Sedlatzek performed on a new instrument called the Accordion or Aeolian, which, however, has little beside its novelty to recommend it." and was not favourably reviewed, but nevertheless it soon became popular. The Times, Wednesday, 26 April 1837; p. 5; Issue 16400; col C : "Great Concert-room – King's Theatre ...There was also a novelty in the shape of an instrument called "a concertina", an improvement on the accordion, which has been such a favourite musical toy for the last two or three years". It had also become popular with New Yorkers by the mid-1840s. New York Times, 19 May 1907: 'The Lay of the Last of the Old Minstrels: Interesting Reminiscences of Isaac Odell, Who Was A Burnt Cork Artist Sixty Years Ago': "While we were drawing big crowds to the Palmer House on Chambers Street Charley White was making a great hit playing an accordion in Thalia Hall on Grand Street. In those days" (i.e. mid-1840s) "accordions were the real attraction to the public".
After Demian's invention, other accordions appeared, some featuring only the right-handed keyboard for playing melodies. It took English inventor Charles Wheatstone to bring both chords and keyboard together in one squeezebox. His 1844 patent for what he called a concertina also featured the ability to easily tune the reeds from the outside with a simple tool.
The Austrians musician Adolf Müller described a great variety of instruments in his 1854 book Schule für Accordion. At the time, Vienna and 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 and may have used them to put his key-arrangement ideas into practice.
Jeune's flutina resembles Wheatstone's concertina in internal construction and tone colour, 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 are 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 and continue to the present. Various buttonboard and 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, and different methods of internal construction to improve tone, stability, and durability. Modern accordions may incorporate electronics such as condenser microphones and tone and volume controls so that the accordion can be plugged into a PA system or keyboard amplifier for live shows. Some 2010s-era accordions may incorporate MIDI sensors and circuitry, enabling the accordion to be plugged into a synth module and produce accordion sounds or other synthesized instrument sounds, such as piano or organ.
The most obvious difference between accordions is their right-hand sides. use a piano-style musical keyboard; button accordions use a buttonboard. Button accordions are furthermore differentiated by their usage of a chromatic or diatonic buttonboard for the right-hand side.
Accordions may be either bisonoric, producing different pitches depending on the direction of bellows movement, or unisonoric, producing the same pitch in both directions. Piano accordions are unisonoric. Chromatic button accordions also tend to be unisonoric, while diatonic button accordions tend to be bisonoric, though notable exceptions exist.
Accordion size is not standardized, and may vary significantly from model to model. Accordions vary not only in their dimensions and weight, but also in the number of buttons or keys present in the right- and left-hand keyboards. For example, piano accordions may have as few as 8 bass buttons (two rows of four), or up to 140 (seven rows of twenty) or beyond. Accordions also vary by their available registers and by their specific tuning and voicing.
Despite these differences, all accordions share several common components.
The keyboard touch is not expressive and does not affect dynamics: all expression is effected through the bellows. Bellows effects include:
The size and weight of an accordion varies depending on its type, layout and playing range, which can be as small as to have only one or two rows of basses and a single octave on the right-hand keyboard, to the most common 120-bass accordion and through to large and heavy 160-bass free-bass converter models.
Price is also affected by the use of costly woods, luxury decorations, and features such as a palm switch, grille mute, and so on. Some accordion makers sell a range of different models, from a less-expensive base model to a more costly luxury model. Typically, the register switches are described as Reeds: 5 + 3, meaning five reeds on the treble side and three on the bass, and Registers: 13 + M, 7, meaning 13 register buttons on the treble side plus a special "master" that activates all ranks, like the "tutti" or "full organ" switch on an organ, and seven register switches on the bass side. Another factor affecting the price is the presence of electronics, such as condenser microphones, volume and tone controls, or MIDI sensors and connections.
As an electronic instrument, these types of accordions are plugged into a PA system or keyboard amplifier to produce sound. Some digital accordions have a small internal speaker and amplifier, so they can be used without a PA system or keyboard amplifier, at least for practicing and small venues like . One benefit of electronic accordions is that they can be practiced with headphones, making them inaudible to other people nearby. On a digital accordion, the volume of the right-hand keyboard and the left-hand buttons can be independently adjusted.
Acoustic-digital hybrid accordions also exist. They are acoustic accordions (with reeds, bellows, and so on), but they also contain sensors, electronics, and MIDI connections, which provides a wider range of sound options. An acoustic-digital hybrid may be manufactured in this form, or it may be an acoustic accordion which has had aftermarket electronics sensors and connections added. Several companies sell aftermarket electronics kits, but they are typically installed by professional accordion technicians, because of the complex and delicate nature of the internal parts of an accordion.
The manufacture of an accordion is only a partly automated process. In a sense, all accordions are 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, and final decorating and packaging.
Notable centres of production are the Italian cities of Stradella and Castelfidardo, with many small and medium size manufacturers especially at the latter. Castelfidardo honours the memory of Paolo Soprani who was one of the first large-scale producers. has built accordions in the French town of Tulle since 1919, and the company is now the last complete-process manufacturer of accordions in France. German companies such as Hohner and Weltmeister made large numbers of accordions, but production diminished by the end of the 20th century. Hohner still manufactures its top-end models in Germany, and Weltmeister instruments are still handmade by HARMONA Akkordeon GmbH in Klingenthal.
For the left hand, the free-bass system is used in jazz as a means of creating complex chord voicings. Jazz harmony that would otherwise be difficult to replicate with the Stradella bass system, such as tritone substitutions, become more accessible using a free-bass accordion.Jacobson, M. Squeeze. University of Illinois Press.
Most vaudeville theaters closed during the Great Depression, but accordionists during the 1930s–1950s taught and performed for radio. Included among this group was the concert virtuoso John Serry, Sr. The Los Angeles Examiner 9 October 1938, p. 1Jacobson, Marion (2012). Squeeze This: A Cultural History of the Accordion in America. University of Illinois Press, Chicago, p. 61. During the 1950s through the 1980s the accordion received significant exposure on television with performances by Myron Floren on The Lawrence Welk Show.Myron Floren and Randee Floren, Accordion Man, with a foreword by Lawrence Welk (The Stephen Greene Press, Brattleboro, Vermont: 1981) In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the accordion declined in popularity because of the rise of rock and roll. The first accordionist to appear and perform at the Newport Jazz Festival was Angelo DiPippo. He can be seen playing his accordion in the motion picture The Godfather. He also composed and performed with his accordion on part of the soundtrack of Woody Allen's movie To Rome With Love. He was featured twice on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.
Richard Galliano is an internationally known accordionist whose repertoire covers jazz, tango nuevo, Latin, and classical. Some popular bands use the instrument to create distinctive sounds. A notable example is Grammy Award Parody music "Weird Al" Yankovic, who plays the accordion on many of his musical tracks, particularly his . Yankovic was trained in the accordion as a child.
The accordion has also been used in the rock genre, most notably by John Linnell of They Might Be Giants, featuring more prominently in the band's earlier works. The instrument is still frequently used during live performances, and continues to make appearances in their studio albums. Accordion is also used in the music of the Dropkick Murphys and Gogol Bordello. Tom Waits used the accordion extensively (often played by Dr. William Schimmel) on his album Rain Dogs and Franks Wild Years. The folk metal subgenre also employs accordionists, but they are otherwise generally rare in other genres. Full-time accordionists in folk metal seem even rarer, but they are still utilized for studio work, as flexible keyboardists are usually more accessible for live performances. The Finnish symphonic folk-metal band Turisas used to have a full-time accordionist, employing classical and polka sensibilities alongside a violinist. One of their accordionists, Netta Skog, is now a member of Ensiferum, another folk-metal band. Another Finnish metal band, Korpiklaani, invokes a type of Finnish polka called humppa, and also has a full-time accordionist. Sarah Kiener, the former hurdy-gurdy player for the Swiss melodic-death-folk metal band Eluveitie, played a Helvetic accordion known as a zugerörgeli.
The first composer to write specifically for the chromatic music accordion was Paul Hindemith. Accordion Composers in German Accordion Online In 1922, the Austrian Alban Berg included an accordion in Wozzeck, Op. 7. In 1937, the first accordion concerto was composed in Russia. Other notable composers have written for the accordion during the first half of the 20th century.Henry Doktorski, "The Classical Squeezebox: A Short History of the Accordion and Other Free-Reed Instruments in Classical Music", The Classical Free-Reed, Inc. (1997) Included among this group was the Italian-American John Serry Sr., whose Concerto for Free Bass Accordion was completed in 1964.Library of Congress Copyright Office, "Concerto in C Major for Bassetti Accordion", Composer: John Serry, 4 June 1968, Copyright # EP247602. Eastman School of Music - University of Rochester - Sibley Music Library: John J. Serry Sr. Collection score "Concerto in C Major (1967) for Free Bass Accordion", Folder 15 & 16 p. 10 archived at the University of Rochester Eastman School of Music Sibley Music Library Special collections on esm.rochester.edu Accordion World, Bedford Hills, NY, 1968. In addition, the American accordionist Robert Davine composed his Divertimento for Flute, Clarinet, Bassoon and Accordion as a work for chamber orchestra. American composer William P. Perry featured the accordion in his orchestral suite Six Title Themes in Search of a Movie (2008). The experimental composer Howard Skempton began his musical career as an accordionist, and has written numerous solo works for it. In his work Drang (1999), British composer John Palmer pushed the expressive possibilities of the accordion/bayan. Luciano Berio wrote Sequenza XIII (1995) for accordionist Teodoro Anzellotti. Accordionists like Mogens Ellegaard, Joseph Macerollo, Nick Ariondo, Friedrich Lips, Hugo Noth, Dr. William Schimmel (also a composer), Stefan Hussong, Teodoro Anzellotti, and Geir Draugsvoll, encouraged composers to write new music for the accordion (solo and chamber music) and also started playing baroque music on the free bass accordion.
French composer Henri Dutilleux used an accordion in both his late song cycles Correspondences (2003) and Le Temps L'Horloge (2009). Russian-born composer Sofia Gubaidulina has composed solos, concertos, and chamber works for accordion. Astor Piazzolla's concert tangos are performed widely. Piazzolla performed on the bandoneon, but his works are also performed on or accordion. Dr. William schimmel and "The Tango Project" recorded a number of hit recordings and appeared in the movie Scent of a Woman with Al Pacino which earned Pacino an Oscar. Their recordings were used in many films.
Accordion is the official symbol instrument of the Rio Grande do Sul state, where it was voted by unanimity in the deputy chamber. During the boom of accordions there were around 65 factories in Brazil, where most of them (52) in the south, in Rio Grande do Sul state, with only 7 outside the south. One of the most famous and genuinely Brazilian brands was Accordeões Todeschini from Bento Gonçalves-RS, closed in 1973. The Todeschini accordion is very appreciated today and survives with very few maintainers. The most notable musicians of button accordions are Renato Borghetti, Adelar Bertussi, Albino Manique and Edson Dutra.
Compared to many other countries, the instrument is very popular in mainstream pop music. In some parts of the country, such as the northeast it is the most popular melodic instrument. As opposed to most European folk accordions, a very dry tuning is usually used in Brazil. Outside the south, the accordion (predominantly the piano accordion) is used in almost all styles of Forró (in particular in the subgenres of Xote and Baião) as the principal instrument, Luiz Gonzaga (the "King of the Baião") and Dominguinhos being among the notable musicians in this style from the northeast. In this musical style the typical combination is a trio of accordion, triangle and zabumba (a type of drum).
This style has gained popularity recently, in particular among the student population of the southeast of the country (in the Forró Universitário genre, with important exponents today being Falamansa, and trios such as Trio Dona Zefa, Trio Virgulino and Trio Alvorada). Moreover, the accordion is the principal instrument in Junina music (music of the São João Festival), with Mario Zan having been a very important exponent of this music. It is an important instrument in Sertanejo (and Caipira) music, which originated in the midwest and southeast of Brazil, and subsequently has gained popularity throughout the country.
In the late 20th century, the development of high performance standards for the accordion within China's halls of academe was also influenced by several American virtuosos including Robert Davine, who was invited by the Ministry of Culture of the People's Republic to present Master Classes and to broaden its national program of music for the accordion in 1984.
Every year in April, Colombia holds one of the most important musical festivals in the country: the Vallenato Legend Festival. The festival holds contests for best accordion player. Once every decade, the "King of Kings" accordion competition takes place, where winners of the previous festivals compete for the highest possible award for a vallenato accordion player: the Pilonera Mayor prize.Smithsonian Channel, "The Accordion Kings", 15 August 2010. This is the world's largest competitive accordion festival.
During the post-World War II era from the 1940s to the 1960s, accordions were widely used in the United States for performances of traditional Western classical music within the configuration of large free-reed symphonic orchestras both in live performances on the concert hall stage and in phonograph recordings. Squeese This! A Cultural History of the Accordion in America. Jacobson, Marion. University of Illinois Press. 2012. p. 78-80 ebook ISBN 9780252093852Accordion Orchestra Joe Biviano on Google Books on Google Books Music Trades: "Accordion Orchestra Featured on New Coral 12" Record" Vol. 109, 1961 p. 84 John Serry on Google Books "Pietro Deiro Presents The Accordion Orchestra - Under Direction of Joe Biviano" Coral Records (CRL-57323, 1960) See album cover for performers credits including John Serry, Eugene Ettore, Carmen Carrozza and Angelo Di Pippo. Pietro Deiro on Discogs.com Pietro The Billboard- Reviews and Ratings of New albums: "Pietro Deiro Presents The Accordion Orchestra" (Coral, CRL-57323), 27 June 1960 p. 33 Pietro Deiro Presents the Accordion Orchestra on Google Books The Coral Album Discography. Edwards, David. Callahan, Mike. Eyrles, Patrice. Watts, Randy. Neely, Timothy. April 27, 2014. CRL-57323 "Pietro Deiro Presents the Accordion Orchestra" (1960) on bsnpubs.com Included among the leading accordion orchestras were: The New York Accordion Symphony in New York City, The Springfield Accordion Orchestra in Massachusetts, The Houston Accordion Symphony in Houston, Texas and The Philadelphia Accordion Orchestra in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Squeeze This! A Cultural History of the Accordion in America. Jacobson, Marion. University of Illinois Press. 2012, pp. 78-79 ebook ISBN 978-0-252-09385-2 Accordion Orchestra on Google Books Prominent orchestra members included: Joe Biviano (President of the American Accordionists Association) "American Accordionists Association: Joe Biviano and Charles Magnante - A Lifetime Commitment to the American Accordionists Association". Joe Biviano BBiography on ameraccord.com "Squeeze This! A Cultural History of the Accordion in the United States". Jacobson, Marion. University of Illinois Press 2012 p. 93 ISBN 9780252093852 Joe Biviano on google books Carmen Carrozza, "Squeeze This! A Cultural History of the Accordion in the United States". Jacobson, Marion. University of Illinois Press 2012 p. 85 ISBN 9780252093852 Carmen Carrozza on google books "Accordion World" Gerstner Publications 1957 Vol. 22 p. 55 Pietro Deiro and Carmen Carrozza on Google Books Orlando Di Girolamo (President of the American Symphony Society), "Music Trades", Music Trades Corporation, "Accordion Orchestra Featured On New Coral 12" Record" 1961 Vol. 109, p. 84 Orlando Girolamo on Google books( Tony Mecca (who collaborated with Leonard Bernstein), "Accordion Journal" Vol 12-13 p. 21 Tony Mecca on Google Books "The Accordion in all its Guises". Miller, Malcom. Harwood Academic Publishers 2010 p. 88 Tony Mecca on google books Angelo Di Pippo (jazz accordionist and arranger for Robert Merrill), "The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz" Feather, Leonard. Gitler, Ira. Ed. Oxford University Prress 2007 p. 181 ISBN 9780195074185 Angelo Di Pippo Biography on Google Books John Serry Sr. "Music Trades", Music Trades Corporation, "Accordion Orchestra Featured On New Coral 12" Record" 1961 Vol. 109, p. 84 John Serry on Google books International Musician – "Accordion Instrument Played with A Smile", Hope Stoddard, May 1951, pp. 10-11 Contributing authors: Charles Nunzio and Sergei Matsusewitch – Photographs of John Serry, Joe Biviano and Anthony Mecca in the article published by the American Federation of Musicians' magazine "International Musician" on worldradiohistory.com and Alfonso Veltri (Director of the National Conservatory of Music). "Accordion Journal - Pietro Deiro Presents the Accordion Orchestra - under the Direction of Joe Biviano" Vol 12-13 p. 21 Alfonso Veltri on Google Books By the 1960s recordings by such orchestras were even praised for their high level of musicality in The Billboard magazine. Pietro The Billboard- Reviews and Ratings of New albums: "Pietro Deiro Presents The Accordion Orchestra" (Coral, CRL-57323), 27 June 1960 p. 33 "Pietro Deiro Presents the Accordion Orchestra" album review on Google Books American Music - "Searching for the Rockordion: The Changing Image of the Accordion in America"
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