The accordion is a free reed instrument and is in the same family as other instruments such as the sheng and khaen. The sheng and khaen are both much older than the accordion and this type of reed did inspire the kind of free reeds in use in the accordion as we know it today.
The accordion is a box-shaped musical instrument of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone family. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist. The instrument is sometimes considered a one-man-band as it needs no accompanying instrument. The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the right-hand manual, and the accompaniment, consisting of bass and pre-set chord buttons, on the left-hand manual. The oldest name for this group of instruments is actually harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning harmonic, musical.
The accordion’s basic form is believed to have been invented in Berlin in 1822 by Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann. The accordion is one of several European inventions of the early 19th century that used free reeds driven by a bellows. 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 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 also could sound two different chords with the same key; one for each bellows direction. The piano accordion was first played in German-speaking regions, and then spread over Europe. Some early portable instrument with piano keys had been invented in 1821, but it started to actually be played much later, and built its reputation from there.
The accordion is often used in folk music in Europe, North America and South America. It is commonly associated with busking. Some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is sometimes used in both solo and orchestra performances of classical music.
By 1831 at least the accordion had appeared in Britain. The instrument was noted in The Times of that year as one new to British audiences and not favourably reviewed, but nevertheless it soon became popular. It had also become popular with New Yorkers by the mid-1840s at the latest.
The Modern Accordion Arrives
After the invention of the accordion in 1829, its popularity spread throughout the world, in no small measure due to the polka craze. “Once the polka became a craze in Paris and London during the spring of 1844, it diffused rapidly to the rest of the world. . . . In March 1844, polka-mania took Paris: common people, servants, workers and, one assumes, anyone else who wasn’t too stuffy were dancing the polka in the streets of the capital and soon in Bordeaux and other French cities as well. A week or so later it took London by storm. And from these two great centers of fashion, empire, and influence, the polka diffused rapidly upward into the rest of French and English society and outward to the rest of the world.”
Except for a brief moment in time during the 1830s and 1840s when the accordion was heard by French aristocracy during Salon music concerts, the instrument has always been associated with the common people. The accordion was spread across the globe by the waves of Europeans who emigrated to various parts of the world in the late 19th century and early 20th century.
The mid-19th-century accordion became a favourite of folk musicians for several reasons: “The new instrument’s popularity [among the common masses] was a result of its unique qualities. Firstly, it was much louder than all the older folk instruments put together. It could easily be heard in even the wildest pub above the stomping of dancing feet. It was also the prototype of a ‘one man band’ with bass and chords on the left-hand side and buttons for the melody on the right, and you could still sing along and beat the rhythm with your feet. The instrument needed no tuning and was always ready to play, but the most ingenious thing about the early one-row squeezebox was that you couldn’t play it really badly. Even if you lost the melody it still sounded fine.”
Since its invention, the accordion has become popularly integrated into a lot of varying traditional music styles all over the world, ranging from the European polka and the Colombian Vallenato to Korean trot music.
Sometimes, certain traditional music styles may even be tied to a certain type of accordion, like the Schrammel accordion for Schrammelmusik or the Trikitixa for Basque music. It would be hard to name one country in which the accordion did not play a significant role in its music tradition.
The Piano Accordion and Popularity
The first accordion to feature a piano keyboard was probably the instrument introduced in 1852 by Bouton of Paris. Another source claimed the first piano accordion was introduced in 1854 at the Allegemeine Deutsche Industrieausstellung in München. It was showcased by the instrument builder Mattäus Bauer and quickly became a serious competitor to button accordions.
A piano accordion is an accordion equipped with a right-hand keyboard similar to a piano or organ. Its acoustic mechanism is more similar to that of an organ than a piano, as they are both wind instruments, but the term “piano accordion”—coined by Guido Deiro in 1910—has remained the popular nomenclature. It may be equipped with any of the available systems for the left-hand manual. In comparison to a piano keyboard, the keys are more rounded, smaller, and lighter to the touch. These go vertically down the side, pointing inward, toward the bellows, making them accessible to only one hand while handling the accordion.
In the United States, the piano accordion dramatically increased in popularity between 1900-1960 based on its familiarity to students and teachers, and its uniformity, whereby accordion dealers and instructors did not have to support different styles of accordions for many European immigrant groups. The piano keyboard layout was also promoted by the fame of Vaudeville performers Guido Deiro and his brother Pietro who premiered the instrument on stage, recordings and radio. After the Deiro’s success, popular chromatic button accordionist Pietro Frosini chose to disguise his accordion’s buttons to look like a piano keyboard so as not to appear “old-fashioned.” This half century is often called the “Golden Age of the Accordion.” Three players, more than any others, inaugurated this era of popularity for the instrument, all Italian immigrants to the United States: Pietro Frosini, and the two brothers Count Guido Deiro and Pietro Deiro. All three players were celebrities on the Vaudeville circuits and performed throughout North America, Europe and Australia during the age of Vaudeville. They recorded hundreds of 78 RPM records for the Victor Talking Machine Company, Columbia Records, Decca Records, Edison Records and Cylinders, and other labels. Guido Deiro was the most successful and famous accordionist during the 1910s and 1920s, and lived a life filled with celebrity, luxury, fast cars, and fast women.
After most Vaudeville theatres closed during the Great Depression, accordionists still found work during the 1930s-1950s teaching and performing for radio. Charles Magnante is considered one of the greatest American popular accordionists. At the peak of his career, he played 30 live radio broadcasts and eight studio sessions each week. Another great popular American accordionist was Dick Contino, who toured with the Horace Heidt Orchestra and was billed as the “world’s greatest accordion player.” He appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show a record 48 times. In addition, John Serry, Sr. achieved national recognition on tour with Shep Fields and His Rippling Rhythm jazz orchestra during the 1930s, concertized on the CBS radio and television networks in the 1940s and 1950s and appeared in the Broadway Theatre during the 1950s and 1960s. During the 1950s through the 1980s the accordion received great exposure on television with performances by Myron Floren—the accordionist with Lawrence Welk—on the Lawrence Welk Show.
The instrument was also used in the Disney song “Whale of a Tale” from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, as well as Donald Duck’s song, “Quack Quack Quack”. It was used in a Christmas setting for the song “Nuttin’ for Christmas”.
The composer Tomohito Nishiura frequently uses the accordion in the Professor Layton series of games, for example in “Laboratory” or “Don Paolo’s Theme”. However, when ‘Live Versions’ of the soundtracks are released, the accordion is occasionally replaced (such as in “London 3″ from Professor Layton and the Unwound Future). Every ‘theme’ for a game uses the accordion in some capacity.
The accordion has been a primary instrument in Mexican style music. Since the late 19th century, Tejano music has emerged as one of the leading genres for the instrument in America. Pioneers such as Narciso Martínez gave the instrument ataple in the cultural music of Mexican American people.Central to the evolution of early Tejano music was the blend of traditional forms such as the Corrido and Mariachi, and Continental European styles, such as Polka, introduced by German and Czech settlers in the late 19th century. In particular, the accordion was adopted by Tejano folk musicians at the turn of the 20th century, and it became a popular instrument for amateur musicians in Texas and Northern Mexico. Small bands known as orquestas, featuring amateur musicians, became a staple at community dances. It’s a traditional instrument in brazilian music, specifically baião on northeast. Luiz Gonzaga is called the king of baião.
Classified Accordion
Although the accordion is best known primarily as a folk instrument, it has been used with increasing frequency by classical composers. The earliest surviving concert piece written for the accordion is Thême varié très brilliant pour accordéon methode Reisner, written in 1836 by Miss Louise Reisner of Paris, an accordionist and amateur composer. The Russian composer, Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky, included four optional single-action diatonic accordions in his Orchestral Suite No. 2 in C Major, op. 53 (1883), simply to add a little colour to the third movement: Scherzo burlesque. The Italian composer, Umberto Giordano, included the single-action diatonic accordion in his opera Fedora (1898). The accordionist appears on-stage—along with a folk-trio consisting of a piccolo player and triangle player—three times in the third act (which is set in Switzerland), to accompany a short and simple song which is sung by a little Savoyard (Alpine shepherd). In 1915, the American composer, Charles Ives, included a chorus of diatonic accordions (or concertinas—along with two pianos, celesta, harp, organ, zither and an optional theremin—in his Orchestral Set No. 2. The accordion part—written for the right-hand only—consists of eighteen measures at the very end of the eighteen-minute-long three-movement work. All the above works were written for the diatonic button accordion. The first composer to write specifically for the chromatic accordion (able to play all 12 notes of the chromatic scale) was Paul Hindemith. In 1921 he included the harmonium in Kammermusik No. 1, a chamber work in four movements for twelve players, but later rewrote the harmonium part for accordion.
Despite efforts by accordion performers and organisations to present the accordion as a serious instrument to the classical music world, the much-coveted breakthrough into the mainstream of serious musical circles did not take place until after leading accordionists more or less abandoned the stradella-bass accordion (an instrument limited to only bass and pre-set chord buttons on the left-hand manual) and embraced the free-bass accordion (an instrument which could play single pitches on the left-hand manual with a range of three octaves or more, similar to the right-hand manual). Composers found the free-bass accordion much more attractive and easier to write for as it liberated the instrument from a limited range of bass notes (only a minor seventh) and the pre-set chord buttons. Despite being invented as early as 1912, the instrument did not really become popular until the mid-20th century; when it was “discovered” by classical accordionists. In the United States, the free-bass accordion is heard occasionally. 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. A number of American instrumentalists did succeed in demonstrating the unique orchestral capabilities of the free bass accordion while performing at the nation’s premier concert venues. In the process they encouraged contemporary composers to write for the instrument.
In contemporary popular music, it is generally considered exotic to include the accordion, especially in music for the youth culture, with many popular acts using the instrument in their distinctive sounds. As of 1972 it could be largely said that the piano system dominated the English-Speaking North American continent, Scotland, and certain East European countries, while differing button systems are generally to be found in Scandinavia, France, Belgium and former Soviet countries. The piano accordion is also predominant in Italy, New Zealand, and Australia.
