Accordion [accordeon, accordian, squashbox, squeezebox]

(Fr. accordéon; Ger. Akkordeon, Handharmonika, Klavier-Harmonika, Ziehharmonika; It. armonica a manticino, fisarmonica; Russ. bayan, garmonica, garmoschka).

A term applied to a number of portable free-reed aerophones. Their common features include a mechanical keyboard under each hand, manipulated by the fingers to select pitches. The keyboards are connected by folded bellows which induce air to flow through the reedplates; these move horizontally and are controlled by arm-pressures that in turn regulate the loudness of the sound emitted. An air-button or -bar on the left-hand end, operated by the thumb or palm, is used to fill and empty the bellows without sounding a note. Straps hold the instrument in the hands or on the shoulders. The casework around the keyboards and covering the reedplates is usually of a style and decoration that has become associated with the type of accordion and is sometimes identifiable with its company of origin. Accordions are related historically, organologically and technologically to the Reed organ, specifically the table harmonium, and the harmonica (see Harmonica (i)).

The word ‘accordion’ is widely used specifically to mean the type of instrument with a rectangular body shape, a chromatic right-hand keyboard (whether with piano keys or buttons) parallel to the player's body and a bass button keyboard under the left hand. The bass keyboard of this kind of instrument has combinations of buttons that play single notes and buttons that are mechanically coupled to sound chord formations. The term ‘melodeon’ is sometimes used for smaller diatonic button accordions, types typically with one or two right-hand rows of buttons (see Melodeon (ii)). ‘Concertina’ refers to chromatic and diatonic instruments with buttons parallel to the bellows. Some varieties of concertina have polygonal shapes (usually hexagonal), but square, box-shaped concertinas have also been made since they were first developed in the 1830s, notably the diatonic ‘Chemnitz’ concertina. The Bandoneon is essentially a variant of the Chemnitz concertina, also being square or rectangular in shape. In some respects these instruments have distinct histories, usages and repertories (see Concertina). It is possible, therefore, to distinguish between the accordion and the concertina as two distinct groups within the same family of instruments. However, in many languages and cultures the term ‘accordion’ is more generally assigned to all instruments of this family, to the extent that the specificity of the distinctions is lost. Furthermore, a historical view of the evolution of these instruments shows profuse interrelationships in terms of their invention, countries of origin and manufacture, and their construction and terminology. A world-view of the accordion must therefore allow the inclusion of all kinds of free-reed aerophone that conform to the definitions outlined in the first paragraph of this article.

1. Construction.

2. Types.

3. History and manufacture.

4. The chromatic accordion: education, performers and concert repertory.

5. The accordion in Africa.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

HELMI STRAHL HARRINGTON (1–4), GERHARD KUBIK (5)

Accordion

1. Construction.

Although the following describes the construction of a full-size piano accordion (fig.1), all types of accordion work on variations of the same principle. The sound is produced by free reeds, made of highly tempered steel. The reed tongues are riveted to an aluminium alloy reed-plate containing two slots of the same size as the reeds, one reed being set on each side of the plate and a leather or plastic valve attached on the opposite side to each reed. A set of reed-plates corresponding to the range of the keyboard is affixed in order on a wooden reed block which aligns with the holes in the palette board (pan), and up to six of these blocks are fitted in the treble casing. The treble keyboard is attached at a right angle to the casing. The reed blocks and the slide mechanism of the register switches (shifts) are inside the bellows, on the palette board.

The depression of a treble key raises the palette, and allows air to pass through the reed block to actuate the reed; the air-flow is created by the inward or outward movement of the bellows. The palette action is usually covered by the treble grill, a fretted metal, wood or plastic cover lined with a decorative, thin fabric, which allows the passage of both air and sound. The bass side is similarly constructed, though the bass palettes are connected to the buttons by rods and levers. A bass hand-strap is fitted over the full length of the bass board and an air-release valve is provided to enable the bellows to open and close silently when desired.

The bellows are built of heavy cardstock paper with fibrous grain, folded and pleated with soft leather gussets inset in each inner corner and shaped metal protectors on each outside corner, secured and reinforced by a gauze-lined plastic called bellows tape. Wooden frames connect each end to the casings; soft leather or foam rubber keeps the instrument airtight. Internal locks or external straps are provided to keep the bellows closed when not in use. Virtually all accordion-family instruments have a wooden casing, which is covered with a skin of cellulose or wood veneers, and decorated with inlays, rhinestones, etchings, paint or other finishing processes. Less commonly, instruments are constructed with aluminum-alloy sub-frames, in total or in part. A few others are made of high-density rigid plastic with resonance characteristics. The nature of the frame and its decoration have little impact on the sound quality of the instrument; of greater consideration in the choice of materials is stability, durability and weight.

The fundamental tone of the accordion is that produced by a single reed at normal (8') pitch over the entire range of the keyboard. Shifts (also called ‘stops’ or ‘switches’) may be provided, on larger models in both the treble and the bass sections, worked by stop knobs or tablets. They make available extra sets of reeds to be sounded simultaneously with the main rank, in various combinations, giving a variety of tone colours. Examples of shifts include unison, suboctave (16'), superoctave (4'), quint and tremolo ranks. Simpler instruments with no shifts may be tuned either ‘dry’ (with two reed banks tuned in unison) or to varying degrees of ‘wetness’ (with the two banks tuned slightly out with each other so that they beat together, creating an undulating effect akin to the Voix céleste of the organ). On larger accordions such tremolo ranks may be brought on and taken off with a shift. The sound characteristic of two banks of reeds detuned to produce two or three beats per second is commonly referred to as ‘Italian tremolo’. Wider tremolos are called ‘German’, ‘French’, ‘Slovenian’ and so on. A true ‘musette’ tuning requires each key to sound three reed banks, the middle one tuned ‘pure’ and the two outer ones tuned respectively sharp and flat to the main note (and with about 40 cents difference between each other), producing a wide tremolo. Accordions are most commonly tuned to equal temperament.

Accordion

2. Types.

The accordion family of instruments has a complex taxonomy. The first level of division within the family is determined by whether the same or different notes are produced on a single key or button on the opening and closing of the bellows. Instruments that produce the same notes (sometimes said to have ‘double action’) usually have a chromatic compass. Those that produce two notes per key (‘single action’) have a diatonic compass. Accordions may be further classed according to body shape, keyboard type and the organization of notes. Particular models also vary greatly in terms of intrinsic quality of manufacture, refinements of design, numbers of parts, tuning systems, and extra ranks or registers of different-sounding reeds (operated by shifts).

The members of the accordion family currently in mass production and common usage include diatonic and chromatic versions of button accordions, concertinas and bandoneons, and chromatic piano accordions. Versions of all types have been produced with electronic modifications such as pick-ups, synthetic sound generators or MIDI systems. These instruments therefore become electronic controllers. A dilemma of classification arises when all acoustic sounding parts have been omitted and the sounds produced are all electronic samples (see Electrophone). The current convention is to consider all accordions with electronic applications within the category to which their body-shapes and keyboards belong.

(i) Diatonic accordions.

The button diatonic accordion is certainly the most popular type of accordion, and is manufactured in most regions of the world. Virtually every culture has its own favoured version, adapted by key, note selection and note order to the requirements of its music. At least 40, but perhaps as many as 55 varieties can be identified. Its predominant usage is in traditional music, though some players, especially in Germany and Ireland, achieve concert-artist status as soloists, in ensembles or orchestras. Those models that employ the most advanced technologies originate in Germany (e.g. the Hohner ‘Morino Overture’ model). Italy produces the most varied range of models, and the Cajun-style single-row button accordion is the product of American cottage-industry, although some major European manufacturers also produce Cajun-style models (alongside ‘Viennese-’ or ‘German-style’ one-row diatonics).

The buttons on the right-hand keyboard are arranged in rows of 10 to 13 buttons, usually containing a major scale. With the push of the bellows the major triad of the home key is obtained, and the other pitches of the scale are obtained on the pull. Models are made with up to five rows, though one and three are probably the most common. Many key combinations may be found, but common ones include G/C, C/F, D/G, G/C/F, G/C/F/B, B/C/C, B/C and C/C. Left-hand buttons play bass notes and chords for accompaniment and are also often single action. The number of bass buttons ranges from two on one-row melodeons (which play the bass note and triad of the key of the melody row on the push, and of the dominant on the pull) to about 24 on larger models (fig.2). The air-button or -bar is especially necessary during performance on these instruments to replenish during passages requiring many notes in one direction. The instrument may be strapped to hands or have additional shoulder straps. Some instruments have pull-stops at the chin-end of the treble casing and some have shift-tablets on the grill-face.

Cajun players use one-row diatonic accordions, often made in Louisiana by turn-of-the-century methods. Zydeco players use either three-row button diatonics or piano accordions. Players of Irish traditional music often use two-row B/C diatonics, some specially modified to meet the performance needs of the individual players. Tex-Mex or Conjunto players use three-row button diatonics.

Other diatonic members of the accordion family include the Anglo (or Anglo-German) Concertina, the square-shaped German Konzertina (or Chemnitz concertina) and its derivative, the Bandoneon.

(ii) Chromatic accordions.

(a) The piano accordion.

As its name suggests, the right-hand section of this accordion contains a piano-type keyboard, commonly having up to 45 keys. Shifts that isolate or couple reed-banks appear on most models, although the numbers of reed-banks available vary from model to model: full-size instruments usually have four.

Various systems of bass buttons have been developed. The most common type is the 120-button ‘standard’ or ‘Stradella’ bass, consisting of six rows of buttons: two rows of single bass notes a major 3rd apart, called fundamental and counterbass rows, arranged according to the circle of 5ths; and the remaining buttons arranged in four rows playing major, minor, dominant 7th and diminished chords respectively for each fundamental. Various ‘freebass’ systems have been designed, which consist of single-note buttons with a range of up to five octaves. ‘Converter’ accordions are capable of switching from standard bass to freebass (fig.3b). ‘Combi’ or ‘Manual III’ models have five or six standard-bass rows in addition to three freebass rows containing a compass of about three octaves. Standard basses usually have five reed-banks, and freebass instruments can have eight or nine.

Bellows usually have 16 to 19 folds. Piano accordions can vary in weight from 4 to 14 kg. They are manufactured in many countries, but the finest originate in Germany (the Hohner ‘Gola’ and ‘Morino’ models) and Italy (e.g. models by Pigini), and the largest output comes from China (manufacturers such as Parrot, and Bai Le). Piano accordions are used to perform all kinds of music from folk and popular styles to jazz and concert music, whether solo or in ensemble.

(b) The button chromatic accordion.

Known as the bayan in Russia and the musette in France, these differ from piano accordions mainly in that the right-hand section of this type of accordion is organized in three, four or five rows of buttons, usually coloured black and white. Adjacent buttons along the rows are in minor thirds, and three of the rows are arranged symmetrically a semitone apart. Rows four and five duplicate, and are coupled to rows one and two respectively, offering alternative fingerings. Because all keys are fingered identically, transposition is easy. There are four common varieties, named after the placement of a particular note on the outside row. The ‘B’ system (fig.4d) is preferred in Germany and Russia, ‘C’ (fig.4b) in Italy and North America, and ‘G’ (fig.4a) almost exclusively in Finland. The ‘reverse B’ is declining in popularity (fig.4c). Other details of their construction, including the organization of the basses, are much the same as on the piano accordion, though different cultures favour characteristic tuning styles. The finest button chromatics are made in Italy (Pigini ‘Mythos’ and ‘Super-Bayan’ models; fig.5), Russia (the ‘Jupiter’ model made by the Moscow Experimental Laboratory) and Germany (Hohner ‘Gola’ and ‘Morino’ button models).

The English concertina is a chromatic instrument, and there are chromatic varieties of bandoneon.

(iii) Hybrid and other models.

Many types of accordion have been made with various combinations of diatonic and chromatic keyboards (fig.3a), most of which are rare and no longer in production, and various other keyboard systems have also been adapted to the accordion. These include half-chromatic hybrids, which play chromatically in one section and diatonically in the other; ‘common accordions’, where the right-hand is diatonic and the left-hand section plays standard-bass; ‘two-system trebles’, which combine chromatic rows of buttons with one or more diatonic rows; the ‘uniform-keyboard’ (or ‘checkerboard keyboard’), designed by John Reuther (1905–84), which is an adaptation of the Janko piano keyboard (see Janko, Paul von) to the accordion.

The garmoshka is a large group of accordions found in both diatonic and chromatic varieties in Russia and eastern Europe. They are intended as folk rather than concert instruments, and they evolved largely independent of Western influences. A typical instrument has in the right hand a single diatonic scale produced from double-action reeds activated by buttons arranged in two rows. The left hand has 12 or more buttons arranged in 5ths.

Accordion

3. History and manufacture.

Although the principle of the Free reed has been known since pre-historic times, and in China has been applied to the Sheng since the second millennium bce, it was not until the late 18th century that Europeans were experimenting intensively with the principle for use on organs. The first true reed organs were invented at the beginning of the next century (see Reed organ). In 1821 Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann (1805–64) made his mouthblown ‘Aura’, effectively the first harmonica, designed primarily as a tuning tool. The 15 reeds were cut from a single piece of metal and fastened onto a piece of wood with chambers and blowholes for use by the mouth. The following year he applied leather bellows, and closure pallets with a rudimentary keying device over the individual reed-chambers, and patented the instrument as the ‘Handaeoline’. This instrument was developed further by the Austrian Cyril Demian (1772–1847) whose patent of 1829 under the name of ‘Accordion’ added accompanying chords. In the ‘complete accordion’, built by Demian and his sons Guido and Karl in 1834, a second treble row of chromatic ‘helper’ notes was added, and the left-hand section included a chromatic row. By 1830 Demian-type instruments were being copied in Belgium by Charles Buffet and in Paris by J.-B.-N. Fourneux and M. Busson (fig.6). These diatonic instruments were made in various keys with brass reed work, having ten to 12 treble keys and two bass buttons and casework made in rosewood with inlays of ivory and mother-of-pearl. Another Austrian, Matthaeus Bauer, is credited with the invention in 1838 of a reed block with individual reed-chambers, open at one end but closed off by pallets at the key-rod end. By 1863 Paolo Soprani was making diatonic accordions in Castelfidardo, near Ancona, Italy, which has remained a major centre of accordion manufacture to the present day.

The first chromatic button accordion was built by the Viennese musician Franz Walther in 1850. It had 46 buttons (later expanded to 52) in the right hand, arranged in three rows of minor 3rds, each row a half-step apart. The bass section had eight (later 12) diatonic buttons divided between single bass notes and two-note chords. Before the end of the century the Dallapé company (at Stradella, near Piacenza) developed a model that included free basses. In Russia, mass-production of accordions began in Tula in the 1830s. In 1870 the Russian Nikolai Beloborodov, working in Tula, developed the three-row chromatic that became the bayan.

Busson in Paris is sometimes given the credit for the invention of the piano accordion in 1855 (accordéon-orgue, flûtina or harmonieflûte). In fact, Bauer had exhibited a three-octave ‘Clavierharmonika’ at a trade fair in Vienna the previous year. Bauer had already experimented with the chromatic accordion of Walther, and had built his first Clavierharmonika (with buttons) in 1851. The bass section, like that of Walther's accordion, was diatonic. The 1854 description of the Clavierharmonika contains the first written notice that the piano keyboard was to be played with the right hand, the bass buttons with the left and the bellows pulled horizontally (Richter, A1990). Busson's accordéon-orgue had a small three-octave piano keyboard, single-action reeds and reservoir bellows (which could be pumped by the left hand or, with the instrument placed on a stand, with a pedal mechanism), but no basses or air button, giving uniform tone, rather similar to the contemporary seraphine or harmonium. It was the accordion's uniform tone, considered novel at the time, and its breadth of nuance-rich music, as well as its portability and affordability, that endeared it to large populations. Popular demand inspired mass production and established economic foundations for such firms as Hohner (Trossingen, 1857), Soprani (Castelfidardo, 1872) and Dallapé (Stradella, 1876), among others, to become known worldwide. The bass keyboard was gradually developed, so that by the beginning of the 20th century it could provide accompaniments in all keys.

Early accordions and concertinas were physically small and contained few internal parts. Within a few years of the first patents, driven by increasing competition and a continual interest in expanding the instrument's musical capacity and efficiency, makers were constructing larger and stronger instruments with wider tonal ranges. The specifics of size and content of each member of the family evolved in different regions to accommodate the demands of the culture in which it flourished. As ideals of artistic breadth grew to include abstract concert and virtuoso performance, the most complex instruments have come to tax the limits of human endurance in size and weight. In the present day, some manufacturers are continuing to seek ways to lighten the burden while retaining its range, capacity and controllability.

The manufacture of piano and button chromatic accordions is centered in mass production by large companies. While some accordions built around the 1950s and 1960s, notably Hohner ‘Morinos’ and ‘Golas’, have escalated greatly in value and are prized by performers, the competitive brands of the end of the 20th century are continuing to incorporate innovative refinements that set increasingly higher standards for their top-models. Small companies and home production also continue, especially in concertinas and button diatonic accordions. While some of these are similarly interested in improving their products, others judiciously retain construction practices related to those of the 1930s, explained perhaps by a ground-swell of nostalgia for traditional music and instruments.

Seen worldwide, the accordion industry is both healthy and troubled. Escalating costs of labour and materials are reflected in the faltering viability of many traditionally solid companies. Most notable perhaps is the sale of Hohner in Trossingen, which for nearly a hundred years was one of the foremost producers and innovators. The former East German company Weltmeister, of Klingenthal, has been returned to private ownership, renamed Harmona.

By far the most important source of accordion-family instruments is Italy, the pre-eminent center being Castelfidardo. Located in this city are a few dozen larger and smaller exporters that satisfy much of the world market for parts and complete instruments, including Borsini, Bugari, Castagnari, Excelsior, Menghini, Pigini, Scandalli, Victoria and Zero Sette. Many brands are produced only for export to particular countries (thus North American brands such as Bell, Castiglione, Colombo, Excelsior, Gabanelli, Guilietti, Imperial, Iorio, Kuchar, Lo Duca, Mervar, Modern, Monarch, Noble, Pancordion, Petosa, Silvertone, Titano – see fig.3, Video and Wurlitzer have past or present American ownership, but are produced in Italy). American manufacturers such as the Chemnitz concertina maker Christy Hengel use reeds produced in Italy.

In Russia accordion manufacture followed a nearly separate, unique evolution. Since World War II, the Moscow Experimental Laboratory (MEL) has produced high-quality bayans, whose sound qualities are much admired even if the instruments are exceedingly large and heavy. The Pigini company in Italy is working together with MEL to produce the ‘Mythos’ bayan model that conjoins the best of Italian manufacturing techniques with the Russian aesthetic. Other east European countries are also producing good quality but reasonably priced instruments, such as Delicia in the Czech Republic. China and other East Asian countries have come to prominence in the last few decades of the century for mass manufacture of inexpensive student instruments.

Accordion

4. The chromatic accordion: education, performers and concert repertory.

By the early 20th century the accordion was associated around the world with traditional music, cafés, dance halls and music halls. In order for it to be taken seriously as a concert instrument there was a need for schools to give high-level instruction on the instrument, for the development of an original repertory by recognized composers, and for refinements to be made to the instrument so that it could produce what the new repertory required. It also needed to be capable of responding consistently to the demands of subtle artistic performance. Ernst Hohner grasped the dilemma and approached Paul Hindemith (whose Kammermusik no.1, 1922, included an accordion in the chamber orchestra) to write original music for the instrument. Hindemith recommended a talented young composer, Hugo Herrmann, for the task. Herrmann agreed and wrote Sieben neue Spielmusiken (1927), the first original work for solo accordion.

In 1931 Hohner founded the Harmonika-Fachschule in Trossingen. Herrmann became its director, hiring an extraordinary body of staff, including Hermann Schittenhelm, Armin Fett and Ly Braun, who each retain historic prominence, and together they attracted serious students to the study of the instrument. It later became an official state academy. Herrmann and colleagues devised a curriculum that for decades produced artists and teachers of unequalled calibre. The graduates (who included Rudolf Wuerthner, Marianne Probst and Hugo Noth) were qualified to work for others or for themselves, perform with excellence and repair their own instruments. Many composed and arranged new music for accordion, and some became scholars in their own right. As the quality of repertory and performance rose, so the Hohner factory was driven to become a world leader in technological research and development of free-reed instruments. Many innovations in construction, along with clarification of an idealized acoustic aesthetic, responded to new demands from the concert stage. Also in 1931, Hohner began publishing music and teaching materials for all sorts of accordions.

By about 1945 large-scale pieces were being written with a preference for polyphonic styles. Freebass or combi (the ‘Manual III’ system, which has three rows of chromatically arranged freebass buttons above a full set of standard-bass rows) accordions were preferred, and fewer original pieces were written for standard-bass only. One example that is still part of the concert repertory is Hans Brehme's Paganiniana (1952), in which the treble keyboard is played with the freebass in strict polyphony, punctuated by chords played on the standard-bass. Free tonality and atonality became the preferred styles for composition, made possible with the advent of freebass accordions (e.g. Herrman’s Irland-Suite, 1955; Rudolf Wuerthner: Morgen im Bergen, 1965; Carmelo Pino: Suite for Accordion, 1969). In 1947 the Orchestra des Hauses Hohner was founded under the direction of Rudolf Wuerthner (1920–74; Wuerthner acted also as soloist, arranger and composer), using the Hohner Morino and Gola models (and the electronic accordion, the ‘Elektronium’), and helped promote the new repertory by touring in many countries of the world. Following this lead, many such accordion orchestras arose throughout Germany, and others were set up by accordion clubs throughout the world. In East Germany, Klingenthal and Markneukirchen were centres of construction and teaching, and many advances were made there that were disseminated among other Eastern bloc countries.

A tremendous growth in original repertory took place from about 1963, when the Städtische Musikschule Trossingen sought to expand the presence of experimental music and atonal styles in its concerts. One of the most important composers of new music for the accordion of this period was Wolfgang Jacobi (1894–1972). This period was also marked by the publication of accordion music by Scandinavian composers such as the Danes Ole Schmidt and N.V. Bentzon and the Swede T.I. Lundquist (for a full repertory list, see Maurer, C1990). By the 1980s, however, the Hohner Company was in financial turmoil, leading to a decline in the resources of the school and its activities (see Hohner). Trossingen still hosts many international events, holds the Hohner Archiv and remains a centre for accordion activities in Germany.

The Association Internationale des Accordeonistes (now the Confederation Internationale des Accordeonistes) was founded in Paris in 1935 with the primary aim to elevate the status of the accordion (which at the time was scarcely recognized as a serious musical instrument) in the world of music. The British College of Accordionists was founded in 1936 and its syllabus of examinations has proved a vital factor in the musical development of the accordion in Britain. Several associations were founded in the USA, including the American Accordionists' Association (founded 1938) and the Accordionists & Teachers Guild International (1940), and many large and small private teaching studios and accordion clubs exist nationwide. The only accordion-specific museum in the USA, and one of the largest collections in the world (1000 instruments) is A World of Accordions Museum, opened in 1993 and located in Duluth, Minnesota.

The existence of many hundreds of method books for playing various types of diatonic accordion reflects the popular nature of the instrument and its appeal to the amateur player. One feature of many of these books is the attempt to find some kind of suitable tablature for the instrument in order to obviate the readers' need to learn how to read normal music notation. Few such tablatures have been successful, being usually specific to a particular model of accordion; indeed, some have even proved harder to learn than notation.

Composers of works featuring the accordion have included Alban Berg (Wozzeck, 1923), Roy Harris (Theme and Variations, 1947), Paul Dessau (Die Verurteilung des Lukullus, 1949), Carmelo Pino (Sonata Moderne op.2, 1956; Concertino for Accordion and Strings, 1964), Alan Hovhaness (Suite for Accordion, 1958; Accordion Concerto, 1959; Rubaiyat, 1979), Paul Creston (Accordion Concerto, 1958), Wallingford Riegger (Cooper Square, 1958), Henry Cowell (Iridescent Rondo, 1959; Concerto brevis, 1960), David Diamond (Night Music, 1961), Robert Russell Bennett (Quintet for accordion and string quartet, 1962), Nicolas Flagello (Introduction and Scherzo, 1964), Guy Klucevsek (an accordionist himself, he has composed many works for the instrument), William Schimmel (Fables, 1964; The Spring Street Ritual, 1978), Pauline Oliveros (many works, including Horse Sings from Cloud, 1975), Eric Salzman (Accord, 1975), Robert Rodriguez (Tango, 1985) and Luciano Berio (Sequenza XIII, 1995).

Although the accordion was well known and popular in the Baltic countries and Russia shortly after its invention – disseminated through trade and travellers as in the rest of the world – during the Soviet period its evolution was largely independent of and different from that of the Western world. The instruments were redesigned to fit the needs of the different cultures; some diatonic instruments became very different from those found in western Europe. Mirek (A1992) illustrated hundreds of accordion types, many not found outside the former Soviet Union. The principle concert accordion is, however, the chromatic button accordion or bayan; piano accordions and diatonic models are regarded as folk instruments.

The Communist Party's support for folk music paved the way for the establishment of a bayan conservatory programme at Kiev Conservatory in 1927; other courses are at the Gnesin Academy of Music, Moscow, at St Petersburg Conservatory and at the Vladivostok Accordionists Association. The standard of performance in the former Soviet Union is incredibly high, as demonstrated by its dominance of world competitions during the last 30 years of the 20th century. The first bayan sonata (1944) was composed by Nikolay Yakovlevich Chaykin (b 1915). Some of the greatest contemporary composers, such as S.A. Gubaydulina (De profundis, 1978), have found inspiration in Russian accordionists such as Fridrikh Lips (b 1948), Aleksandr Dmitriev (b 1950) and Oleg Sharov (b 1946). Some composer-performers such as Vyacheslav Anatol'yevich Semyonov (Bulgarian Suite, 1975) have found in themes of folk origin the starting point for their own masterworks.

At times the accordion has found usage in several of the countries of East Asia. Its portability and ease of performance endeared it to missionaries and political activists alike, while its slightly later association with the proletarian touring performance ensembles of the former Soviet Union made the accordion acceptable in contexts where other Western instruments were banned. A large amount of music for accordion has been published by the Chinese music presses, most of it in Western idioms and intended for instructional use or the accompaniment of massed singing.

Accordion

5. The accordion in Africa.

Accordions and concertinas have been present in most parts of sub-Saharan Africa since the 19th century, though with a somewhat scattered distribution. They were first brought to African coastal cities by European and West African (notably Kru) sailors, merchants and settlers, and taken inland by migrant workers. Many different models from Europe and elsewhere have been used. Although never attaining the popularity of the guitar, the accordion family has been a fundamental factor in the rise of several popular styles in both urban and rural areas. Accordions have been used both for solo expression and in small dance bands. Intrinsically African musical ideas have been transferred to these instruments, producing original and individual playing styles and techniques.

It is of limited relevance in African music to distinguish between the accordion and the concertina, since they have been used interchangeably and have had comparable functions in African cultures. They are also connected conceptually and historically to the harmonica, another early European import. During the first decades of the 20th century in particular, many concertina or accordion players began as teenagers playing the harmonica. During the 1980s and 90s accordions were increasingly replaced by electronic keyboards.

According to Hugh Tracey (D1952, p.9) the concertina has been known among the Xhosa of South Africa since the 1820s, when it was introduced by settlers in the Eastern Cape. Among the musical uses developed by the Xhosa for this instrument is the accompaniment of group dances such as the umteyo (shaking dances), in which the player moves up and down between the files of dancers in order to be heard by all. In the 1950s Tracey found solo accordion music concentrated especially in Swaziland, among mine workers who could afford to buy such instruments. Musicians such as Yelanjani Matula, Mkakwa Mugomezungu and (unusual in Africa) a female player, Josefa Malindisa, developed personal styles within the local tonal-harmonic system. Tracey described this music as ‘topical song with concertina’ featuring satires about life in the mines, love affairs, philosophical statements about women, and personal laments. Commercial recordings have also been made of accordion and concertina music in South Africa. In the 1970s record companies equipped their musicians with large, professional instruments for playing in the electric-guitar-based urban style known as simanje-manje or mbaqanga. This kind of instrumentation became known as ‘accordion jive’. One notable performer at the Gallotone studios in Johannesburg in the 1970s was Alfred Makhalima (fig.7), who played in the Township Boys. The concertina player Gabriel Sakaria (b 1920; fig.8), from northern Namibia lived in Swakopmund, near the port of Walvis Bay, in the late 1930s. Elements of maringa music (see Highlife) from Congo and Sierra Leone are prominent in his diverse repertory, which includes church hymns, presumably the result of contact with sailors from West and Central Africa.

The accordion has been an inseparable ingredient of the Portuguese-Angolan musical culture of Luanda, especially the popular ballroom dance music called rebita or semba. Rebita first emerged in the late 19th century and similar developments occurred in other Portuguese-speaking areas of Africa, notably Cape Verde. In 1982 there were still four rebita clubs meeting regularly: instruments played at the Muxima Ngola club in the Rangel township included an accordion (ngaieta) and a scraper (dikanza), with dancers forming a circle and carrying out the umbigada (belly bounce). António Victorino Imperial (b 1906) was regarded as one of the most remarkable accordionists of his generation.

From the 1920s to the 50s accordions were popular in port cities all along the West African coast, from Matadi in Congo-Zaïre to Douala (Cameroon) and Freetown (Sierra Leone), and were disseminated to rural areas by migrant workers. In Cameroon they had been introduced before World War I, when the territory was still under German colonial administration, and remained popular especially in the southern part of the country, although by the early 1960s the accordion was being superseded by contemporaneous styles based on highlife and Congolese guitar bands. The most important centre in West Africa for the rise and dispersal of accordion styles was Freetown, Sierra Leone, where the accordion was intimately linked with the Krio culture and with Kru mariners. According to Wolfgang Bender (D1994, p.235), one of the most favoured Mende singers and accordion players was Salia Koroma (b 1903), who made a large number of recordings spanning 40 or 50 years. Other Sierra Leone accordionists singing in Mende include Famous Foday and Edward Tokohina.

Accordions were also present on the East African coast from the early 20th century. They were part of the taarab ensembles recorded by Tracey in Dar es Salaam in the 1950s, along with four violins, two udi (lutes), ukulele or mandolin, clarinet, bass and drums. In Kenya the accordion was used in one of the earliest rumba bands, the Rhino Boys, in the 1940s. The m'bwiza music played in Yao-speaking areas of Malawi and Mozambique is performed with accordion (kodiyoni), tin-rattle (wayala), hoe-blade (khasu) and a large double-headed drum (ngolo). Rooted in tonal concepts that are non-Western, this music demonstrates the wide margins of usage for the accordion in non-Western societies. One of the most outstanding performers of this music, Jonas Chapola (b 1933), recorded in 1983 at Malamya, north of Makanjila (Kubik and Malamusi, D1989), played a middle-size Hohner accordion.

Accordion

BIBLIOGRAPHY

and other sources

a: organology and technique

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A. Baines, ed.: Musical Instruments through the Ages (Harmondsworth, 1961/R, 2/1966/R)

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P. Monichon: L’accordéon (Paris, 1971/R)

A. Galla-Rini: A Collection of Lectures for Accordionists (San Diego, 1981)

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F. Galbiati and N. Ciravegna: Le fisarmoniche (Milan, 1987)

R.M. Brandl: ‘Kunst- und Volksmusikinstrumente in den Beziehungen zwischen Orient und Okzident seit Anfang des 19. Jahrhunderts’, Jb für musikalische Volks- und Völkerkunde, xiii (1988), 44–53

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b: history and general

MGG2 (‘Harmonikainstrumente’, M. Duntel)

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A. Lämmle: Matthias Hohner: Leben und Werk (Stuttgart, 1957)

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B. Kjellström: Dragspel: om ett kärt och misskänt instrument (Stockholm, 1976)

F. Giannattasio: L’organetto: uno strumento musicale contadino dell’era industriale (Rome, 1979)

M.H. Peña: The Emergence of Texas-Mexican Conjunto Music, 1935–1960: an Interpretive History (diss., U. of Texas, 1981)

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I. Bell: ‘The Big Squeeze: Button Accordions in Canada’, Canadian Folk Music Bulletin, xxi (1987), no.3, pp.4–7; no.4, pp.7–14

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I. Kolehmainen: ‘Do Not Dance to the Screeching, Insidiuous Accordions, Burn Them’, Finnish Music Quarterly, v/2 (1989), 29–31

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c: repertory and bibliography

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W. Eschenbacher: Musik und Musikerziehung mit Akkordeon: die Entwicklung eines Instruments und seiner Musik in Deutschland seit 1930 und in der Bundesrepublik bis 1990 (Trossingen, 1994)

d: africa

H. Tracey: African Dances of the Witwatersrand Gold Mines (Johannesburg, 1952)

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G. Kubik: ‘Recording utamaduni in Tanzania: a Field Report from Iringa and Mbeya Region’, Review of Ethnology, v/11–14 (1978), 81–107

S. Koroma: My Life Story, Stories and Songs from Sierra Leone, v, ed. H. Hinzen and D.H. Malamah-Thomas (Freetown, 1985)

W. Bender: disc notes, Sierra Leone Music: West African Gramophone Records Recorded at Freetown in the 1950s and early 60s, Zensor ZS41 (1987)

W. Bender: ‘Ebenezer Calender: an Appraisal’, Perspectives on African Music, ed. W. Bender (Bayreuth, 1989), 43–68

G. Kubik and M.A. Malamusi: disc notes, Opeka Nyimbo: Musician Composers from Southern Malaŵi, Museum für Völkerkunde, Berlin, MC 15 (1989)

V. Erlmann, ed.: Populäre Musik in Afrika (Berlin, 1991) [incl. W. Graebner: ‘Tarabu: Populäre Musik am Indischen Ozean’, 181–200; G. Kubik: ‘Muxima Ngola: Veränderungen und Strömungen in den Musikkulturen Angolas im 20. Jahrhundert’, 201–72]

W. Bender: ‘Farewell to the Queen: African Music on Shellac Discs’, For Gehard Kubik: Festschrift, ed. A. Schmidhofer and D. Schuller (Frankfurt, 1994), 219–44

G. Kubik: ‘Cultural Interchange between Angola and Portugal in the Domain of Music since the Sixteenth Century’, Portugal e o mundo: o encontro de culturas na música/Portugal and the World: the Encounters of Cultures in Music, ed. S.E. Castelo-Branco (Lisbon, 1997), 407–30