A button accordion: a rectangular, bellows-operated, free-reed instrument with buttons on the right-hand end of the bellows and buttons or keys on the left-hand side. The instrument is single action in that different notes are produced by each button by the press and draw of the bellows. The right-hand buttons are arranged in one or more rows of ten or eleven, each row producing the pitches of two-and-a-half octaves of a major scale. The left-hand buttons can provide tonic and dominant chords to the keys of the rows, and some additional chords (their use is limited by the bellows direction with which each is associated).
An instrument of this type was first patented by Cyril Demian of Vienna in 1829. Melodeons have been mass-produced and widely exported, largely by German or Italian firms, since the mid-19th century, and have been widely used in both Western and non-Western societies. See Accordion, §2(i).
GRAEME SMITH