In China alone there are currently over 1 million students learning to play the accordion. In more recent times we are now seeing the accordion progressing into the more popular fields of music. The accordion is becoming more widely accepted as an alternative unique instrument that can easily cross over all styles of music. We are now seeing the steady march of digital technology continuing to sweep all before it, In particular the birth of the reedless or digital accordion.
I have seen, played and owned various digital accordions through my years of playing. Older digital accordions suffered from weight issues and a lack of mobility. A major contributor to these problems was the need to connect the accordion to a suitcase sized sound generator box. Like many others, I stopped playing the accordion like many of my generation when Australian interest in the accordion spectacularly crashed before the turn of the century. For this instrument to survive it needed someone to have the courage and vision that would not only appeal to the purist but to the younger generation to embrace, accept and expand the accordion into the future into new areas and forms of music performance and recording, as well as appeasing the older generation wanting to retain an element of tradition relative to their era and cultural tastes.
Fast forward to and we saw a leap of faith come from Ikutaro Kakehashi, founder of Roland Corporation releasing the very first Digital Accordion — the Roland FR The accordion is one of several European inventions of the early 19th century that use free reeds driven by a bellows.
The most basic form of the accordion originated in Europe in the early s. It was one of several European inventions of the s that used free reeds controlled by bellows. The inventor of this accordion is said to be German musical instrument maker, Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann , in The accordion was first patented in by Cyrill Demian, of Armenian origin, in Vienna. Russian researchers have claimed they invented the accordion around the same time, however, evidence for this is inadequate.
Read on to learn more about the origin of the accordion, including when it was invented, where it was invented, and who invented it. Click here to see this Hohner accordion on Amazon.
The most basic form of accordion originated in Europe in the early s. The majority consensus is that the inventor was German musical instrument maker, Christian Friedrich Ludwig Buschmann, in There is more evidence of this than all other claims. In his well-documented family history, Buschmann mentioned the musical instruments he invented. One of them had features like that of the accordion. According to Russian researchers, the accordion inventor was businessman Timofey Vorontsov.
Vorontsov built the first-ever accordion manufacturing facility in Russia. A decade later, businessman Ivan Sizov built his own accordion manufacturing plant too. By the s, Russia was producing a total of 10, accordions on a yearly basis. By the s, new manufacturers of accordions emerged in Russia. After a decade, the country was already producing more than , accordions per year. Thus, the accordion was once the most popular musical instrument among Russians. Russian researchers may be correct to assert that accordions originated from their country.
Besides, Sizov acquired his first accordion from Germany. It was his inspiration to create his own version. Interestingly, the official documentation of the accordion occurred in neither Germany nor Russia.
Instead, it was in Vienna, Austria in This was when Armenian inventor Cyrill Demian acquired its first patent. Whereas, the right hand only operated the bellows.
His accordion could play an entire chord by depressing a single key. It made it unique from the other accordions during that time. This made him realize he should get it patented. Another reason for getting a patent was that his accordion could play two different chords at the same time by depressing one key only.
The direction of the bellows made it all possible. It also featured bass and treble sections. At that time, musicians described his invention as the most improved version of the accordion.
Russia and Austria were the pioneers of big accordion manufacturing facilities. But it was Germany that brought the accordion to other countries. In , the Germans launched it in Great Britain. Soon, the accordion reached the United States. By the mids, it became a popular instrument in New York. In essence, Germany played a vital role in the success of the accordion business.
Many musical instrument makers seemed to draw inspiration from German accordions. It is for these reasons that most musical historians would answer Germany when asked where did accordions come from. Now I want to look at the popularity of the accordion across different countries to see how its use has spread around the world. It was in the s when the accordion instrument appeared in music for the very first time. This occurred in Australia when the accordion started competing against other reed instruments.
Among the popular instruments at that time were melodeon, concertina, and mouth organ. One of the first known accordion composers was Australian Frank Fracchia. Among his works were the following:. He arranged music for accordion. He became popular for his jazz and ragtime musical styles. There have also been several serious composers that have written works for the accordion including Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky , Dmitri Shostakovich , Roy Harris , and Alban Berg.
The abbreviation is typically seen as acc. Expanding and contracting the bellows provides air to vibrate the reed organs producing the sounds. It is also known as a squeeze box because of this expanding and contracting of the bellows There is a keyboard on the right side for playing melody notes and buttons on the left to sound bass notes and full chords.
A second type of accordion contains buttons on both left and right sides which includes the concertina and Bandoneon. The keyboard on the right side of the accordion typically contains 41 keys but the smaller models can contain as few as The full " concert accordion " will typically have four sets of reeds called treble shifts , one set tuned in unison , a second set tuned one octave higher, a third tuned one octave lower, and the fourth set, the tremulant , tuned slightly higher than unison.
The left hand operates the bellows and each change of direction of the bellows will produce a new attack of the notes that are desired by the keys or buttons that are depressed. The speed of the expansion and contraction also effects dynamics and the shapness of the attacks. It also operated the bass buttons with the larger instruments having as many as bass buttons with six rows of twenty buttons There is also a button with no reeds operated by the left hand that allows the bellows to expand or contract without sounding any pitch.
On this instrument , the fifth and sixth row farthest from the hand consists of the counterbass row and the fundamental bass row of buttons that sound individual low notes containing all twelve chromatic pitches. The fourth row consists of buttons that sound a major triad. The third row consists of buttons that sound minor triads. The second row consists of buttons that sound dominant seventh chords and the final row consists of buttons that sound diminished seventh chords.
These buttons are arranged in the circle of fifths.
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